Rain Flower
Kotra Siva Rama Krishna
“I see.” Rose thoughtfully said.
“Did that much happen? That Rita might have had such things with me also. That is why I am having this type of dreams.” Williams thoughtfully said.
“I should not have said all that now. Brother you don’t force yourself to remember anything,” with a regretful expression on her face, Jasmine said.
“Alright, no problem. It has not created any friction in me and I am not trying to remember anything.” With a small smile, Williams said.
But there was an uncomfortable expression on the face of Rose. She did not think that Jasmine said all that in such a way. Moreover, Dibbu also was there listening all their conversation.
“Madam, one of you take this tea. Otherwise it becomes cold.” Dibbu said.
“You are here itself!” there came a startling expression on the face of Jasmine. She has forgotten about his presence there. She adjusted herself quickly and said “Alright, give it to me.” Dibbu proffered the tray towards her and Jasmine took the tea cup with her right hand.
The ensued thick silence was broken by Jasmine herself. “Where is Tippu, Dibbu? He went away such a long time back but did not return yet? He never left our house this long before.” Jasmine asked.
“That is what making me also feels surprise! Whenever I call to his cell phone it is giving switched off message. Where he has gone and what he is doing I cannot understand.”
“He said to me that he was going to his aunt who has been living in a faraway place. He said then that he would be in the palace again just in one week. Why he has left us this long is really puzzling to me. He is such a good friend to Williams and he always wanted to be with him.” Jasmine said.
“A friend to me?” Williams surprisingly asked.
“Yes, your friend sir. He is a distant relative to me. His parents died in an accident at his fifth year. I took him into this house then. He was in this house from that time itself. He was aged nine years and you were seven years or so by the time he entered into this house. You and that Tippu were friends from then itself. You both used to be so close. You don’t remember even him.” Dibbu wailed.
“Oh, Dibbu. My brother cannot remember many a thing now. He is already upset for that. Don’t upset him even more talking like this.” Jasmine angrily said.
“Don’t you remember anything about that Tippu?” Rose asked Williams as if she did not hear Jasmine at all.
“Did I see him after I lost my mind?” Knitting his brows Williams asked Rose.
“I think you did. While you were in the hospital one person came and tried to introduce himself as Tippu. He was so emotional and so anxious. With the hope you might recollect your memory on seeing him, I allowed him to see you. But no use.”
Williams hissed out heavily. “I cannot remember anything about him now either.”
“Alright then. Don’t try to remember anything about him at all.” Rose said.
“Brother, can you remember anything atleast about me?” Jasmine asked him.
“No, I cannot.” Williams immediately said.
“My God!” Jasmine leaned back and closed her eyes. “Why don’t you do something to make him remember everything?” Jasmine desperately said.
“Dibbu, please leave now.” Before turning herself to Jasmine, Rose said. Before Rose started saying, Dibbu left that place.
“Why you are talking like that Rita? You are asking the same thing again and again. Your brother’s good health condition is most important than his remembering everything now itself. I am promising you that he would remember everything in due course. But we should not force it.” Rose said.
“I am sorry I talked in haste.” Jasmine said. “What you have said is absolutely true. My brother’s good health condition is most important. He is behaving alright now. If he remembers everything later, what is the problem if he does not remember now?”
“Thank you very much. You are really very understandable.” Rose laughed.
“But this situation is very annoying and irritating to me. I myself cannot wait long to remember everything.” Williams said.
“Oh, Will, please.” Rose said. “We have discussed this matter many a time. You must be patient.”
After that they three talked for some more time.
***
“I just completed this book.” Giving the device back to Rose, Williams said. He read the ebook which Rose read before in it. “A variety book.” He said again.
“Have you enjoyed it?” looking at the opened page on her tablet Rose asked him.
“I did. Thoroughly.” Williams chortled. “But a different title ‘a village, a forest and an old mansion’.” He breathed deeply. “But it appeared that the writer supports rapes also.”
“I don’t think so.” Rose said. “What he said is appearing reasonable to me also.”
“You are amazing to me. I don’t expect that you do talk in this way.” Williams really surprised on hearing that.
“There is no surprise in your thinking like that.”She paused for a moment before continuing. “But if you analyze the matter a little more and look deeper, you can see some reason in what the writer has said.”
“It seems that you already have done that analyzing. Explain that to me.”
“Rape is little different comparing with the other crimes. Sex is like thirst, hunger. At some point it becomes unbearable and it desperately wants a way out.”
