Vanished Read Online Free

Neela almost wondered if she hadn’t imagined the whole thing.
    By now, Hal had poured the hot water into the mugs and finished them off with a dollop of cream from the refrigerator. As soon as Neela took a mug from him, she forgot about the sound, lacing her fingers around the hot ceramic. It felt so good to hold it in her hands, as if its warmth were seeping into her skin and spreading out to the farthest tips of her body. She looked around surreptitiously, wondering if there might be a bag of potato chips, but decided she was pushing her luck.
    He sat next to her at the counter. “You’re a musician?”
    Neela nodded. “That’s my veena I have with me. I’ve been playing for three years. I used to play the piano, and I’ve done a little voice, but it’s the veena I love.”
    â€œLove?” Hal repeated. “How can a kid like you know anything about that?”
    Neela felt the skin prickle along her neck the way it did when one of her parents said something completely annoying. “All the great musicians started when they were kids.”
    â€œWhooee. I can see I pushed the wrong button. Don’t mind me, then.” He leaned on the counter with both elbows, rubbing his temple with his fingers. “So how do you get an instrument like this? Is there a veena store in Arlington?”
    â€œOf course not!” she said. “My grandmother sent it from India. Before that, I borrowed my teacher’s veena for three years, and hers wasn’t very good. I mean, it was nice she lent it to me, but I love my grandmother’s veena so much more.”
    â€œYes, love,” Hal said.
    Neela observed the fine arch of his eyebrows, which were the same silver gray as his hair, and the sharp slope of his strong nose. Something about him nagged at her. Somewhere, someplace, she had seen this man before. “Are you a minister here?” she asked.
    Hal glanced at her in surprise. “No, I gave that all up a long time ago. I’m damn lucky I did, if I can say that in a church.”
    Neela tried to shrug casually, even though she felt a twinge of excitement that an adult had sworn in front of her. She was still trying to figure out where she had seen him. If he wasn’t a minister, then maybe she had seen him somewhere else. His face seemed so familiar.
    She looked around the kitchen. “It’s a nice church. I like coming here for art class.”
    Hal nodded as if he knew about the class. They talked about it for a while, and Neela told him how most of the time there weren’t any rules, and that was what made the class fun. “We don’t get much done,” she said, “but I guess it doesn’t really matter.”
    Hal had a far-off look on his face, as if he were trying to levitate an object in a distant place. His fine eyebrows were drawn together intensely. Was he a relative of someone in her art class?
    Before she could ask, he suddenly jumped up from his stool, as if the object in his mind had sprouted wings, and he was off to catch it. “I have to go,” he said.
    Neela looked at the clock and was astonished to see it was almost four. She was late for home by almost an hour. “Me too,” she exclaimed. “Thanks for the hot cocoa. It was nice to—”
    Hal cut off her compliment midsentence. “You have to wash your own mug. Use that sponge and the soap. Make sure you clean it really well. I mean, really well.”
    Then before Neela could say anything, Hal walked out a door in the back without even a glance. Neela was left staring at his departing figure and the banging-shut door. After a moment, she collected her wits. What was all that ? And not even a good-bye?
    She stood at the sink, fuming. At first she thought she’d leave her mug unwashed on the counter. But she had been raised to listen to elders, even rude ones, and her upbringing eventually won out. She turned the faucet on and looked out the