Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line - Deepa Anappara Page 0,86

neighbor-chachis at Duttaram’s tea stall. “Chokra, you’re in big trouble,” says the chachi who lives next door to Shanti-Chachi. “We have been looking for you and your sister everywhere.”

Duttaram twists my ears when the chachis tell him they were worried I had got snatched.

“Where’s your sister?” a neighbor-chachi asks.

“What do I know?” I say.

This is the worst kind of bad luck. If I had been caught after five in the evening, I would have made the last twenty rupees I needed.

“Let’s go,” the chachi says. “Poor Shanti must have had a thousand heart attacks by now.”

Duttaram takes twenty rupees out of his shirt pocket and places it on my palm which is wet and dirty. “Give it to your parents,” he says.

I push the note down into my pocket. I got caught but my bad luck is less bad than I thought.

Shanti-Chachi shouts when she sees me, then hugs me so tight, I worry my bones will snap. “Why did you lie to me, Jai? Where’s your sister?” she asks.

“Runu-Didi went to school to talk to her coach. She’ll be back before Ma gets home.”

“Your ma is coming home right now. I called her, I had to. Wait, let me call her again and tell her not to worry.” Chachi almost drops her mobile, then steadies her hands. Though the rotis her husband makes are glossy with ghee and though he always adds a scoop of butter to his dal, chachi is thin like Ma, and now she looks even thinner. She tells Ma I’m safe and that Runu-Didi is with me. Clumps of pink nail polish are stuck to the bottoms of chachi’s nails, which are turmeric-yellow at the top like her fingertips. I can see the white strands in her hair where the dye is fading quickly.

“Your ma says she’s going back to work because her hi-fi madam is having a party later today,” Shanti-Chachi says. “I told her Runu is with you because I didn’t want to worry her anymore. She’s safe, isn’t she, your didi? You weren’t lying again, were you?”

“She’s at school.”

“We have to go and get her.”

“She’s with her coach, chachi. They’re training.”

“I don’t care if she’s with the prime minister himself. I’m bringing her back.”

“Can I change? Someone spilled tea on me at the stall.”

“Be quick.”

I run inside, open the Parachute tub, and fold into it the twenty rupees Duttaram gave me. Ma can kill me today and I won’t die a criminal.

* * *

Shanti-Chachi asks me loads of questions on the way to school. Why did I tell her Runu-Didi had women-troubles? Did I even know what women-troubles were? What was I doing in Bhoot Bazaar? Wasn’t I afraid of kidnappers? When did a little boy like me become such a shameless liar?

In a small voice, I tell her I work on Sundays, but Ma and Papa don’t know that. I tell her about Runu-Didi and her inter-district contest.

“Didi’s going to get a big pot of money if she wins and she’ll give everything to Ma and Papa. That’s why I’m working too. We’re just trying to help.”

“That’s all well and good,” chachi says impatiently, “but if you two get snatched, then what happens, haan? You have the best mother and father in our whole basti. You just don’t know how good you have it.”

“I know it too.”

“What if Runu is not there?” chachi asks when we are close to the school. “Your mother will kill me. I’ll have to kill myself.”

The school gate is half-open today. Didi’s No. 1 fan, the spotty boy, is peeping through the gate.

“Move,” chachi barks at the boy, and he leaps aside, looking ashamed, like we caught him stealing.

Runu-Didi is standing on a fading track drawn with chalk powder on the ground, her left hand outstretched to grab the baton from her teammate. She has told me that the baton-exchange shouldn’t take more than two seconds. Fumbling or letting the baton fall can get you kicked out of the team.

Didi starts to jog as her teammate comes closer, she grabs the baton even before the teammate has finished shouting “stick” and then she races, her ponytail flying behind her, her arms swinging, her legs kicking up into the air as if they weigh nothing. She’s the last runner in her relay team because she’s the fastest.

“Runu, come here right now,” Shanti-Chachi yells.

Didi keeps running, like she’ll never stop. Chachi calls her name again, what do you think you’re doing, Runu? she shouts. Didi reaches