Tenney in the Key of Friendship

Cousin Mina

Soon after Mom drops Tenney off, she and Jaya stand at the stove flipping pancakes and scrambling eggs for their sleepover tradition, breakfast for dinner. Jaya’s mom works nearby at the table on her laptop. Tenney fills them in on her trip to the recording studio, and Jaya asks when she’ll record her own songs. Tenney admits it won’t be for a while, since her songwriting still needs work, but Mrs. Mitra reminds her that “Reach the Sky” is already beautiful. Tenney’s cheeks flush pink. Jaya insists Tenney will be on the radio someday, feeding Tenney’s dream of becoming a professional singer-songwriter.

The girls sit down to eat just as the laptop chimes with a video call from Jaya’s aunt Aisha in Bangladesh, where it’s six in the morning. Aisha’s face appears, tired but happy, and Jaya asks how her cousin Mina is doing. Mrs. Mitra and her sister talk in Bengali while Jaya listens quietly. Tenney perks up at Mina’s name, remembering how the three of them became inseparable last summer when Mina visited Nashville. Mina shared her MP3 player full of Bengali pop, rock, and folk songs and taught them to sing her favorite one.

Mrs. Mitra tells Jaya to finish eating first, but as Jaya listens to her mother and aunt, she stops eating and whispers to Tenney that a bad tropical storm tore through their town the day before. Aisha reports that many homes and buildings were destroyed, though she thinks Mina’s family is safe.

Aisha asks if Mina wants to talk to Jaya, and the girls hurry to the computer. Mina’s face is streaked with tears that soften into a smile at the sight of her cousin and friend. She insists she’s fine, but her school was badly damaged, and the headmaster warns the building isn’t safe to enter. And there’s no money to repair it. If the school can’t raise funds by June, the teachers may have to find work elsewhere, with no telling when the school might reopen. Tenney remembers Mina talking last summer about how much she loved her all-girls school. Mina worries about falling behind, since everyone in town is busy repairing their own houses, hospitals, and roads, and the donations the school has received so far won’t cover the cost.

Tenney and Jaya tell her how much they care, though neither knows what else to say. Mina brightens and picks up an esraj, an instrument like the sitar in Dad’s shop but slimmer, to play a new song she was practicing for an upcoming school concert. Cradled between her knees, it sounds almost like a violin playing deep, minor tones. The upbeat melody gets everyone tapping their feet, and the girls applaud when she finishes. Her favorite teacher, Miss Alimah, once told her the song is about hope, and Mina’s been playing it like a prayer to keep her teachers and reopen the school. Tenney’s heart breaks, and she tells Mina they’re sending good thoughts from Nashville before the cousins say goodbye.

After Jaya loads the dishwasher, she sits back down across from Tenney, and Tenney wishes aloud they could do more than send good thoughts. Jaya’s face lights up: what if they raised money to rebuild the school themselves… girls helping girls across the world? Mrs. Mitra offers to email the school’s director to find out how much repairs would cost, warning it might be more than they expect, but Jaya insists that as a team, they can raise it and have fun besides. Tenney agrees, unable to imagine anything more meaningful than playing music and helping a good cause with her best friend.