BEAUTY OF INNOCENCE

Early morning of the following day, telling a lie to his mother, Samantha left his home with the intention of meeting Nandana Menike on her way to the bungalow. Unfortunately, his dream world collapsed when he saw Koinmenika going alone to the bungalow. Samantha was somehow firmly determined to meet Nandana Menike on that day.

Kapilasena, having filled the barrel with the amount of clay, which he could carry, he adjusted the piece of gunny sack to be kept on his shoulder properly. Before shouldering the barrel, by chance, he noticed Samantha was descending the slope towards the water spout. Though he made up his mind initially to avoid him, again feeling sorry for him, he changed his mind. Samantha hurried towards him as he saw Kapilasena was glancing at him.

"I stopped seeing coming down the slope…" His cordial expression brought Samantha a sense of consolation.

"Today, Nanda is at home…? Isn't she…?"

Kapilasena realized that Samantha was well aware of NandaMenike's location as he had been on alert the day before, when Koinmenika was going to the bungalow.

"Hamu's are said to be going to Colombo…, Punchi Amma also went to the bungalow saying that she would come back before noon…"

"Is aunty also at home…?" He inquired about Yasawathi.

"If she goes somewhere, it's only up to the water spout…, is she going to the grocery at least…?"

Yasawathi remained at home round the clock. She hardly went out.

"Did you tell her of my yesterday's visit…?"

"How can I…? Saw her coming last evening…, and in the morning when she was sweeping the compound, Yasawathi was there close by… you see…"

Samantha urged Kapilasena to extend his helping hand to get him a chance to meet Nandana Menike as Samantha knew Yasawathi's role as a side supporter for his pottery work. He had to mark time hiding behind the bush until the correct time arrived. He could observe Nandana Menike going here and there a few times. As she was seen wearing a pair of shorts and a blouse, a beauty, which had never been seen, was visible.

The spinning sound of the pottery's wheel signaled the safest moment for him to meet Nandana Menike. Since the dog was not to be seen, without hesitation, he tip toed towards the Nandana Menike's house. When he was peeping through the open window, he could see Nandana Menike was trying to change her blouse. Samantha could have a glance at the growing gold colour breasts of her teen age. She noted the subtle change of the ray of the sun coming through the window by instinct and in no time she put the raised blouse down without removing it and turned her head. She was astounded to find Samantha there.

"What are you doing here…?" She got angry for Samantha's peeping through the window, when she was changing her blouse.

She moved away from the window. After a while, she came out of the main door surveying the surroundings.

"Are you mad Samantha…? I don't know what… if mother comes…"

Samantha tried to pacify her mind saying Kapilasena's alertness and signal, in case mother came that way. Samantha in fact had a great desire to get to know about the letter sent to her and her reactions for it. Her mention of not receiving the letter created a sneaking suspicion. He thought that she was purposefully trying to avoid him.

Nandana Menike got lost for words with the sight of the Village Officer and some other valuation officers who were heading for the Nandana Menike's house. Samantha was terrified when the dog came running from the back side of the house and started barking at the visitors.

"Ah, Samantha son…! You are also here…" The Village officer sarcastically glancing at Samantha passed that remark.

Samantha looked around being at a loss to say or do anything. The Village officer, who was apparently in his late forties, turned his eyes towards Nandana Menike's legs. Samantha felt disgusted to see the manner he glanced at Nandana Menike licking his lower lip. Nandana Menike being embarrassed sensed that the visitors' eyes had turned more towards her dress. She immediately went inside the house.

"Wait, I'll call mother…" Nandana Menike found her way out to keep away from the vulgar eyes.

The assessors started their valuation process according to the details given by the Village Officer. Yasawathi came towards them with Kapilasena. She was averse to see Samantha along with the visitors.

"Ah, Yasawathi…, we came to assess your house…"

Yasawathi in a humble manner invited them to come into the house and take a seat. Surveying the items in the living room they took their seats.

"You all are now well off …!" His eyes were looking for Nandana Menike.

Samantha being in the compound outside was wavering between two worlds – either to leave or remain there. Samantha thought that his leaving could be a reason for Nandana Menike to get scolded in vain by Yasawathi. So he made up his mind to face anything that would come on his way. There was enough room for Yasawathi to think that Samantha had come there with the Village officer.

"Hmm, look like a Colombo lady even at home with your dress…!"

Yasawathi didn't respond and kept quiet as if she didn't hear anything.

"I need all the details of your family to fill in this form… Ask Koinamma also to come…" Keeping the printed form on the file, the village officer told Yasawathi, raising his eye brows.

