The Girl in the Gym

Anti-Princess

Slowly and steadily, Inaya started learning tricks of the trade. She became adept at reading people, and figure out who'd buy from her and who wouldn't. There were other children too, at the house, but nobody spoke to each other like it was some unwritten rule. Like her, they were just grateful to have a roof over their heads and means to feed themselves. When she became a little more confident, she would go outside her specified areas to sell newspapers. She would go to the railway station and sell newspapers on trains all day. She loved riding on the trains, feeling the speed underneath her and the sound that drowned out her thoughts. Sometimes, she would be lucky if a passenger gave her some leftover food, and she'd have extra money that day. The one problem she had was storing the extra cash she made. She had no intention of giving the vendor one rupee more than his cut. One day, when she was the only one in the house and Meera was dozing in her room, she went to the kitchen and pried off a smoke-blackened brick behind the table. It was never moved and with any luck, her stash would lie there undiscovered until she needed it. Three years passed that way, she grew taller and scrawnier. All her childhood stories and memories were forgotten, overlapped by her tribulations. Her days were filled with mucky streets and the struggle to make just enough money to survive. She was deathly scared of being told to leave the house. And since there were no adults here, she figured that that day would come most definitely. And she needed a plan for when that day came. One day, she had a brainstorm. So far she had been mostly playing by the rules. But no one said that I can't sell anything other than newspapers, she thought. Almost bursting with delight, she took out a bit of money from her hiding place and bought a few toys. She sold it all on the first day itself. The next week she bought balloons as well, and deliberately stood near families with kids.