‘Is Phulmati still going to work?’

‘If she doesn’t go to work, what will she eat? I will go to work too, even if I have a fever. I don’t have anyone either.’

‘Where are you from?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Why don’t you know? Tell me.’

‘They hit me on my head. I don’t remember anything. What else do you want to ask?’ she smiled at him.

‘You are lying. You remember. Tell me.’

‘What is the use of telling you?’

‘If you tell your own people, your sorrow will become less.’

‘Are you my own?’ Suhagmoni laughed.

‘Don’t laugh. If I am not your own, then who is?’

‘My own is Budhuwa sardar!’ Suhagmoni laughed aloud.

Looking at her smiling face, Ho Yen asked gently, ‘You have a lot of sorrow, don’t you, Suhagmoni?’

Suhagmoni stopped smiling. After looking at Ho Yen for a few moments, she answered gravely, ‘If a bonded labourer doesn’t have sorrow, who else will? The sardars or the sahabs? You are also a bonded labourer. Don’t you have your own?’

‘Yes. Lots of sorrow.’ Ho Yen’s eyes brimmed with tears.

‘Don’t cry. It’s no use.’

‘I know. When you were not here, there was a lot of sorrow, but now …’ Ho Yen’s voice trailed off.

‘What has happened now?’

‘Don’t you know?’

‘How would I …’

‘My companions here tease me about you. Do you mind?’

‘Why should I mind? I like it. Don’t you?’

‘Yes, I like it too.’

Ho Yen became silent. He didn’t have enough words to express his thoughts. He still hadn’t learnt the common language properly. His eyes filled with tears. Looking at his crimson face in the moonlight that filtered through the trees, she said softly, ‘If you don’t have anything more to say, I will go.’

‘There is. There are things to say.’ Ho Yen became restless. Then gathering all his courage, he said, ‘I have been thinking of telling you for a long time. I don’t really know how to say it. I want to marry you. Don’t say no, Suhagmoni.’

Suhagmoni looked at his face for some time before she spoke. ‘You like me very much, do you?’

‘Yes. Very much.’

‘Can you leave this country for me?’

‘What? I don’t understand.’

‘You will, when I tell you. Can you leave?’

Ho Yen looked at Suhagmoni’s eyes for some time and said slowly, ‘Wherever you live, that is my country.’

Suhagmoni looked at his flushed face for a long time.

‘I will tell you something. Will you listen?’

‘Why not? Tell me.’

‘I once had a mother and father, brothers and sisters. On a dark night, that evil contractor captured and brought me here. He gagged me and hit me on the head. I fell unconscious. When I regained my senses, I was on the boat. I want to go home. Will you take me back to my home?’

For a while Ho Yen looked at her, then asked slowly, ‘Where is your home, Suhagmoni?’