C H A P T E R 13

THE PESSIMIST AND THE OPTIMIST

Chacko had moved out of his room and would sleep in Pappachi’s

study so that Sophie Mol and Margaret Kochamma could have his

room. It was a small room, with a window that overlooked the

dwindling, somewhat neglected rubber plantation that Reverend E.

John Ipe had bought from a neighbor. One door connected it to the

main house and another (the separate entrance that Mammachi had

installed for Chacko to pursue his “Men’s Needs” discreetly) led

directly out onto the side mittam