CHAPTER I
Sumith and his family were waiting for a van that would take them from Puttalama to Eluwankulama. It would take them to an estate named Achchige Watte which means ‘Grandmother’s Estate’, where his father had found a job.
They had travelled a long distance. They had arrived in Puttalama from Kaluthara. First they had travelled from Kaluthara to Colombo and then from Colombo to Puttalama. The group included Sumith, his mother and father and his younger brother and sister.
The van leaving Puttalama turned off onto a deserted by–road. Vehicles rarely went down there. There were a few trees and houses on either side of the road and some thorny bushes here and there. Even the grass had turned to straw in the heat. They passed a few sheep with dirty coats and a few donkeys grazing on the dry grass.
As they went further, a large stretch of shining white fields appeared on the left. The terraced fields looked as if they were covered with snow. Men and women workers filled their baskets with the white stuff and emptied them in a place further away where it could be stored.
"Father, look there is ice!" shouted Sumith.
"No son, that’s not ice, that’s salt. We’re passing the salterns of Puttalama," Piyasena answered.
"Is that what we use in curry?" asked Sumith.
"Of course, son," said Sumith’s father, answering his questions patiently.
"But such a lot?"
"The whole country is supplied with salt by a few salterns like this one," replied Piyasena.
"My goodness! So much salt! How do they make it?"
"That’s a very interesting job, son. When you fill the terraces with sea–water and leave it over for a few days, the water evaporates and the salt crystallises. Those men are breaking the crystals that are formed this way."
"That’s a fine job. Don’t you think so father?"
"Hm."
Sumith kept on looking at the salterns that stretched over about half a mile. The whole place was deserted except for a few men with covered heads. There were no nice trees except for the odd Suriya tree. The only other trees were thorny bushes.
The salterns disappeared from the scene after some time. Soon, there were only patches of forest, some thorny bushes on either side of the road and nothing else.
You could see streams and pools once in a while. The stagnant water in some of them had turned green.
It was a tiring journey. Sumith was afraid he would be thrown out of the rickety van as it swerved on all the bends, braking hard or trying to accelerate. Dust was another problem. The speed of the van made the thick dust rise high up into the sky, covering everything around them.
The noise scared away a group of monkeys sitting on a withered tree. They got off the tree, climbed another and disappeared. A huge monitor lizard crossed the road and crawled under a bush.
"Sixth mile–post, sixth mile–post!" the conductor yelled. There were only a few houses to be seen all the way from Puttalama to the post. But this village seemed to have quite a few people. Most of them were Muslims.
A few people got off the van and a few others got in. The van had been full, chock–a–block all the way from Puttalama.
The area around the eighth mile–post was also quite full of people. There was a small school and a few mud houses with thatched roofs. There was a temple too, made of mud and whitewashed. A young priest squatted on the ground, weeding the garden.
Sumith and his family got off the van after travelling a short distance from the ninth mile–post. There weren’t too many houses here either but there were a few large coconut estates on either side of the road. Most of the coconut trees were withered because of the drought. Some trees were already dead, their tops shrivelled up.
Piyasena walked ahead with the old suitcase and the bag containing the tackle. Sumith’s younger brother, Upali, held on to his father’s hand. Sumith was next. He carried the bundle of sleeping mats in one hand and the lantern in the other. His mother, Somalatha, walked behind them carrying their younger sister, Renuka, in one arm and the bag with the rest of the tackle in the other hand.
‘Achchi’s Estate’ lay along a gravel pathway that turned off from the tarred road. As they reached the gate, a middle-aged man with a limp spoke to them.
"Are you the people sent by Master Ranasinghe?" he asked, speaking Sinhala with a Tamil accent.
"Yes, yes, we are," Piyasena replied.
"Come, come, we were waiting for you," said the Tamil man. As he spoke, he took out a bunch of keys that hung from his waist and opened the gate.
"You have to keep the gate locked at all times. Everyone going to the lagoon wants to cross the estate," he explained. "Let’s go. Let’s go." He closed the gate and locked it again.
"Sister looks tired. Let me take that bag," he said, offering to help Somalatha. They followed him. They were dog-tired carrying all the tackle this far and their faces and clothes were drenched with sweat.
Sumith’s hands felt as if they would break under the weight. His forehead burned in the hot sun and he was dripping with sweat. He was so thirsty he could have swallowed his tongue but he decided to walk the rest of the journey with courage in his heart.
Piyasena walked ahead, talking to the Tamil man. He said his name was Muththaia. He walked sideways because of his limp. His leg was bent like a bow below the knee.
