Breaking the Bow: Speculative Fiction Inspired by the Ramayana Read Online Free PDF

the kidney. You don’t even have to get surgery.”
    “I could get surgery across theborder in Arizona.”
    “Ma, are you kidding? Do you know what they do to Indians over there? I’m going to take care of it,” I said, looking at my wrist browser for the next shuttle to the entertainment sector.
    “With your call center job?” She fixed her eyes on the machine.
    “I’m late,” I said, kissing her on her sagging cheek before leaving.
    The costuming room is overly bright, everyone’sLED mirrors turned to high. I rush into my area and quickly peel off my UV suit. I have a feeling that Val and Anita are going to show up and I want to be well into my skin-lightening process by then. The place is already toxic with the epoxy Monroe uses to put on the layer of hair for his Hanuman suit.
    “Monroe! How many times do I have to tell you to use the fan or go do that somewhere else?”I yell over to him.
    “Damn girl, you getting any sleep?” He says, looking over at me over the aerosol brush he uses to spray another layer of body glue across his large hairless chest. Samoans always play Hanuman because of their size and hairlessness. They also have the best REM reducers, which I need to keep up my pace of work. I sink into my makeup chair and think back to Val’s hand strokingAnita’s face.
    “Everything okay?” Tania emerges from the bathroom with her Golden Deer suit on. It’s not lit up and glowing, like it will be under the black lights, but she still looks beautiful. The lastGolden Deer, Maria, looked like she was wearing one of those fat melting suits the rich kids in Mum-bai wear when she wasn’t on the floor, but Tania is different.
    “Lot going on,” I mumble.Tania makes me nervous, with her shiny dark skin and hazel eyes. She’s new here and I feel like it’s a cliche that I have a crush that’s so debilitating, since her job is to be slightly out of reach. Even the Lust Dust baggies I see on the floor at the end of the night come with Golden Deers printed on them.
    “Can you help me with something?” Tania asks and I come over to her table. She saysshe can’t figure out how to get the right color out of the eye makeup console. I give her some basic options: black, blue, brown.
    “But I think this color would really work for you,” I say and type in a code that produces a gold tinged green. “It’ll bring out your eyes.”
    Tania smiles at me in the mirror. “Thanks,” she says and I feel my cheeks get hot. When I am back at my station, undressingto go into the skin lightening chamber, she turns my way.
    “You really Indian?” she says softly. I clench my jaw. It’s always the nice ones that will give it to you the worst.
    “So?”
    “Oh no,” Tania says. “I mean, I didn’t mean anything. I just … was curious.” I keep my scowl on, but her big hazel eyes appear concerned and I wonder if she’s, maybe, telling the truth.
    “What’s your background?”I ask, still cautious.
    “I don’t know, some mix, like everybody else. Supposedly, I had great-grandparents that came from Brazil before the fires started burning down there. But I think mostly I’m Mexican,” she shrugs. “That’s why it’s cool, you know what you are.”
    Part of me wants to tell her everything that’s going on with me. She has that look. Her neck is impossibly long and fragile.Her lips are lush and she has slightly crooked teeth—the kindthat don’t need a trip to the unlicensed dentists across the border to fix. I mean sure, I want to kiss her, but I kind of just want to talk to her. I want to tell her that without better dialysis, my mom’s not going to last two years. I want to tell her how in India, the health care system would mean we wouldn’t have to pay for dialysisor even wait for the implant. I want to tell her how I have it figured out, that already recruiters have been approaching me to work on the space stations, not just the moon—but the Mars satellites and further. It’s totally