The old man heard him and smiled. “No,” he said. “But listen.”
The boy sat on the ground. “What’s the name of that tune?” simple flute notes
The old man closed his eyes. For a moment, he was seven again, and his grandmother was still alive, and the train had not yet left, and the world was small enough to fit inside three notes. The old man heard him and smiled
And somewhere, beyond the banyan tree and the laundry line and the restless wind, the old man’s grandmother smiled. he was seven again