What's her mistake ? - 14

What is this lady’s real character? Once she laughs, the next moment she becomes serious. Which one to believe? I kept wondering.

I stole a glance towards Nammu Aunty. She was very eager to know. I felt this way. May be Nammu Aunty was eager to know how a person of her own age dealt with the situation of children being away from her, the husband being died. Do you have a question? That is, how I could think for Nammu Aunty? I didn’t think for her. My own thoughts were in the same direction!

Dammu was back in her olden days. Now she was a fifteen year old.

“Yes, I fell in love with a man... who was about 40 years”

This was a shocker for me. Forty years! That means he was twenty five years elder to her. She could be of the age of his daughter if he had married on time and a daughter!

“Oh, don’t have that shocking look Nammu!  People say love is blind. In my case I was blind... what I mean is the lover was blind” she smiled a rueful smile.

Then her face became animated. “Do you know how handsome he was? My God! He was like a Greek God! Adonis! I came to know of his age after I had..... Well, young man... I can talk in front of you without any qualms. Still, my modesty says I should say in disguised words. Yes, I came to know he was forty after I was his bedmate”

I understood that she meant after she had slept with him.

I felt pathetic. She was a fifteen year old girl. He was forty. How can he take advantage of her? Did his conscience not admonish him before... you know what!

But Dammu looked very cool and not at all repentant.

“Do you know Nammu? When I was fifteen, I looked twenty two. My body structure was like that. I was very curious to go ahead with that. So I lied to him about my age. I had sex with him with complete agreement from my side” she declared.

I was squirming a bit. This detail was not very comfortable for me. But I had no choice. She is talking about this as if it is another action like eating, sleeping etc.,

“My father was not there for quite some time and this made me very lonely. It was at that time this man came to stay as my neighbor. The loneliness combined with his handsomeness, his friendly smile and attitude all combined to make me melt in front of him like ice cream” she was very dreamy in her looks and voice. May be reminiscence of the golden moments of the olden days.

Well, I can’t judge someone just because she had sex with someone long ago. She is a good woman. She took Nammu Aunty to stay in her house. She is allowing me to stay with her with a promise of good salary and a recommendation letter. I should start assuming responsibilities and ‘earn’ my salary.

“The clandestine affair continued whenever we were alone. I was feeling uncomfortable in front my father when he was at home. Am I right in doing such a thing behind his back? Is this what I am returning for a good upbringing? There were plenty of questions in my mind which kept making me guilty to the core. This can’t go on. I have to tell my father, I kept telling myself”

She took a sip of the banana milkshake and continued talking. “But suddenly things became worse. Father had a heart attack and called his lawyer to make his will. His property was self-made and he willingly transferred to my name. I was thinking, ok, I will transfer this to my boyfriend who is going to be my husband shortly. Then I can rest for my life. I hated looking after my father’s property which is going to be mine once.... I could not think of the next words.. he dies” she completed the sentence, put the glass on the teepoy and looked at us.

“I sound so callous, isn’t it? I was only sixteen and a half when my father transferred his property to my name. All I could think of is my boyfriend, his nice words and his .... technique”

We did not know what to talk.

There was silence for some time.

Then Nammu Aunty asked, “Did you marry your ... boy.. friend?”

“No, I could not” There was a streak of pain in Dammu’s voice.

“Why? His parents objected?” I asked.

“I could have fought with anyone in this world to get him. Except...”

She took a deep breath and said, “ With Yama, the God of Death”

Both Nammu Aunty and I looked at each other shockingly.