“To the small eyes, it’s but seldom seen.
To the innocent mind and small heart, it’s hard to ween.
Inside it resides and inside it waits,
For the years to work on the strings it should play.
It can’t be concealed forever,
And it comes out in one way or the other.
Sometimes, things can’t wait,
Being a part of His grand master plan.
And tragic it might be, but
Often it chooses to shoot out as a plaintive twig
- Love.”
CHAPTER ONE:
“Moma, she is not getting up from bed”, Elsa yelled at the top of her voice after wearing down her hands on her desperate attempts to wake up her 4 year old sister, Catherine, from bed.
Under the thick woolen blanket, Catherine’s eyes were wide open even as she purposefully stretched and yawned, in a sluggish manner, to win her scene. She had wrapped herself tightly with the blanket, tucking the loose ends of the same to her body parts touching the bed. This was done in order to ward herself off from her sister’s scathing ground attacks. There was no way whatsoever for Elsa, her 13 year old elder sister, to find a route to her bare skin, she knew. Catherine’s Christmas holidays had started, and for that reason she had all the time in the world to stay put in bed and wait until the rays from the sun rose high on her windows. She always loved to see the thin ray of light entering her room and spreading on her forehead softly, as if it was afraid that a full scale entry from its side would ruin her mood - Nature was her best friend. And thereafter, like having received a message from the sun, her mother would enter the room and plant a kiss on the same forehead where sun light had already left its mark. This was how she woke up on holidays, feeling fresh, ready for adventures.
Elsa, on the other hand was running out of time to catch her school bus as her attempts to wake up her sister were not seemingly helpful at all. And adding to the misery, like a final call for surrender, her mother Sara’s shout echoed from the kitchen, “So what Elsa? Let her sleep. What is bothering you so much? I wake her up every day and haven’t forgotten that today. I have kept your lunch box by the dining table. Take it and leave Elsa, before you get late for the bus” Elsa grinded her teeth and decided to resort to her final plan. She was not going to give up that easily.
There was silence in the room and Catherine was not sure if Elsa had gone from her bedside. ‘Have I won?’ she asked herself in her mind. She slowly twisted her legs a bit, loosening her grip on the blanket, to take one peek at the situation.
This was when Elsa, who was hiding by the bedside leaped on to the bed and pulled the blanket from her little sister’s body. She then pinched Catherine, using all the power of her fingers, on the buttocks and ran away. Catherine screamed in pain, tears welling up in her eyes. She was furious with anger. She jumped from her bed and ran behind Elsa. She shouted, “Elsaaaa…….”
In the living room, Robin was sitting on the settee and reading the newspaper. He was shocked to see both his daughters running madly in front of him across the room. He kept the newspaper by his side and called, “Elsa, Catherine. Stop!”
Elsa stopped as if frozen by the power of Robin’s words, and Catherine bumped into her and fell down. Elsa, being cleverer of the two, was the first to respond before any questions arose from her father. “Dad, she pinched me and is not allowing me to go to school”
Robin looked at Catherine, who had her eyes fixed at Elsa, for an answer. Catherine was breathing heavily, waiting to strike upon Elsa with all the vengeance her little heart knew. She was sitting on the floor, silent and still, only for the fear she had for Robin. But the urge was uncontrollable. Robin shouted at Elsa in a commanding manner, “Elsa, look at me. Is that true?” Before Elsa could say anything, Catherine started crying and said, “Dad, she is doing this to me every day” Before Elsa had her chance to understand the seriousness and anger in her dad’s face; as she hadn’t looked at Robin at all till then; Catherine’s words magnified and passed through her ears, like the blow of a trumpet, and she lost her control. There was a cup of tea placed at a table near to the settee. Catherine sprang forward from her sitting posture, took the cup in her little hands and brandishing her hands, splattered the tea at her elder sister’s direction. Due to lack of power, ill will and concentration the liquid landed upon partly on Elsa’s school uniform and rest on the floor and the wall behind. This was when Robin lost his cool and brought forward his huge hands, in a thundering fashion, to Catherine’s buttocks. Catherine fell on the floor with this hit even as Elsa’s phony cries turned real for the way her neatly ironed uniform looked dirty, because of tea stains. “Dad, my uniform. She ruined it” Elsa shrieked.
This was when Sara came running into the room from the kitchen and saw her little daughter lying down on the floor, trying to get up. “Oh Jesus! What’s got into you Robin? Why do you behave like a beast to your daughter?”
