Two brothers

Short Story by Arul M. RAJENDRAN

When Mathias came home, his wife Margaret told him that his brother Lucas had come a little while ago and removed the picture of his father from the wall. Mathias got mad.

"Why did you allow him to take it?" asked Mathias in anger.

"What could I have done? You expect me to fight with a man", asked his wife.

"Whatever it is, you should not have allowed him to remove the picture," said Mathias and muttered to himself "He had come when I was not in the house and had removed the picture. Well, I'll see about it." He turned to his wife again. "Give me some tea. I will go and bring the picture after taking the tea."

After the tea Mathias draped his shawl round his waist tightly and got ready to go to Lucas' house.

"You go there but don't have a fight with him," warned Margaret.

"I know my business. You mind yours' retorted Mathias and walked towards Lucas' house.

Mathias who started life as an ordinary fisherman is now a Sammarty with many fishermen working for him. His house was on the edge of the seashore. It was a one storeyed building put up on his father's hut where he was born and bred.

The house was well furnished and had some modern household items. He had a daughter called Lourdu Mary who was born after some years of his marriage.

His brother Lucas did not follow the family trade. He did not go fishing. He had studied a little and knew a smattering of English also. He went to Colombo and was working for sometime in a mercantile firm.

Very soon, he opened his own shop, became an Agent for some products. His shop and residence were about a mile away from his brother's house. He married Rita, a distant relative of his, who was a teacher.

Mathias and Lucas were the only children of Joseph and his wife Caterine. The two brothers were like friends and were united.

Joseph and his wife lived with the eldest son Mathias till they died. Joseph did not like to leave the seaside and the sea. If he left the place he would be like a fish out of water, he said.

Apart from that if he stayed with his eldest son Mathias, he could be of some help to him and once in a way he could go on the sea which would give him much pleasure.

Lucas had got a child, a male. He was named Sylvester. As the mother went to teach and Lucas was busy in the shop Sylvester from his infancy was with the grandparents at Mathias' house.

As the distance between the two houses was not far, there was no difficulty in the parents seeing the child. Either they came and saw him or Joseph or his wife or Mathias or his wife took him to the parents' house. Mathias and his wife treated Sylvester as their own son.

Sylvester was studying in the school where his mother was teaching. The school was not far from the house. Sylvester's mother Rita had an ambition to make her son a doctor, and got him to learn science subjects.

Sylvester took to the subjects with enthusiasm and progressed very well. At the same time he was also displaying his talents in culture and arts which he seems to have inherited from his grandfather and certainly have acquired from him.

In his early days Joseph had been a leading actor in folk dramas and had also got himself involved in constructing sets and sceneries for the plays. When Joseph was carrying Sylvester on his shoulders as a baby, he would sing the songs he sang in the dramas and had infused music into the blood stream of Sylvester. He had also taught him to draw and paint.

For his convenience for studying, Sylvester was using the upstairs room in the uncle's house. The results of the examination of the Advanced Level came and Sylvester had obtained "A" passes in all the three subjects.

He was the first to have done so from the school since its inception. All the people in the house were happy beyond expression.

But following that happiness there occurred a very sad event in the family. Sylvester's grandfather Joseph who had gone to the sea one day came back washed ashore as a dead body. After some months his wife also passed away without having any apparent illness.

The death of Joseph brought a very great impact on young Sylvester's mind. The relationship between the grandfather and the grandson had been so intimate and binding. Sylvester remained a recluse. He locked himself in the upper room permitting no one to enter the room and disturb him.

The letter for Sylvester's admission to the medical college came. Lucas went with it to Sylvester who was in the upper room. When Lucas entered the room the word "Father" came out of his mouth spontaneously. He saw his dead father's face there. Sylvester had painted his grandfather with his benign smile on his lips exactly as Joseph was when he was alive.

Within six months of Sylvester entering the Medical College, news of a severe blow reached his family informing them that Sylvester had been admitted to the hospital.

When they reached the hospital they learned that Sylvester was suspected to be having cancer. It was later confirmed and he passed away in a few months' time.

The entire village including the principal, teachers and students mourned Sylvester's death.

But within a short time the unity that existed between the two brothers, Mathias and Lucas, began to disappear over a trivial matter. It was over the picture that was painted by Sylvester.

Lucas asked his brother Mathias to give him the picture of their father which his son Sylvester had painted, for him to keep it in his house in memory of his son.

Mathias refused to give it saying that the picture was painted in his house and had been there all these days and that it should not be removed from there. Mathias also had a fatherly love for Sylvester.

Lucas asked for the picture from Mathias several times. But he did not give it. Lucas got some influential persons in the area to speak to Mathias and to got the picture for him. But Mathias did not accede.

That day was the day before Sylvester's birthday. Sylvester was born on the day Lord Jesus Christ was born. Lucas wanted to have the picture of his father painted by his son Sylvester in his house on his son's birthday.

This desire was growing fast in his mind and was reaching a dangerous stage. That was why he went to his brother Mathias' house that day and forcibly removed the picture and brought it home.

Mathias who went to Lucas' house in a rage asked Lucas to give back the picture. Lucas bluntly refused to give it. Mathias got mad.

Yet he controlled himself and went straight to the Police Station, saw the OIC whom he knew a little and told him that his brother Lucas had entered his house in his absence and had removed his father's picture which was there forcibly, and asked the OIC to get it and give it to him.

The OIC told him as that day was Christmas Eve and he was short of staff as some policemen had gone on leave and besides he would be having many problems of brawls to settle that day and the next day he asked him to make the complaint and to go and that he would send for him and his brother Lucas the day after Christmas first thing in the morning and settle the matter. Mathias went home as there was no other way.

The next day Mathias spent Christmas not so joyfully. The day after Christmas, from the early morning he was anxiously waiting for the arrival of a policeman asking him to go to the police station. But before the policeman came an immense tragedy came there.

Yes; it was the 26th of December, 2004. The tsunami which caused loss of many lives and damage to properties in an unprecedented scale in the history of the entire country came before the policeman and swept away Mathias, his wife and his daughter and his house along with so many others and their properties and belongings.

When Lucas heard about the tsunami his first thought was about his brother Mathias, his wife and their daughter. He ran towards his brother's house. His brother's house was not to be seen. There was no trace of it. Neither were the other houses to be seen. All had been washed away.

All that he saw was a continuation of the sea in full fury invading the land, bodies of persons and animals being carried away' boats, trees and materials and all that were there a little while ago being tossed about and carried away by the waves.

With the help of the others and the rescuers who arrived he found the bodies of his brother's wife and daughter.

He identified the bodies for the purpose of their burials. After a long search he found his brother Mathias, luckily alive, entangled in some branches of some uprooted trees. With the help of the rescuers he took his brother to the medical centre.

After Mathias got well a little, Lucas took him to his home. When Mathias stepped into the house he saw his father's picture in the hall with a small photograph of Sylvester in front of it. Mathias suddenly fell at Lucas' feet.

Lucas jumped out in embarrassment and quickly raised Mathias and said "Brother, you are elder to me. How can you fall at my feet. Is it for saving you. You were alive when you were found. Even if I had not saved you others would have saved you. Should you fall at my feet who is younger to you?"

Mathias looked at Lucas calmly and said. "It is not for saving me that I fell at your feet. It is because you saved our father's picture that I fell at your feet." Lucas could not control his emotions. He fell at the feet of his brother and cried. Mathias raised him up and they both embraced each other shedding tears of happiness.

Their father's picture in the hall seemed to be smiling and blessing his sons with joy.