The Quarrel - Part IV
Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera Translated by Professor
Kusuma Karunaratne
“What a witch” bellowed father, dived forward and managed to push
mother and Lily aside. Mother lost her balance and crashed against the
door jamb. Terrified as I was, I started wailing loud.
I saw tears streaming down mother’s face. Without waiting any further
and without uttering a word, mother rushed inside. Father too walked
into the room. I stopped crying and tried to figure out what exactly
happened. I felt a kind of a lifeless feeling all over my body. I sat on
the mortar unable to decipher what happened up to now.
Silence reigned after the pandemonium.
Mother, who went into the dining room, was lying down on the camp-bed
with her face towards the wall. I saw father in the bedroom, lying on
the easy chair as if nothing had happened.
As if with great effort, I walked to and fro in the corridor. After a
while I sat on the long bench. The pieces of the broken pan were still
lying around. Within as well as outside the house there was a death like
silence. I felt a lifelessness all over the body and a certain heaviness
of the heart. Disillusioned, I rested my head against the wall. How long
will it be like this? I have not seen mother and father quarrelling like
this before. Where will this end? Vexed and burdened with such feelings,
I felt exhausted and miserable.
Now, being late afternoon, the heat of the sun had subsided a bit.
The barren hills in front of the school looked pale in the waning sun.
There was a deep silence in and around the house. The only sound heard
was the beating of iron in the smithy of Millagahawatta bass. It was a
continuous regular beat.
I lent my ears to that beat. The drab beat only redoubled the
loneliness that reigned within me. I felt a heaviness in my eyes, which
were already wet with tears. A fly hovering around was seeking to settle
on them.
I peeped into the dining room again. Mother was still lying with her
face towards the wall, as before.
I came back and sat again on the bench. As I sat down the fly started
hovering around my eye again. The drab beat from the smithy went on
regardless. A sense of great loss and regret was descending upon me.
I peeped into father’s room again. Father was still lying on the easy
chair as if in deep thought. I resumed my aimless walk in the corridor.
Within as well as outside the house there was a haunting silence. The
only noise heard was the beat from the smithy. ‘Tang-Takata-Tang’. That
beat embodied the desolation that lingered around.
After walking to and fro, with much effort, I sat on the bench again
and rested my head against the wall. I felt my eyes close overcome with
slumber. Suddenly, I was startled by the sound of slippers. It came from
the bed room. I walked up and peeped into the room. Father was wearing a
cloth and a coat and was combing his hair in front of the mirror. I knew
father was getting ready to go somewhere. I hid myself and watched him.
Having finished dressing his hair, father went up to the wardrobe, took
his purse from the top shelf and slid it into his coat pocket. I
carefully watched every move of father.
All of a sudden, I felt that he is leaving us for good. I was
trembling with fear. He walked up to the wardrobe again took his
umbrella and left. I ran after him. I watched him walking down the steps
and also till he walked up to the gate. I thought, certainly, he is
leaving for good. I almost cried “Father, where are you going?”. My
heart beat faster. As father took the turn, I ran up to the gate.
“Father, where are you going?” I cried loud. Father went ahead as if he
did not hear, it.
I felt almost breathless. I ran towards the gate. “Father, please
don’t go” I felt like shouting. I gazed at him, till he walked past the
bend, out of my sight. I ran into the house. I wanted to inform mother
that father is leaving. I walked up to her bed. She was lying with her
eyes closed and with her face towards the wall.
Again I ran towards the gate. I jumped over the gate and ran along
the road. There was absolutely no sign of father. For a long time, I was
looking at both the sides of the road. I saw Loku Mahattaya of Pelawatte
coming along the road. I thought I could find out from him which way
father went. Sometimes, father may have told him where he was going. As
he came up to me, “Did you meet my father, on the way?” I inquired from
him. “No, I came the other way and I did not see him going that way” he
replied.
I came back, sat on a step and watched the road. As the sun had set,
the hills around and the garden seem to have become gloomier and darker.
There was no-body around to be seen. The cattle that had entered the
school garden walked through the vegetable plot, ruining it. I was
hardly in a mood to chase them away. Feeling quite miserable I continued
to watch the road. As I looked round, I was gripped with the morbid
thought that father had left us for ever. I felt I had no strength even
to walk about.
After a long time, I went into the room where mother was sleeping.
Mother was still lying on the bed as before, with the face towards the
wall. Lily was seated on the kitchen door-step watching the road. I was
enraged this time when I saw her. I too leaned against the door jamb and
watched the road.
The silence that reigned within me was deeper than what was outside.
The pieces of the shattered pot were still scattered on the ground. Lily
had still not thought of clearing the mess. Since I felt an ache in my
legs, I sat on the bench and continued to watch. |
