with large heavy baskets of coal on your head If you’re a child you run around and pick up any stray lumps of coal you can find If the bosses see you doing this they’ll chase you and they’ll hit you if they catch you So you have to move fast On this very happy day I was supposed to be picking up coal I had my coal bag over my shoulder There was a bit of coal in it but not very much Instead of running around the coal fields I was trying to convince the shopkeeper that I had a coin in my hand Let me see it said Mr Bannerjee He sat in his chair and flicked his horsetail fly swatter around hacking at the coal with pickaxes and shovels If you’re a woman you walk up the narrow steep trails Oh it’s right here I said holding up my clenched fist What is it Twenty paisas Ten You can buy one sweet maybe two Choose and then pay and go I stretched out the moment before I replied Mr Bannerjee had a tiny television set in his shop on a shelf next to the jars of skin-whitening cream The picture it showed was fizzy and it jumped up and down but I could still see the Bollywood dancers I waved my head the way the dancers did trying to remember the steps to try later Choose Then pay and go he repeated Mr Bannerjee’s shop was made of scrap wood and old cardboard boxes and it was completely open on one side
He slept in it at night to keep thieves away But he didn’t want anyone watching his TV unless they were customers What did you say You heard what I said Mr Bannerjee waved his fly swatter in bigger circles but I wasn’t worried He didn’t like to leave his chair It was a bit of a game I played sometimes seeing how long I could watch his television before he chased me away He knew I didn’t really have any money I never had any money I managed to stay a few moments longer Then the TV went to full fizz and there was no point in hanging around I wandered down to the railway tracks picking up bits of coal when I saw them but not putting any effort into looking Piles of trash lined the tracks Ragpickers and goats poked through it I stayed away from the bigger piles of garbage I didn’t into an argument and ragpickers like getting feel sometimes guarded their territory I kept my eyes on my feet and shuffled garbage around with my toes I wished I was a goat Goats ate everything If I was a goat I would never be hungry Hey there’s Valli Valli come and throw rocks with us or we’ll throw rocks at you I looked up Some of my cousins were out on the tracks
with their friends None of them liked me I didn’t know why She won’t She’s too scared That was my cousin Sanjay He was my size and never forgave me for the time I beat him up when we were younger I wasn’t allowed to eat until he was finished and then I was given whatever food was left on his plate He started stuffing himself just to watch me be hungry I stood it for three days Then I let him have it Smashed the metal plate down on his stupid head I got a beating from my uncle for it but Sanjay always left at least some food behind after that He got back at me in other ways though Sneaky ways Like kicking me at night so it was hard to go to sleep He called me names like pig-face and dirt-brain I tried to insult him back but my words didn’t have as much power as his He knew he was worth more than me We both knew it I was afraid to throw rocks but I couldn’t let him see that And I couldn’t let his friends see that I was scared If they did they would be on me faster than a goat on garbage I walked quickly into the middle of the pack and picked up a rock Just looking at the targets made me shake On the other side of the tracks a stone’s throw away monsters lived among the garbage dumps and dung heaps
Their faces were not human Some had no noses Some had hands without fingers that they waved in the air as they tried to protect their heads from our rocks But I didn’t care as long as they stayed on their side of the tracks They were unclean foul creatures They carried the sins of a former life and if you got too close they would turn you into one of them That’s what my uncle said You eat too much he would scream when the pain in his chest got bad and he had no money for drink to make it better I’ll break your arms and send you down the tracks to beg with those animals You are a curse to me And then in the night his voice quiet and his breath in my ear telling me to make no noise or the monsters would grab me in my sleep drag me away and tear me apart And I would tremble and bite my lip and pray to the gods for the sun to rise I slowly pulled my arm back to get ready for the throw I closed my eyes and let my rock fly I didn’t know if it hit one of them or not One of the stones came flying back at us Sanjay bent down to pick it up Don’t touch it You’ll turn into a monster just like them one of my cousin’s friends shouted That’s one of the ways they get their victims Sanjay picked up another rock instead They were all too
