The Bridge Home

In the cemetery, Rukku disappears for a time with the dog Kutti, then suddenly reappears as the other children frantically search for her. Though being in a graveyard is frightening to all the children, they acknowledge that their greater fear should be of the men who searched for them. They wrestle with where to sleep before deciding to sleep atop graves.

Viji senses this is a setback to Rukku, who is shivering, and tries to get her to fall asleep. Eventually, Rukku asks, “Story?” The request is echoed immediately by both boys. This time Viji’s story is about two sisters and two brothers, resulting in the response, “‘About time you added us,’ Muthu said. I could hear a smile in his voice” (95).

Viji awakes hungry the next morning, bitten by masses of mosquitoes. The children investigate the cemetery and decide it is even more deserted than the bridge. When they acknowledge how hungry they are, Arul and Mutha announce that they are invited to a wedding breakfast. Pretending they are preparing for a procession with music, the children laugh happily.

The boys lead the girls to a Hindu temple where they watch from a distance as an elaborate wedding and feast take place. They marvel at the opulence and waste. When a servant brings out bags of refuse and places them in a dumpster, Muthu climbs in and retrieves a great deal of discarded food. A cow ambles up to the children as they are eating and Rukku feeds it one of the banana leaves upon which the feast was served.

After eating their fill of wedding feast discards, the children decide to return to the bridge home to see what their pursuers might have done to it. At first, it seems all their possessions are destroyed. Eventually, they recover many usable items, including their tarps, some clothing, and the money Viji hid.

Briefly, they debate where to live going forward and decide the cemetery is the safer, most secluded space. There is an underlying debate about where their real home is. Muthu declares, “Our palace is a home, inside my head [...] And those men can’t wreck it. Ever” (103). Arul and Muthu say they will return to the garbage dumps to find recyclables. The sisters decide to purchase beads and begin to make more necklaces.

On the way to the cemetery Arul insists that the children stop at a Catholic church. They make Kutti wait outside as they go in. Though Viji is perplexed about why they should be giving thanks, Arul lights a candle to thank God that they are still together. Rukku is fascinated by the candlelight and Arul helps her light one candle after another.

A woman who was watching them appears and gives Viji her business card. She identifies herself as Celina Aunty, who runs a school for working children. Viji is excited to hear about the school. As the woman recites the rules of the school, she says there is to be no stealing. At that moment the priest appears and asks Celina Aunty if the children were stealing. The children immediately bolt out of the church.

Viji decides to take Rukku back to see Teashop Aunty to ask for more beads. The boys go in search of a new trash recycler.

Teashop Aunty is glad to see the girls, commenting on how much straighter Rukku is standing. She does not invite them into her kitchen and Viji wonders if it is because they have become so dirty. Aunty gives them two cups of tea with milk and a smaller bag of beads. She tells the girls she and her husband are moving back to a village where her husband has a job waiting.

The girls take the beads to a spot where they can sit on the ground and make necklaces. Viji sets up a bottle to catch rainwater. Since the monsoon is coming, they will no longer have to worry about fresh drinking water.

A strange schoolgirl speaks to Viji from behind her, offering free cookies. Since the girl calls them beggars, Viji refuses the gift haughtily: “I scowled at the girl. ‘Did you hear us beg?’” (113). Eventually, the girl convinces Viji that she will be doing the girl a favor if she accepts the cookies. It makes her feel like a princess granting a wish to a loyal subject.

When the rain lets up, the sisters return to the cemetery, where they meet the boys. Together they built a shelter around a newly used, thus elevated, gravesite using saplings, tarps, and a tablecloth. Rukku has a coughing fit and refuses to take the medicinal herb Teashop Aunty sent with her. She goes to sleep without eating.

In the night, Viji hears male voices. Arul wakes as well. They hear older boys talking about the graveyard being haunted. Rukku wakes hungry and repeatedly moans the word “hungry” (118). Convinced they have encountered a hungry ghost, the intruders stumble out of the cemetery and run away. The group bursts out laughing and Arul judges they are from wealthy families and have nothing better to do than check out graveyards for ghosts.