There were Tamils in Sumith’s earlier estate too. He remembered the man they called uncle Nithynandan." How kind he was," thought Sumith.
When they were in Kaluthara, Nithynandan had helped their family in every possible way. Nithynandan’s children were Sumith’s best friends. He remembered Pushpawalli and Rathnavel.
"What must they be doing now?" he wondered. Sumith remembered the tears in their eyes when his family had left the estate. "They must still be sad that we left," he thought.
Muththaia took Piyasena and his family to a small mud house thatched with coconut leaves. The floor had been rubbed with cow dung. A boy about Sumith’s age, who was cleaning a stick in the compound, left the stick and the knife there and ran into the house.
"Come, come right in," Muththaia called, tidying some of the things lying around. Piyasena put the suitcase and the bag with the tackle in a corner. Sumith put his load right next to it.
"No, Brother, we are alright here."
Piyasena sat down on a wooden bed. Somalatha sat on a chair with Renuka on her lap. Upali stood close to his mother as Sumith edged quietly towards Piyasena.
"How hot the sun is in this area!" Piyasena said, unbuttoning his shirt at the neck and blowing onto his chest.
"Yes, Aiya, there hasn’t been a drop of rain for months!" Muththaia said in his broken Sinhala.
As Muththaia talked, Meenachchi peeped out of the door, smiled innocently at everyone and went back into the house. She was Muththaia’s wife.
The child who had run inside
earlier peeped through a crack in the door. He smiled shyly, shuffling his
feet. Sumith knew he was smiling at him but was too shy to smile back.
CHAPTER II
That day, all of them slept in Muththaia’s house. Sumith and the younger children called him Muththaia uncle. Sumith made friends with his son the day they arrived. His name was Sivaraj.
On the first day, they walked around the estate. Sumith couldn’t believe its size. It was so huge. It was even bigger than the estate at Kaluthara.
The whole place was covered with thorny bushes. The ground was covered with Nerenchi, which had smaller thorns. All this was strange to Sumith but very familiar to Sivaraj.
Sumith tried to count the number of coconut trees around him. He was amazed at their height. "How could anyone climb them?" he wondered.
"A hundred trees, no, a thousand, no, five thousand. What nonsense, ten thousand," he went on adding.
Apart from the coconut trees, mango and cashew trees had been planted all over. Sumith was happy to see the mango trees though the little fruits were not ripe yet.
"This is a useless tree. The fruits it bears are not nice. We call them ‘Kerosene Mangoes’. The fruits on the big tree are very sweet and the fruits on the tree near the house are nice too. They’re called ‘Kartha–Kollomban’," Sivaraj started describing the mango trees to Sumith. Although Muththaia was not fluent in Sinhala, Sivaraj spoke it very well.
Sivaraj was taller than Sumith and fuller. He was also darker and always had a lot of oil in his hair. With all that oil, it stood up straight, like the needles on a porcupine. Sumith was lean and fairer.
Sumith and Sivaraj returned from their wandering quite late in the evening. Sumith’s mother and sister slept inside the house with Sivaraj’s mother and sister that night. Sumith, Sivaraj, Upali, Piyasena and Muththaia slept on the veranda. Piyasena and Muththaia talked about building a new house late into the night.
The next morning, they both got ready to go to the forest to fetch the wood they needed for the house. Piyasena held a long knife while Muththaia carried a rope and an axe.
"Can we come with you father?"
"Apoi, son, you can’t walk in the forest," Piyasena said.
"Aney, uncle, Sumith likes to see the forest." Sivaraj was on Sumith’s side.
"Let them join us, Aiya, aren’t they going with us? We won’t go that far."
Sumith was thrilled when Muththaia agreed. Finally, all four of them set off for the forest. The trees there were mostly Margosa, Weera and Palu. There were also some Eraminiya trees and a few other thorny ones all over.
"This is an ebony tree."
Sivaraj pointed to another tree. "The trunk of the tree is a deep black. Even the planks you see once the tree is felled are black," Sivaraj explained. Sumith remembered the huge intricately carved black almirah in the estate bungalow in Kaluthara. "That must have been made of ebony," he decided.
"Let’s go and pluck some wood-apples."
Sivaraj and Sumith went to the wood-apple tree. Sivaraj took some sticks and threw them at the fruits hanging from its branches. Sumith, a stranger to the jungle, stood aside and watched him.
Piyasena and Muththaia were close by so the boys could hear the timber being sawed quite clearly though they could not see them through the trees.
