So when I was in my dream world created by Tolkien and J.K.Rowling in my teen years I knew there was something beautiful about words that easily transports you to a different world in seconds and makes you fall in love with imaginary characters, places etc. I came up with this story being inspired by a lot of what I read. And the notion that good shall always prevail over evil. In fact, mom was the catalyst in such a thought that was cemented in my head. Good over Evil. God is Good. Evil is Bad. I dont get this thing about being bad. I mean 3/4ths of the people I've met in my life are such bad persons who are doing amazing in their lives. And I still see them doing amazing in life and the question that whether being good or being bad is just sides of a coin. And it wont matter the side you choose. However, I like the theory of being grey. Everyone has good or bad in them. It all depends on how you choose it and when you choose it.
Enough of my philosophies, I now present to you my baby, The first step into my literary journey. I had written it on paper. My language was really raw back then so I've just tweaked it a little bit. I had the story set up in US however, I changed that to India too. I just wanted it to look fancy back then. The premise is the same, apart from minute changes. I shall end this not so brief introduction by an amazing line I came across
"The scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our souls"
- Edgar Allan Poe
Temptation
Susan picked up
the fresh flowers brought by Granny and put them in the vase. “Last chore done
for the day” thought Susan and went to sit on the sofa. Stretching her long legs, she felt
relaxed. Ah! This feels good, thought 17
year old Susan who had a heart- shaped face and an athletic body. Noticing her
granny coming from the kitchen, Susan
asked “What’s up, Gran-Bran?” That cracked up Granny who was always in a
miserable mood after smiling a little, suddenly frowned, saying “You kids and
the way you’ll talk these days---” She
cut off instantly as she heard the footsteps of her grandson Martin outside her
two storeyed bungalow’s verandah. Susan got up with a jerk. Her heart started
pounding and she wished she was in Nainital holidaying with her parents. Martin opened the door with a crazed
expression on his round face which showed some signs of facial hair growth. 18
year old Martin was lean and astonishingly tall for his age standing at 6 feet
2 inches. Susan was aware this psychotic expression shall remain on his face
throughout the day. “Good Morning,
fellows” bellowed Martin cheerfully.
“Good Morning” mumbled Granny, shaking.
“Morning” grunted Susan nonchalantly.
“Why is our dear Susan fusion sounding so dead?” Do this! Punch your stomach really hard. That
ought to wake you up” Granny screamed seeing Susan punching her own stomach.
Susan was choking and even though it was her own hands, she knew she couldn’t
stop them.
“Why is your
mouth wide open, Gran?” “Bite your tongue- HA!” ordered Martin laughing his
high pitched laugh, Susan who was feeling nauseous punching her own stomach could
see grandma biting her tongue with drops of blood falling on the carpet Seeing
the sight of blood Martin casually remarked, “Ok Gran you don’t have to do it
anymore.”Grandma fell on Martin’s feet and with tears in her eyes cried
frantically “Please stop it, Martin. You
know how much I love you. You cannot treat us this way, Please leave Susan “Ok,
Gran. You don’t have to shout.” said Martin airily “Ok Susan, Stop” Susan fell
on the sofa holding her breath, panting, breathless. “Ok. Now I have to run some errands and experiment
on stuff. Work in peace, losers. Gran make the fish curry exactly how I want”
commanded Martin as he strutted to his room upstairs. “Nasty creep” sighed Susan massaging her
tummy, Shit Why am I here? Wondered
Susan thinking of the time after her high school exam, how eager was she to come
to Grandma’s place in Goa.
Her parents went for a second honeymoon to
Nainital. Initially, it was a nice breakaway from the hustle and bustle of
Bombay when she was younger coming to Grandma’s in Goa and working with her,
gardening cooking and gossiping about family stuff. Then arrived Martin the
Maniac in their lives. Martin was picked by Grandma from a beach in Goa when he
was 13 who lost his parents in a deadly accident and was employed as an errand
boy for some shack. His sad eyes and thin structure made Granny melt and she
took him under her wing to help him study and have a better life. When Susan
met him, she felt granny was fooled by his sympathetic behavior as he was an
unusual guy those days not talking much and had weird interest in things like
lizards, slimy creatures and bats. He had a collection of weird photos of
doctor’s operating the insides of people. Whenever he showed them to Susan, she
had nightmares.
It was two years
ago during winter on a chilly night, came Aunt Tiffany. Actually she was not a relative of the
family, but Susan always found her very eccentric as she had traveled the
world, unmarried and was Grandma’s best friend since school and confidante and
always had amazing stories to tell about her various exotic travels and
experiences. Tiffany was looking very
terrified that night after returning from Bhutan and wanted a favour from her
old friend Gwendoline (Grandma). Grandma
wanted to know what favour it was and was more than willing to help old Tiffany
out. Tiffany removed a leather pouch and said “This contains a stone, it has
brought doom to people who have used it.
I want you to just hide it and please do not use it, please!” Granny opened the pouch and saw a harmless
stone, surely not worth anything and said “Certainly, my dear” thinking this is
again one of crazy Tiffany’s stories that she makes a big deal about and
actually won’t be anything. Tiffany warned Granny that nobody except her should
know about it and left Grandma’s house for another trip to Kerela. But little
did they know that the conversation was heard by a third person, Martin.
