Sarah and Nicolas, the soon-to-wed couple bring Samara across the border to Canada, hidden in their vehicle as she’s wrongfully accused of carrying illegal drugs. At the border, they pretend to be married although they aren’t, and Sarah is arrested for carrying an ornamental gold pagoda in her handbag. She’s bailed out the following day and a court case is filed. She wonders why Nicolas and Samara don’t turn up to inquire after her, and learns later that they’re in a secret affair and they’ve betrayed her. She attends the court case alone, pays a fine and faces a suspended sentence of six months imprisonment. The following week, she flies to a city far away, finds employment there and settles down. She follows a university course to become a teacher. She coincidentally meets a young man (Sherman) and falls in love with him. He suggests Sarah to be his niece’s home-visiting tutor.
Episode 8
So passed a few more months with sweet rendezvous, until Sherman really decided to introduce Sarah to his family. And one evening, he did. His sister, two brothers, and little niece were ready to welcome her.
They lived in an ordinary house, but Sarah viewed it like a mansion. She walked in there with Sherman; however, for some reason she tried to relate the bail prison she spent one night in, to the manor she just entered. She weighed her thoughts between the two lodgings. She marvelled the first one, the bail prison, and the second was yet another question. It was palatial and enormous. Anyone could hide there without being seen for a few days. Sarah thought that there could be many hide-outs there. It looked mysterious.
“This is my sister, Kumberlin, my two brothers Sidney and Jerad, and my little niece Kristina”, Sherman said, doing a formal introduction, “and this is Sarah.”
Soon the two brothers vanished into their own work and so did Sherman to the interior of the house and Sarah and Kumberlin were left alone in the living area with little Kristina.
And so, it happened. The host and the guest had their eyes meet, and it took them both to a long-ago past. Sarah wasn’t sure if it was a quick travel to the past, but it was clear. She identified it in no time. They both had forgotten some catastrophic incident, no matter how apparent it was in their eyes. Sarah felt uncomfortable.
She wished she could run away, but she felt trapped. She felt as if there had been a major conspiracy involving the two of them, whatever it was. She couldn’t move away. She felt stuck to the ground and weak. She stopped making any effort as it took her nowhere, but only made her weaker; it made her feel in a bigger trap.
Also, she identified the familiarity in her face well, although it was to a negative effect. Kumberlin was definitely a middle-aged lady. Sarah thought that her short hair suited her face well. She didn’t know that Kumberlin disliked maintaining long hair in her attempt to look younger. Whether her attempt was successful or not was left for the individual, however. She was a lady with average height. And her weight didn’t have much burden on her.
Sarah had her eyes linger around her, trying to bring her into memory but she failed. Nevertheless, she knew it was a brilliant encounter. At least she was fortunate that way.
Her knowledge was nothing but an excellent one, and obviously she was tensed as a matter of fact. Kumberlin gave a triumphant smile.
She was delighted that she was having her turn of preying the girl, although she didn’t know it, and also she didn’t remember the reason for it. She was captured by sadism at her first glance at Sarah. In a way, it was reasonable, most certainly, in her eyes.
“Hello Sarah, nice to meet you.” She muttered under her breath.
“Nice to meet you too.” Sarah said.
Sarah put up a smile on her face in spite of her uneasiness. Kumberlin noticed it. She enjoyed Sarah’s present discomfort; it gave her pleasure for the time being.
Now there was quite a distance between the two parties. In her uneasiness, Sarah made sure she maintained considerable space, although she felt she had no way out; it was evident. Both ladies examined each other for some more time. Each envied in embracing the other.
They were indeed happy that they both had met again to bring their incompletion to an end. But they were unsure if they would be successful, at least this time, if it would come to an end. They weren’t even aware of the inner-working of their minds and they quickly came back to themselves.
“You’re exactly the same dear girl I expected.” Kumberlin said, scrutinizing her face much deeper.
Sarah smiled in her anxiety and Kumberlin felt even more triumphant. Sarah’s most apparent fretfulness brought nothing but delight to Kumberlin. She simply liked to see Sarah fret, even if she was in a greater agony.
She hardly felt her own heartbreak; it was a thing to be ignored now. She had a pastime in hand. A wonderful one: Making Sarah feel uncomfortable and be happy about it!
“I was very happy that Kristina’s having a home visiting tutor and when Sherman said you’re a university student of Education, I knew you were the ideal teacher for her.”
Sarah looked at little Kristina while listening to Kumberlin and the little girl gave her a smile, a genuine one. She looked as if she was very pleased to have Sarah as her tutor.
Soon all three of them were taking a walk in the garden; it was quite a large one in comparison with the house. There was an orchid yard, a large pond with beautiful fish and three well-grown trees that Sarah couldn’t identify.
