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and vehicles. As the sun grew hotter, steam rose, obscuring the trees.
    Stacks of roof tiles were laid out like packs of cards along the planks of the scaffolding. The first job of the morning had been to unload them from Pradesh’s lorry. The hot sun had already dried out the timber roof-frame, so they were able to get on with nailing the tiles into position. This was the last stage that they had to complete before the rains started in earnest. Radha and her friends were hard at work too, fetching supplies. Soon the air was full of the rhythmic sound of hammering.
    Below them, the day unfolded. People went out into the fields and hitched cattle to ploughs. The hairdresser arrived in a smoky diesel van and set up his chair next to the standpipe. Soon he had a queue of customers. A large grey cow wandered loose along the street, snuffling the ground for food. A thin figure in rags the colour of the mud moved around the hairdresser, picking up rubbish swept in when the ground turned into a lake. The people in the queue chatted to each other but never acknowledged him. It was as though they couldn’t see him. Paulo had read about the untouchables – people in the lowest class of the caste system who did the dirty jobs such as cleaning and rubbish disposal and lived in their own part of the village. He was amazed that such otherwise friendly people could ignore the man.
    Alex had a view over the other side of the village. For a few minutes now he had been watching someone in the distance, coming towards them. The figure walked slowly, as though it carried a great burden of troubles. Now he looked up again. Recognition hit. He sat bolt upright on top of the roof ridge.
    ‘That’s Mootama!’
    Everyone looked round, then at the figure who laboured slowly through the slippery mud, her skirts splattered. She looked as though she had been walking for a long time.
    Radha stood up on the scaffold and let out a piercing whistle across the fields. ‘Dad! Mum’s back!’ She gathered her skirts, clambered carefully down onto the sloppy ground and splashed towards the bedraggled figure.
    Amber was sitting next to Hex. ‘She’s back already? I thought she’d be gone for days.’
    ‘She should be,’ said Hex. ‘And she would hardly be walking. Maybe something went wrong.’
    They watched in silence as Radha greeted her mother, linked her arm through Mootama’s and led her towards the house.
    Li needed a bigger hammer. She could see it on the ground, about four metres down. The ladder, though, was over at the other end of the building. Li decided to take the quick way down. She leaned forwards, tucked her knees into her chest, somersaulted off the rafter and landed lightly on her feet on the ground.
    ‘Wow!’ said a voice. ‘Can you teach me to do that?’
    Li whirled round. ‘Bina! What are you doing here?’
    ‘I’ve been demoted. I’m no longer mother, just plain old Bina. Is there anything I can do?’
    ‘Yeah,’ said Li. ‘Come and help us at the north end – it’s the last bit that needs tiling.’ She steered Bina towards the ladder. ‘Er – we’ll take the normal way up.’
    They climbed to the north end of the roof. Paulo and Amber were working there now, fixing the ridge tiles.
    ‘How’s your mum?’ said Amber. ‘We saw her coming back.’
    Bina picked up an armful of tiles. ‘She’s OK. They sent her home. She only had one kidney anyway.’
    Paulo stopped hammering. ‘She only had one kidney?’
    ‘The other one was stolen.’
    Her words stopped all activity: Paulo and Amber, their hammers poised to strike; Alex, bringing more nails; Li, making her way along the ridge; even Hex at the far side, collecting more tiles.
    ‘Someone stole her kidney?’ said Alex.
    Bina nodded slowly. ‘Years ago, she was ill. She had bad stomach pains and went to hospital. I was small at the time, but I remember she was in a lot of pain, before and after. There was this clinic funded by a charity, so we didn’t