Short story:

Maheswaree

by Somasiri Attanayake

One fine day, early morning, two youth arrived at a small town about 30 miles away from their hometown, in search of a domestic aid. Their destination was a remote village in the very interior of the area, another ten miles off the sleepy little town, which distance they covered travelling by bus. The two friends went on foot along a cart track from the place where they got off the bus.

After a stretch of two miles, the gravel road gradually narrowed into a footpath with overgrown hedges on either side. The two hedge rows arched towards each other to merge overhead and looked like a long arcade of greenery. The shady footpath led them to a large coconut estate where stood a cadjan-thatched hovel surrounded by leafy jak trees and luxuriently grown banana groves.

A dog resisted the strangers' sudden approach by barking aggressively in a threatening way. The noisy commotion brought out a middle-aged, scantilly dressed man out of the daub-and-wattle shack. He immediately recognised the two young men and his unshaven face wrinkled into a wide smile revealing his betel-stained irregular teeth, some of which were missing in the lower jaw.

"I did not expect you so early."

He said while chasing away the belligerent dog that kept on growling and sniffing the intruders suspiciously. They sat on a huge log that lay in the compound as they were tired after the long journey.

"Now we'll got and meet the girl's father. I have not spoken to him yet about this matter."

Father

He uttered these words as he offered them two tender coconuts for them to drink, which they accepted with alacrity because they were exhausted and thirsty. When they finished drinking, the watcher made off with them to meet the girl's father. After scouring the whole village, they ultimately found him at a threshing floor where he was helping a farmer in threshing paddy as it was the harvesting season in the area.

"Doraisamy, we want to speak to you."

The guide shouted to the girl's father, standing on the road. A dark-skinned, thick-set man with greying hair came upto them and looked at them with surprise and inquisitiveness clearly marked on his face. He was sweating with bits of straw sticking to his bare upper part of the body.

He carried a wooden pitch fork in his hand with which he had been stirring and tossing straw into the air and catching it again on the forked end of the stick and shaking vigorously before thowing away the wisps of straw denuded of grain while the buffaloes with their great, curved horns and cumbersome heads trampled the pale yellow paddy, spread on the floor by lethargically walking interminably over it in a circular course.

Two or three boys beat the animals with long, thin sticks and every now and then made a loud and raucus noise to goad them.

The watcher asked Doraisami whether he liked to send out one of his daughters as a domestic aid on a reasonable monthly pay. Without much ado, he agreed and asked for a piece of paper. One of the youth searched in his pockets and took out a used bus ticket. With the ball-point-pen offered to him, he scribbled two or three words in Tamil on the reverse of the bus ticket and gave it back to the helper and requested him to hand it over to his daughters who were at home.

Cottage

He took them to another haphazardly built cottage which was a little better than the other one. It was also on a very large coconut plantation and Doraisamy looked after it. By the time they reached the place, a roly-poly and very dark girl, around 20 years with her tangled hair falling over her back and both sides of her face, wearing a ragged frock, torn here and there, was sweeping the compound with a ricketeyekel broom.

The tiny piece of paper was delivered to her and after looking at it, she went into the cottage without even uttering a word. The trio waited standing in the compound; while waiting, they heard the voices of two females discussing something in undertones in the hut. After about ten minutes, the girl who was sweeping the compound emerged with another girl who looked younger and thinner than the former.

It was obvious that the lean girl was ready to go with them as she was wearing a somewhat clean short gown stitched from cheap printed material and two rubber slippers on her feet were in a crumpled brown paper bag, held in her hand. Her hair was arranged in a ponytail, tied at the base of her neck with a cloth ribbon.

Mission

"Our father has asked her to go with you".

The elder girl said nonchalantly. At this stage, having accomplished his mission, the supporter left them. From the village to the townlet, they travelled by bus.

The girl meekly and silently followed them who totally ignored her as if she were an animal at their heels. Not a single word was exchanged between the lass and the young men. Since they were hungry, thirsty and tired travelling and walking all the morning, they went into a small restaurant in the town.

Newton, the young man who was taking the girl as the domestic to help his mother in the day-to-day chores in the kitchen, put a question to the girl while all of them were having buns and ripe bananas at the bistro. She stopped eating like a frightened animal and looked at them and muttered something sheepishly which they could not hear clearly.

"What?"

"Maheswaree"

At her second attempt, she was scarcely audible. Both Newton and his friend repeated her name in a sardonic tone of voice.

"Maheswaree... Maheswaree!"

They took the girl home and presented her to Newton's mother and sister who praised his friend lavishly for finding a domestic aid for them. The mother and daughter spoke to the girl very cordially although she was not at all fluent in Sinhala. She could understand Sinhala with much difficult but she was unable to express herself adequately; however, she managed to speak broken Sinhala haltingly.

Vitality

At the end of a trial period of about six months the whole household was highly pleased with Maheswaree for she was full of vitality and vigour; always busy and doing something useful such as sweeping the floor, dusting the furniture, washing the crockery or soiled linen without showing any displeasure or resentment. She never repeated a mistake after it was pointed out to her by others. Never did she tell lies to deceive others.