“Ask her what she did and then you won’t be saying this” Robin replied, in the same serious tone.
“She tried to burn me, Mom” Elsa complained, sobbing.
“Oh, Shut up and cut the sob stuff. Will you? Little drops of semi-hot tea won’t burn you down into ashes. Go to your room, change your dress and get ready soon. Your school bus will be here any moment” Sara, with her eye - brows raised, told Elsa.
“Why do you always support her Mom?” Elsa asked, with tears dripping down her cheeks.
“Because she is just a kid and you are a big girl. You, rather than protecting and caring her, are trying to hurt and win over her always. Come back from school and I will make sure that this competition of yours ends today. Now get going” Sara said. “You look like an angel and behave like a little demon” Sara mumbled under her breath.
Elsa had gone by her mother in her looks. She was lean, tall enough for her age and had a pair of blue eyes which made her look like a little angel sent from heaven. With these attributes, Elsa was easily the prettiest girl in her class. Adding to that she also happened to be the class topper, which gave rise to tremendous amount of pride in her. Though she had gone by her mother in her looks, her character was very much similar to her tall, grumpy and ex-body builder dad. Catherine on the other hand was very unique. She was, like her father, short-tempered, and like her mother, kind and loving. She had dark eyes and thick and curly hair. She had the cheeks of the color of strawberry and a face carved into shape like that of a pumpkin. Catherine was beautiful in her own way. She was dreamy and had all the characteristics of a future rebel given her naughty acts. She would do anything possible to be done in the earth to get what she wanted. For this, her mother supported and dad fought her. Sara had her reasons for that. Sara used to dream of becoming a teacher, when she was little. But after her marriage with Robin, she had to dedicate herself completely into the living of a house-wife. It was never like she was not happy with her life. She was just not satisfied with her position. For this reason, once when Catherine had told Sara that she had dreams of becoming a school teacher one day, she became Sara’s favorite, and ever since then Sara started to see Catherine as her second chance and stood by her side for all her wishes.
Robin was facing Sara, who was tending to her daughter. “Now, you are pampering her. You are spoiling her” his voice was rising “I love her too, just like you do. But that doesn't mean I will stand by everything she does. I will not tolerate this kind of character from my daughter. She needs to know. She needs to be treated properly for that”
“The last thing I want is my daughter be treated like a slave” Sara blurted out.
It was like someone shelled Robin off guard, from the neighborhood. He was shocked at hearing this. But he decided to keep quiet, being very much aware of his wife’s arguing abilities and the way it could ruin the entire week’s food quality. “I don’t know what made you say that. But, it is wrong and I am telling you…. You will realize one day” He said at last and sat on the settee.
“No, it is not I who will realize. You. You will realize. You will regret for not having loved her enough. My Catherine is a princess. And she will excel more than Elsa. I know her. But, she needs time and space. Let her play at least now. Let us spare her from the understanding of love and life, for now”
Catherine cast a quick glance at her Mom and then at her sobbing sister who stomped her way into her room. She didn’t understand a thing of what her Mom had told in the end. And she thought, ‘I know what love is.
I love you Mom.
But I hate Elsa and Dad. But I like them, of course’
CHAPTER TWO:
December 26th, 2004:
It was a cloudy morning in Velankanni and Christmas celebrations were at its peak inside the Church compound. As it was Christmas Eve, Robin and his family had come to Velankanni to pay tribute for Elsa’s success in her 8th grade examination. They had, after attending the mass, come to the beach side to enjoy the cold breeze; the news of which was spreading inside the Church like wild fire. The combination of dark clouds and a rare cold morning breeze with a slight drizzle now and then, was spreading the aura of that of a holiday spot in Velankanni beach by the Church side. The family was having a great time out there in the beach.
