Pushing the bicycle’s tyre away with her hand, she freed herself and walked towards the hut.

‘You are my sister-in-law,’ she heard him shout as she entered the hut. ‘This brother-in-law is not visiting you now for no reason. I have a message for you from your husband. He has gone somewhere about setting up a shop. He’ll be late. I saw him in town. He said, “Go and tell your sister-in-law to get ready. I will come and take her to the movies.” So be ready. He will take you to the first show.’

She could not control her tears, but she tried not to make any sound. She could not hear his voice any more. Perhaps he has left, she thought. Yet when she peeped outside, there he was, one foot on the pedal, the other balancing his weight on the ground, his thighs exposed. He said, ‘Get ready to go to the movies. I will join you next time. We can all go together. I have more money than he does. I will give you however much you want. All right. See you.’

She quickly withdrew into the hut. She felt angry with Kumaresan for trusting his message with such a person. But then, had Kumaresan really sent that message? Or was it just this man’s excuse to come and look at her? Was that any way to talk to a woman? His grin and the way he had stood, exposing his thigh to her—she was irritated just thinking about it.

She lay curled up on the cot, but she couldn’t sleep. The heat reached inside the hut despite the thatched roof. Her mind was not at rest, so she tossed about. She wondered again if Vellapayyan’s message was in fact true. Kumaresan liked going to the movies. What if he came expecting her to be ready? He might get angry if she wasn’t. The way things stood, she couldn’t have him be angry with her too. She could not decide if she should tell him all that had happened that day. If she complained about that white pig, he might get upset and chase away after it, only to get bitten in the end. No, it was best to let some time pass. She would get a better sense of things. The pig would probably visit her frequently, but she would just have to learn to manage that.

Both his talk and his grin reeked of something ­unpleasant—the stink of some animal rotting within its shrivelled skin. What if he came again during the day, when no one else was around? He might even enter the hut. Today he had stopped his cycle in such a way that she was trapped, unable to move. He might do something like that again. Even if she screamed for help, there was no one nearby. His was the only house in the vicinity. Could she raise her voice to reach beyond that? It would be difficult. Here everyone spoke loudly. And when they were calling someone at a distance, their voices boomed with alarming force. That very morning, Saroja had heard a woman calling out, ‘Hey, boy! Hey, boy!’ Her voice was such that it must have been heard even two or three miles away. But it didn’t seem like a boy had responded.