The London Eye Mystery

The narrative shifts back in time, before Salim’s disappearance: The mystery begins when Ted and Kat’s aunt Gloria announces a visit. Ted’s father, Ben, calls her “Hurricane Gloria” because she “leaves a trail of devastation in her wake” (5). Ted asks him if she’s clumsy, but Ben says she mainly does damage to people’s feelings.

The morning Gloria’s letter arrives, Ted’s mother, Faith, is dressed in her nurse’s uniform and feels cranky, and Ben can’t find his other sock to wear to work. Kat intercepts Ted as he brings in the mail, grabbing a report from their school and trying to hide it, but Ted’s father retrieves it and reads that Kat was ditching school the previous week. Faith is upset, but Ben says he, too, sometimes cut school.

Ted’s father leaves for work—he’s a demolition expert who will oversee the tearing-down of a building condemned because its poor indoor air quality caused its residents to become sick. Ted’s father reads the letter from Gloria and smiles. She ruffles Ted’s hair: “Hold tight […] A hurricane’s coming” (11). Ted—who’s fascinated with weather, follows local reports carefully, and knows all the famous hurricanes—says it’s not true. His father says she means Gloria will visit.

It’s been five years since Gloria’s last visit. Ted’s father wonders where the time went. Ted tries to explain that time doesn’t go anywhere, but his father says it somehow disappears in their family life into a “black hole.” On the way to school, Ted tries to puzzle this out, thinking about relativity theory, black holes, time, and hurricanes.

Ted’s father reads aloud Gloria’s letter. Ted describes its contents: His aunt apologizes for arguing, asks for forgiveness, requests a visit with them for a couple of days. She understands that their house is small but says her son, Salim, can “sleep on the ironing board” (14).

Kat says the letter is much more flowery than that. Auntie Glo, she claims, writes that the argument “has been eating away at my soul,” that she’s landed a “fabulous” job as an art curator in New York, and that she and Salim will move there as part of “our fascinating voyage through life” (15). Kat and Ted agree only that Gloria proposed that Salim sleep on the ironing board.

Their parents agree that they must accept Gloria’s request. Their father insists that Gloria will use Kat’s room. Kat protests, but since she skipped school, she forfeits the right of complaint. Salim will sleep on an inflatable bed, called a “lilo,” in Ted’s room. Ted doesn’t like the idea of sharing his room; nervously, he flaps his hand, as if shaking off the fear. Kat sees his worry and gloats.

Ben warns with some glee that Faith and Gloria probably will get into another big fight. Faith insists it won’t happen, since both women have learned to meditate, and she’ll meditate on the shape of a teapot. Ted tries to imagine a teapot, but all he gets is a picture of boiling water pouring at him, as if Gloria and Salim’s arrival will scald him. He thinks, “A real hurricane would have been much better” (18).

As school break begins, a cab pulls up to the house, and out steps Aunt Gloria. She’s tall and slender, with straight dark hair; she dresses stylishly and smokes a cigarette. Her son, Salim, also tall and slender, has short black hair, “caramel” skin, and (insists Kat) is handsome. He seems preoccupied, which Ted likes because he often feels the same.

Ted’s mother and Gloria meet with loud cries and hugs. Ted glances at Salim, who rolls his eyes and shrugs. Ted offers to shake hands with Gloria, but she hugs him instead. He feels enveloped in a cloud of cigarette smoke and perfume. She says Ted looks just like her father, always formally dressed (Ted wears his school uniform every day, even on break). Salim says Ted’s simply hiding his inner rebel; Ted likes that. They shake hands, and Ted thinks they can become friends.

Kat pushes Ted aside and greets Salim. She makes fun of his northern accent, he makes fun of hers, and everyone laughs. Ted laughs, too, to fit in, though he doesn’t know why the others are laughing. Salim says Ted talks like a BBC announcer.

Inside, Ted sets the tablecloth and silverware with careful precision, and his sister puts out glasses, including a wine glass for herself, but her mother takes it away, calling Kat “Madame Minx.” They eat chicken casserole while Gloria talks about being “dead excited” to leave Manchester for New York, a “dead fast” city. Ted knows “dead” means “very,” but he asks how a city can be “fast.” Gloria says in New York everything seems to happen twice as fast. Salim says that means she’ll grow old twice as fast. He looks at Ted and, again, rolls his eyes.

