Killing the killer

The benches were full. Reporters and the public occupied them. Aravinda sat with the mother, whose son was murdered, to witness the case. After weeks of hearing, the verdict was about to echo within the court walls. The ruling nailed the child to the wall - the defendant is guilty.

The child looked at his victim’s mother. Her freckled face was ageing. Even in turmoil, he did not forget to read the painful triumph in her face.

Everything remained intact in his memory.

Masazumi was not good in studies. His uncle and aunt could not afford to feed him any longer. He had to find a job. A job somehow, by hook or by crook. Then an option came his way. A few of his close buddies were earning a handsome pay from a Mafia gang. It looked a prospective option, but he needed to be a tough one at that.

The Mafia seniors wanted to make sure their novice could tough anything out. It took days for the training. He was groomed to be tough and rough. He learnt to be cruel. He was no longer sensitive for pain. It was a sight for him when an animal groaned in pain. The hatred, he took the ultimate lesson, could be won only by hatred itself. Loving kindness is a fat old lie.

He realized how blissful it is to indulge in booze and malicious behaviour.

He scanned his mission, briefly. He could not emotional. This decides his future. He thought for one last time, and shrugged off any emotional thought that came his way, tonelessly. They commanded him to kill his closest friend, Taro. And the command, he carried out effortlessly.

The judgment however sent a shudder through his veins. When you tread fearlessly on crime - it is the lesson he missed, or no one dared tell him - you have to pay for it in your own coin.

Waiting to be escorted to the prison, Masa stood quiet with gaze fixed on ground. He half expected her to rush down the aisle and grab him by neck. He felt the presence of Taro’s mother. She took a deep breath, Masa sensed, and heightened her voice.

“I will kill you!”

Masa’s stream of thought paused for a second or two. For a moment he replayed the Tenor of taro’s mother’s statement. He tried to fathom its tone. Is it banking her outrage? She was quite pacific. Or is it veiled anger? But the words were enough to send a shudder through prison officials. They hurriedly thronged around the child and hurried him aside.

It was the beginning of a three-year jail term.

After a lapse of six months, Taro’s mother took a special grant to visit Masazumi at the prison. It was the first visit Masa had for the whole six months. None of his immediate family cared to visit him. They in fact denied any link with him. Everything, he had to endure alone. Life has never turned out to be more awful.

Taro’s mother brought some snacks. At first Masa feared it may contain some poison. But it is nothing other than death which is equally acceptable for him. It didn’t quite matter. He wolfed them down – that was a luxury he had in a long time. Nothing happened. It doesn’t contain poison, he realized. That was yummy and syringed some hope into Masa.

“What would you like to have, Masa?”
Masa could feel the warmth in Taro’s mother’s voice.

“Anything you can bring. I’m starving all the time here.”

Since then Taro’s mother brought many things for him: victuals, sweetmeats, pizza, lasagna and the kind. They would while away the visiting hour with titbits. Quite soon Masa looked forward to this visiting hour. Taro’s mother never mentioned a word about her own son. She briefed him about what’s happening out in the world. He narrated what he had to undergo at the prison.

Three years lapsed gradually.
“Where are you going to stay?”
“I have nowhere to go, you know.” Taro said, looking desolate.
“You can stay at my place, son.”

Taro’s mother made sure no picture of Taro is hung in the house. But she cleaned up Taro’s room for Masa. She could send him to a decent college too. There were evenings they would have time for themselves: going to the theatre or some charity. Following the college, Taro’s mother could get him a job at a company she knew of.

One fine evening, when Aravinda happened to drop by for tea, Masa broke the news of his girl friend and that he wishes to marry.

“Son, do you remember what I told you when we first met?”
Masa looked at both Taro’s mother and Aravinda - he was inquisitive.

“Yes, why not? I remember it very well. You said: ‘I will kill you’. But aunty, you didn’t do it. You gave me life.”

Taro’s mother smiled and caressed his head.
“No son, I killed you. I never wanted again to see the child who killed my son. I killed the killer in you.”

That left both Aravinda and Masa speechless. But Aravinda was preoccupied. He realized the soft logic, that even love is capable of killing when it opens the door of its heart.

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