Maria the seductress
Was it love or lust? William had no inkling about it, when the tornado hit him in his college live.
William was not the only one from college who had been drawn in the massive tornado that swept the city. Many had been swept away by it, but had been rescued in due time. But the scares were left all over the body and a heart which bled profusely, waiting to be heeled.
Will William's heart heel and why Maria, the jilted lover of William, turn out to be a woman in serpent clothing's. Or was she really a serpent, as was being made out by the families of her former lovers.
Did she really play a cruel game, on a god-fearing, loving and cheerful village boy, who came to the city for education. But instead of a degree in education, he would end as one the faceless Casanova of the fast changing city and an unrecognized degree in love -making.
William, like him many other youths from the city had fallen prey to the lust seeking Maria colleagues, all whom got their tips of the deadly game from her. She derived pleasure from the game that her friends played with teenagers of the city college. Austin, George, Cajie, Royston and many more had lost their virginity to Maria and her friends .
Was Maria really the serpent, she was made out to be, many doubted it. They had to go by her looks as she had a demeanor of a harmless, ever helpful, cooperative neighbor; none took the accusations heaped on her by her ex lover's family at face value. That was her greater strength in the face of adversity Or was she herself a victim of the circumstances.
Read to find out more……..
The weather outside was typical tropical winter day weather, not unusual hot and not cold either. A weather which draws hordes of white skinned foreign tourists to bask in the sun, have a tan, sip bottles and bottles of beer and cheap wine, indulge in frolickers of sun bathing in the nude and snorting on doses of their favoured drugs and dance to the tunes of trance music.
That was all happening on the 105 kilometres coastline which Mother Nature has blessed the beach side hub of Goa, the western Indian state.
The city habitants who lived some six kilometers from the hustle and bustle of beach life were not too concerned on what went on the beach and what the foreigners did on the beach. That was a different world for them, a western world transported into a developing world. Were one night stands, dancing in the nude, walking or jogging topless on the beach, padeophiles prowling on the beaches, women selling sex on the beach and swingers clubs were all a new phenomena which the beach-side Goa was gearing up with a leap in tourism trade.
That was the other side of Goa for Maria, a devoted house wife to her husband and mother to Malcolm's children. Publicly she would flaunt her sexuality and hiding her eyes behind the big dark glasses she would flaunt at men's muscularity from top to both and especially, if the men belonged to be one of her ex-lover's. She took special pride and pressure in figuring out the changes her men had undergone over the years when he was away form her.
She oozed in her sex appeal, which made her tantalizing as a kill to beat the boredom. In her talks and in her walks she hardly gave the impression that she could hardly be the married woman who could prey on other man. But once in the confines of the wall of the double bedroom flat of Maria, the outside weather had no relation. She was in turmoil with her own self and in search of her own identity. A volcano waiting to erupt, the lava awaiting an outlet.
But then, she had to bhe confines of her social behaviour.
Maria, over the years even after giving birth to three children had the grace and elegance and the shape which a teenager would fall for. Her luscious lips were the most alluring of all and gave her wheatish complexion a perfect push up. She carried herself well and was apt in carrying a conversation on varied topics.
But deep inside her she was restless. Her daily chores started from cleaning the rice and than boiling it over the LPG cylinder, preparing vegetable dishes and non-vegetable dishes for her school returning children.
She had elegantly done the décor of her house imbibing the ideas and keen observations she had made on her numerous foreign junks with her seamen husband. The carpet in the sitting room was from Germany, the sofa covers were imported from Macau, and the furniture too was from Macau but sold locally by a dealer who imported it all the way. The mosquito net was part of the baggage from Netherlands and the Television set from Japan. The big wall clock which was hanged just over the giant 42 inch TV set was a gift from the captain of the ship and was assembled in Hungary.
The curtains came from Korea and had furious tigers and lions emerging from them all ready to pounce on you. The window curtains were transparent from inside, but the outside world could not peep into the inside world of Maria house. And it was done with a purpose. Maria relished her privacy and no intruder could peep into her house to have a view of her house and her world.
She had employed Ruksanna, a frail lady in her 50's to help in her house hold work. The amount of stress the widower had witness throughout her life had made her skin sag and her eye balls had retreated more into their sockets adding to her years.
She had lost count on the years she had been doing house hold works in the city. She as a young Muslim bride at 13, made her passage into Goa chasing a dream with her husband from across the western ghats (hills) and was called "ghatti".
The dreams remained only a distant mirage. Mother to Mustaq's fourteen children, her world was a crumbled one, with the cheap liquor available at every step in Goa piling up her agonies.
She stayed in a tin house with her children and ever since her husband's death she had to deal with the drunkenness of her seven sons. A house which floated when floods came gushing in with the seasonal rains further tossing upside down her shaky world.
Snakes sneaking into the house and deadly scorpions finding their way into their belongings was an every day occurrence for Ruksanna. And she did house hold chores for a half a dozen house holds in the area.
Maria's world was also drifting, unlike Ruksanna, she had the economic stability but she was in search of love and attention which a woman craves, a huge void she felt was left vacant in her life, which even after the age of 35 she has not been able to fulfill.
The lack of attention and non fulfillments of her needs - physical and emotional had crossed the brim. She was in constant conflict with herself and the values that society valued from a married lady with three grown up children.
And when she was alone pondering over the years gone by fast and thick, she would relive in the thrilling moments she had in the company of her lovers. The stolen moments of love and lust she spend in the hotels, the beaches, the water falls, the dams and the journeys they took through the congested roads.