TGOST Ch. 9 & 10

Present day, Rahel is watching toads, yet another "small thing" as she thinks about the day that she, Estha, and Sophie Mol went to visit Velutha, and how good he treated them. She mentioned that he was nothing like the parents, that he did not judge them or anything. He was just himself, and he let everyone be themselves also.

Rahel also thinks about Estha as she goes to the old pickle factory. She says something about the day that Sophie Mol arrived. That was the day that Estha thought two thoughts, and sealed one in a jar. I'm curious to see what these two thoughts were. It seems like they affected Estha alot because of how reserved he always is. Maybe this is what made him that way because the last line of the chapter is "It's true. Things can change in a day." Maybe that day was the one that changed Estha, the day that something really bad happened to him.

Chapter 10 is a flashback to Estha sitting in the factory, stirring some kind of jam. It then reveals his two thoughts mentioned in the last chapter, and I was kind of disappointed. I thought they might reveal something big about his charater, altough I think they foreshadow something, but they were rather disappointing. Estha is still thinking about the Orangedrink Lemondrink man from the movie theatre described a few chapters earlier, and he is scared. Rahel then comes to the factory and interrupts. Rahel and Estha make a secret plan together while they are at the factory. The two go to Velutha's house across the river, but their boat sinks. They see Velutha's sick brother in the death corner, where other members of his family have died. When Velutha comes back home, he seems very excited that Rahel and Estha are at his house, being Ammu's children.

The author mentions directly in this chapter that Ammu and Velutha will have an affair. This is the first time that the author comes out and says it, but I've thought that it was going to happen for a while now.