THE WIND BLEW ALL NIGHT
Again the wind started banging the tin roof continuously which makes the noise of "clang-clang". They were frightened of the whole roof blowing away because of that storm. Kaley's mother and father looked up at the ceiling. The tin was blackened by wood smoke and in many places there was water droplets because of that smoke. Some branch of tree were holding those eighty ninety sheets of tin from blowing off the wind.
"How strong the wind is blowing in the hills! 'How hard it blows" said Kaley's mother while they were about to sleep the banging of the roof stopped, then she sat at the fireplace.
"It's never going to stop!" said Kaley's father, "It's been a whole week now! As soon as he end his sentence the rain was started again.
When it rains I'm afraid of landslides. We were fool to come and live here. The raining became heavier which makes the noise on the roof move blaring. they could no longer hear the sound of single drops. It may wash everything away, they may be bury down from the landslides.
It appear as if the storm is going pull away the house along with it.
"Lord Mahakal! You are our Saviour!"
The wind was banging the wooden shelves against the wall. All the cupboards were soaked from inside and out. The bed was shifted from its regular place to a spot where no rain could leaked down. Kaley was sleeping holding onto his little sister.
"It was you who forced me to build the house here! Kaley's father was suddenly angry. "Or else, we would have enjoying our lives living in a proper building in the town, working for the police. We didn't have to worry about storms or landslides there."
Kaley's mother said nothing.
He said, You have become such a big landowner! You'll pay for it.
"Go away, sleep cautiously" said Kaley's mother, what can we do? The rains are always like his in July. if we died from this landslide' we die. It happens every year. If the time has come to die what can we do?
You want to die that's why you want to came here and now you're going to get it. The rain was lightened a little. The wife made some tea in the mug, as the storm was lessened now, they could hear the drops of the rainwater pouring down from the edge of the roof. As he drank his tea, he asked, " what time do you think it is now?"
kaley's mother said- who knows? Eleven or twelve O' clock.
" will it be alright now, do you think?"
"It will have to be".
He stood up after finishing his tea an went to the door, he kicked against a pot which was catching the drips from the roof, and water splash out everywhere.
"can't you watch while walking?" said his wife, and spread out a sack. He said nothing and opened the door and listened out into the darkness. The Rung-dung river was thundering terribly, making the hillsides tremble. He was hearing the different kind of noises imagining the river washing up the whole trees, and the water becoming yellow with mud from the landslides.
It was so dark outside that he could not even see his hand. He called his wife from the outside "Bring a torch!" Kaley's mother pulled an old black torch light out from under a pillow and brought it to him.
"It's blown all the sheeting off the cowshed". Kaley's father switched on the torch and went down. The eye-shaped light of the torch appeared on the soaked ground and the grass.
Kaley's father collected the pieces of sheeting that had blown off, and climbed up onto the roof. He straightened the tin sheets and weighed them down with rocks. It was dizziling now.
In the morning, Kaley's father was draining the flood from the yard, He shouted, don't forget to buy some nails, i'll have to spend the whole day hammering. as kaley's mother set off to town with a chin of milk on her shoulder.
After about an hour and a half, she reached at moktan babu's door near the courthouse. As she poured the milk the pretty girl who was the mistress of the house showed her some kindness.
"come in and sit down and have a cup of hot tea before you go." She shut her umbrella; stood in the doorway, and went inside.
"It was so terrible storm said Kaley's mom we didn't whole night! Us too! said the mistress.
"The wind was clattering the windows all night, I didn't sleep at all.
"Oh, that much only ? " joked Kaley's mother. Her face was dark, her body was strong, she was nearly forty. "That wind nearly blew our house. It took our whole yard away, I think house is going too!, I don't even have time to say 'it's raining' the cow can't be left hungry, I have to run out to cut the grass the feed them. If I don't sleep at night, I don't get a chance to sleep in the day.
"Yes, it's true, we have it easy here," said the mistress, with symapthy, "Our roof got leaked, though, It ruined our clothes, books and everything. Now the power's shut off."
"But when you see our situation there, It's pathetic, while I'm here, I really get distracted as soon as it starts raining again, worrying about what's happening at home. Yesterday that wind broke all my maize plants, nothing was spared.
Kaley's mother went off to deliver the milk elsewhere.
