The young man in military green had come to find, only when the bus moved on to the highway, that his purse was missing. He was not sure, where could have he missed it. Not much money was left in it, but for a black and white group photo of his family. Dismissing out of his mind, the chance of a photograph proving a long lost son to his parents, he fished out some money from his hand bag and bought his tickets. He was returning after a long time to find back his family.
When he got down at his native village, it was already getting dark. The house in which he took his birth was occupied by strangers. And also he found that he himself had become a stranger to the whole village. In the twenty years of his absence, all the old known people had disappeared, it seemed. He was perplexed. But, luckily, the village folks could guide him to a known old family.
At the so called Policeman House, where he was directed to, he was greeted by a young woman, wearing a very low cut blouse exposing half of her breasts. Feeling ill at ease to look at her face, he addressed her half exposed breasts. Yet she grasped him.
- Ah, Chandru, you've returned at last! Can't you recognize me, your childhood friend Mala?
With nostalgia, he realized that in his childhood days he was called only as 'Chandru'. He ran away from home to be brought up by a patriot to make a soldier out of him. And the army people made it a practice to call him by his last name 'Mohan'; also by which he introduced himself a week back, he recalled, to the gorgeous girl residing by the railway station he alighted. And his full name was, in fact, Chandramohan.
- Thank God, Mala, I found here at last a soul, who could recognize me. Oh, the way the village has changed!
- It's quite a long time since you left this place, you know.
- And some unknown people are there in my house. What happened, Mala, to my parents and sister?
- Your parents sold your house, soon after you left and went to a tea estate in Kerala and...
- You do have their address, no?
- But...I think...dad knows their whereabouts. Right now, he is on a pilgrimage. Let Kumar my brother come; he may be a help. But, first, come and have something to eat.
Giving first something to eat...this earth has not yet dried up, after all!
Mala and her younger brother Kumar were his closest friends in his childhood days. The three of them, as a set, always play together. And Mala was a brave girl. She used to dive jump into the deep irrigation wells dug in the fields around the village. Mohan and Kumar learned their swimming only from her. But Mala had a funny habit. As soon as she jumped into a well, she would pull away her clothes; toss them off, on the steps, and swim naked. She was around twelve years old then, having tits bulged out to the size of lemons; and vulva, to the size of an 'idly' (a South Indian rice cake). And Mohan was at ten, then, and Kumar was around eight years old.
And even now, as he was eating the food Mala served, Mohan could see that she hadn't changed a bit. When she bent down, her low cut blouse exhibited him her breasts down to their dark areoles and darker nipples. And on her sit downs and stand ups, her sari moved carelessly to reveal, now and then, all of her thighs and even more. A born exhibitionist she is, he thought as he smiled within.
- And you ran away from home, because your dad beat you up.
- Yes, Mala, but that was history.
- But it was not history the sole reason why your dad beat you up. The only other soul who knows it is perhaps me.
- But... how...?
- I was there on the scene, you know. I came there to call you for a swimming. And I found you there behind your house, on your knees, with a chocolate on your palm; and your younger sister standing beside, with her skirt hiked up, panty rolled down, displaying her gleaming little triangle. I hid myself to watch what was going to further up, but your father stormed in from nowhere and the rest, of course, is history.
- It was all because of you. Chanced to look quite often at your nakedness...me...
- Don't blame me for your own inclinations. I understand very well the natural itching of a brother for his own sister. It happens, you know...
By then her brother Kumar arrived. He was in uniform: a policeman after his father. Kumar, as his sister, was very happy and proud to meet their childhood friend, who had been back as a responsible army man.
Kumar, after his dinner, had himself closed in with his sister in a nearby room. And when they emerged out, Mohan could feel something bad.
- Mala didn't tell you, in the first place, only to have you had some food. I feel worse to give you this news: your mom and dad are long been dead. Nearly six years now.
There was a long silence. Mohan tried very hard to fight down his emotions.
- How?
- An accident: a land slide in the mountains; both together...our dad had been to the funeral.
- And my sister?
- She is ok. Married, dad said, to a Malayalee. Don't worry; dad will help you finding her.
Mala and Kumar tried their best to cheer him up. Of course, as they pointed out, it was long since it happened.
And about Mala and Kumar he came to know, as they told him, that Mala was married in a large family in a southern town. Her husband was a salesman, touring most of the time, giving her no trouble. And she had a twelve year old daughter going to school, but her in-laws are so supportive that she didn't have to trouble after her, either. Kumar, on the other hand, was yet to get married.
Mohan was given to view a photo album. It was Mala's marriage album. While scanning through it, he observed, in a few photos, a familiar face: the girl he met a week back at the teashop thatched house by the railway station he alighted.
- Who is this one?
Mala came around behind him and bent as low as to load her ample breasts on his shoulder.
- Ah, yeah, that one indeed is Chandrakala, your own sister. Of course she was there at my marriage.
HORROR struck him.
- And where exactly is she, now?
- We told you, she married a local Malayalee, there in Kerala, but her exact address could be with our dad.
That night was almost sleepless to him. The face of that teashop thatched house girl was looming over, whenever he woke up from his disturbed sleep. And also he dreamed a dream again and again in which Mala exchanged in nude. Though her boobs were large with long nipples, her vulva was hairless and smooth as it was on those days she swam inside the irrigation wells.
There was chillness in the night wind that again was not to his comfort. And then, in the middle of the night, he heard murmur nearby. It knocked out his sleep completely.
- I'm afraid he may wake up.