* * * * *
That night, as my attendants were preparing me for sleep, I asked my senior handmaiden, who was brushing my hair, what the people were saying about me. ‘The king has decreed that you and the great white bull are not to be spoken of under penalty of harsh punishment, and though they make sure not to speak of you when the King can hear, it is hard for people to stop talking altogether, one woman has already been banished from the island.’
‘Do you think my love for my bull is wrong?’ I asked. Bhabhi I wanted to take my bull down to the sea to wash and groom him as his dazzling white hide had become marked with dirt from his nights lying in the field. I kissed his head and his nose and his mouth and he licked my face.
