The Bridge Home

A somewhat older, taller boy named Arul shows up. Like Muthu, he has a sack and a stick. While he proclaims the bridge is his and orders the girls to leave, Viji senses he is tacitly giving permission for them to stay. The two boys stay inside a makeshift tarp tent. The girls sleep on a sheet on the bridge itself.

Rukku asks her sister for a story and Viji responds with the same story she tells every night in which two princesses live in a beautiful, peaceful kingdom. She adds a coda at the end, saying a demon takes over the kingdom but the girls fly away, certain they will return one day. In the meantime, they will always remain together.

They fall asleep looking up at the stars, as Viji writes, “We lay shoulder to shoulder and watched the stars sparkle, while Kutti slept beside us. Your eyes sparkled, too, and the light inside them pierced through my fog of worry” (33).

The girls wake up hungry with no food. They see the boys swimming and bathing in the river below and go down to the water. Viji wants to guard her sister in the water since she cannot swim, but the boys take care not to let Rukku get in where it is deep. Rukku has a wonderful time. After they bathe with their clothes on and change into dry clothes, Rukku asks Viji for food and grows upset that they have nothing to eat. Joining in on her angry tantrum, Muthu makes her laugh and howl, and even Kutti adds his own howl. Her sister’s unexpected laughter gives Viji hope that running away was the right choice.

Looking for a job so they can buy some food, the girls walk back to the teashop. The owner angrily yells at them to get away, saying he does not want their dog around. Teashop Aunty sneaks them in the back door and gives Rukku a bulky bag of beads and teaches her different ways to tie them. As the girls are leaving, Aunty points them toward the wealthier homes where they might find work as maids. She tells them to be cautious, saying, “The world’s not always a kind place for two poor girls like you” (40).

A girl dressed in rags stops them and begs for money. Viji says she has none, but Rukku pats the pouch tied to her dress that contains a little money. Viji starts to give her some, but the girl grabs the pouch and runs away. Viji feels so sorry for her she does not chase her. They see more people than they have ever seen as they walk along looking for work. No one notices them at all.

After a long, hot walk, the girls find themselves in a section of compounds where homes are given names. They start up one gravel driveway where the yard has many fruit trees. The gardener stops them, yelling at them to go away. A car comes out of a garage, something else the girls had never seen, and a well-dressed woman and girl get out. As they leave the yard, the gardener throws an orange at them. Viji wonders if she should have thanked him. The girls sit in the shade alongside the road and share the orange, enjoying it completely.

The girls return to the bridge in the evening without having found work. As they are trying to make a shelter from a raincoat Teashop Aunty gave them, the boys show up. Arul tells Viji he has an extra tarp. They have already developed a teasing relationship. The four children expertly stretch out the new tarp to create a shelter.

Inside, Viji for the first time voices her hope of one day becoming a teacher. Rukku asks her to tell the nightly story. Muthu is listening from within his shelter and, when Rukku asks to hear the story again, Muthu asks as well, which has a profound impact on Viji. She says, “He’d called me akka, older sister. He’d made me family” (49).