Venomous Nectar

 

Venomous Nectar

The 60-year-old man turned around with a bit of disappointment in his face. However hard had he been trying; no progress is seen. But he didn’t lose hope. He is determined to yield what he is yearning for.

The 30-year-old woman had a scorn on her face; her eyes glued to the receding figure of the man. She shut the door with a bang, bewildered at the unforeseen incident.

***

The man stood at her doorstep for the fourth time. He is confident that he will make it happen. That tinge of pride shone on his face as he recollected how he always came out with flying colours in such situations. He gave a pep talk to himself. “You are well-versed at this. You can handle this one too. If not you, who can?”

Her fair skin turned pale, seeing him wait at the doorstep. He greeted her with a broad smile and stepped in.  She silently picked up the baby boy and went in. There are burning questions in her mind. “Is this for real?” She questioned herself several times.

***

“Why is he acting weird today?” was the first question on her mind, a week ago when all this started to happen. He entered the house just like any other day. She was used to his visits every now and then, as a child too. Now that she is back to her maiden home for a brief period, she welcomed him and handed over the newborn baby. He played with the baby for a while and gave him back. That’s when his hands brushed her bosom for a split second. She was startled at the unexpected touch. She was taken aback looking at the smile on his face. “Did he not notice it? Is he behaving as if nothing has happened, only to neutralize that embarrassment?”

The next day while she was serving snacks, he bent forward on the pretext of helping himself; and in that process, his shoulders brushed hers for what she felt was a bit longer than needed. She was baffled at the turn of events. She knew something was not right and began to observe him closely from afar. She started paying attention to incidents that one would generally take for granted with close associates. She realized that many a time, his fingers touched hers while passing the sleeping baby, or while handing over something to her. She also recollected that he often tapped her shoulder in an affectionate manner.

***

On another day, he tried playing footsie with her. “She is no longer a child to do so! How on earth can he behave like that?” She was shell-shocked. She wanted to shoo him away but kept quiet for some unknown reason.

He turned up the very next day, anticipating some positive response from the woman though he couldn’t fathom the meaning of her silence. He thought to himself, “Looks like she has no objection! But why is she not responding to my hinting? Why is she giving curt answers unlike before? Is she afraid of someone? How do I convince her? How do I proceed?”

***

 

This is hard to digest. This is something she has neither experienced nor expected, not even in her wildest dreams. She was baffled with buzzing questions in her mind. “What happened to this man? He never behaved like this earlier. Why now? He was jovial at his best and affectionate to the core. Wait! Was it not affection? Was there something else on his mind? Was I molested without even having a clue of it? Were those appreciative pats perversive? Were those occasional touch of fingertips intentional? Were those shoulder brushes not accidental but deliberate? Why did such a nasty thought cross his mind? He made a pass at me! How did he even dare to take that step?”

She wondered if she had ever done something that sent a wrong message to him. She is in a state of utter confusion. She avoided him for a while but unable to do so, for long. She came to her senses. She understood that avoiding a problem is not going to solve it. She started to look at various possibilities of getting rid of the man. Her husband is abroad. On one hand, telling him wouldn’t be of any use while on the other hand, it would add up to his tension.

She, hesitatingly, shared it with her mother. She was numb for some time and said, “He is like your father. Don’t imagine things. You know him from your childhood. Don’t you know how affectionate he is to you? Don’t mistake affection for lust.”

She is now contemplating of what and how to do. That’s when her dad came to her aid. He is the one who sensed that something was wrong with her. He held her close and asked what’s bothering her. She broke down instantly, at his affection. The pain that she has been enduring for the past few days gushed out in the form of tears. She told her father that the man had been acting weird for quite some time and she was unable to make heads and tails of his behaviour.

The father was expecting something tough but this one seemed brutal to him. The man is a neighbour who often visits their house. He is almost the same age as him, which means he has children of the same age as his daughter. His blood boiled for a while. He was unable to control his anger. But he could neither lodge a complaint nor thrash him for what he did. He assured his daughter that he will look into the matter and that the man wouldn’t mess with her anymore.

***

Sruthi didn’t know what her father had done, but there was an abrupt end to the old man’s visits. In a few months, she moved to her husband’s place and his love made her brush away that distasteful incident. One fine day, she happened to bump into her cousin Varsha and the next moment, they made plans for a sleepover.

Sruthi and Varsha used to spend their summer vacation together when they were kids. Later, Varsha joined a hostel during her intermediate and she never found time for a vacation after that. Now that they are together after so long, they literally went back to their childhood. They laughed till their stomachs ached, gossiped till their ears bled and talked till their throats went dry. They shared the best, worst, funniest, scariest and saddest incidents of their lives with each other. Sruthi noticed that varsha was taken aback and had difficulty coming to terms with herself for some time when she spoke about her recent unpleasant experience. She quickly changed the topic to make her feel comfortable.

***

Varsha is lost in her thoughts. The chirping birds caught her attention. She noticed the mother bird feeding its little ones. “That motherly affection is unconditional!”, she thought. “But, does a mother’s love end by feeding? Doesn’t she have to stand by her child during every ebb and flow? Isn’t emotional support essential for a child from its mother?”

She reflected on Sruthi’s words, on how her dad supported her and stood like a pillar of support protecting her from evil eyes. Memories from past flooded, which brought to surface, her past encounter with a moron. She wondered why her mother shut her up when such a thing happened to her.

That was a nightmare to her. The images are pretty clear in her mind as if they happened just the day before. She was groped allover by a callused hand while she was asleep.  She tried to shout, but his sturdy hand didn’t let the sound escape. Her eyes went wide discovering the familiar face in an unfamiliar situation. She complained to her mother that she was touched abusively.  To her bemusement, her mom stated as a atter of fact, “He would have thought that it is his wife. We are all sleeping in the same hall. How could he know where she is?” She felt defeated and cheated. The sexual abuse felt far better than the defense of her petrified mom. Her mom refused to understand that he did it intentionally.

Varsha felt betrayed. She was scared to death to go to bed for the next two days. The disgusting memory of his lustful eyes and drooling mouth sent chills down her spine.  She vowed to herself that it’s going to be her last visit to that place.

Varsha’s head is still throbbing with questions. “How on earth can a man be so sensible and supportive to his daughter, when he had the guts to grope his brother’s daughter who was sleeping next to his daughter? Did I not seem to him as his daughter? I was just a few years elder to her. Why the hell was I treated like that?”