Chapter 2: Plant response to elevated CO2 - DRUM - University of ...

“I would warn you against sprained wrists though,” he said. I felt like a
commissioned painter, bit‐by‐bit, shade‐by‐shade, painting a picture to please
the commissioner ignoring her own expression and vision of the painting. When
we moved to Yann Martel I brushed another stroke — I said I loved it (because I
knew it had won the Booker Prize) and he asked me if I wanted Pi Patel to be
with Richard Parker or the hyena and I felt like a student who is suddenly called
on in class, so I looked away and then guessed, Of course Richard Parker —
humans are any day better conversationalists than a hyena. After I showed him
the store I secretly pulled out the book. I found out Richard Parker was the name
of Pi Patel’s Bengal tiger.
And I think I felt attracted to him right then, for not smirking, for
pretending to move on politely with a nod. Rohan had a way about him that
made anyone with him feel that he or she could change anything as long as one
really wanted, even in an improbable situation like a Bengal Tiger or a hyena — I
could still choose who Pi Patel wanted to be with, never mind that the author
had already penned down the story — I could still choose.
Rohan and I took our breaks together (by then I had started timing my
breaks with his) because we were the only two assistants in the store, though I
didn’t realize it then. It was the first time any guy had really talked to me about
29