“And sometimes that way out may be rapes. It may not be a crime if a very hungry person steals a loaf. In the same way if a sexually starved person commits rape, it may not amount to a crime. This is what your opinion, is it is not?” Williams sarcastically said.
“Even you said it sarcastically, you said part truth. Sex has got a crazy driving force. And in males it would be even more. You are a man, tell me, how you do feel if you starve for sex for a long time?” Rose questioned him.
“You have not given me a chance to starve for that.”
“Tell me the situation before I came into your life.”
“You know I cannot remember anything before your entering into my life.”
“I forgot.” Rose laughed. “But I told you the truth. Sometimes it makes them mad. In some exceptional situations, rapes also are condonable.”
“Don’t say it anywhere else.” Williams panicked. “The whole women folk banish you from their kingdom. Not just that you may be awarded with death punishment.”
“How you do feel if I say about my sister in full to you, I cannot imagine!”
“Liza, that practicing lawyer? She is as beautiful as you are. Is her ideology also like yours? You said that she is your role model.”
“The irony is………..” Rose said “……….despite making her my role model, I cannot appreciate her ideology in full. I cannot follow her footsteps.”
“Then how she could become your role model?”
“With her individual thinking. With her courageous commitments. With her self-respect.”
“I cannot understand even a little bit.” Williams said.
Then Rose explained to him how her sister paid the debt back to their neighbor. Williams’ mouth dropped open when he heard it in full.
“My God! What type of thinking is that?” there was still a shocking expression on his face.
“But she is right in a way, is not she?” Rose asked him.
Williams nodded his head helplessly. “May be. But I cannot think like that.”
“I do explain another thing that happened in her life.” Rose said. “On one occasion she was gang-raped by three of her friends.”
Williams became aghast. “What she did then?”
“She excused those three people. She did not even tell that episode to anyone else except to me.”
“Why did she leave those rascals scot-free?” Williams’ face blushed with anger. He had seen Liza in their marriage and he had a good opinion on her. Her idiosyncrasy was shocking to him.
“She understood them. One of the three was a widower starving for sex for a long time. For some particular reasons the other two also were facing the same situation for a considerable period. It was such a situation that they could not control themselves at all. In a desperate situation they three raped her like animals. But she understood them and forgave them.”
Williams hissed out heavily. “A very typical woman! I cannot understand her.”
“I cannot say why but I admire her in many a way. She is most understandable and courageous.”
Williams remained silent. He did not know what to say.
“We do come to the novel. There is a psychologist in that novel. And a doctor, gynecologist. It is quite interesting.”
“Of course, it is interesting.” Williams nodded his head. “And I remember the story also. That gynecologist was raped by her two friends while doing combined study with them. She was financed by the fathers of those boys to study medicine. They financed her only to keep her silent and not to go to court against their sons.”
“What an ironic situation! I just don’t know whether she has to feel happy or sad.” Rose hissed out. “Without their help so, there was no chance to her to become a doctor! She was such poor!”
Williams did not say anything.
“I have forgotten to say something to you. I invited my sister to our home. She would be here just in one or two days.” After some silence Rose said.
“I really like her being here.” But he did not know how much he meant that.
***
“Yes, what I am saying is true. There is every chance that Williams remembers everything at some point of time in future.” Rita said.
“How much time it may take?” Peterson asked her.
“I cannot say. But as per that psychiatrist’s estimation just in two years he may remember everything.”
“It is indeed our bad luck that the efficient psychiatrist married him.” Peterson said.
“You are absolutely right.” Rita said. “Not just that, she is marvelous! Amazingly beautiful!”
“I think, even it does not happen all by itself, she makes him cured, she makes him alright and she makes him remember everything.” Peterson thoughtfully said.
“She said it would not be better to force him remember anything. But you are right, she makes him alright in all respects and makes him remember everything indirectly.”
Peterson hissed out heavily. “What is the best thing to do in your opinion now?” he asked looking into the face of Rita.
“Get rid of him. Send him away from the earth itself.” Her voice was cool.
“That is impossible. You too know about it. Chief would not allow it.”
“Why so? It is the Chief who does suffer more if Williams remembered that?” Rita knitted her brows together.
“It is just like that. Don’t ask me the reasons.” Peterson irritated.
“Then we have to face the consequences when it happens. We have to die with fear everyday thinking when he remembers that.” Rita’s face was with full of anxiousness. “If Chief is in danger, we are also in danger. Just try to remember how much our lives are linked with that Chief.”
“I do take Chief opinion on this. Basing on that we shall decide what to do.” Peterson said.
(I hope that you enjoyed the story till here. I update the next chapter as soon as possible. Don’t forget to rate and review this story)