After some time, Catherine, on making sure that her elder sister was busy playing with her dad in the beach - side, slowly got up and prowled away from where she and her mom were sitting together. Her mom was keenly watching Elsa and her dad play with the little waves from the sea, with a smile around the corner of her lips. Catherine, knowing that it was the right moment, slowly crawled backwards from her mother’s side and succeeded in stealing one 10 Rupee note from her Dad’s shirt pocket which lay on the sheet of cloth, on top of which she and her mother were sitting. She was not playing with Elsa and her Dad for she was grounded, for not listening to anybody and also for making a cranky scene for buying one Kulfi Ice Cream. She was shunned of Kulfi as she was vulnerable to tonsillitis and she was too small to understand this fact. She, after throwing a quick glance at her family to check on her safety to execute a plan that was born in her mind just minutes before, ran at her top speed towards where the Ice Cream guy vendor, with his vehicle, was standing. She gave him the ten rupee note that she had successfully taken from her dad’s shirt pocket and asked for one ‘KHULFFHI’, without bothering or rather not knowing anything about the price, to the vendor. This was her first time in a direct purchase. The Ice cream vehicle had caught her attention when they had come to beach after the mass. The poster of a pink girl smiling and licking a Kulfi in her hand was what which had attracted her the most. Once she got the Ice cream from the vendor, she ran back to her Mom, holding tight the Ice Cream Box to her chest, like it was some sort of treasure. She didn’t even bother to collect the change that the vendor had extended to her. She had succeeded flawlessly with the initial steps of her plan. Now, only the ‘opening and licking it just like the pink girl’ part was pending. Of course, It was a well planned move, but only until she had won the Kulfi. She succeeded in opening up the cover in which the pink girl smiled at her, after tearing it down wildly into pieces. Catherine started licking the Kulfi lusciously with her little tongue. With her heads held high and lips touching the icy juicy part, she enjoyed it like it was her freedom. She didn’t notice where she was standing. She couldn’t recollect anything from her plans. She thanked Velankani Mother Mary in between for making her dream come true for she had just prayed to Her shrine for an ice cream one hour ago. Because of tonsillitis, it was a long time before that Catherine had last had her ice cream. And it was one among her favorites, second only to ‘Kinder Joy’. For this reason Catherine was happy with Mother Mary. But Mother Mary had other plans that she had never envisaged, or rather….plans that she never had the power to envisage.
She felt, out of nowhere, a paining lash on her buttocks. Her Dad was shouting, “Didn’t I tell you to stay put beside your mother. And how dare you steal my money”. Saying this he snatched the Kulfi from her hand and threw it on the sand and hit her one more time with his strong hands (again to her buttocks). Catherine started crying. Her Mom, who was walking into the scene said, “Oh Robin, don’t be so harsh. She is just a kid” Looking at Catherine, she said, “Leave it. Catherine dear, you come with me”
Robin passed an astonished look at Sara and shouted at her, “She stole money. How bad is that? Huh! Let’s not pamper her. I am warning you again and again”.
“No, she wouldn’t have done that”, defending her daughter, Sara said. She then tightly hugged her crying daughter and said to her in a childish tone, “Don’t cry my dear”
“I saw her taking the money from dad’s pocket” claimed Elsa in an energetic tone. She delivered a wry smile to her younger sister. Her blue beautiful eyes were shining. “She always does this”, she continued. Catherine looked at her elder sister with moist eyes. Grinding her teeth, she ran towards her and threw some sand and whatever she could grab with her little hands from the ground.
“See…”, Robin shouted and walked in furiously towards Catherine, with the demeanor of that of an angry monster. Just before Robin raised his hand, Sara quickly dragged Catherine by her hand, to save her from the hit. “Don’t worry Catherine”, she murmured to Catherine’s ears. “I will get you some good toys to play with later. For now, you have to stay away from Kulfi. And when you are alright, I will buy you as many as you want”, saying which she kissed her daughter’s forehead. Catherine wiped the tears flowing from her eyes and walked along with her mother. And the duo walked towards their Beach umbrella. They then sat there under it and Sara hugged Catherine tight again. She said, “You are my little princess. Now, stop crying and sleep. You woke up early today for the mass right!”
Catherine rested her head on her mother’s breasts. She mumbled on throwing curses at her sister. “She is always like this”, she complained to her mother and kept on crying. Then she turned around and shouted at Elsa, “I hate you”.
For some time Catherine wept sitting under the shade of love from her Mom, and the real shade of the Beach Umbrella. She was slowly falling asleep and her head swiftly moved its way from Sara’s breasts to Sara’s lap. Meanwhile, Catherine never stopped cursing her elder sister Elsa in her mind.
Within no time, Catherine fell asleep. In between, while her eyes were closed and dreams towed her toward them slowly, she heard her dad coming and saying something, kissing her forehead, which she couldn’t comprehend due to her drowsy mood. She thought, ‘Um.. A kiss to you too Dada.
