The moon in the mosque

I decided not to go to the play. It was terribly hot at the Club and I had seen it already in London. I went for a walk instead. The village of Chandrapore had been a bit of a disappointment on arrival, but I had noticed a mosque close to the Civil Station.

I pulled off my shoes and put them down near the rusty gate. The courtyard was almost white. There was a small water tank and on the water lay the moon. I don’t know how long I had been standing under the arcades when I heard a shuffling. Ronny said that there were wild animals in the mountains. When he was younger he liked Russian fairy tales with wolves in it. I took a few steps to where the sound had come from and then I heard someone shout.

‘Madam! You must take off your shoes! This is a holy place!’
‘I have taken them off’, I replied. ‘I left them at the entrance.’
‘You have? Madam! I am truly sorry. But so few people take the trouble. Especially when they think no one is there.’
‘God is here’, I said.
‘Madam! — may I know your name?’
I took one more step and looked into the face of a young man. He had a little moustache and quick eyes. I said my name.
‘Mrs. Moore’, he said, ‘I think you have just arrived in India.’
‘Yes — how do you know?’, I said.
‘I think you should not walk alone at night’, he said. ‘There are bad characters, and leopards, and snakes. It is very dangerous.’
I hadn't thought of snakes. ‘But you walk alone yourself.’
‘I am used to it.’
‘Used to snakes?’
He laughed. ‘I am a doctor. Snakes don’t dare bite me.’

We sat down.
‘May I ask you a question?’, he said. ‘Why do you come to India? And why ever do you come to Chandrapore?’
‘To visit my son’, I said. ‘He is the City Magistrate.’
‘Oh no, that is quite impossible. The City Magistrate’s name is Mr. Heaslop. I know him very well.’
‘He is my son all the same’, I said.
‘But Mrs. Moore, how can he be?’
‘I was married twice.’
‘Yes, now I see, and your first husband died.’
‘He did, and so did my second husband.’
‘Then we are in the same box. And is the City Magistrate your entire family now?’
‘I have two younger children in England — Ralph and Stella.’
‘Mrs. Moore, we are in the same box. Because like yourself I have also two sons and a daughter.’
‘What are their names?’
‘The first is called Ahmed, the second is called Karim, the third — she is the eldest — is called Jamila. Three children are enough. Don’t you agree?
I agreed.