Immigrant fiction: An Indian academic navigates a green card marriage and single motherhood

Vega had been prone to bouts of car sickness as a child, but she hadn’t felt anything like this since then, when her well-being had been somebody else’s responsibility and she could bend over and everything would be set into motion – her mother rubbing her back, her father plying her with sips of fizzy water. She rarely missed her parents these days. Her mother called too often to allow Vega the chance. But now, she wanted them next to her. She wanted her mother’s cool hand on her forehead, the delicious shh of her father’s Schweppes bottle. The train slowed and screeched. She burped into her lap and was relieved that nothing came up.

Suresh was waiting at the Morris Plains Station. He had changed from his work clothes and was dressed in one of his standard evening outfits: a maroon Oxford University sweatshirt and black track pants. His copy of The 125 Best Brain Teasers of All Time was lying on the passenger seat. Vega had bought the book for him at a newsstand next to CUNY and she was both touched and a little depressed by how much he seemed to appreciate it, how little it took to make her husband happy. Sometimes, she wished...

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