Kutti’s coat shone with cleanliness, sparkling in the sunshinelike a silk sari

Celina Aunty’s words made my dream glimmeragain.

Her face glowed like a moon

“Don’t talk back.” Her face flushed redder than a brick.

when I felt like a rock was sitting on my chest,

“Because you’re not talking much to anyone, Viji, and that’s nothealthy. Your thoughts are sitting inside you like a stone,

His words felt like a warm ray of sunshine slipping in through arain-soaked sky.

His words felt like a warm ray of sunshine slipping in through arain-soaked sky.

He slipped his fingers through mine. They felt bony as askeleton’s

I didn’t tell her how sick you were.I didn’t want to believe it.

Arul wound your new doll’s hair around one of his wrists like ahandcuff.

And it wasn’t justmy feet that dragged. It was like my mind was dragging my heartalong, and it and the rest of my body didn’t want to come.

My feet felt heavy as sacks full of scrap metal.

inside was already wet. A rash had broken out on your back, makingyour skin as rough as sandpaper,

The wind picked up. It tore away the plastic tablecloth we’d usedas a door and sent it flapping like a bat across the dark graveyard.

Your body was a tight knot.

Purple rain clouds burst over us like rottinggrapes.

“Don’t be.” Kumar churned the filthy water with his stick. “Kidsdie every day. You start feeling sorry, you’ll drown.”

of water thatlooked and smelled like raw sewage.

“No, no, Akka.” Muthu grinned weakly at me. “If you kept mefrom working that long, I’d fall ill from shock.”

All through that starless night, your breath came in wheezy gasps asraindrops wriggled, like silver snake

But the woman at the orphanage was arakshasi.”

“You’re the one being ridiculous,” he said. “I went to one ofthose ‘schools’ once. It was a prison.”

That was a miracle.

I didn’t want youtraveling all alone to our palace.

“Cheee!

“Rukku’s the sweetest of us all,” Muthu said. “That’s why themosquitoes like her best.”

I’ll brush his coat so it shines like silk

“My friends and I sell trash to make ends meet,”

Silver pins of rain fell around us as we left the church.

“Priests don’t accuse kids who are in God’s house,”

like they could hear music. Like theywere alive. Alive the way you were alive, alive right there, right then,

those little flames, dancing in thatstill, silent church, dancing like they could hear music.

We stood in a circle, linked together like an unbreakablenecklace.

You took the bead from him, and your face brightened slowly,like the sun peeking out from behind rain clouds. The two of you

You were silent for what felt like forever.

steal our gold?

A nauseating smell rose and smacked me in the face, but I toiledas fast as I could.

And then it rose and came at us like a monstrous cobra,swallowing everything in sight, and I ran.”

That was something.No.That was everything.

“Your necklaces are worththeir weight in gold!”

why can’t we try to sell her jewelry?”

As we approached a street vendor whose spicy food was makingmy mouth water,

I rubbed the notes between my fingers, asthough they were fine silk.

watched you stacking pieces of cardboard and humming joyfully,the realization stabbed me

“I get to slice your hands into little tiny pieces.”

His words pierced me like needles.

“Chee!”

The man’s eyes fell on me. They were mean, like a rogueelephant’s.

Yesu fight the bad guys?” Muthu continued. “He had twelve in hisgang—”

When, at last, I placed a section in my mouth, I could hear itburst as my teeth met the flesh, squeezing the juice out onto mytongue, tart at first and then sweet. Everything else melted awayexcept for the taste, the smell, the feel of the fruit on my tongue.I ate the fruit slowly. The way you liked to do things.

We were in plain sight.But we were invisible.

og of worry.

uge posters as tall as we were,

“Ahhh,” you murmured, cradling it in your hands as if it werethe most beautiful thing ever.

as

as

as

as

Hugging him close, like you used to hug your doll, you finallylay down on our sheet. “Story?”

Tishoom.

He reminded me of a sunflower

Kutti pricked up his ears and stood attentively at your side, likehe understood you perfectly.

Our story was clearlywritten on my swollen face and your cut lip

boiling insidelike the oil in her frying pan.

Ai-ai-yo!

flood of vehicles and pedestrians.

doubts slithered into my mind.

buses to and from the city roared through ourvillage.

likesunshine slipping into a dark room

Imagining Appa “before” took a lot of imagining. I was a goodimaginer, but even so, I couldn’t imagine him all the way nice.