Maheswaree picked up the language rapidly as circumstances forced her to do so. By sheer practice, she acquired the ability to express herself and grasp what was spoken by others. All in all, Maheswaree absorbed a lot from the environment as a blotting paper absorbs ink.

On the other hand, she was happy and contented in harmony with her very simple philosophy of life. Maheswaree had no high ambitions in life to achieve, no wild dreams to realise devoting her life-time! The innocent and humble girl was not at all caught in the rat race of the modern commercialised society.

Maheswaree hoped in two or three years' time, her father would find a suitable partner for her to marry and settle down.

To get married to a good man was her only dream in life and she looked forward to the day when her dream would come true; she knew that it would not materialise very soon. Anyway, she was not in a hurry because she was still very young.

Within two years, Maheswaree gained a lot in her physical charms. Possessed with a symmetrically formed figure, glossy black hair braided into a thick plait and dimpled chin coupled with clear-cut features, she looked personable in her own unsophisticated nature.

Nevertheless, Maheswaree's dusky complexion somewhat conclealed and toned down her attractiveness. By this time, she was very fluent in Sinhala so much so that she did not show the slighest flaw when she spoke. Maheswaree's character just appeared nothing more than a mixture of innocence, simplicity and submissiveness.

For a long time, it had been the practice of Newton's mother to observe Ata Sil on every poya day and stay at the temple whole day. On this particular day also she went to the temple early in the morning and she told Maheswaree before leaving home to prepare lunch for Newton's younger sister as well since she was returning from her elder sister's place where she had been staying for few days as the elder sister was in the family way.

Newton's younger sister did not return home as expected. Maheswaree thought that she would come in the evening and so many times she went out and waited on the road for her young mistress but all her waiting was in vain.

She hurriedly cooked the evening meal and found it was getting dark. Maheswaree thought that Punchi Nona must have forgotten that it was a Poya day and her mother was spending the whole night at the temple. The circumstances forced her to spend the night with a young man without anybody in the lonely house.

A pinching uneasiness slowly crept into her and possessed her completely like an evil spirit. She sat in the kitchen doorway on her haunches stretching out her legs and looking blank into the distance. The sickly feeling stole her energy and peace of mind little by little.

Foliage

The giant kapok tree behind the firewood shed with its branches and twigs stipped bare of the foliage by the drought, towered into the sky. In Maheswaree's eyes, the naked tree had assumed a ghostly and repulsive appearance.

After supper, Newton retired to bed earlier than usual. Maheswaree and Newton's sister normally slept in one room.

The girl wanted to lock the door from inside and sleep. To her surprise and horror, she found that the key was missing and she inquired about it from the young master who said flatly that he did not see it.

Although she had been lying in bed for a very long time, she did not fall a sleep for her mind was in a turmoil and an unsettled state; the land of Nod was far far away from her. She recollected an incident that took place in the evening.

Her young master entered the kitchen to light a cigarette when Maheswaree was there and he swiftly bent down and squeezed her bottom and went out without looking back. Never had he done such a mischief to her.

A dog howled in the distance; it was a long-drawn bay that lingered ominously and broke the quiet of the grim night. Maheswaree shuddered and closed her eyes tightly, Presently, a bullock cart lumbered up the road.

The wooden wheels of the cart gave a sharp clatter when the carriage moved from side to side on the unmacadamised, bumpy road. The girl listened to the disturbing noise that decreased by slow degrees as the cart moved more and more away and till the rattle completely out of earshot.

The other occupant of the house was also not asleep and his desire for the young girl battled against his conscience. Newton chainsmoked to calm himself and he recalled how the girl's father readily agreed to send her with strangers when Rs. 200 was were slipped into his hand as a strumpet gives herself even to an utter stranger when money is offered to her, disregarding the risks involved.

"These people are like animals, worse than animals. These things are nothing for them; like a damn fool I'm still hesitating..." The young fellow who had gone mad with carnal appetites argued with himself. Lust and did not allow him to relax and fall a sleep.

The irresistible craving dragged him out of the bed. The strong fumes of the fags pervaded and penetrated the girl's room reminding her the other occupant staying awake which made her very uneasy.

After a few tense moments, Maheswaree clearly heard the sound of footsteps approaching her room.

Her heart began to beat violently. The door made a feeble creaking noise when the trespasser pushed open it stealthily. With lightning swiftness, Maheswaree picked up the kitched chopper which she had kept in readiness before hand under her bed.

An electric torch was flashed and the girl was caught in the bright light with dishevelled hair, some tufts falling over the face and the eyes sparkling fury, her hands holding the big knife aloft, over the head, ready to attack the would-be-rapist. Maheswaree breathed heavily and fast through her dilated nostrils.

"Don't get closer... I will kill you.. cut you into pieces." Her voice trembled with indignation and rage. The girl's savage look revealed more than her words which made the trespasser's blood freeze.

He dropped the missing key on to the floor and retreated out of the room, defeated and cretfallen.

The names are fictitious.