THE FOLK
[At that time cities will be dominated by thieves, the Vedas will be contaminated by speculative interpretations of atheists, political leaders will virtually consume the citizens, and the so-called priests and intellectuals will be devotees of their bellies and genitals.] – Srimad Bhagavatam 12.3.32
PADMA
That night, I have the dream again.
I'm at the edge of a big house made out of the sand. The house is same as my hut but of sand and the ground beneath is unsteady. The ground I'm standing on is starting to shake. EARTHQUAKE – I hear my mother shouting.
I see my people running here and there.
“The Creator has sent it to punish us.” I hear my mother saying.
“We shouldn’t do rebel against him.” another voice, whose – don't know.
“The Creator is the God.” someone else shouts into my ears.
And then I see it. The ocean is rushing to us. It’s breaking and wiping the huts in its way. Water is moving so fast it looks like a giant made of the water, running to kill all in the wall, crushing and wiping all our huts.
I'm terrified I'm want to run, but for some reason, I can't run, even as I know the water will kill me, it will wipe me like it has wiped all the huts and people inside them, I don’t run.
I don’t run because my mother is there. She is crying and shouting. “We shouldn’t go against the creator, he sends Pralaya to punish us.”
I run to my mother. She is exact in the way of the water. I reach near her.
“Pralaya came back.” She cries. Her eyes are open wide in terror, her mouth is split apart as though she is screaming, and her arms are extended on either side of her. She is sobbing as though she is waiting to embrace me.
I hug her, she wraps her hand around my body as she did when she was in her sense.
I look at the coming water through water in my eyes, knowing any second I'm going to die with my mother.
That's when I wake up. No – something has woken me up.
A loud knocking has woken me and it’s early in the morning. I’m barely get up on my elbows when the door opens and more than ten people come in with various weapons in their hands – knives, blades, axes, and sticks, neither primitive like us nor modern like Nirbhayas.
“Good morning.” These are the words I hear as a man from strangers steps ahead and say with a stiff nod.
The man next to him pulls the door shut behind them. He drags a chair from the corner which we haven’t seen last night due to dark and offers it to that man.
The strange man takes a seat/ he looks at us, his eyes scanning everyone.
“Rise and be ready to answer my question.” the man says as I look at him, he flashes a strange smile, his eyes settled on me.
I understand he is the man in authority.
I’m groggy from sleep. The dream of last night about a happy life in the wall clouds my mind.
“What?” I ask as I couldn’t catch what the man said.
I rub my eyes and my eyes got rid of grogginess. I see the man properly. He is tall and his clothes are different. He isn’t in a shirt. I don’t know what that was but his upper was like a shirt but not with buttons. It was fit on his body, revealing his muscled chest and biceps. Around his neck is a long black muffler.
I try to remember if I’ve seen such a man before but I can’t recall any memory of seeing such a face in my life.
The man kicks me and asks, “Are you the leader?”
“No,” I say. I don’t want to give him any details about us, at least not before knowing who he is.
“Then who is the bloody leader?”
“We have no leader,” I said and again he swings his leg, it catches my lungs. Pain burns inside my body and I moan.
“You said you trespass the city without a leader?”I see the fire in his eyes, “the next lie and you will die.” He puts a blade on my neck.
“How many of you have entered the city?” this is the question that dragged me back in the time of last few hours.
“What are you thinking, girl?” he speaks in an angry voice, “tell me how many of you have entered the city and what’s your intention?”
I don’t answer. Just looks at them and notice their faces are different than us, even different than Nirbhayas and traders. They aren’t Devatas. If they were we would be dead.
The last option is the folk.
“Are you Folk?” I ask.
I feel a punch on my jaw first and then hear the words, “if I were you I shouldn’t have questioned.”
“I’m afraid I don’t have much of a choice,” I say, “If I’ll tell you the truth, you’ll kill me.”
“Why?” I see the surprise on his face.
