One of the things mother had taught me was that I shouldn’t let me face always show how I felt.
She had warned that sometimes it was wise not to let people know your true feelings.
I knew this was such a time. I kept my face blank.
“You are seeing how we make money,” Bala said. I nodded.
“I am seeing.” “Do you think it’s bad?” “Bad?” I said evasively. “We are just pickpockets,” Bala said. “ we don’t use force.”
“You don’t use force?” Bala shrugged.
“Well, sometimes we use force. But we don’t kill.”
My face was blank but my heart was thumping terribly. “You don’t kill?”
“Well, sometimes we have to do what we have to do. I am a man, even though I’m only fifteen,” he said. “In this world, you have to be a man early, especially if you are an orphan.”