The horoscope and a Leo girl

by Anil Pagoda Arachchi

Thushani slumped onto the chair with her horoscope in her right hand and ran her eyes through the vertical bars of the window on the gray clouds gathering over the eastern sky. The clouds rolled swiftly smothering the remaining azure patches plunging the empty space into a dull gloomy bleak atmosphere.

Though in her early forties, Thushani exudes an innocent charm and grace that can allure any male at first sight if he happens to see her. Her smile sends streaks of magnetic trances. One will definitely be envious thinking that she belongs to someone else. Yet, it is hard to believe that she is still single.

When she is free, she confines herself to the mini library of the school engrossed in her work. Her two sisters and brother have long been married with their own school going children. Her father died when she was in Grade eight.

Successful

She took the responsibility of looking after her two sisters and brother. With all the suffering she was successful at the university entrance examination and she was overjoyed when she got her teaching appointment not because of her own future but because of her ability to look after the family. She spent her whole salary to educate her sisters and brother who today hold important positions in the government sector.

Leaning backwards on her chair she unrolled the horoscope and kept gazing at her lagna, Leo. All of a sudden, the assertive words of her astrologer flashed on to her mind.

"Leo is not a good zodiac sign for a woman. In fact, it's a male zodiac sign. A Leo girl will never make a good wife for her husband, because she has prominent manly qualities not suitable for a woman. You see, in the seventh house is the Saturn. It shows you will never be able to lead a good married life. Most probably, you will divorce your husband if you ever get married or your husband will die soon because of the ill effects of your lagna."

Unfortunate

"I'm the most unfortunate girl on this earth. Why does it happen only to me? It is because of the sins I did in my previous births that I was born into this lagna, and that I have been suffering throughout my life.", she told her friends.

It is not that Thushani did not want to find her life partner.

But something that is buried deep within her thwarted her hopes of everything in her life. When she was beholding the seventh house, Amil's face with beseeching eyes appeared within it. She still vividly remembers the last encounter with him.

"Thushani, I've got to tell you something special.

"Something special? Is it about a student of yours?"

"Will you promise me that you won't be angry with me when you come to know what it is?

"Why should I blame you? Go on, Amil. She answered bewildered.

"I don't know how to put my feelings for you into words, Thushani. Yes, it has so happened. Is it ok if I have hopes about you?"

Cheeks

Thushani withdrew to herself. She seemed to become pale in no time. Her eyes were diagonally focusing on something on the ground, a few feet away from her. Several tear drops rolled down her cheeks.

"How can I give you hope, Amil? How can I knowingly spoil your beautiful life? You have got a wonderful life ahead. According to my horoscope, my husband will die soon if I ever get married. I don't want to see you die because of me. Please forgive me."

Thushani folded the horoscope and kept it on the stool beside her. When she took her eyes from it, they stopped on the photograph of her brother kept on the cabinet. Suddenly her mind ran to the incident where he slipped off the roof of the house she was building.

"Akke, won't I be able to walk again?" his words pierced her heart. She felt a chill running through her body.

"Don't speak like that Malli. I'll have you walking before long as you did before".

When Thushani decided to build her own house with a housing loan from a bank, she felt shades of uncertainty whether the effects of her horoscope might be in her way.

"All this happened because of me Malli. It's because of my wretchedness that you got injured. I wouldn't have asked you to climb onto the roof. The other day Chameda spoke to Thushani.

" Thushani, it seems you're facing a grim time. Every day you are troubled by some problem or the other. Better get your horoscope read and do something. Why does it happen only to you?"

Wretchedness

"Yes Chameda. What you say is correct. I've been born to this world to suffer. I've got to suffer. And I will suffer till I get rid of all the sins I've done in my previous births. Then, at least I'll be at peace in my next births.'

The sun has disappeared behind dark clouds. And not even a single silver line was to be seen. A wind came from nowhere and rustled through the trees she could see beyond. Thushani opened her horoscope again, perused the planets situated in all the twelve houses. In her mind, Saturn appeared to be the biggest and the most dangerous planet in the solar system.

"What should I tell Banaki this time? If I say yes to the proposal she brought last week, it may be a very sinful act of ending one's life. Then, I'll be gathering more and more sins. My life in the Sansara will be longer. No, I will tell Banaki I don't like this proposal as well", she pondered.

Tears began to flow from her eyes again. One or two drops fell on to the seventh house of her horoscope.

The sky became gloomier. Big drops of rain started to fall and the strong wind threw tiny raindrops into her room. She closed the window and looked up. A small creature was caught in a cobweb and a gray spider was approaching its prey.