A girl with three men

Continued from last week

by Somasiri Atanayake

The narrator's eyes were constantly on the face of Mallika; he enjoyed watching her facial expressions as the yarn unfolded gradually. All went into fits of laughter when the story reached its climax. Mallika took a long time to recover from her convulsive giggle.

As time slipped by, Nimal could not resist the liking grew in his heart for Mallika. Like a seed dropped on dry soil, his desire remained impotent and inactive in a darker recess of his heart. He was not aware of his inclination that developed and grew out of his control like a fatal desease invades without the knowledge of the victim, until its symtoms threateningly appear.

Nimal made up his mind to tell her that he was interested in her. Cautiously for a good opportunity.

Picnic

One day, jokingly, Mallika suggested that the should pay a visit to Perera's. Though the idea was brought as a joke, everybody jumped at the suggestion. They fixed a date.

Mallika, Newton and Nimal arrived at Perera's place on a bright Sunday morning and all were exited and gay as a group of children who are on a picnic. The residence of Perera was an olde-world, sprawling house with a jutting out portico, surrounded by a coconut estate.

All the guests were invited into the house by a charming old lady who had grown old gracefully and dresses immaculately in a Kandyan saree. The visitors took seats in the drawing room.

Perera's wife emerged from an inner room and faced the guests nervously. She was short, fat and had a shapeless figure on which mounted her comparatively small head with a cherubic face. Her face assumed a childlike look when she smiled and her eyes sank deeper in the sockets almost disappeared as her plump cheeks swelled out. She wore her scanty growth of hair in a thin short plait which looked just like a pig's tail. The poor woman had tried to camouflage her berrellike form in a bright coloured saree and a jacket, but failed miserably in her attempt. All the eyes focussed on her for a few moments.

Perera introduced each visitor to his mother-in-law and wife and and left them with the old lady who started chatting with them in very cordial way. She was spruce in all respects; she spoke in a domineering voice with full of self-confidence.

Lumbered

Everybody listened to her with rapt attention. The listeners were enraptured by the speaker's glib talk and her clear singing voice.

On certain occasions, she raised her voice, again lowered it to a whisper; when the conversation turned serious her face became grave; when the listeners laughed she also laughed displaying histrionic gestures like a young girl. After tea, Mallika, Nimal and Perera were looking at the photographs in the host's wedding album when suddenly Newton barged in.

He lumbered across the spacious room and stopped in the middle. The fellow was fully drunk. It was evident that the culprit had discovered and consumed a large amount of liquor on the sly, from the small stock the host had been keeping in the house to serve the male visitors. Newton sweated profusely and the shirt struck to his burly torso.

For a long time, he continued to look at others as if he were seeing them for the first time. With a thick beard grown all over the face, strands of hair fallen across the forehead and hairy stubby limbs, the swarthy roly-poly fellow looked more like a wild beast than a man.

All at once, he laughed as though he had gone mad and he broke into a bawdy, vulgar song. He ended the last line with a long shriek and burlesqued the gait of the fair sex in an exaggerated way, throwing back his bulky rumps and swirling the hips in semi-circular movements.

"Darling.... my honeysuckles...."

With outstretched hands, he tried to embrace Mallika who was watching him with suppressed feelings and embarrassment.Before his menacing hands grabbed her, she foiled his attempt by creeping under the drunk's arms and running away, screaming. Newton also ran after her; knocked against the dressing table that stood in a corner of the room.

All the knick-knacks on the table-top rattled; a tall china vaze tottered along the edge of its and fell on to the floor with a lound crash. It broke into small pieces that scattered all over the floor. The noise brought all into the room. Before his mother-in-law, Perera behaved like a small child who expects punishment after being naughty. Newton too became somewhat sober.

The old lady ordered the servant girl to remove the broken china and sweep the floor. Perera was relieved and happy because his mother-in-law treated his friend's mischief leniently. Newton almost collapsed into a chair; within a few minutes he fell into sleep and started snoring loudly. "Let him sleep, he will be alright when he wakes up," the old lady said sympathetically. Perera unbuttoned the sleeping man's shirt.

Mood

By the time the others finished lunch, Newton was still asleep. Mallika wanted to leave the place while Newton slept. She thought he would repeat his tomfooleries if they went together. The old lady also agreed. Perera promised to take the drunk to the station in his car when he would become fully sober. The railway carriage Mallika and Nimal travelled in, was not crowded as it was a Sunday.

They sat in the corner of a compartment opposite each other. Both were in good mood. The flame of conversation was constantly kept ablaze by both parties. They talked, laughed and looked at each other while the train lumbered on.

Abruptly, the train stopped before reaching a station a station as the line was not clear. For a long time, the train remained stationery. Mallika kept on looking out of the open window. Nimal's gaze naturally turned onto Mallika whose translucent, pale pink saree with a hazy linear design, closely embraced her sylph-like figure. She really looked graceful with her luxuriant growth of short, raven hair falling onto her shoulders where the tufts went into thick coils.

His gaze lingered on her neck, slender, shapely hands with tapering fingers whose delicate tips adorned with shiny nails. He looked her full in the face. Their eyes met. Her face bloomed into a charming smile. It was the most fascinating smile he had ever beheld."What a lovely view you get from the window; I can go on looking for hours and hours."She broke the sweet dreamy silence. Nimal too looked out of the window.

Both looked at each other again. Nimal could not resist his feelings any longer; his emotions got the better of him. At last he declared his love for her. Her features relaxed into an impassive smile.

Concluded