Though the shops will be closed for two days to celebrate Divali, a major Indian holiday, the children decide to continue gathering trash in hopes of finding a new recycler. Viji recommends that they go to the neighborhood where the gardener threw an orange at them. When they arrive, the gardener recognizes the girls and realizes they have become ragpickers. He says he has bottles to give them.

The girl they saw before, Praba, comes out of the house with her mother. She takes an immediate liking to Kutti and asks her mother is she can have him. As the mother and daughter discuss the dog’s worthiness, Viji grows irritated at being ignored when she insists the dog is not for sale. The mother offers her 2,000 rupees. Viji is amazed but refuses.

The mother and daughter both discuss how filthy the sisters are. They offer them some of Praba’s old clothes since they just bought new clothes for Divali. The mother says this is a way of thanking the waste collectors for their work, saying, “Without your help recycling waste, our environment would be much filthier” (123).

Divali is celebrated with fireworks, which Rukku has always hated. This time, however, as the fireworks begin, she picks up Kutti, strokes him, and comforts him.

Monsoon rains drench the graveyard and mosquitoes torment the children, especially Rukku who has developed welts where she scratched the bites. Concerned about Rukku’s well-being, the boys suggest that the girls should stay in the cemetery all day. Rukku wants to help, however. They decide to find someplace close by to make necklaces.

The rain has drowned many worms, floating their carcasses onto the sidewalk and street. Rukku takes pity on them, stroking their dead bodies and putting them on dirt areas where the worms are still living. Muthu observes that human beings may be God’s worms: seen by God but relatively insignificant.

The girls begin to make necklaces, ultimately using up all Rukku’s beads. Rukku is clearly quite ill.

The girls sell a few necklaces and make a little money. Viji uses half of it to purchase cough syrup and mosquito repellant, which Rukku does not allow Viji to apply adequately.

The girls stay in the cemetery while the boys seek a new recycler. Viji tells Rukku their fantasy story. Viji notices that Rukku is looking off into the distance as she seems to see the palace, which frightens Viji.

The boys return with food, though Rukku is not very responsive. By evening, Rukku develops a fever. Concerned for her sister, Viji considers going to find Aunty Celina. The boys warn her against trusting any adult or institution. Muthu explains that he was sold by his stepbrother to a “school” that turned out to be a sweatshop where he was enslaved and beaten. When the police raided it, he was sent to an orphanage which, he says, was run by a demon-possessed woman who also beat him and from which he ran away. Viji is frightened by their cautions but instinctively believes Aunty Celina is trustworthy.

Rukku grows less responsive during the night and is unable to hold down the bananas Viji tries to feed her. The next morning Muthu is sick as well. Arul and Viji leave them in the cemetery and search for trash to sell. They find an immense pile of trash left after the Divali celebration by partygoers.

Soon they are joined by Kumar and his group, though Sridar is missing. When Viji asks where he is, Kumar explains that he died. When Viji expresses sorrow, he tells her not to let herself feel sadness because death among the children is common. Arul and Kumar embrace for a moment, then continue searching through the trash.

Arul sends Viji to the cemetery to check on the sick children. She finds Rukku’s body drawn into a knot. She has a high fever and a rash on her back.

Arul is robbed of his trash money by a gang and returns with some rotten food he scavenged. The tablecloth “front door” of the shelter is ripped off by the wind, soaking everything inside.

Viji knows she must get medicine for the sick children and the only way for her to get money is by selling Kutti, who has been very anxious during Rukku’s sickness. Before the other’s wake, she walks with Kutti to the home of the wealthy woman. She explains to Kutti what she must do before handing him over for money and food, saying, “I knelt on the wet sidewalk and hugged Kutti close. ‘Kutti, I have to help my sister and Muthu. This is the only way. Do you understand?’” (139).

Viji reminds Rukku, to whom the entire narrative is addressed, that their mother warned her not to allow Rukku to be taken to a doctor or institution where, because of her disability, they would keep her permanently.

When she returns to the cemetery, she tells Arul that Kutti is gone. Arul instantly knows what she has done with the dog. She gives medicine to her sister, who is surprisingly docile. Muthu refuses to accept any of Viji’s shallow lies about the absence of the dog.

The tone of acceptance in Rukku’s voice when she says, “Kutti left,” frightens Viji (144). Viji perceives her sister is giving up on everything.