long have you been awake?” Ma asks. She chucks onions into the pan and stirs, the ladle scraping against the sides.
“Ma, is it true that someone’s snatching children to eat them?”
“Kya?”
“Because our flesh is sweet.”
“Did you tell him this bakwas?” Ma asks Runu-Didi. She tries to hit Didi with her left hand, but she can’t reach her.
“I didn’t,” Didi squeals.
“The truth of the matter is,” Ma tells me, “Chandni was outside at night all by herself. She wanted to eat gulab-jamuns and her mother gave her money to buy them. Who does that in such a bad time? Shouldn’t that woman have bought them herself?” Ma gathers ginger and garlic slivers and throws them into the pan, followed by a pinch of turmeric and coriander and cumin powder.
“Chandni’s house is right next to the bazaar, is what people are saying,” Didi says, wiping her hands against her kameez. “It’s no different from me going to Shanti-Chachi’s house.”
“Can’t be that close,” Ma says.
“Maybe her ma was busy cooking, like you are.”
“If Vishnu Bhagwan himself were to ask me to send you outside at night, I would refuse.”
Papa comes in and looks at me with a serious expression.
“What’s this I’m hearing?” he asks. “When we think you’re studying, you’re running around Bhoot Bazaar?”
Ma’s ladle stops stirring.
“I’m here all the time,” I say. “I’m here right now. Can’t you see me?”
“Enough,” Papa shouts in his loudest voice. “Do you think this is funny? We have never stopped you from doing whatever you want to do. Either of you.” He looks at Runu-Didi. “But there’s a limit to everything.”
“Papa—”
“Runu, listen carefully. This applies to you too. From now on, no more running-jumping for you after school, understood?”
“But…my…inter-district…I…”
“Bring Jai back after school and sit in the house with him. Put him on a leash if you have to.”
“Coach will kill me,” Didi says.
“Is he coaching the Indian cricket team?” Papa asks. “He’s just a useless fellow teaching PT.”
“Inter-district is a big thing, Papa. Coach wants us to practice every day, even Sundays.”
The onions are smelling burnt because Ma hasn’t been paying any attention to the pan. I wonder how I’ll go to Duttaram’s tea stall day after tomorrow.
“Children are getting snatched only at night, Papa,” I say. “Didi and I are always home before dark.”
“Yes, that’s true,” Didi says, her eyes blazing with angry tears. “Papa—”
“I don’t want to hear another word, Runu. And Jai, you’ll get it good from me if I hear you’re wandering around the bazaar on your own. Don’t think I won’t find out.”
LIKE A LION IN A CAGE, RUNU-DIDI—
—walks up and down our house on Sunday morning, her hair freshly washed and flying around her face like a mane. “Unbelievable,” she says.
“Papa has gone mad,” I say.
I’m late for work and Duttaram might have already given my job to someone else. I know Ma and Papa will beat me if they catch me breaking their no-wandering-around-Bhoot-Bazaar rule, but the beating will be loads worse if they find out the Parachute tub is half-empty and I’m the thief. I don’t want to be a thief. I’m a detective. Jasoos Jai is a good guy.
“I can’t miss training today,” Didi says. “I had to leave early yesterday too. At this rate, Coach will pick that stupid Harini for my spot. She can’t run half as fast as I can, but Coach is best friends with her father.”
“Didi, why don’t you go for training? I won’t tell Ma-Papa.”
“So you can run around the bazaar by yourself?”
“I just want to go to Pari’s house. Pari and I will study together, I promise. We’ll watch a little bit of TV, but we’ll study too.”
Didi thinks about it, still marching around, making the floor jump. “Those who got snatched were snatched at night,” she says, which is what I had told Papa. “We’ll be home before that.”
I don’t point out that she’s copying my words. “Stupid Harini shouldn’t get your spot,” I say instead.
“But Pari’s ma will call up our ma and tell her what we’re doing.”
“Pari’s ma works on Sundays, just like our ma. And her papa, he goes across the river every Sunday to meet his ma and papa.”
“They let Pari stay at home alone?”
“They take her to the reading center if it’s open. But she’ll be home today.”
I’m not lying. Pari told me so.
Didi makes me sit on the doorstep so that she can change into her sports clothes. I’m allowed inside when she’s dressed. She ties her hair in a