Anita and Me: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

That year, Meena spends a lot of time on her own. She uses exhaustion as an excuse, and watches as the children are forced to take buses to school, which decreases the amount of activity on the street. The village is also overcome by traffic noise on the motorway, and Meena concludes that everything has changed. She notices more strangers spending time in the park, as well as Sam and Anita’s gang smoking and drinking beer. Meena ignores them but watches them discreetly, which she notices Tracey does as well.

Meena removes her cast at the hospital in mid-January, a sad experience since she is still overwhelmed by the grief of losing Robert. Although she is told she cannot do much exercise, Meena begins spending time on her bike. One day, Tracey appears out of nowhere, scaring her. Meena greets her and expects questions about how she has been, but Tracey merely announces that Anita is going out with Sam. She then angrily concludes that Anita is bound to end up like Deirdre, and asks Meena to stop her. However, with a pang of sadness, Meena replies that her friendship with Anita is in the past and that she no longer cares about her.

By the spring, when Sherrie’s family has moved out and there are plans to turn the old school into a big supermarket, Meena feels peaceful in her own protected world. She begins to behave like a typical Indian girl, studious and serious. One day, she overhears her father complaining about how happy Meena used to be. Mama interjects that Meena is happy, but that she is growing up and it is normal for her to become more serious. Mama adds that she knows Meena will pass the eleven-plus, simply because she is her daughter, and that they should therefore already put their house on the market. However, only Meena’s father understands that Meena has been affected by Robert’s death, as her mother does not believe that Meena is old enough to worry about love and boyfriends.

Reflecting on her upbringing, Meena concludes that her parents’ well-meaning efforts to protect her from the outside world only made her more desirous to rebel. Now, though, after having strong emotional experiences such as losing Nanima and Robert, Meena is able to see things with greater perspective and concludes that she is not a bad person. She accepts that she belongs wherever she decides to call home, and that she is strong enough to follow her own path.

Meena spends two intense weeks studying for the eleven-plus. During this time, however, when Tracey is standing guard on the street, Meena is harassed by people calling her, which she believes must be a mix of Anita’s and Sam’s voices. Later, they throw stones at her window and Meena finds that she cannot concentrate. She also receives notes with a strange mix of compliments and insults written on them, one of which makes her laugh because the author tried to spell chapatti and then gave up. Meena becomes worried about how this might all end.

The night before Meena’s exam, her entire family is tense. Her parents try not to mention the exam, although she knows that her family’s future depends on her, since her success would justify all the sacrifices they have made for their children and also allow them to move out of Tollington. When the telephone rings, mama learns that Auntie Shaila’s husband Uncle Amman has just had a heart attack. Meena’s parents are very worried and, although they do not want to leave Meena alone, Meena insists that this is the best option. She promises not to open the door to anyone, and her parents set off with Sunil.

That night, when Meena is already in bed, she hears fierce knocking on the door and wakes up terrified. She goes down to the door and sees Tracey. Confident that Tracey is worthy of trust, Meena opens the door and Tracey immediately begins sobbing and yelling. Meena does not understand what is happening and asks her about her dad, but Tracey simply says that he is killing her. Meena believes that Roberto must be beating Anita and concludes that this would explain a lot about Anita’s behavior.

Meena gets dressed quickly and slams the door. She runs after Tracey, who enters the Big House through a hole in the fence. Worried, Meena does not know what is happening and fears the potential dangers lurking around the house. She begins to pray to herself. As she follows an insistent Tracey, she wonders what she could possibly do to stand up to Roberto, and remains obsessed by the fact that she has an exam the next day.

Finally, they reach the top of a slope overlooking the pond. In a clearing, Meena sees Sam lying and moving on top of Anita, while Anita, on her back, remains motionless. Tracey is sobbing and the two of them wonder if Anita is dead. As Sam stands back up, Meena notices that Sam has a scar on his face and concludes that Sam is evil, behaving violently and enjoying harming others, such as foreigners. Sam calls Anita a “tart” and kicks her in the foot. When Anita remains motionless, Tracey suddenly begins to scream wildly, running toward Sam to attack him. Anita then suddenly opens her eyes, annoyed that her joke did not work.

In the meantime, Meena hides behind a tree and Sam easily picks Tracey up. Anita begins to insult her sister and Sam laughs at Anita, asking if she was immobile because he “shagged” her too much. Tracey explains that she thought her sister was dead and Anita sends her away. Tracey throws a large stone at Anita and the two of them run after each other in the bushes.

Meena, who is still worrying about her exam the next day, is then terrified to hear Sam call out her name. He says he knows she is there and promises not to hurt her. Meena comes out of hiding, realizing that she gave Tracey her sweatshirt, and Sam asks her where she has been. When Meena ironically notes that he has not yet succeeded in driving her out, Sam seems surprised at her comment. He explains that he wrote nice notes to Meena, whereas Anita wrote mean ones because she is jealous of Sam and Meena’s relationship.

