the adventuress

From the way she walked and talked,
Boldly and frankly,
I could tell that she was no docile woman,
Then she told me that she was an agent,
a contractor who gathered up laborers to go work,
and it might be anywhere in India or Nepal.
One time we went to Laddakh and Karkil, she said.
Kargil? I said
Yes, karkil, where there was a war going on. 
We were asked to work only in the dead of the night. We would take sacks and sacks of stuff up there
no light to guide us by
we would dump them up there
what did they contain?
oh, vegetables, fruits, rice, all sorts of supplies
because the Indian soldiers were up there
and had no other way of eating
We would walk uphill for half an hill
throw the sack of rice down
and immediately get a thousand rupees
it was on china border, that's why we got such good money, she said
we earned so much and it was so great!
the contractor had told us,
don't smoke, don't light a beedi, and don't switch on a torch
of course we obeyed, because we did not want to lose the money
there was a guy from jajarkot,
we told him so many times not to do so
but then four of us women went ahead of him
and he fell behind,
when we looked back, he wasn't there
he struck a match to light a beedi
and a bullet hit him straight in the chest
we saw him the next morning
the man down on the road
bullet in chest, and beedi and lighter in hand