Sivaraj’s third throw brought down three wood–apples. Sumith ran to pick them up. "Let’s share them with our brothers," he suggested, biting into one.
"Of course, wood–apples are a plenty. It wouldn’t matter. Let’s take some."
Sivaraj began throwing sticks at the tree again. Sumith collected some twigs lying around and gave them to him.
Having plucked some more fruit, they filled up their pockets and wandered around. Suddenly a lizard appeared from nowhere and Sumith screamed.
Muththaia called out to them through the jungle.
"Illei Appa," Sivaraj shouted back in Tamil. "It’s only a lizard. It frightened Sumith," he explained.
"How can you live in the jungle if you’re so frightened?" Sivaraj teased. Sivaraj feared nothing and that made Sumith feel ashamed.
The two boys walked on. A few minutes later they heard a moan from underneath a bush. Curious, Sivaraj took a quick look.
"Sumith, come quickly, look at this!"
"What?"
"Look at that!"
"Isn’t that a tiny fawn? Why does its mother lie there?"
"She’s dead."
"Aney, what’s happened?"
"A gun-shot."
"What do you mean-?"
"People in the area tie guns to the trunks of trees to kill animals. One of those seems to have triggered off. It must have been tied by Jonathan uncle."
"What a sin! How will this little creature survive in the jungle?"
"Animals don’t feel lonely here."
"Let’s take him home and look after him."
"That’s right. That’s what we should do," agreed Sumith.
Sivaraj crept under the bush and came out, hugging the fawn. It was just like a human child. So innocent!
"It’s so scared it doesn’t even cry," Sivaraj said.
"What will happen to his mother?"
"Jonathan uncle will soon come looking for the mother. Let’s get him out before he comes."
Piyasena was surprised to see the sleeping fawn held close to Sivaraj’s chest. "Where did you catch him?"
"His mother had been shot dead. This fellow lay there crying beside her so we brought him with us. If Jonathan uncle saw the little one he would skin him too." Sivaraj said, stroking the fawn’s head.
"That rascal does nothing but kill innocent animals from dawn to dusk. Sinner! Now, why did you catch this little fellow?" Muththaia asked.
"We’re going to keep him, as our pet aren’t we Sumith?" Sivaraj looked at Sumith. Sumith nodded his head in agreement.
"And since when did you start liking pets?!" Muththaia exclaimed.
"No, no. We really want to look after him. Don’t we Sumith?" Once again, Sumith nodded his head in agreement.
While Sumith and Sivaraj had been exploring the jungle, their fathers had chopped most of the wood needed to build a small house.
"You can’t take all the timber at once, so let’s take some first and the rest later," Muththaia told him. Piyasena and Muththaia carried two heavy beams on their shoulders while Sumith and Sivaraj carried two smaller ones.
Sivaraj and Sumith continued their chit–chat as they went along. "My father limps because of a gun-shot," revealed Sivaraj.
"Don’t tell me!" said Sumith in surprise.
"When he went to the jungle one day, he got shot by a ‘tree–gun’, straight on his knee. He has been limping ever since."
Sumith watched Muththaia limping along with the heavy load on his shoulder and felt sorry for the older man.
"What are these ‘tree–guns’?" asked Sumith.
"It is a gun that people load with gunpowder and place on a forked stick. They tie one end of a string to the trigger and the other to a tree. When the animals trip over the string, the gun triggers off. If the police catch anyone trying such guns they are sure to go to jail."
"Did your father get shot like that?"
"Yes, even Jayasiri uncle’s leg was amputated because of a shot. Some people have even died from a gun-shot wound."
"Do they tie guns all over the jungle?"
"No, not everywhere. Only in places where the animals come."
"I feel really scared when I hear all this."
"You have to be careful when you walk around in the jungle."
"It would have been better to stay on at the Kaluthara estate," Sumith thought, as he heard these horrible stories.
With the wood from the jungle, the two men laid the foundation for a small house. Both Somalatha and Meenachchi chipped in.
Meenachchi collected a bundle of dried coconut leaves woven like mats for the thatching on the roof. Muththaia worked very hard to build their house. Sumith and Sivaraj helped in their own small way.
When the beams in the walls
were covered with mud and the roof was thatched with leaves, it looked like a
very nice house indeed. The floor was covered with cow dung, turned into a
cement–like paste. Mud for the walls, was kneaded with water from the
Mohotte Tank. Two big barrels belonging to the estate were taken to the tank
in a cart and filled with water. Whenever the cart was taken to the tank,
Sumith and Sivaraj walked beside it.