"Went to the bungalow… will come for lunch…"

"Your girl…, where's she…? She is now not a kid… Isn't she…? Ask her to come and fill in this form as I say…"

Before he finished his words Nandana Menike came to the living room wearing a long frock. The Village officer gave her the form casting a subtle glance at her.

"Yasawathi, have you heard…? 'A bird in hand is worthier than two in the bush'… You know, village lad is much better… anyway it is good that she has gone for an ideal choice… He is a nice young man of a refined taste…" He initiated the conversation with Yasawathi passing a hint of his awareness of the relationship between Nandana Menike and Samantha.

"What's the meaning of that…?" Yasawathi was astounded by the words the Village officer uttered and she showed her reaction with a frown at him. His mood changed in no time. A feeling of fear was etched on Nandana Menike's face.

"Yasawathi, it's not a matter to get that much angry…, generally young boys and girls should know each other very well…"

Having noticed the changed of her mood, he tried to cool her down. The daughter knew that her mother was on the verge of exceeding the limit of tolerance.

"You came here… to talk about my girl…?" The Village officer was taken aback by the direct question Yasawathi raised.

"He came here… not with you all…?" Out of increasing rage, Yasawathi asked breathing faster.

Village officer nodded his head to indicate that Samantha hadn't come with them. Nandana Menike got up quickly to stop her as she could imagine the nature of the impending disaster. Yasawathi ran towards Samantha, without considering the people around. Samantha cast a pleading look at her expecting some kind of consolation. Instead, she came shouting loudly and slapped Samantha. Samantha lost his balance as Yasawathi came so hastily and started beating him. As a result both of them fell down. Yasawathi took hold his neck and squeezed like a she-tiger. She scratched his cheeks with her nails, which resulted in abrasion. If Nandana Menike and Kapilasena hadn't rushed there, Samantha should have been in great trouble as a result of strangulation.

Escaping from Yasawathi's hold, Samantha quickly got up and looked petrified with a feeling of utter shame. He found himself adrift in the world of helplessness and looked at Nandana Menike. Yasawathi seeing that started beating her too. The Village officer and Kapilasena intervened to settle the dispute. One of the valuation officers, consoling Samantha, took him away from the scene that it would be the most appropriate action to prevent the aggravation. The valuation officers were greatly disturbed by the screaming of Yasawathi and decided to stop their assessing process and leave the place.

Nandana Menike's mental agony was more painful than the sound beating of her mother. Nandana Menike went to the corner of the corridor and started sobbing till she felt a bit relieved. Kapilasena, with a sense of frustration, tried to control Yasawathi's demented behavior.

Samantha came up to the water spout and surveyed the surrounding. Since there was none to be seen, he bent down and cupped his hands to get some cool water to wash his face. There were marks of abrasion on his cheeks and he felt the pain when being washed. His desperate world was shrouded with more distress. His elbows had been bruised when he fell down onto the compound and also had difficulty when turning his head. If he went home with those injuries and marks, he knew that he would have no answers to be given to the questions raised by his sister and mother in particular. Even going to a friend's would make no difference. Since he was at a loss to decide anything at that moment, he went up to the jungle area just above the water spout to avoid the confrontation of anybody, as he had no other option to hide from that disgraceful incident.

The commotion that took place at Yasawathi's place turned into a gossip and was spread all over the village in no time. It travelled from mouth to mouth and house to house adding more ingredients. The Village officer made up of the story as he himself was an eye-witness to see the way how Gunadasa's son and Yasawathi's daughter enacted their love scene in isolation in the veranda. The other details bore relevance to what actually happened there. That news didn't take much time to fly to Samantha's house either. The story that reached Samantha's house was a more exaggerated one. The story had gone up to the extent that Nandana Menike and Samantha had been naked in their love scene when the Village officer and the other officers went to that place the valuation purpose. Further, it was said that it was Yasawathi who had backed her daughter for that. Since there was no clue as to where Samantha was, some of his relatives and friends started combing the area. Some neighbors came to Yasawathi's house after hearing the news. Kapilasena explained to them the real picture of the story. Yasawathi took no efforts to answer any of them. The neighbour's didn't try to ask anything from Yasawathi as they knew the frenetic nature of Yasawathi when she got angry.

The news reached the ears of Koinmenika when she was on her way back home from the bungalow. She was shocked to hear the baseless allegations against her niece. Nandana Menike, who had been sobbing, felt relieved with the sight of her grandma. She applied oil on Nandana Menike's bruises and abrasion without inquiring anything about the incident.

There was another gossip being circulated across the village about the disappearance of Samantha. It was said that he had committed suicide being unable to face the society. Samantha's mother, who had been injected with all sorts of gossips and fueled by some outsiders, came running to Yasawathi's house.

