Deen blinks at me, his expression unreadable. ‘I don’t know, Dina …’ he finally says. ‘Haven’t I given Ma and Baba enough grief?’ He smiles as he says this, but I can sense the heaviness behind those words. Like he’s still holding on to all of his actions from when he was younger. Like he thought Ma was still holding them against him.
‘Deen, you know Ma loves you. No matter what,’ I say, looking him square in the eyes. ‘And if you pulled this off, I think you’d besavingher from trouble. I mean, how much longer do you think this place is going to stay afloat?’
‘Not much longer.’ Deen sighs. He looks around the empty restaurant, like he’s evaluating it.
‘What do you think Baba would have said if he were here?’ There’s a certain sadness that clouds his words.
Baba started this restaurant when both of us were tooyoung to remember, but we’ve heard the stories. He saved up for years, banking on his dreams for this place. The day the bank approved the loan to rent the space, he brought our whole family here. Back then, it was a decrepit old place, but he told Ma to look past that. Ma said that he painted a picture with his words that won her over; she saw his vision. But by the time the restaurant was up and running, there were two Indian restaurants in the neighbourhood, which already had a regular customer base and were thriving businesses. Baba opened the doors to this place to a trickle of people, and though over the years he started to maintain at least a few regulars, business never boomed. The vision that he had, the one he described to Ma that day, remains unfulfilled.
‘I think he would have told you to go for your dreams, the same way that he did,’ I say to Deen. ‘You know that he believed in us, no matter what.’
Deen smiles and nods. ‘Yeah. Even when he probably shouldn’t have.’ He turns to me, and finally asks, ‘If I do this, you’re going to help me, right?’
My face breaks out into a grin. ‘Yes, obviously. I’ll do anything you ask me to do.’
Deen smiles too. ‘OK. I guess I’ll take a page out of your book and give this a shot.’
Chapter 12
Dina
‘OK, come on, inside.’ I wave the last of the students into the restaurant and shepherd them towards the chairs that Deen and I set up earlier this morning.
‘Isn’t this that place Jen brought us to the other week?’ Sara asks, wrinkling up her nose as she looks around.
‘Oh, yeah, it looks different now, though,’ Jade says with a frown that indicates she’s not a big fan of the differences. ‘The food was good, I remember. I posted on Instagram to say 9/10 for the food, but, like, 2/10 for everything else.’
I try not to roll my eyes at that. Of course, the girls don’t remember that it was me and Deen serving them at the restaurant last time they were here.
‘We’re not eating here today.’ After ushering the last of the girls in, I flip the closed sign on the door and shut it behind me. I doubt many people will be filtering in here around this time of the day anyway.
‘Hey.’ Deen appears from the kitchen, holding a giant bowl of popcorn in his hands. ‘I’ve got the popcorn.’
I grin. ‘Great. That means we’re all set.’ Walking to the top of the room, I turn to face the girls, all of them sat in rows. ‘We’re not playing football today.’
‘It would be pretty difficult to play here,’ one of the girls says. I let the comment roll off me.
‘Instead, we’re going to watch a movie.’
As soon as I say that, all of their faces brighten.
‘It’s a movie about football.’
And at that, all of their faces fall again, and a chorus of groans fills the room.
‘I thought it was actually going to be afunmovie.’ Sophie sighs.
I frown. ‘Itisgoing to be a fun movie. It’s one of the things that made me fall in love with football and you guys are going to love it. Plus, my brother, Deen, made us all popcorn.’ I indicate to where he’s set the giant bowl down and has set up a little tower of paper cones beside it. He waves at the girls, who give him an awkward smile.
The prospect of popcorn doesn’t elicit the same excitement that the movie originally did, but at least they don’t look that disappointed anymore.
‘OK. Let’s get started.’ I bend down to where I’ve connected a projector to my laptop and hit the play button on one of my favourite movies of all time:Bend It Like Beckham. It was one of the first movies I watched as a kid where someone who looked like me was the main character. I fell in love with it for that, before football ever even came into the equation.
I make my way towards the back of the room and take one of the empty seats. A few minutes into the movie, Deen joins me, offering me a bowl of popcorn, which I take gratefully. For once, instead of paying rapt attention to this movie, which I’ve watched so many times that I could probably quote it off the top of my head, I watch the girls’ faces for their reactions.
At first, none of them seem too into the movie, and a few of them are more interested in scrolling through theirphones. But as time passes, they seem to slowly get into it. It’s not long before they’re laughing at the jokes, rooting for Jess and Joe, and cheering on the football matches on screen. It’s probably the most engaged that I’ve ever seen this group of girls and I can’t help the triumphant smile on my face.
Deen elbows me in the ribs. ‘Don’t get ahead of yourself. A movie can’t solve all of your problems,’ he whispers.
