It didn’t matter if she didn’t feed it; the cat was still affectionate to her. Once, when she was sleeping, she mistook the cat’s gentle touch on her face for Kumaresan’s caress. It had come to that. When the cat’s tail grazed her, it felt like someone was touching her with a peacock’s plume. If she tried to hug it tightly, the cat protested, turning its face to her and expressing its dislike by baring its teeth and hissing. Sometimes, she said, ‘All right,’ and smiled and let the animal go. At other times, the cat came back to her on its own and tried to settle on her lap. ‘You are just like him!’ she chided the creature.

The cat was the only other being to accept her. Kumaresan called it ‘Kloos’. She tried calling it ‘Meow’, but it paid her no attention. Then she too started calling it ‘Kloos’. Somehow she fell in love with that cat. It didn’t stay at home much, and came in only after wandering outside for several hours. She talked to the cat just like she talked to Kumaresan. ‘If you leave me alone and go away again, see what I do.’ It’d just close its eyes and say, ‘Meow’. She’d lift it and place it on her lap.

She thought it would help her days go faster if the cat stayed inside. When she shared this desire with Kumaresan, he said, ‘It is a male cat. This is how it will roam around. Soon, it might even go away looking for a female cat.’

She asked him, ‘Won’t it bring the female cat here?’

He laughed: ‘Only humans think like that.’

When she understood his meaning, she blushed.

Since she had come to feel that Kumaresan and the cat were enough company for her, she refused to go out anywhere. He had to plead with her for two days before he could persuade her to accompany him on an outing.

There was another reason Saroja did not feel like going out anywhere. A few days earlier she had been ready and waiting for Kumaresan to come and take her to see a film, but her mother-in-law had made a huge ruckus. Saroja had ripped away the flowers she was wearing in her hair, and run back into the hut and flung herself on the cot, sobbing uncontrollably. She lay on a tear-stained pillow, dazed, not knowing if she was asleep or awake. When she became aware of voices and the sound of a bicycle, she slowly came to. It was dark everywhere. She woke up in a panic, feeling as though she was trapped in a cave. When she recognized the voices from outside, she slowly remembered the evening’s commotion and started crying again. She could hear her mother-in-law complain to Kumaresan:

‘She stood there decked up like a dancing girl. Does a farmer’s wife dress up like that? That’s why I gave her a scolding. She went back in, crying, and has been lying inside ever since. She has not even lit the lamp yet! I don’t know how this house will prosper if she behaves like this. You lost your mind at the sight of her fair skin and brought this ill omen into this house. The only way you will see sense is if you get rid of this harbinger of doom. Otherwise, everything will go to dust, let me tell you.’