No Ordinary Day Read Online Free

truck and keep quiet. We’ll unload the coal and then we’ll take you to a woman we know. Her name is Mrs. Mukerjee. She might give you a home.”
    “That’s no life for a little girl,” Raj said. “She should be in school.”
    “What school will take her with no parents and no papers? And will you pay the fees? How many children are you paying for now? Don’t worry,” Kam said to me. “This will work.”
    He took me to the front of the truck and opened the door. I needed help to climb in. It was very high up.
    The floor of the truck was littered with all kinds of things — empty crisp packets, cigarette butts, bottle caps. I sorted through it, looking for money. I didn’t find any. I licked the crumbs out of the crisp packets. They were salty and good.
    When the men came back they got into the front seat. I had to stay down at their feet, which I did not like. Their feet were dirty and took up a lot of room. Plus, I couldn’t see out the window.
    We didn’t drive for long before we stopped again. They got out. I smelled food, but I was shocked when they brought me tea and dosas. I ate in the truck. It was food I hadn’t worked for, food bought special for me, not left over from the children who were not my cousins.
    They got back in the truck and then it was all start and stop, stop and start as the traffic got thick. I could hear the car horns and smell the exhaust. I felt the truck turn this way and that. I heard the driver yell at people who cut across his path, and I heard people yell at him when he got in their way. It was quite funny to hear, but I wished I could see.
    And then the truck came to a full stop and the motor was shut off.
    “Look, I’m still not sure …” Raj said.
    “Quit fussing,” Kam said. “We’re here, aren’t we? The decision is made. Get up, kid. This is the end of the ride for you.”

3
    The Butterfly Woman
    THEY LIFTED ME OUT of the truck and took me into an alley.
    Everything was cement.
    No. It wasn’t. There were lots of other things.
    There was a man sitting in a shop, tapping leather into shoes.
    There was a woman pushing a cart full of bad-smelling stuff she had cleaned out of a latrine.
    An alcove held a statue of the goddess Kali, all black with her red tongue pointing out. A young man in a suit and tie stood before her, praying.
    Above me I heard a baby crying, and someone was playing music.
    I couldn’t stop grinning.
    “There is so much going on,” I said. “Thank you for bringing me here!”
    “Don’t thank us,” Raj said.
    They banged loudly on a green door. No one answered.
    “Are you sure she’s in there?”
    “She’s there. Where else would she be?”
    They knocked again. They kept knocking until a middle-aged woman shouted down at them from an open window up above.
    “Are you men crazy? You know my girls don’t get up until eleven. And I don’t rise before noon. Go away.”
    “Mrs. Mukerjee. We have something for you.”
    “Anything you have can wait until regular business hours.”
    She disappeared inside, banging the window shut.
    The men knocked again.
    The window flapped open.
    “You don’t want to make me angry,” she said.
    “Mrs. Mukerjee, look!”
    I was made to move away from the door and out into the alley where she could see me.
    “What in the world is that?” the woman asked.
    “It’s a girl.”
    “I don’t believe you.”
    She started to go back inside.
    “She has no parents!”
    She stopped and leaned out the window again, taking a hard look at me. I waved a bit and tried to smile. She made me nervous, but I wanted to make a good impression.
    “My name is Valli,” I said. “Good morning.” I made the namaste, pointing my fingers together and giving a little bow.
    “The only good morning is mid-afternoon,” she said, lighting up a cheroot. She breathed out a puff of smoke. “I’m coming down.”
    She disappeared. Then after a moment she opened the green door.
    “How do I know you didn’t steal her?” she