I look at other teenagers. They all are on their knee, trying to understand what’s going on. Jalpa is several steps away from me, trembling.
“Look at me, girl,” he says, “the time for the lie is over. Nothing is going to work if you try to lie.”
I nod.
“Now tell me the truth.”
“Tell me how many of you have entered the city?” he asks looking at me.
I’m on my knees, unable to stand as one of his men puts a blade on my neck.
“I don’t know.” I say, “We don’t know.”
“Do you have a death wish?” a flicker of change passes over the man’s expression.
“I don’t care about the death,” I say, feeling bolder by remembering the last day, “I’ve seen it very closely.”
“Whoa.” The strange man smiles, “Bravo, but believe me, this time death won’t go back empty-handed.” The man stands from his chair and leans forwards to me, “now tell me the truth.”
“Not until I know who is questioning me.” I feel good to let such words fly out of me. I’m braver than I’ve imagined, “don’t you think it’ll be easy if we know each other?”
The man standing beside me raises his first but the man in authority stops him by throwing a hand in the air.
“So you are the leader?” he says, “Am I right?”
I nod, looking around. Teenagers around me have chosen me as their leader and that’s why no one has spoken while I’m speaking.
“So are you telling me that I should tell you who I am before knowing who are you and why you have entered our city without permission?” the anger is rising in his voice, “do you think I would?”
“Let we get an easy way?” I say but he cut me off.
“I’m not finished.”
“Okay.” I nod.
“I’m the owner of this place and my people believe me their leader. It’s my duty to keep them away from every trouble, and you, kids have come suddenly and we don’t know who you are and what your intention is.” He pauses and looks over us, “what do you think how long would you survive if you don’t open your mouth?”
“Are you finished?” I ask when he stops.
He nods.
“How could I believe you won’t kill us after we tell you the truth?” I say. “How could you possibly expect me to?”
I’ve spoken much but I realize after speaking. My chest lurches with heavy breath. Perhaps I’ve spoken in a single breath. I’ve to get control on myself. The man in front of me is dangerous, his eyes are like a hunter and no doubt the man is dangerous.
I force my breathing to slow and look at him, “we were 230 people till last day but now we are 36 if no one has died in when we slept.” My eyes grow wet, “we’ve seen our parents died in front of our eyes and...” my voice chokes under emotion, “we aren’t in a position to trust anyone.” I say and wait for the answer, every teenager around is looking at me. All the stranger eyes are looking me, too.
Several second passes in complete silence, then the stranger speaks, “I’m sorry to hear about the awful things happened with you.” He looks at his men, and then at me, “but I’m here so the same awful thing couldn’t happen with my people. Tell us the truth; if you aren’t dangerous for us we’ll help you.”
I slowly shook my head. When he says he is here to save his people from awful things I can’t fight the tears back. “We are from in the wall.” I say, “We were working in a building near the water channel and then a troop of Nirbhayas came and started to kill us. Our parents fought back but they killed them.” A sob escapes from me and I hear some of the teenagers around me crying, “Our parents sacrificed their lives to save us they gave a stand against them till we reached the channel and jumped into the water.”
“Don’t you have Nirbhayas with you?” he asks.
“We’ve.”
“Didn’t they help you?”
“They did but not directly.” I say, “They have warned us in the morning and told us to escape but the moment we gathered things and about to escape the troop attacked.”
“Do you know why they attacked?”
“There is a rebellion in the wall.” I say, “They want to send our dead bodies in the train as punishment.”
“The Creator will give us a big reward for them.” I hear one of them and my heart pounds. I shouldn’t tell them the truth but I have no other way.
“No, we will hand them to Devatas and they will give us some magic.” Another one speaks, looking at the man in charge.
“What if we give them to the troop searching for them?” another one goes near their leader, “don’t they give us many curved swords as a reward?”
I feel pounding of my heart increasing with every comment of them.
*
To be continue.....
