The Hero's Walk

It has been raining for days, but it finally stops in the morning. There’s standing water everywhere. The flower girl comes by and sells some to Nirmala. Many other women in the neighborhood buy some from her as well. Gopala makes sure that the construction trucks no longer dump their loads near Big House. Gopala asks Sripathi if any other problems need fixing. Gopala refers to Sripathi as a brother. By evening, it is raining again.

That evening Putti awakens with a fright. The downstairs of the house is flooding. There is dark, oily, putrid water floating around her and Ammayya’s bed. They have to wade through the sewage to get to the stairs and higher ground. Ammayya wails about being unclean. Once at the top, the rest of the family awake from Ammayya’s cries. They all need to leave the house, and the only way out is through the staircase leading outside that only Koti uses. Having to use the servant’s entrance only exacerbates Ammayya’s wailing. Outside, Sripathi learns that the flooding only affects their house. A sewage main underneath has burst. Nandana doesn’t know where her kitten is.