But I hate you Elsa. I hate you’
…………………………………………………
Catherine woke up shocked and frightened, hearing her mother scream. “Robin……. Elsa………” She heard the sounds of a big commotion around her.
Sara took her daughter Catherine in her hand and started running towards where the Church was situated. To Catherine’s half-opened pair of eyes, in her mother’s shoulder, it was visible - people were scurrying helter-skelter and a Giant transparent-blue Mouth was coming towards them with a roaring sound. ‘It is as tall as the coconut trees’, she thought. Before she could notice anything else, the giant transformed into wave first and water second, smashing them with full force, throwing them away. She felt the full stress of the powerful water in wave form on her face and body. She drowned, she drank water. She tried to cry for help. No one attended to her. And she didn’t have much time to ask for it as well. Before she could take guard, if any, she started to dream again.
The Giant mouth, Tsunami, gulped the coast with its brutal force…….
CHAPTER THREE:
Catherine woke up. In her half-sleep she whispered “Mummy…”
She started to cry for it was her wont to do so once she woke up on her own. She used to stop, only after her Mom comes and lifts her up on her shoulders. She always loved to wake up in her Mom’s warm and caring shoulders. So she cried for a while, never opening her eyes, hoping that her Mom Sara would come and lift her from bed. After crying for a while, she opened her eyes with great difficulty. She moaned, “Mummy….” Catherine felt very tired and exhausted. She started to feel a bit groggy in her head and wondered if she had overslept.
Catherine saw that she was inside a tent. She woke up from the cot in which she lay and started walking towards the opening in the tent from where the daylight was entering the room. There was only one table, with piles of papers lying on top of it in disarray, and a chair inside the tent. She wondered why there was sand and not tiles on the floor. None of this made sense to her. She kept on crying and started walk towards outside. Catherine couldn't recollect anything from what had occurred. The way her nose pained while she breathed gave her a wild memory of water gushing and its gigantic force that she felt on her body. Still, Catherine was under the impression that her Mom would come any moment to give her, her usual morning kiss and tooth brush.
Her eyes were still semi-closed as she walked her way out of the tent. There was a pungent smell all over the place. She could hear cries all around her. She looked up, and amid the scorching light from the sun, she could see vultures circling above the sky. A lot of people were standing, walking and running about her. There were some big machines in two three places which were making strange tractor-like noises, but in an ear-splitting manner. They were too sharp and loud for her to bear. She closed her ears with both her hands. In a few seconds, when silence took hold of her, she started to get a better view of things. She kept on walking, slowly, gaping at everything, as everything happening there was bizarre and new for her. The realization of something strange was dawning in her - It felt like a nightmare to her. She was getting afraid with each passing moment from then on and wanted to go back to the tent where she came from. But when she turned around, she realized that she was too far away to actually discover or remember where she came from. She had walked for quite a long time. People were all around her. Her eyes widened and hands started to tremble. The aura of something grave, beyond her comprehension yet sad and frightening caught the better of her. Bending her shoulders, using her full power, she howled “Mummmyyyy….. Mummmyyyy…..”
While she was crying aloud, from the odd group of people walking about her, a strange and weary dressed man came to her. He was thin and had a shabby look with his face. He had a stubble and hair on top his head combed in an unmethodical fashion. He said “Hey.. baby.. Hey.. You are looking for your mother. Aren’t you? I will take you to her. You look so tired my dear”. She wiped her tears and looked at the guy. The man extended his baby finger towards her, expecting her to take hold of it and offered her one ‘Fruti’ drink with his other hand. She had always loved Fruti and was feeling very thirst indeed. “Drink this and you will feel fresh. Don’t be afraid, I know where your Mummy is and I will take you to her” the man said promisingly in a smooth and caring tone.
