How To Salsa in a Sari by Dona Sarkar Read Free Book Online Page A

fast…”
    Issa sniffed. The years had been hard on her too. New school, new friends, her beloved father gone.
    â€œCall once you guys are moved in, okay? And, Iz? Please try to behave!”
    Yeah, right.
    After Issa said her goodbyes, she reached into the drawer of her nightstand and pulled out a photograph. It was of her mother and father when they were young, just moving into Detroit where they’d lived a bohemian lifestyle for almost fifteen years. Roy and Alisha Bradley. Her father, as handsome as a young Ice Cube, was kissing Alisha’s hand. Alisha had her head thrown back with laughter. Issa hadn’t seen her mother laugh like that since her father had left.
    â€œCome back, Daddy,” Issa whispered. “Come back and let’s get our old life back. Mom needs you so much right now. We need you.”
    She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to remember what her father sounded like. She could barely remember his scent. His voice no longer rang in her ears. They were forgetting him.
    She heard the sound of her mother’s singing in the next room as she packed her things. Issa had to stop this madness.
    â€œMom! We can’t move into Diego’s house! You can’t live with him!” Issa threw herself on top of Alisha’s bed, right in the center of a pile of clothes. “You guys aren’t married. It’s gross to live together. What will people say?” She knew she was really grasping here, but she had to make Alisha see reason.
    â€œThis love is making me roll. She said goodbye…too many times beforororor…” Alisha continued singing as she tossed her clothes haphazardly into boxes.
    â€œMom!”
    â€œWhat?” Alisha finally stopped singing and flopped down onto her bed.
    â€œYou’re messin’ up the words.” Issa took a deep breath and sat up straight. “Quit bein’ all ghetto.”
    â€œWhatever.”
    â€œAnd would you please listen to me?” Issa snapped her fingers. “Why do we have to move to Diego’s? Let’s all get to know each other like we have been. He and Cat stay there. You and I stay here. The old-fashioned way. I think it’s been going well, don’t you?”
    Actually it had been going horribly. Diego had insisted on cooking dinner at the Mazumder house on Thursday. Cat had strolled around the house and snickered at their secondhand furniture while Issa had hidden in her room. More than ever, Issa was sure this marriage was a match made in hell.
    Alisha raised an eyebrow. “Could this have anything to do with your little issue with Cat?”
    â€œLittle issue?” Issa was disbelieving. “Do you not hear a word I’m saying’? Those people are crazy! We cannot live in their house!”
    â€œWhy do you hate them so much?”
    â€œI don’t…hate him, I don’t even know him. But neither do you. You’ve dated him for like, what, two months? You can’t just marry the first guy that asks.”
    â€œI know you’re not going to understand this, but Diego is good for me. And he’ll be good for you too. He’s stable and has a great job—”
    â€œMama, please! This is why you ran away from your parents’ house. They wanted you to marry some rich person like Diego.”
    It was true. If there was one thing Alisha hated, it was losing her freedom. She’d refused to give in to her parents’ “marry a rich guy” pressure and had run away with starving-writer Roy instead.
    Alisha rolled her eyes. “I ran away because I loved your father and wanted to be with him. And I wanted my own life outside of being a housewife.”
    â€œAnd because you didn’t want to marry somebody just for the sake of convenience,” Issa reminded her. She’d heard the story of her mother running away from home a zillion times. How could Alisha forget the suffocating life she’d left behind so