Healing (Short Story) - Part II

The story up till now:

The stunning model, the confident, gorgeous Maya is hurting from a bad heartbreak. She is a self -made woman, whom life has made tough and resilient. But this disaster in love has made her vulnerable and fragile. She is acutely aware of her loneliness. 

Nursing a broken heart, she is moping around in the house.

Part 2 Intruder

Thunder struck with a vengeance and the glass windows rattled.

Suddenly she jumped out of her skin hearing a thud outside. She couldn’t make out anything in the darkness outside. Dismissing it as something that had fallen over in the storm, she sprawled on the sofa with a drink.

Another crash outside. Shivering, Maya went across to draw the curtains, and then her eye caught a movement in the lightning.

Someone was crouching outside! A wave of fear went over her. An intruder!

Who was it? There was nobody in the house as her cook cum housekeeper was on leave today.

Maya steeled herself, took a torchlight and opened the door. Years of living on her own had driven away her fear of the unknown.

She went around the corner towards the bedroom window and flashed the light. A shrouded figure was crouching outside. It was covered in dripping wet clothes and a rag like shawl.

“Hey, who are you? What are you doing lurking around my house?” Maya thundered loudly, sounding more brazen than she felt.

No response from the figure.

“I am talking to you!” She shouted and shoved the figure. The dripping shawl fell, and a thin stick-like girl was revealed. Drenched to the core, the shuddering figure kept stubbornly quiet.

“What do you think this is? A dharmshala?” Maya scowled, her temper rising. She couldn’t tolerate freeloaders.

Another bout of thunder, and the lightning revealed angry, purple bruises on the girl’s face and hands. She looked about seventeen or so, her hair was disheveled, clothes torn and dripping water. Whether she was shaking with fear and cold, it was hard to tell.

Something moved inside Maya’s heart. The girl looked so frail and helpless. So alone – just like her?

Grabbing her stick-like arm, she tried to pull her inside the house. The girl resisted, but finally had to give in. She wasn’t much of a resistance anyway.

“Wait here” Maya went to get a towel and a set of clothes her housekeeper wore. “Go and change your clothes.”

The girl looked up for the first time. Maya stared at the limpid pools full of mistrust and fear.

“Go on, that is the washroom. Change your clothes or you will get pneumonia.”

With racking sobs, the girl started weeping. Maya had to nudge her to the washroom.

In the kitchen, she made the girl some tea, arranged biscuits on a plate and made her way to the living room.

After a couple of minutes, sounds of howling emerged from the bathroom. Maya pushed open the door, and saw the girl crouched on the floor, her body shaking. Her wet, ragged clothes were still clinging to her.

“What’s this? You haven’t changed yet?” More sobbing.

“Here, let me take off these wet…..”

“No!” the girl screamed.

The way she shrank back in fear at Maya’s touch seemed unnatural. There was a pool of muddy water on the floor. In the light, Maya could see bruises stare back angrily from the girl’s lips, cheek and arms.

Maya recoiled at the sight. She was beginning to understand what had happened. Something about the girl’s behaviour seemed to stir some dark memories deep within.

Why did her heartbroken sobs seem familiar? And the look in those eyes, and the bruises?

Something stirred uneasily in her memory. A door firmly shut on her childhood.

Fifteen years back, Maya was studying on her desk in her room, when she felt someone’s eyes watching her. She was startled to see her father’s friend standing close and smiling rather peculiarly.

The man was standing with his back against the door after closing it. Maya jumped up in surprise, but the “uncle” pushed her down with his clammy hands on her breasts. Shock and shame filled her mind. Where was her father?

At twelve, she was old enough to understand that something was not right. Suddenly, the man lunged at her aiming at her lips. She moved aside in reflex and his face hit the table. He caught hold of her arm in anger, but she had started screaming by then. The beast slapped her, caught hold of her hair, trying to hush her down with his hands over her lips.

She was almost overpowered by the bulky frame. He bent again to kiss her, but she managed to land a solid kick on his shin, and rushed towards the door.

Thankfully it wasn’t locked.

Later, she learnt her father had left her alone deliberately with the “uncle”. She stopped speaking to him after that. Not that she had much scope to interact with her father after that incident. A few weeks later, he just left the house and disappeared.

The years had not taken away the searing feeling of betrayal and pain. Her skin still crawled from the memory of that sexual assault. The shame was still sour, the anguish real. Her own father had left her at the mercy of a beast! To get a few lakhs in investment for his business, she had learnt later.

She cringed, and gulped down her drink. An avalanche of self-hate and repulse flooded over her again. It had made her a lifelong patient of depression and anxiety.

As Maya got up to get her emergency medication, she noticed that the girl had slunk into the room wearing the dry set of clothes that hung loose around her wiry figure.

Maya smiled, and handed her the biscuits, watching as she grabbed and wolfed them down.

When she pushed the mug of tea towards her, the girl took it with eager hands and gulped down the lukewarm liquid.

Maya waited for her to speak.

After a few minutes her guest spoke haltingly, “Thank you. C-can I stay here, please? I have no home. I will do all your work…”

Maya kept silent, looking at the girl as she stuttered “I have no one…My..,my step-father wanted...….” She broke down again.

“It’s okay. You tell me everything when you are okay.” Stroking her matted hair, Maya said in a broken voice. 

Who knew better than her what it felt like to be violated? That too by someone close?  That sheer helplessness, the burning rage, that feeling of being abandoned, she knew it all.

She took a decision then. She would let the girl live with her as long as she wanted to. If her step-father ever hounded her, Maya knew enough people in the police to keep him in check. She would nurture and empower the child to face life again. Probably, even send her to a good school, and get her trained for a vocation.

Putting her arm around the girl, Maya gently asked, ”Do you have a name? Or shall I call you Anamika? Would you like some food?” The girl looked up and smiled tremulously. She somehow felt at home with this strange Didi.

A hand was extended. Could this bond be healing for them?

(Concluded)

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