CHAPTER III
Sumith and his family have now settled into their new home. It is near the gate leading to the estate while Sivaraj’s house is at the other end.
Sumith attends the school at the tenth mile-post. Both Sivaraj and Sumith are in grade two. On the first day Sumith is surprised by the number of children in his class, there are only ten!
In fact, the whole school has very few children — not more than a hundred in all.
"How different this school is from the one at Kaluthara!" he thinks.
There are only four teachers in the whole school. Kindergarten, grade one and grade two have only one teacher. Sumith’s teacher teaches in his class and in other classes at the same time. The school is just one building. There aren’t enough desks and chairs for everyone. Children up to grade five sit on the floor.
His new school is about a mile from the estate but Sumith never feels the distance because he has Sivaraj for company.
Both Sivaraj and Sumith go to school and come home together. They come back home in the hot sun, which melts the tar on the road and turns the sand next to it red-hot. When Sumith and Sivaraj walk back, their feet burn in the hot sun. Most children here are poor and have no sandals or shoes. Both Sumith and Sivaraj walk barefoot.
When their soles burn, they run into the shade of a tree. After resting their feet a while they move on a little more, then again they look for shade.
They do this day after day on their way home from school.
As they reach the gate, Kira runs up to them playfully. Kira is the fawn they are bringing up and both of them are thrilled to see him after their long walk home.
Sumith is now familiar with both the estate and the tenth mile-post. Whenever he leaves the estate he asks Sivaraj to come with him. He is not afraid to go anywhere as long as Sivaraj is there.
They go to school for five days of the week and can’t wait for Saturday. On holidays they play to their hearts’ content. When they get home from school every day, they make plans for things to do on the weekend.
This Saturday they have planned to go into the forest but this time they will go into an area they haven’t been to before.
Though Sivaraj’s parents didn’t mind, Sumith’s parents never allowed him to go beyond the estate.
The jungle holds untold danger. One never knows when a gun may go off. Jonathan uncle sets most of the ones that do. He sets up two or three at different spots every evening. Come dawn, he creeps into the forest looking for the animals that have died. If none have, he just leaves the guns there and goes home.
Apart from Jonathan uncle, Sadiris and Sethupala hunt animals with tree–guns too.
In the jungle, Sumith was startled by a sound in a bush. "What’s that noise?"
"It’s a ghost!" Sivaraj looked at Sumith’s face.
Sumith felt his body freeze. "A ... a... a Ghost?"
"Yes, Muniyandi was shot here. Now, Muniyandi haunts this place."
Sumith’s heart pounded. "Let’s go, quickly, I’m frightened!"
"Why should you be frightened when I am here?"
"But what if the ghost comes?"
"Nonsense! My father says there’s no such thing as ghosts!"
"Then what was that sound?"
"That was a bird, didn’t you see the birds under the bush?"
"It doesn’t matter! Let’s go home."
"Chee! What a coward!" Saying that, Sivaraj turned back. Sumith still felt the fear in his heart. He was afraid to walk ahead of Sivaraj and afraid to walk behind him. It was only after they had walked for a while that he relaxed.
"Sha, look, a weaverbird’s nest! It’s beautiful!" all of a sudden Sumith was excited.
"Why, there are so many of these nests in the jungle!"
"We’ll take one to our new teacher!"
"To our new teacher? What for?"
"He’ll be thrilled to see a nest like this. I’m sure they don’t have nests like this in his village. Don’t you remember, he asked us about the birds in this area?"
"That’s right! Let’s take one for him. But how do I get it down without crushing it?"
"What if there are any babies in it?"
"There aren’t any. They’ve left the nest."
"How will you get it?"
"I know how! I’ll go up the tree and bend the branch downwards. Then, you take it off gently."
Sivaraj climbed up the tree and bent down the branch that held the nest. Sumith stood on tiptoe and took it off the tree.
The two friends went home,
dying to present the bird’s nest to their new teacher. They knew he would be
very pleased.
CHAPTER IV
The two friends woke up earlier than usual and started off to school.
"Let me carry it." Sumith took the nest and held it carefully. They continued their chit–chat on the way.
"Who will give the nest to Sir?"
"You’d better give it to him because you’re the one who suggested it."
"Then let’s both do it."
"I’ll come with you, but you must present it," said Sivaraj.
The distance to school seemed longer than on other days. They were in a tearing hurry to get there.
Seeing the nest, some children approached the two friends.
