Hasrat

Ammi did not write letters. She had a phone and used it badly and had never, in Zoya's memory, written anything longer than a shopping list.

So the envelope in the lining of the winter coat was a shock in itself, before anyone read it.

Zoya found it in March, going through things, six weeks after. The coat was the good one, the one Ammi had worn every winter since Zoya was at school and had refused to replace on the grounds that it was still perfectly warm. There was a small hard rectangle in the hem where the lining had been unpicked and stitched back by hand.