Now she regrets after they had suffered that much in that disaster, she felt that they had gained nothing from working in the land and living in the village. They had been comfortable in town. At the end of each moth they would have received salary. The children didn't have to go far to their school, she didn't have to get soaked when she went to draw water, the streets were easy to walk on, and mostly there were no fears of storms and landslides. Her headaches all the time since they started farming.
she had no spare time left since they started working on that land. She were ashamed of her hands, cracked by dust and cowdung, and of her fingers, they couldn't go away from the house even for a day, to travel far away was a impossible dream for them. She have to go on working hard like this until the day she died.
Was she killing herself with all this work just so that she could eat and clothe herself? And what did they eat, afterall? What kind of clothes did they wear? she had to conceal her food in case someone saw what made up their meals. Dressed like this she felt ashamed of herself in front of other people.
She arrived at the house of the half-caste man who worked at the police station. she knocked on the window of the locked door and called, "Milk!" A girl wearing grubby pyjamas came out to collect it. As she poured out a bucketful, the women shouted to her from inside.
"Bring an extra three kilos tomorrow, sister, to make creamed rice. Bring good milk, won't you!"
"Tell her I can't. It's hard to deliver right now. After that storm, I might not come tomorrow. Tell her to try somewhere else."
The women had overheared: she came out of the door and looked at kaley's mother.
"You bring the milk. How can I go out looking for milk in this weather? You bring it. It's little Dipak's birthday."
"I can't." Her voice was weary. She looked at the half-caste woman: her clothes were so clean, her face was so fair: how fine her hands were! her house were full of sofas and beds, her cupboards are full of sarees. she doesn't have to touch soil and mud or sweep up cowdung, she doesn't have to be afraid of the weather.
"There's not enough milk. And if the weather's like this tomorrow I won't be coming.
"And you expect us to drink the tea without milk all day long? What are you talking about? Bring us the milk whatever is the weather!"
Kaley's mother went down the steps and out towards the bazaar without saying another word. As she walked along the road she muttered herself,
"Oh its killing my family, living like this. Frightened of storms and landslides day and night, making our living by turning over the soil twice a years on two acres of land. I'm going to sell both the cows, and the heifers. I'll sell the whole lot once I've got a good price. I'm going to sell the land too. And the tin and wood from house and the cowshed. I'm going to take a little room in the town, for five or six rupees.I'll sell greens in the market, like Thuley's mother does. He knows masonry and carpentry, or else he could easily get work as watchman. I'll be able to bring up those two children far more easily. I'm not going to live in that desolate place anymore."
She felt much better once she had decided this. The ache in her legs disappeared, she no longer cared about getting soaked in the rain. In this cheerful mood, she approached the food store in the middle alleyway. There she brought two annas of peas and cickpeas, and put them in her bag. The tailor's wife was shopping there too, so kaley's mother asked her, "Are there any rooms available near you, sister?"
"No there aren't. Why, sister have you had a landslides?"
"No, I'm just looking for some where to live near the bazaar. For 10 or 15 rupees, not too far from a water supply and a lavatory."
"There's one room," said the tailor's wife, a thin woman, "with two rupees for power, it's twelve rupees in all. There was a plainsman renting it, but he's left. I'll let you know tomorrow sister."
"I'll come and see you myself. Tomorrow, at about this time." She opened her umbrella and headed for mal godam. She had two more delivers to make before she went home. She arrived on B.B. Gurung's verandah. The house had been full of people since nearly morning. a few stood outside, talking under umbrellas. Kaley's mother went around to the back to deliver the milk. She could not discover what was going on. something must have happened- either to the husband or to the wife; there were no children. The fat wife used to come and go all day, her wooden sandals clacking. She went allover town carrying her white cat, Nini. The husband owned a dry cleaning shop up on laden-la road.
"What's happened? Why are all these people here?" she asked the woman who came from next door to collect the milk. "Nini's mother had a fall last night. She's unconscious." "Where did she fall ?"
She heard that the cat had been outside in the the rain when the door was locked in the night. It must have mewed and mewed, but nobody heard it above the din of the storm. When rain eased a little, there had been a search for the cat. They had looked outside, and called and called, but the cat had not come. Nini's mother's sandal has slipped as she was going down the hill to look for the cat, and she fallen down on the road. A doctor had been called urgently, but he hadn't come at once. The woman was still unconscious.
"It's all the result of that stupid cat!" said Kaley's mother quietly. "That's it there, isn't it?"
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