Meanwhile, the surveyors had gone and taken a look at Devi Hills, and made some measurements and so on, and had returned to the circuit house. They were to go back to Deogan in a day or two for a more detailed study.

‘Are you there?’

Korok, who was lying on his bed staring at the ceiling, looked towards the door.

‘It’s me. Can I come in?’

And Anchita being Anchita, walked in anyway, before he could think of a reply, carrying several bulging bags and a backpack.

‘Do not try to get up, do you hear me?’ she said sharply, and Korok, who was quickly trying to get off the bed, froze, his back comically in midair. Then he sat back down slowly. And tried to get up, again, when Anchita sat on the bed, that being the only piece of furniture in the room she could sit on. But she glared at him, so he backed into a corner and folded his legs.

‘Maybe you should pull your legs up,’ he said.

‘Why?’

‘You won’t be scared if I told you?’

‘I’m never scared.’

‘My goat is under the bed.’

Anchita gasped, and lowered her jaw dramatically, as she did when she was pleasantly surprised. Korok had never met anyone who actually did that. But she did.

She bent over the side of the bed. A black-and-white horned face peered back at her. There was a short staring contest. Anchita won. Satisfied, she sat back.

‘What’s his name?’

‘It’s a she.’

‘But … it has horns! And a beard!’

Korok thought this was the funniest thing he had heard in a week, so he laughed a bit.

‘What’s funny about that?’

‘All goats have horns and beards,’ he said.

‘Really?’

‘All the ones I have seen.’ Which was a big feat in logic for Korok. Because it was possible there was a beardless and hornless goat somewhere he hadn’t seen.

‘Hmm. What’s her name?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t call her anything.’ Then he thought maybe he should have given the goat a name. It made him feel ignorant of the ways of the world.

‘So, does she have, you know, baby goats?’

‘Not this year. We had one, I gave it to a neighbour some time ago.’

‘That’s sad.’

‘He lives down the street.’

‘So your goat lives under the bed, does she?’

‘Sometimes she crawls in during the summer. Sometimes she stays in the kitchen, but not when I make beans.’

‘Doesn’t like the smell, does she?’

‘Maybe.’

‘Will she come out if I call her?’

Korok laughed again and said it was a goat, not a dog.

‘How is your leg? Show me.’