Cityscapes

about it and I could have if I wanted to. But I never did it because I worried what the family would do without me.”

She said they had her feed strangers who came to the house asking for food, even as she went hungry herself. She said her madamji, who she helped to raise, accused her of stealing from the family, and added contacts to her phone to accuse her of making international calls.

I asked if she had tried seeking help at the airport.

American naiveté on my part. Airport security threatened to send her to jail if she didn’t board the flight.

I believed what I was hearing, but I couldn’t believe it was happening in the seat next to mine. I didn’t know what to say. She was a woman without rights. As I held my iPod in one hand and Kindle in another, I told her what had happened was terrible and unfair. Did she think I was a liar? Because I felt like one.

Then I did something I hadn’t done in years: I stopped being an atheist. I told her god would look after her and would punish the family because cosmically, or whatever, there was simply no justice in what had happened. I didn’t really believe the god part but I did believe something good had to happen to her soon and maybe ever hoped for a second that there was a god who could help her. That

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