Vidushi’s Reviews > Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew > Status Update

'Next year I will play for English counties. After that I will play for England. Where will you be?' Mathew will trundle in, wave his spider-like limbs, and bowl a darter or a boru ball or a double bounce ball, and Rose will be bowled. Mathew will smile and adjust his headband. 'I will always be on a green field bowling a ball that you will have no answer for.'

PS. Saqlain Mushtaq Mohammed Zahid Fazal Asif Iqbal Sikander Bakht. That's nine. Next time we meet, drinks on you.

I love Sheila more than she knows. I love her shrieking voice, her penguin-like waddle, her olive skin, her floppy boobs, and her boundless kindness. I loved her on that bus to Kotahena. Asleep on my shoulder on that train to Badulla. In the back of that taxi cradling baby Garfield. For the years she put up with med. For the years she left me alone.