The window seat

Source: an original fiction extract.

Amir arrived at the care home with a telescope under one arm and an unreasonable amount of confidence. His grandmother had complained that the window in her new room faced a brick wall. Across the courtyard, above that wall, a narrow square of sky remained. He had bought the telescope second-hand that morning. By evening, he told the receptionist, his grandmother would be looking at the moon. The receptionist glanced at the clouds and helped him through the door. He was grateful for her assistance and chose not to notice her expression.

His grandmother was sitting beside the window, her coat folded on her knees. 'I brought you something,' he said. He set up the tripod before she could reply. One leg refused to extend, so he balanced it on a gardening magazine. Through the lens the wall became an enormous, grainy country of mortar. 'We'll adjust it,' he said. She asked whether he had eaten. He said yes, although the sandwich was still in his bag. He wanted this visit to have a purpose larger than the usual questions about lunch and the temperature of the room.

For twenty minutes he turned small screws. Each adjustment made another part of the instrument sag. His grandmother watched him, then said that a woman in the room opposite had a ginger cat that came to the window at four. 'It's not really for looking into people's rooms,' he said. She looked down at her coat. He heard the firmness of his own voice and remembered, too late, that he was using it with someone who had once taught him how to cross a road. Outside, rain began to stipple the glass.

He could have packed the thing away. Instead, he opened the instructions again and explained the difference between two lenses. His grandmother listened politely. Then she lifted her coat. 'I hoped we might go downstairs.' There was a conservatory, she said, and a woman there who used to live near her old house. Amir had seen the conservatory on his way in: a draughty room with three plastic palms. He had dismissed it without entering. He folded the instructions along the wrong crease. 'You should have said.' The words came out before he could soften them.

She stood slowly and held out the coat for him to help her. Neither of them spoke while he found the second sleeve. He left the telescope pointing at the wall. Downstairs, she introduced him to the woman from her old street, who moved a newspaper from a chair. They began discussing a shop that had closed before Amir was born. He knew none of the names. After a while he took the sandwich from his bag and offered his grandmother half. She accepted it, and continued her story. Upstairs, behind the clouds, the moon could have been anywhere.

Consider the whole source. A reader said: “Amir genuinely wants to help his grandmother, but he is more interested in his own idea of a successful visit than in what she wants.” Evaluate how far you agree with this view. Support your judgement with detailed references to the text and the writer’s methods.