"You…, bloody bitch…! What did you do keeping my son inside your ghetto…? Tell me…, tell me…!" She continued her verbal attack with sobs.

The two women who came with Samantha's mother tried to pacify her mind. Koinmenika came out of the house to face her.

"Hey, where's that slattern…? Loitering prostitute..? Having made one, now trying to show your nakedness to my son… and deceive him as well… bloody rascals…"

Koinmenika quietly looked at her letting her vent out her anger and to calm down herself. The people who were gathered there looked at the scene in amazement and exchanged some ideas among themselves without interfering with the show. Samantha's mother went on shouting and screaming until she got fully exhausted. She cursed them lying on the compound and hitting the ground with both hands. Her loud cry was converted into a weak sob as she had run short of energy to prolong it that way. Koinmenika came close to her.

"Nothing of that sort happened here…, he has been here a few times… neither do I whitewash our one… But all these days, she was not here… she was with me at the bungalow…" Koinmenika said loudly enabling the onlookers to hear it clearly.

With the arrival of Samantha's father to the spot soon after the news reached his ears, the groaning woman again got into the demented behavior. In fact, she represented her son. Gunadasa kept his wife under control stopping her shouting and gibbering as he wanted to learn from Koinmenika what had really taken place there. She explained everything of what she knew and Kapilasena too helped her mentioning the story of the goblet, without uttering a single word about the letter. Gunadasa looked at his wife to know the truth of it.

"For the goblet, son got money from me… I didn't know the slattern's girl has fancied my son… They have fooled my son putting him into this ghetto… My darling son…, if something happens to my son, you see…, I will not allow anyone of you to be among the living… I will not miss a single kovil… and remember…, destroy you all…! Mind you…!"

"Here…, the letter… you see… your son gave this to my girl…" Yasawathi took out the letter which she had screwed up in her fist and gave it to Gunadasa.

Gunadasa took the letter and unfolded it. He had a glance from top to the bottom and bottom to the top and made out his son's hand writing. With a frenzied look she frowned at the onlookers.

"Yes…, all of you… be aware of this…! What you all need is to know the truth…! Yes…, because of my ignorance, I did sleep with Victor Hamu…! That's the only mistake I ever committed… I am a bad character… alright… but don't let me reveal the true nature of the character certificates of these maidens who are throwing stones being inside glass houses… Remember…! I brought up this girl amidst all sort of sufferings, insults and what not…? He only salvation was nobody else, but my loving mother - The savior of my life… For my child, I need no character certificates from anybody..." Yasawathi, gnashing and slapping on her chest shouted loudly.

Her revelation turned out to be a new topic for the people around. Many of them didn't know who Victor was. They exchanged their ideas with one another with some interest. Hitherto the majority in the vicinity suspected that Nandana Menike's father was Raja Weerasekara or his son. However, it was revealed in public that the three tiered bungalow had no connection or responsibility over Yasawathi's fate.

"Go inside…! Quite enough now…, you said what you did want…" Koinamenika warned her pushing her towards the house.

Yasawathi went inside in abeyance, dragging her disarranged hair by both hands like a lunatic.

"What the hell are you doing here now…? Go back and see where your son is…!" Koinmenika's voice drew Gunadasa's attention.

Gunadasa turned back to look for his son with an unbearable pain in his heart. He thought that it was his first responsibility to give priority to locate his son somehow. Samantha's mother, with much repentance, followed her husband as he went out of the compound. By that time, she admitted herself that she had committed a blunder.

"Son you too go and help them to locate their child…, he is also a child…, No matter who's who…" Koinmenika urged Kapilasena in that way showing her kind-heartedness.

Until evening there was no clue about Samantha. Some villagers went up to the river in the far end to check whether Samantha had met with an accident there. Kapilasena suffered a lot and felt sorry for Samantha as he thought that his narrow-minded nature had created all the troubles. He turned back to go home as he felt terribly hungry and tired of the search. He went past the water spout and came up to the clay field. He paused there for a moment and held a suspicious look at the copse over the water spout. Kapilasena guessed that Samantha with his bumps and bruises wouldn't have gone that much far but would have hidden somewhere close by.

"It's unbelievable… still there's no clue about that boy…" Peter, a laborer of the estate was near the water spout with another labourer.

"We checked almost everywhere except this portion…"

When Kapilasena, gazing at that spinney, mentioned that, the others paid their attention towards that area. After about half an hour of their search, they were able to locate Samantha from that region. The took him home with a lot of consolatory and comforting words to pacify his mental and physical agony.