‘Tomorrow,’ continued the woman, ‘we are conducting a coming-of-age ceremony for my daughter. I am here to invite you for that. For ten days now, it has all been about your problem. I didn’t want to come to this village. My husband and I fought over whether we should invite you or not. Yesterday, he finally relented. “Even poor and destitute people come here,” he said. “They come carrying their bundles of clothes. I will think of them that way. Go and invite them.” That’s why I am here today. Both of you—husband and wife—please do come. I already saw your mother on the pasture and informed her. Please don’t worry about anything, Nōndi. You are going through a bad time—that’s why you are getting into all these unnecessary problems. What can you do if it is written in your fate that you need to stand in shame in front of people? I know about the village council’s decisions and prohibitions. But they don’t apply to our village. I want both of you to come in the evening, stay for the entire function, and leave only after you eat at the dinner feast. You are like a maternal uncle to my daughter. No matter what you have done, I cannot bear the idea of conducting the ceremony without your blessings, Nōndi. Hey, girl! Don’t think I haven’t invited you. You come too.’ And then the woman left.

Once she was gone, Kumaresan told Saroja about her—she was a distant relative, an elder sister of sorts. Her parents had married her to someone in Molappalayam, which was two villages away. ‘When I was a child, I had great affection for her. She too was very fond of me. See! She even fought with her husband for me!’ he added proudly.

‘Is that why she is rushing away without so much as drinking water here?’ said Saroja.

He did not reply to that.

‘Shall we go tomorrow?’ she asked him.

‘Of course!’ he said ‘How can we not go after she has come all this way to invite us? She specifically invited you too. Let us both go.’

Saroja then gently voiced the doubt gnawing away at her: ‘Her lips certainly invited me. But I think her heart didn’t want me.’

‘You are afraid of everything!’ he burst out angrily. ‘Only if we start going to a few places will people begin respecting us. Accepting us. If we just hide here, we will be alone forever.’

Saroja did not respond, but fear settled in her heart like a rock, firm and unshakeable.

TWELVE

TWELVE

Three large, hilly mounds impeded their journey to Virichipalayam.