She should have come to the hill earlier, she realised. From here you could have a beautiful view down to the Tel and the farms on the other side. To the right she could see the bridge and the road to Balangir and, beyond that, where her school would be. Near the hill was Deogan village, which they had walked through. It was a group of houses not very far from each other. There were people and farmyard animals around the houses. Some of the houses had tin roofs, others had thatch.

The hill was thick with shrubs growing in the shade of trees. Anchita could easily believe there must be dozens more of herbs and flowers growing wild around here. The hill rose behind her and stretched into the distance, an ancient mound. Fangorn Forest, she thought. It looks just like Fangorn Forest.

And so, walking slowly around the side of the hill, she came to a flat clearing. Two tall stones, about the height of two men each, stood side by side facing the path the children had come up. At the base of the stones were offerings of bel leaves and rice, and there were red markings on the stones.

Surely the stones could not have been there by themselves, so they must have been placed there, into the earth, at some point of time long ago. There were six or seven saja trees in the clearing, and around them were more stones, much smaller than the two at the entrance to the clearing. There were so many of them, small ones not more than a foot tall, standing upright but pushed into the ground, some with bel leaves or rice on them.

‘That’s my mother,’ said Korok, pointing to one of the stones on the left.

Not there’s my mother. That’s, thought Anchita, and wondered why he said that. Perhaps his Odia wasn’t very good. Or perhaps there was a difference. She knew Korok’s mother had passed away some years ago, but didn’t know about this clearing or the stones. She began to realise there was so much she should have known about her new neighbours but didn’t.

Anchita didn’t even know if she should be bothering him with questions just then, but Korok didn’t seem to be very thoughtful or lost or whatever people were in a place like this. He seemed to be perfectly at ease. She had to think of a way to ask her questions without being rude. That was difficult. Being rude is always easy.

‘What are the stones for?’ she asked, thinking that was a safe question.

‘They are for the hanal. The … when someone dies, their body goes underground and becomes hanal. It is … like a ghost, but not a ghost. The stones are for the hanal of the person.’ Soul, thought Anchita. The soul goes underground.

‘But the life of the person goes up …’