“Do you know what this tree is?” Kumberlin asked, pointing at one.
“No.” Sarah gave a brief answer.
“That’s an avocado tree.”
Sarah scanned into the tree, captured some fruit with her eyes and tried to identify them.
“But just because there’re avocados there, don’t think that’s an avocado tree!” Kumberlin muttered.
Sarah was confused to hear her words, and she quickly looked at her trying to understand her. How can a tree that bore avocados, not be an avocado tree?
And why would Kumberlin make such weird comments? Kumberlin burst out laughing to see Sarah in confusion. She enjoyed seeing her puzzled. Sarah faintly smiled, knowing that Sherman’s sister was just trying to tease her.
She looked down so that she couldn’t see Kumberlin anymore. She was uncertain of the probability of her existence before and after she was apparent, as she disappeared from her sight when she looked down.
Sometimes she desired to investigate its form, but it brought her disappointment as she failed in understanding it. Really speaking, her disappointment had nothing to do with the appearance and the disappearance of the lady who she was taking a walk with now, but it had everything to do with form.
In a while, she directed her eyes at Kumberlin and noticed that she had become silent while aiming her eyes at Sarah. What a rightful prey Sarah was to her! Sarah suddenly began to see her fall. She could see her shadow. There was no change in it. Sarah was puzzled.
Can the shadow be still when the real fact moved? It was a good question. Sarah didn’t enjoy this collapse, but she couldn’t help it. It was real. The little partitions that she was made with held her tight, however, just as they did with Sarah. Nevertheless, the triumphant smile on her face didn’t fade away. It was there just like it was.
They walked back inside.
“Come here love!” Sarah woke up from her thoughts with one call from Kumberlin.
She walked towards her.
“Turn your head! I’m just admiring your hair.”
Sarah smiled while taking a seat. She turned her head around so that Kumberlin could have a proper look at her hair.
Kumberlin began to feel Sarah’s hair with her fingers, trying to break her natural curls, and Sarah felt uncomfortable.
She liked to maintain curls. She thought that it brought her true appearance. Her present experience of someone trying to undo her curls wasn’t a good one. It wasn’t possible to undo them, anyway, as they were natural curls. The more Kumberlin tried to break them, the more they went back to their original position.
“You have pretty long hair. Why not just put it down without hiding it in curls? Let your hair be! It suits you.” Kumberlin said in the same low voice.
Sarah was in utter discomfort but she spoke contrary to what she thought.
“Yes, I know. Hair should be natural.”
“Exactly.” The confirming words came from Kumberlin.
The contemporary nature of her wording was very clear when she spoke. True, Kumberlin was middle-aged, but her words were clear and the tone of her dialect was well updated. Sarah tried to go hand-in-hand with her, although it wasn’t necessary.
Her effort of trying to change Sarah’s hair was irritating, but she was still tolerating it when Jerad, one of the brothers, went past them with a slight gesture. He drove off in his car and Kumberlin made her remark.
“He’s sometimes a playful little monster. Gets late to come home, so I have asked him to see me as soon as he comes. Then I know the time he’s home.”
It was a quick explanation and Sarah gave out a brief laugh. All what she could see in Jerad was nothing but lightheartedness. She liked it. It was something new to her. She hadn’t seen this easy-going nature earlier. She was happy that she was going to see more of it, obviously. She still had her eyes, following him when Sherman called them to the table.
The table was well arranged with supper and they all sat. It was Sarah, Sherman, Kumberlin, Kristina, and Sidney at the table as Jerad had just left. They started serving themselves.
Sarah was methodical in what she was doing, but, of course, nervous. In addition to her nervousness, she was overwhelmed by uneasiness in front of Sherman’s sister. Kumberlin’s vigilant eyes watched Sarah carefully.
She enjoyed Sarah’s uneasiness. She not only didn’t know the reason for it, but she also didn’t bother trying to find any reason; it simply made her day.
She started having her supper seated at her special spot. There was a little table that helped her when she preferred taking meals in her own bedroom, otherwise, she joined the family in the dining hall.
While having the meal, they discussed about the forthcoming tuition that needed to be started for Kristina. According to Kumberlin it had to start very soon.
It was a very important need and a necessity. Leaving alone the present sadism she enjoyed with regard to Sarah, teasing her and making her feel uncomfortable, she was happy that she had found a tutor.
And of all, in addition to the unknown reason, there was another clear reason for her sadistic attitude, which sprang from one unfortunate incident that nobody knew.
It was the reason for the death of her husband, Christus. No one really knew the cause of his death except Kumberlin herself.
To be continued next week
Copyright - Santhoshya Jayamali Seneviratne