Gloria refuses bread as she’s on a gluten-free diet. Ted asks if it would be better if she gave up cigarettes, but Gloria says she’s hooked on them. She asks if Kat is smoking; Kat looks down and says no. Ted, who knows she’s lying, begins to protest, but Kat interrupts and asks Salim how he feels about moving to New York. He just shrugs.

The group discusses how to spend the following day. Gloria wants to visit art museums, but Salim groans. He likes tall buildings, and he suggests they ride the London Eye, the giant Ferris wheel downtown. Ted begins to describe its technology—he calls it a “giant bicycle wheel in the sky” (29)—and Salim likes that. They all agree that the three kids will visit “the Wheel.”

Salim beds down on the inflatable lilo in Ted’s room. They chat a while, and Ted steers the conversation to his favorite topic: the weather. Salim asks him to describe what it’s like to have “this syndrome thing you’ve got?” (35). Ted says if the brain were a computer, his would be working on a different operating system than most other people’s. He’s good at big concepts but has difficulty with remembering small matters, like bringing his gym bag to school. Salim says he’s that way, too.

Ted says he’s trying to learn small talk so he can have more friends. Salim says that, at his boys’ school, he was bullied a lot, and classmates called him racist nicknames. Then he made friends with another boy of Asian descent, Marcus Flood, and they starred in the school play, Shakespeare’s The Tempest. After that, they were “moshers,” or cool dudes. The play features a big storm; Salim says Ted would love it.

Salim falls asleep. Ted thinks about how Andy Warhol and Albert Einstein both may have had the same condition he has. This quiets his mind, and he drifts off.

In the morning, Salim shaves off his slight mustache. Kat complains—she likes his mustache. He jokes with her, and she howls with laughter. After breakfast, everyone walks to the tube station, where they take the Underground train to downtown London. They walk toward the Eye. Salim takes pictures, then his phone rings; when he answers, he talks quietly and secretively before hanging up. Gloria asks who it was, and Salim says it was just a Manchester friend saying goodbye. Salim hurries everyone along, saying, “We’re running late” (47). Ted protests that they can’t be late for the Eye, which runs all day long.

The ticket line for the Eye is very long. Gloria suggests they go instead to the Tate Gallery, but Salim gets angry and stamps his foot. Faith hands money to Kat, instructing her to buy tickets while the adults wait in the coffee house. Kat, Ted, and Salim get in line. Salim loans Ted his camera, and Ted takes a shot of the Eye. They learn it’ll be an hour before they can board the ride.

Kat wants to give up, but a stranger approaches. He has a day’s growth of beard, a leather jacket, and a printed T-shirt. He says he’s too nervous to ride the Eye (he has claustrophobia and is leery of the seating capsules), and he offers them his ticket. Ted thinks how they’re not supposed to accept things from strangers, but Kat says it’ll save her mother some money, and she accepts. The man points to a girl in a pink jacket, who’s holding his place in line, and wishes them fun before walking away.

When they reach the ticket collector, Salim hands over the ticket from the stranger; grinning and winking at his cousins, he heads up toward the capsules. He waves and disappears into a capsule.

Ted and Kat watch Salim’s capsule rise slowly. They talk about Salim: Kat thinks he’s “cute,” but that’s her word for anything she likes. Ted says Salim gets lonely; Kat figures that’s because he’s leaving all his friends for New York. They also talk about Aunt Gloria: Neither of them is sure what to make of her, but Kat says she drives their father “bananas.” Ted wonders at that image.

Salim’s capsule reaches the top of the arc, then descends slowly. Salim is obscured in shadow, but Ted watches everyone in his capsule line up for the automatic photograph. At 12:02pm, the capsule reaches the bottom, the doors open, and the passengers step out. Salim isn’t among them. Ted and Kat watch the next two capsules disembark; their cousin isn’t there, either.

Kat makes Ted stay where he is and hurries off. Ted realizes he doesn’t know how to find his mother and aunt, so he’s officially lost, but Kat returns. She bought souvenir photos taken of Salim’s capsule and the two that followed him, but he’s in none of the pictures. Kat groans, “Mum and Auntie Glo are going to be livid” (59).