WALLS
Lal Chakraborty

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21Ân ®gh˦u¡l£, 2003

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Part I : Chapter 1  

Carlos Mark was the village idiot.  I first saw the little girl on the night Carlos started digging.  I was just a little too drunk.  On such nights, they called me Zen, a name that stuck and soon became my permanent and only known name.  

"What are you doing?" I asked Carlos with my eyes on the little girl.  She was fragile and thin, her dress torn and eyes weary with exhaustion.  At least that is what I saw her to be through my drunken eyes.   

"I am building myself a fort."  He stopped digging for a moment and looked up at me. "Yes sir. A big, big fort. Everything will be inside it, your house, the pub, Mr. Banya’s shop, King’s palace even your sweetheart's house. Ha ha ha…"  

Carlos was like that. Always mad. I sure would mind my sweetheart’s house being inside his fort. However since I had none, I let it go this time. "Who is she?"  

"This girl? I don’t know. Who are you," he asked the girl.  

The girl didn’t answer. She went on digging without looking up. Carlos went on digging too. I think he didn’t expect an answer from the girl.  

I yawned and went home.

When I reached home, I found my cat, Prince of Cairo, stretched out on the floor. His paws were very straight. "Too straight for normal."  

I bent down and felt a dead cat in my palm. Prince of Cairo was my only friend in this world and as I sat down on the corner of the wobbling wooden chair, I felt abysmally sad. Prince was a royal being and yet so near to me. I sat down with my head buried in my hands and tears flowing down my face. At last, it dawned on me that I ought to bury Prince and the prospect of going out and digging a big hole was not a very cheerful one on a chilly night. Then I knew the answer.

I looked around myself and felt satisfied. Both Carlos and the girl were gone and there was a big hole that would be enough to hold Prince. I sat down beside the hole and looked into it. I wasn’t too eager to put Prince down there. The hole looked awful cold and as soon as I touched the insides of the hole with my hand, I knew it felt cold too. And then the fear seized me. One day I will lie stretched out like Prince of Cairo and then everyone is going to cover me with this cold damp mud. And even if I try to get out, I won’t budge it even a little bit. I would be suffocated even after death. What if Prince felt like that?  

"What are you doing here? Want to work with us?" I didn’t notice Carlos and the girl had come back with some big stones in their hands. Evidently, they had not abandoned their project yet.  

"What’s that in your hand?" Carlos asked.  

I was silent. The girl came near and looked at Prince. Her face lit up with a broad smile. She put down the stones, took Prince from my hand and after looking at him for a full minute bent her head and kissed his face.  

Prince shook his head, scratched her face, jumped down and ran off.  

I worked that whole night beside her, digging earth, tugging stones, and making walls. Who would leave a girl who can give back life with a kiss? Not I.  

By dawn, we had erected eight feet of a small wall of mud and stones. I retired as soon as I heard noises of waking up. I didn’t want others to see me working with Carlos - the village idiot. I got up from the pit, told Carlos and the little girl goodbye and walked home. Half way I noticed the girl following me. I pretended not to notice and walked on until I came to the house. She stopped behind me when I stopped to unlock my door.  

The door opened into darkness and after a couple of minutes of clumsy groping for a match, I finally lit a light. She walked right in and smiled when she spotted Prince cuddled on my cot. Without a word, she lay down on the cot beside Prince and the two were indistinguishable. I was amazed and tired. After fruitlessly trying to make some conversation, I went to sleep on the floor.  

I woke up very late that morning with a splitting headache and my aching bones. I had worked too hard the earlier night. I didn’t see the girl in the house. I rose painfully, washed myself and prepared a breakfast of bread. The smell of food is what brought the girl back. Probably she was hanging around the house. I asked her to sit and gave her some bread. Her eyes looked happy now. Her fingers held the bread like it was the most precious commodity. She raised the bread to her face, almost ready to kiss it. Her teeth sank into it very softly. Her eyes smiled at me.  

"What is your name?"  

"Miro"  

"Where do you stay?"  

Silence.  

"Who are your parents?"  

She chewed in silence.  

"When did you come?"  

Silence again. Other than her name, I could know nothing from her that morning.  

I thought talking about me would put her to ease. "I am Zen. I stay alone over here in this room...  

"Have been here alone since three years. That is when my mother died...  

"I do nothing much. Sell some vegetables for the little money that I need...  

"I have a sister who is married. She lives twenty miles down the river. She has a little girl. A little littler than you I guess. Will be seven next spring...  

"You can stay with me if you want to...  

"I am eighteen. I can take care of you...  

"I think you are thirteen years old."  

She munched her bread, ate the crumbs, and drank water. Then she got up and walked out through the door. I jumped up, "Stop. Won’t you even thank me for the food?"  

She broke into a run and I let her go. I knew where she was going. I had to tidy up my house. This was not clean enough for a girl. I cleaned up a corner of the room and spread some straw on the ground. Then I laid a blanket. That would have to be my bed as long as she lives with me. I also took out all my smelly clothes, washed them and hung them out to dry. I dusted my room and packed most of my things into my wooden case. The case also served as the table and I already had a stool for sitting. I just needed one more. That could easily be made out of the wood that lay piled outside the house. It didn't take me long to make a stool.

The room looked good now. I picked up few potatoes from my garden, some cabbage and dug up some onions with green juicy shoots. They would make a fine pottage with some salt pork thrown in. I could get the meat on my way back. I would get some bread and ale too. It was only after I finished all these chores; it occurred to me that there were some other things to think about.

"What would others say if a girl starts living in my house? After all, I am not old enough to be her guardian. I could tell them that she is my cousin whose parents have died. But who would believe me? And the girl might give me away. Then the King (he was not a real king, just the lord of the manor, but we called him that because he was so rich) would sure hold a common meeting and would come up with a verdict of a hundred lashes in the public. Mark had been whipped for sleeping with Jacobs’s wife just a year back. So what will I do? May be if I marry her then they would let her stay. But then would she marry me? And she is so small. "I think I will tell them that I am waiting for her to grow up and marry me. And if they don’t like it I can always tell them that I am ready to marry her now." After all, who would leave a girl who can bring back life with a kiss? Not I."  

I was not perfectly satisfied with my plan, for ours was a very tight system. And no one was allowed outside the rules. Traditions. Nothing but traditions. That’s how we go. And an unmarried girl was a big NO NO in a boy’s house. But I needn’t have worried. There was a bigger trouble brewing in the village that absorbed all attention - fort of Carlos, the fort of the maniac. We, Miro and I, remained out of focus and grew such close that I did not bother about cleaning up the house and washing the smelly clothes any more.