Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan Read Free Book Online Page A

knew I could whisper my complaints into Chandra’s ear in the evening. Soon there would be no one to comfort me.
    As Chandra’s wedding approached, Sass came to me one day. “We have no money for a new sari for Chandra,” she said. “She must have your wedding sari. You need nothing but your widow’s sari.”
    I longed to say that I did not want to spend the rest of my life dressed as a widow, but I knew Sass would be scandalized by such words. So I watched Chandra try on my sari and said nothing. With her womanly figure, her smiles, and her bright eyes, she looked very lovely.
    “Chandra must have your silver earrings as well,” Sass said.
    Stubbornly I shook my head. I would not give up the earrings. As long as I had them, I could keep my dream of running away. I knew that if I simply refused, Sass would find a way to make me give them up. So I lied. “I have lost them,” I said.
    “I don’t believe you!” Sass screamed. “You are an evil girl! All these days we have put a roof over your head and fed you. This is how you repay us, with selfishness.”
    I should have kept quiet, but I could not. “I have worked for my food,” I said, “harder than anyone.”
    Sass squinted her eyes as she always did when she was very, very angry. In a harsh voice she said, “You do not know the meaning of work. You idle about with your daydreams and your foolish books and your stitching. I will see to it that from now on you do indeed earn your keep.”
    That evening, when I should have been asleep, I crept out to the courtyard. I did not want to spoil Chandra’s happiness with my misery. As I sat thinking of whether I ought to give in and hand over the earrings, I heard Sass complain of me to Sassur. “She is a wicked girl not to give Chandra her earrings. I am sure she still has them. I have searched their room but I can’t find them. It was an inauspicious day when that girl came into our house.”
    “She is not a bad girl,” Sassur said in a weary voice. “Think of what her life is like with Hari gone. She has nothing to look forward to. Remember that without her dowry we would never have had the money to go to Varanasi, and her widow’s pension these two years has added to Chandra’s dowry.”
    His last words were like a slap. Widow’s pension? I didn’t wait to hear more but hurried in to Chandra, who was already asleep. I shook her awake. “Chandra, is it true? Did they take my widow’s pension for your dowry?”
    Chandra sat up in bed and gave me a surprised look. “Didn’t you know?” She looked frightened. “You wouldn’t take the pension back, would you? If you do, I’ll have no husband.”
    I was very angry, but not so angry that I would ruin Chandra’s happiness. I shook my head. I did not blame Chandra for taking what was rightfully mine, but I knew I would not have done the same to her. I was more determined than ever to keep the silver earrings. They would buy me a railway ticket. The pension might go with me to keep me from starving.
    It took me all night to work up my courage, but in the morning I went to Sass. Clenching my hands behind me, I took a deep breath and said in a weaker voice than I would have wished, “The next time the envelope comes from the government, it is to be handed over to me.”
    For just a moment Sass looked frightened, but then she quickly said, “If you are speaking of the few rupees you are sent each month, do not think they are due you. They hardly pay for your keep.” She gave me a triumphant look. “If it were not for our son, you would not be a widow. So there would be no rupees at all for you.” She marched out of the room.
    Defeated, I stood looking after her. She was like a great boulder shutting me into a cave. I could not move her, and I could not get around her.
    Despite my anger at Sass I longed to give Chandra something for her wedding. “I wish I had money to buy you a gift,” I told her.
    Chandra thought for a moment. “Would you make me a