Grandma had
hidden the stone in a closet but after a week, she found it missing, she was
searching for it everywhere but then she saw a terrible sight. One day Martin
held the stone near his mouth and said “Change Rudolph the cat into a rat”. And
she saw the terrible sight of Rudolph the healthy white kitten turned into a
dirty fat rat with fleas all over his body.
Grandma screamed, astonished and terrified at what she she saw and cried
“Please stop hurting my cat. Why you doing this Martin, give me back the stone”.
“Finders keepers” said Martin and changed the rat back to original cat
Rudolph. This was just the beginning.
When Susan came this year even she was at the
receiving end of his pranks. Susan was warned that she couldn’t complain to her
parents or anyone and if she did he would hurt Grandma. Grandma had a flower
shop but Martin closed it. He even took
the keys of the house and forced Grandma and Susan to stay indoors cutting the
telephone lines. When Susan
retaliated, he commanded the stone to fill the room with rattlesnakes. Susan
cried a lot seeing those creatures crawling all over them. Susan was put to
more such evil antics by Martin if they did not listen to him. Now she saw
Martin going out. The opposite house had
a girl named Divya. She was expecting her boyfriend who had arrived looking
handsome wearing a bow, holding a bouquet of flowers. She could see Martin whispering to the stone,
grinning. As Divya opened the door she
didn’t see her handsome boyfriend but a skeletal look alike of her boyfriend
holding dead flowers. She screamed and passed out. Hearing her scream, her
family members came out. The boyfriend now was looking normal and bit surprised
seeing her head spinning and eyes filled with shock. Her mother put water on her face and when she
regained consciousness she seeing her boyfriend completely normal screamed and
went unconscious again.
Martin couldn’t stop laughing, seeing Martins
attention diverted Susan ran out of the house and put the letter in the letter
box adjacent to the gate. She had
written a letter to the police about Martin and the stone and wanted the police
to arrest Martin. She only wanted an
opportunity to post the letter. As she just put the letter in the box, Martin
turned behind, seeing Susan out; he enquired suspiciously “What are you doing
outside” Susan hesitated “Uh.. I just heard some commotion... so...” Martin
laughed “ HA ! just another of my masterpieces, get back in, stupid”. Ok , said
Susan, feeling relieved, that he did not do something on her with that cursed
stone. Getting back inside Martin asked mischievously “Hey, Susan want to see lizards
creeping out of my skin?’ And before she could reply, she saw the gruesome
sight of big fat and also slimy lizards coming out of his skin. Susan had seen tons of such creepy things
done by him. “Oh stop that” She pretended.
‘Its fun man, life is all about fun’, said Martin, and went to his room.
Susan made a silent prayer that the letter should reach the police fast and to
stop this mess immediately.
After a week of
innumerable tortures and pranks experienced by Susan and grandma there was one
morning when Martin didn’t come down to mess with them. He was busy in his room
experimenting with his stone. Susan was wondering whether the letter reached
the cops or not, when she heard the sound of sirens that lit up both her and
grandma’s face who also knew about the letter. Susan opened the door and saw
two officers, a middle aged balding man and a woman in her late thirties. The women said “We are Goa police. I am Officer Bianca and this is Sub-Inspector
Narvekar. We are here to enquire know
about an 18 year old having a dangerous stone through a letter written by Susan
Gomes, Are you Susan? Yes answered Susan. SI Narvekar asked ‘Where is Martin now?”
‘Upstairs’ said Grandma relived at the sight of help arrived. The officers moved upstairs towards Martin’s
room. He is very dangerous; you should
call for back-up said Susan, trembling.
It’s not necessary, said Officer Bianca as they made their way to his
room.
She knocked the
door and said “Martin open the door, we are officers here and want to talk to
you. She turned the knob but it was
locked from inside. Susan knew Martin
might have done it after hearing such commotions and the siren. “We have to break open the door” said SI
Narvekar removing his revolver and kicking the door. The door opened and they saw an old man
covered with a shawl, coughing, sitting on the bed. “Is this the 18 year old
boy you wrote about, he may not be not less than eighty” grunted SI Narvekar,
‘Is there any problem, officers’ stuttered Martin now sounding like an older
version of him coughing. Both officers put their guns back and walked out. ‘No,
No, he has done that with the stone, pleaded Susan trying to stop them. ‘Seriously
girl, find some other way to pass your time, do it again and we will put you
behind bars, said Officer Bianca walking out of the door.
Martin was
laughing an old man’s raspy laugh. Susan
spotted the stone under the bed where he must’ve hidden when the officers came.
He was reaching out to the stone but was slow and took time while bending down
as he was an old man, suddenly out of nowhere she saw grandma smashing the
flower vase on Martin’s head. She might
have done with all her strength as Susan could hear Martins skull crack and the
stone falling from his hand. He was
trying to reach the stone but Susan quickly picked it up stamping his hand. ‘Please turn me back said Martin I’ll never
use it again” pleaded Martin sensing the situation and the tables turned. “Now wait a second you psycho, look what the
temptation has done to you, look at you, you jerk, I was waiting on my parents
to come back but I guess your story shall be over now itself, moron” said Susan
angrily. “Lets do away with this” said
Susan her eyes glazing at the wretched stone. “ Nooooo” wailed Martin. “I wish
this stone vanish forever” said Susan to the stone in her fists. “Please change me back” cried Martin, “With
what?” asked Susan grinning, revealing her empty palm.
Ashley Arthingal
2008.
