The Black Australian- Chapter 20

Maya (part 4)

by Sunil Govinnage

Siri felt as if he was in a hot country despite the cold breeze coming from the Swan River through the Esplanade. He felt as if he was a bird who lost its way home due to an unexpected darkness descended upon in an unknown country. Siri drifted without knowing his destination and walked through the Esplanade towards the Barrack Street Jetty and then towards the causeway. There was a ferry finding its way to South Perth and Siri thought it would be the last one for the day.

He looked at the housing towers across the river and tried to track down the one Maya was living without even knowing the direction or name of the street where she lived.

He walked towards the causeway without having any specific destination in mind towards the end of the road where Victoria Avenue met the River Side Drive and sat on a bench on the foreshore.

In front of the T-Junction where the roads met, there were two recently planted palm trees. The wind pushed the water hither and thither sometimes making waves towards his way and again in the opposite direction without any predictable rhythm.

The Swan River flowed calmly and slowly into the mute Indian Ocean.

He looked over the water which separated the South and North of the Perth City which would have flowed for thousands and thousands of years even before any civilisation emerged. When the late breeze began to flow eastwards, he saw the movements of two palm trees shivering their branches in one direction but they were separated by a couple of meters between each.

The dark sky housed only a few shiny stars. Siri walked back to his office on St. George's Terrace to pick up his car to go back to home in the north of the river. He unconsciously started humming a poem he wrote for Anula while studying at the Peradeniya University:

Oba etha ahas gaba - randunu walawaki sandawe pawa ea

Ma gamburu saura matha - werala ima wetha adena bindunu rala pelaki

Ma-kee yana sandawe!

You are a still cloud emerging from the depth

of the evening.

I, who born from the ocean try to reach the shore,

but fall back; a mere broken wave

in the faded evening!

Siri was happy but at the same time felt sad. He went home and looked for his tape library for Ravi Shankar's sitar music but decided to listen to Amaradeva's songs instead.

After two weeks, Siri invited Maya for dinner at his place. Her immediate reaction was unanticipated: "It is my turn this time!" She demanded.

"Well that's fine. But I'm making some special dishes at my place this Saturday. You can bring a friend, if you want." Siri said politely.

"Now, I don't have a special friend whom I can take to a friendly colleagues' house," Maya laughed coquettishly.

"I like hot stuff! You must cook a very hot curry for me, Siri, Can you make one, please?"

Siri made a fish curry and added few spoons of Sri Lankan chutney he bought from an Asian gourmet shop in Victoria Park.

It was a kind of a gloomy Saturday evening. The sky carried a faded red tint colours covering the blue sky painted above the Swan River during the day. After he prepared the meal, Siri sipped a cold beer watching his time. When Siri saw Maya's car turning into his house complex into the hills off Mounts Bay Road, he rushed to the ground floor to greet her.

"Great aroma, Siri," Mays said as she entered. Here is my contribution, red wine from Margaret River."

"Let's open it as red wine goes well with my fish curry and pappadams."

He saw the last rays of the twilight. The cold breeze was circulating outside. The air-conditioned lounge maintained an artificial atmosphere inside.

"How did you make these pappadams? They are so tasty. Just like the ones I used to eat in India. Even better than the ones we had some weeks ago at that Indian place."

"What's this exotic dish?"

"This's Sri Lankan brinjal chutney. I bought it from a place in Victoria Park. You can buy almost anything made in Sri Lanka in Perth now. That includes Sri Lankan brides!"

When Maya served a large portion, Siri responded: "You can have as much as you like, but I must warn you, it's very hot!"

"Well here's more wine. I'm going to wash your curry with my wine. We don't work tomorrow, do you?"

Siri saw tears shedding from Maya's eyes few seconds after she had her second serve of Sri Lankan chutney.

Maya drank half a glass of red wine at once and helped with Siri to fill his empty glass.

When they finished the dinner, it was almost past ten thirty. Siri saw Maya yawning when he put the kettle on. Her usually radiant eyes were red. Siri was unsure whether it was due to her long drive from the Perth Hills to his place or due to drinking too much red wine.

"I don't usually drink more than one glass of wine. But I had three, maybe four glasses tonight. That's because I had to neutralise your native chutney. I can't move my limbs. I'm sleepy. Siri, do you think that I could stay here tonight?"

Siri, didn't respond instantly.

"Is it against your Sri Lankan traditions?" Maya laughed rudely.

"It's fine, provided you sleep on the couch! No, I was joking. You can have my bed and I'll sleep on the couch. But I don't have any clothes for you to change into though!"

"Give me one of your pyjama tops. That would do for me!"

Siri could not go to sleep straight away. After a long struggle to close his eyes for over an hour, he got up and walked slowly and put the kettle on to make camomile tea. He saw the lights emerging in his room.

"Maya, are you okay?" Siri quietly tapped on the door.

"I can't sleep Siri. I heard you walking and the whistle of the kettle. Are you going to make tea? I'll come and join you," Maya talked from his bedroom.

They drank tea silently.

"Do you want to come and sleep in your bed as you can't sleep in that couch? It's not very comfy, isn't it? Well, you have a king's size bed! There's still space for another body!"

When she saw Siri blushing, Maya said: "I'm not going to eat you!" and smiled. She entered the room before him and stretched herself in the bed before he arrived.

Siri slowly closed the door behind them. As he stretched his body next to her, he felt Maya's hand searching for him in the darkness.

Siri held her hand tightly. He felt her hands warm and quivering.

Siri was not sure whether it was another beginning of an illusory journey into another heart and soul. Then he realised that the end is far away and hiding in a far corner painted with unknown colours in an unknown path in future.

The present is the only reality.

END

(This is the end of the shorter chronicle of Sripala Wickramasinghe's journeys compiled by Sri Lankan born Sunil Govinnage now living outside Sri Lankan shores.)

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Disclaimer: The Black Australian novel is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.