She looked at him. She couldn’t see his face as her eyes were filled with tears. Suddenly some lady darted in from behind and shouted “Hey…. Bug off you asshole”. She had a lathi in her hand and she swung it at the guy with full force. She had a whistle as well, tied around her neck, using which she kept on blowing while she was in action. The guy took to his heels quickly and ran away like his life depended on it. The lady had worn a khaki dress, Catherine noticed. Looking at Catherine with concern and sympathy in her eyes, the lady asked “Are you OK dear?” She was about to take hold of her hands, but that was when someone communicated something to her, through the walkie- talkie tightly clipped by the belt on her hips. Catherine was frozen with fear. While the lady had taken her eyes off her, like a lightning, she bolted away from the lady. She never stopped. She kept on crying throughout her run. She was feeling the cold atmosphere as she had no costume on her body, except for one pink trouser, fully drenched in mud and for that reason then brown. She was feeling the damp ground as she had no footwear to protect her small feet. It was completely like a nightmare. She fell down hitting the thighs of a few people; she was small; but she worked herself into the ground and somehow ran again, finally reaching a place where people were standing in a circle around something. Her legs were paining and her eyes were wet with tears. Her lips were stretched sideways and were tremulous with fear. She stopped and she saw the same big machine with big and huge iron hands which were held high in the air, at the other end of the circle. Instead of fingers, it had but sharp teeth. People were crying and were looking inside the circle with their faces covered with some cloth or the other. She knew not where to run. She was eagerly in search of a face; that of her mother’s. Without any further thought, she just rammed into the circle and sneaked inside. The cries and the pungent smell were growing bigger. She kept on pushing people and squeezed in more and more; she slipped somewhere as she was doing this and suddenly fell down………
She rolled over the damp and wet sand and landed up some twenty feet below in some sort of a circular pit. Her body was paining. Blood had started to come off from her knees and hands. She started to cry after standing up, knowing nothing, her eyes searching for something. She slowly walked ahead rubbing her eyes with sand smeared hands. Her eyes were red out of pain. She fell down again but managed to get up and walk. The ground was uneven like a place filled with roots of big trees. Once again, she fell. This time, she wriggled frantically and caught hold of something that she could next reach to. She, after managing to stand up, realized that it was a hand which she had caught hold for support…. Her eyes were still half-closed due to pain and sand particles struck inside. She heard people shouting from behind, “Get the kid up…… Get the kid up…… She is too small…… OMG…… Get the kid up……”
Catherine was panting. She then somehow opened her eyes with strain and stood still. There, she saw, dead bodies lying littered. Some had their eyes open. Some had them closed. Some had their dresses torn. Some had nothing on them to cover their naked skin, now dry and withered like pieces of meat kept in refrigerator in her house. Blood stains were there on almost most of them. She walked through them…..crying all the while….”Mummy……Mummy” She was screaming in fact…… She could feel her throat soar… She fell down two or three times again. Her tongue tasted salt. The pungent smell was piercing her brain. Her head was swirling. Her eyes were spiraling. She fell again.
All the energy in her had drained out. Hope was not there. She knew not why she was there. She wanted solace. She wanted to go home. This time she couldn’t get up from her fall. She opened her eyes one last time. Catherine was lying on her back and on lifting her head with great effort, she saw one set of hollow and familiar eyes open next to her; blue they were and their blank gazes were aimed straight at the bright sky. She shook her head, lifting it higher, and looked at the body she was lying above. She cried, “Elsaaaaaa…….”
Catherine hugged Elsa’s body tight and cried with all her might. It was a cry that could devastate the goodness in any living person’s soul. Half of Elsa’s body was inside the wet sand. Catherine hugged her even tighter and tried to drag her out of the sand with her little hands. She was in a state of frenzy. She scratched her. She then tried to loosen Elsa’s body from the sand, thrusting her fingers deep into it. It wasn’t working. She groped her hands above what was visible of her sister’s body. Only her hands pained and nothing else happened. Catherine was physically and mentally immersed in pain. She couldn’t concentrate. She couldn’t understand. She knew not who to call. Her head felt heavy to her and her lips were parched. She was blinking to get rid of the burning sensation in her eyes.
Elsa had worn a jean jacket which was the only thing on her body now. Catherine knew not what death was but she doubted if Elsa was dead. She cried, “Elsa, Come back” While she started to try pulling Elsa’s torso out again from the ground, she accidentally put her hands inside her wet jean jacket pocket. She caught hold of some sort of cover inside that pocket, drenched and wet. She took it out as someone from behind took her aside. She didn’t have enough power to fight back or ask them to leave her alone. The ground seemed to rotate for her, as her eyes were giving up. But her fingers hadn’t. She had one last look at what was inside that transparent plastic cover clinging by her finger tips, which was tied above with a knot, before she fainted and dropped it.
Inside there were two disfigured and crushed boxes, with two similar looking, but obscure, pink girls smiling at her - something similar to the Kulfi box, she had bought from the beach side.
God Bless.
