Greentext · 5 minThe Green Door

>be me, 11 years

>bhimavaram, summer 1991

>tatayya's house, the big one with the red oxide floors

>seven cousins, two months, one bathroom

>and on the first floor, at the end of the corridor, one green door

>always locked

>a brass padlock as big as my fist

>the key is on tatayya's waist, on a thread, with nine other keys

>when he walks you can hear him coming, ching ching ching

>nobody has seen inside that room

>not my amma, not the pinnis, not even ammamma

>if you ask ammamma she says "his room" and goes on cutting beans

>if you ask tatayya he says "go and study"

>in may, so this is a very good joke

>every summer the cousins have a theory

>sunitha akka is 14, she says there is a mad atta chained inside

>"i heard chains"

>bujji is 9, he says gold, "tatayya is very rich, he hides it"

>my theory was a ghost, because i was eleven

>tatayya is a retired telugu pandit

>white panche, white shirt, specs on a black thread

>he reads the bhagavatam every morning in a loud voice

>he does not laugh at films

>he does not laugh at anything

>ammamma is the opposite

>ammamma reads detective novels

>thin ones, from the bus stand book shop, four rupees each

>bright covers, a pistol, a woman screaming, a moon

>all by one writer, "naagini kumar"

>she has sixty of them in a cupboard

>detective bhairav, who smokes a pipe and solves everything in 120 pages

>"dirty fellow, but clever" she says about naagini kumar

>tatayya says "rubbish books, they will spoil your brain"

>every time a new one comes ammamma sends me to the bus stand

>"go, see if the new naagini kumar has come"

>i run, i come back, she reads it in one afternoon on the cot

>this summer bujji has a plan

>tatayya takes his bath at 6 am, exactly

>during the bath the key thread hangs on the nail outside the bathroom

>with all ten keys

>one morning in june bujji takes it off the nail

>sunitha akka watches the bathroom door

>i run up with bujji

>the padlock is stiff, then it opens with a clack

>bujji pushes the green door

>no chains

>no gold

>no ghost

>a small room, one window, one table, one chair

>a stool with an ink bottle on it

>and paper

>so much paper

>stacks of ruled paper tied with thread, up to my chest

>and on the wall shelf, in a long row

>the same thin books ammamma reads

>naagini kumar, naagini kumar, naagini kumar

>ten copies of each

>i take one stack of paper and look at the top sheet

>tatayya's handwriting

>i know it, he writes my report card signature in the same round telugu

>"detective bhairav and the green door, part 2"

>"chapter 9"

>"bhairav lit his pipe slowly and looked at the inspector"

>"the diamond is still in this house, inspector, and i will tell you who took it"

>bujji says "chi"

>i say nothing

>on the table a postcard from a publisher in vijayawada

>"respected sir, money order of rs 600 sent for no. 61"

>"please send no. 62 before august, readers are waiting"

>"especially the lady from bhimavaram who writes to us every month"

>then we hear it

>ching ching ching

>wet feet on the stairs

>tatayya is at the door in a towel, specs on, hair dripping

>he looks at us

>he looks at the paper in my hand

>bujji starts crying immediately, bujji is a professional

>tatayya walks in, takes the paper from my hand

>puts it back on the stack, square, straight

>then he says, very quietly

>"she has not finished number 61 yet"

>"she is on page 90"

>"if you tell her, i will know who told"

>he locks the door

>he goes down the stairs, ching ching ching

>at breakfast he reads the bhagavatam in his loud voice

>ammamma is reading number 61 under the table on her lap

>she is on page 90, i can see it

>bujji told nobody, because i gave him my two cricket cards

>sunitha akka never found out what was inside

>she still says a mad atta

>but i did one more thing that morning

>when tatayya pushed us out i still had one sheet in my hand

>i do not know how, my hand just kept it

>the last page of chapter 12

>i folded it into my shorts pocket

>tatayya died in the winter of 1992

>number 62 never came

>ammamma went to the bus stand book shop every week for three years

>"has the new naagini kumar come"

>"no amma, he is not writing these days"

>"lazy fellow" she would say

>she read number 61 again and again

>the diamond, the inspector, the house, and on the last page "to be continued in no. 62"

>she would say "who took it, who took it, the fellow did not tell"

>i had the page

>it was in my geometry box, then my suitcase, then my drawer

>chapter 12, last page, in tatayya's round hand

>"it was the cook, inspector. it was always the cook"

>i never gave it to her

>i was afraid if she saw the handwriting she would know

>and i did not know which would be worse for her

>knowing, or not knowing

>she died in 2004 still asking

>the page is in my wallet now

>it is very soft, like cloth

>the cook did it

>he was the only one in the house nobody looked at