‘They might even say they won’t give us all that stuff any more,’ Kumaresan had once told Saroja. ‘But amma won’t let that go so easily.’

The lunch carrier he had taken to school and another brass vessel lay inside the large pot in a corner of the hut. That morning, Saroja had taken them out and washed them. They were the only vessels that had tightly fitting lids. For the other vessels, she covered them with plates and tied pieces of cloth securely around them. Kumaresan had recently bought a khaki bag. She now packed everything inside that bag. It was only after she was done with everything that she woke him up.

What if he changes his mind in the morning and refuses to take me along, she had wondered. Since she didn’t want to risk that possibility, she had decided to finish all the work and get ready before he awoke.

While filling the pots with water, Marayi had seen Saroja doing all the cooking. She even sang a song that made fun of a girl who packed food with the hope of going somewhere by bullock cart. But Saroja ignored her.

When Kumaresan was ready to leave, he said, ‘Amma, I am going to the shop.’

Marayi snapped, ‘The last time you went away to work, you brought ruin upon our heads. Who knows what you will bring this time? You have made sure no one talks to us again. All that is left now is the life in this body. Take that too and leave here for good!’

Kumaresan did not say anything to that. He hung the food bags from the handlebars of the bicycle. Had he already affixed the hooks for carrying soda bottles, they would have come in handy now. Instead, the bags kept sliding down the handlebars. If he hung them both together, the vessels might jostle and clash inside, possibly spilling their contents. So Saroja asked him not to hang them on the handlebars. Taking them from him, she kept them on her lap.

This was the first time she was going out with him after that fateful visit to appucchi’s house. She shuddered at the memory. But now they were not going to a relative’s house. They were going to a new village where no one knew who she was. In the tender heat of that morning, she was very excited to go out with him. It had not been easy for her convince him to let her go with him. He had one condition.

‘All right. I will take you with me. But once we are back, we should both go to Chellakka’s house for the ceremony. You should definitely come with me. If you agree to that, I will take you with me in the morning.’