Short Story: The Laughing Buddha’s Bait

Sara Batool’s short story explores the constantly shifting, unstable nature of opportunities aimed towards uplifting the lower- middle class.

Though he had not previously tried to contact her in any way, the cyber cafe owner’s text to Sadia reminded her of the way traffic crept upon you in a big city, wave after wave of cars, trucks and bikes erupting into horns as people made their way through them. You could not escape the noise. But the cyber cafe was cramped, dimly lit and tucked away from the chaos of the main road, and Sadia had found its smallness and invisibility comforting amidst the consequential printing shops with large signs in neon colours emblazoned across them. She was too practical to trade familiarity for expense, however, and made sure that the owner charged less for photocopies than the average printer. 

“Madam this is good opportunity. If u can find ur birth certificate and other documents.”