‘Your sister must be awesome – that’s one hell of a gift!’
‘Yeah. She is.’
Jacob wanted to probe further into why Olivia looked so desperately unhappy in that moment, but he knew better than anyone that the rules of the game must be followed. If he wanted another question, he had to earn it.
‘Go on, roll again.’
And she did, relief washing over her as a four and a two lay face up on the table.
‘Your turn, Olivia … ask away.’
‘Yesterday, when I asked you why you came back to India if you’ve been here before, you said it was a long story. I want to know why. Why did you decide to come back?’
Jacob ran his tongue across his teeth. ‘I’m impressed, well remembered.’
‘Why, thank you.’ She took a sip of her chai with satisfaction. ‘Please proceed to answer whenever you’re ready.’
The temptation to pass was strong, but he knew there were better things to save his passes for. As Olivia herself had said, prioritization was key.
‘The thing is’ – he took in a deep breath – ‘I didn’t decide to come back.’
‘Well, you obviously did, because here you are.’
‘Yes, butIdon’t decide where to go.’ He gestured to the dice staring at them both from the table. ‘These do.’
‘I don’t get it.’
‘Every week I roll the dice. If it’s an odd number, I stay where I am; if it’s even, I move on. I have a list of possible places to go, all decided by the number on the dice.’
Jacob knew she’d think he was crazy, that his way of life would be totally alien to her. But the reality of seeing Olivia’s eyes as wide as her mouth, staring blankly at him in total horror, was harder to take than he thought.
‘You don’t,’ she said at last. ‘You don’t seriously do that.’
‘Yes, I do.’
‘But … but that’scrazy.’
‘More crazy than not having a phone?’ He dipped his finger in a bowl of cooling syrup and licked it.
‘Yes, obviously!’
‘Why?’
‘Because. What if you’re somewhere awful and you hate it? What if there’s an emergency and you have to get out of a place? You can’t just stay because some random number says so.’
‘If there was an emergency, I’d leave. But touch wood’ – he tapped two fingers to the top of his head – ‘that doesn’t happen.’
Olivia sat there, her mouth opening and closing, without so much as a whisper of sound escaping.
‘I wish you could see your face right now; you look horrified!’
‘I am.’
‘Why?’
‘Because it’s totallyoutrageous! I mean, it’s a logistical nightmare. How many places do you have written down? How often do you change them?’
‘TechnicallyI should make you roll again before I answer.’