Meena then realizes that Sam has a frustrated, confused attitude, which Meena recognizes from spending time with Anita, who always makes people feel weak. Meena realizes that Sam is a puppet who would never be courageous enough to extract himself form this situation. Meena then asks him about his words at the Fete, but Sam says he never meant to hurt Meena, arguing that his words were directed toward “the others.” However, Meena then confronts him with what he did to the Indian bank manager and tells Sam that she is the others, and that he did mean her.

Suddenly, Sam grabs Meena’s wrists and tells her that she has always been her favorite. He adds that Meena will always be able to move on, while he will be stuck in his situation. Then, he kisses her passionately, and Meena is glad to know that whenever he sees an Indian girl on the street, he will remember this moment and feel powerless. However, Anita then steps forward and throws a rock at Sam’s face. Sam prepares to attack her back but Tracey intervenes, running toward Sam, who soon avoids her. Tracey then falls off the ledge into the pond. Anita immediately begins to panic, while Meena runs to get help—still obsessively remembering that she has an exam the next day.

In despair, Meena rings the doorbell at the front door of the Big House. When a small woman—who Meena assumes is a witch—answers the door, Meena is shocked to note how much she knows about Meena, such as her name and the location of her house. Meena tells the witch to call the police. The woman then calls out to “’Arry,” explaining that there has been an accident at the pond, as previously happened with Jodie Bagshot. Meena then sees an elegant man appear. He speaks to the woman, whom he calls Mireille, in Punjabi, and Meena cannot believe that the owner of the Big House is Indian.

Mireille then makes Meena, who is showing signs of exhaustion and nervousness, sit in a study by the fire. Meena admires the house’s rich furniture and beautiful decorations, feeling jealous about the enormous library on the walls. Meena notices the man’s name, “Harinder P. Singh,” on the typewriter and concludes that he is a Sikh, like Meena’s mother. Meena feels completely exhausted, but listens as Mireille explains that she met ’Arry while she came from France to study at Cambridge. When Harinder’s uncle died, leaving him money, they found this house and fell in love with it, finding Tollington a paradise. Meena thus concludes that this must have been a long time ago.

Mireille’s monologue is then interrupted by Meena’s mother frantically calling out for her daughter. When mama finally hugs her, looking both angry and desperate, she says that they found Tracey but that she was worried because the girl was wearing Meena’s sweatshirt. Although Tracey was clinically dead when the ambulancemen found her, they were able to revive her at the hospital.

Over the next few days, this story soon becomes famous in the press, and reporters invade Tollington. Meena watches all this activity from her window. In emotional shock, Meena suffers from strong shaking. She feels furious, angry at Tracey, Anita, and Sam for making her life so unfairly complicated. She is also angry at herself for giving in to Tracey’s demands and forgetting about her greater duty: passing the eleven-plus.

The next morning, Meena receives a letter from Anita asking her to meet with her about last night without talking to Sam. Meena tears the letter up. Her father, though, receives a letter from Harinder P. Singh, asking him to come to tea. Meena’s parents cannot believe that an Indian man has lived in the Big House for so long.

When the police come to Meena’s house that morning, after hordes of reporters have tried to talk to Meena’s parents, Meena feels nervous. Meena’s father tells her that Tracey is accusing either Sam or Anita of pushing her into the pond, and he asks Meena to tell the entire truth to the policemen. Meena feels the temptation to accuse either Sam or Anita, who have caused her so much pain.

When Meena remembers that the pain she felt for Nanima and Robert was much more intense than any emotion Sam or Anita made her feel, she gives up on her idea of seeking revenge. She tells the policemen the truth, explaining that Tracey fell into the pond by accident. The policemen are surprised by this admission, and Meena concludes that they were probably looking forward to locking up Sam, who already has a long criminal record, and Anita, who was clearly bound to have a child early and be a burden to the state. Meena concludes that her best option is to leave them to themselves and hope that they might change.

The next day, Meena takes the eleven-plus in her headmaster’s office. When she goes home, she sees her father setting up a “For Sale” sign in their front yard. Meena jokes that the exam went okay, but not well enough to immediately sell the house. However, papa makes a gesture that indicates he discussed property matters with Mr. Singh. Mama then explains that Mr. Singh, who owns the entire field across from Meena’s house, will soon turn it into houses. Meena wonders if Mr. Singh too is going to move as well, but her parents don’t know. Papa then hands mama a necklace and mama is shocked to see that it is the diamond necklace she thought she had lost. Papa encourages her not to ask questions and simply accept that it has returned.

From Tollington, the Kumars invite only Mrs. Worrall to their farewell party. Auntie Shaila gives them a metal “OM” to hang on their door, saying that they are now moving to a pleasant neighborhood, where half of their neighbors will be Hindu. She gives Meena a beautiful pen with a note explaining that Meena will need it at her grammar school. Meena uses it that night to write a note to Anita, saying that she is moving in the next few days and will attend the grammar school, but, as Meena expected, Anita never replies.