"Ha, why are you carrying a nest to school?" asked Kumari, the girl who always spoke with airs.
"We are taking it to our new teacher."
"What does he need such rubbish for?"
"Let’s see if he thinks its rubbish!" Sumith replied angrily.
They were early and their teacher had not yet arrived so they stood on either side of the nest, standing guard.
They couldn’t play as they did every day. They were afraid that someone would break the nest if they left it there.
Soon, the bell rang. Sivaraj and Sumith walked into the assembly hall long after everyone else had.
After ‘Pansil’, the principal started his long speech. Sumith was impatient and so was Sivaraj. Sumith stood on his toes anxiously and looked out to check that the nest was still safe. He didn’t hear a word the principal said. Both boys were distracted. All they could think of was their nest.
After the speech, the principal told them to leave the assembly. Sumith ran out at once. "You, boy, Sumith, come here!" the principal shouted. Sumith stood there mesmerised. Seeing the principal frowning at him, he froze.
"Where are you running to, like an animal without a yoke?"
"No, no, Sir."
Sumith started to stammer.
"No, Sir," he repeated.
"How did I ask you to return to class?"
Sumith kept quiet.
"Speak up!" his headmaster thundered.
"Single fi ... le?"
"Is this the way to go in a single file? After this, be careful. Now, go to class!"
Sumith was lucky to escape a public caning. With the headmaster watching, he inched his way slowly into the classroom.
Their class teacher got off the bus from Puttalama. He entered the office carrying his bags. The children in the classroom waited impatiently.
Then, the teacher entered and the children stood up and greeted him.
"Ayubowan."
"Ayubowan children."
Everyone sat down. Sumith and Sivaraj turned to each other not knowing what to do next. Would he shout if they took the nest to him, and make Kumari and the others laugh at them?
They waited and worried.
"Sir ... Sumith and Sivaraj have brought a nest!"
Lal, who sat in the second row, broke the news. Sumith and Sivaraj quaked with fear.
"Let me see it!"
As the teacher spoke, Sumith looked at Sivaraj. "Let’s go."
"No, no, you go ahead. You wanted to bring it."
"That’s okay. Let us both go."
They walked to the teacher with their gift.
"How beautiful!"
The two children felt proud and happy as their doubts and fears melted away. With all the other children watching them, Sumith and Sivaraj looked around the classroom like two young heroes.
"There are many nests in our area, too," said Lal.
"So why didn’t you bring any?"
"They are in the jungle," replied Lal.
"We got ours from the jungle, too," Sumith told Lal, as if they had done something truly heroic. Their teacher inspected the nest carefully and looked at both Sivaraj and Sumith. Then, he turned to the class.
"Well done! This is the first time I’ve seen a weaverbird’s nest. You don’t find them in our villages."
The teacher hung the nest from a nail above the blackboard for everyone to see.
That day their Sinhala lesson was about the bird’s nest. The teacher gave every child a chance to say what he knew about the weaverbird. Lal offered to tell everyone an interesting story.
Whenever the teacher was absent he told the class stories which the children liked to listen to. Kumari usually listened with her eyes wide and her mouth open. Lal usually made up his story on the spur of the moment.
Lal was good at telling the same story again and again, always adding a few new things as he went along. In Lal’s stories, tigers and bears could drive tractors… and the monkeys rode bicycles!
Soon, the teacher asked if anyone knew the story of the weaverbird. Immediately, Lal’s hand went up.
"I know, I know, I know it, Sir!" The teacher asked him to stand in front of the class and tell them his story, loudly, so that the whole class could hear. Lal came forward trembling with stage fright and started.
"Once upon a time, the king of birds called all his birds to him to tell them how to build nests. The Bird–King was the eagle. He began to teach them how to build their nests.
"The cuckoo thought to himself: ‘Is building houses such a big thing? Is there so much to learn about it?’ and he went away. A little later, the crow thought to himself, ‘If I can begin a nest this way, I can build the rest as I want, what am I wasting my precious time for?’ He flew away, too. Then all the birds started thinking like that and flew off. The only bird that waited until the end was the weaverbird. That is why this is the only bird who knows how to build a complete nest.
"Since the cuckoo left the earliest, it still hasn’t learnt how to build a nest. It lays its eggs in another’s nest. Since the crow only learnt the first lesson, its nest is only half-complete. Only the weaverbird learnt the whole lesson and it builds its nest so well that even a fly cannot enter. It keeps the entrance to the nest on the underside so that no animal can enter it either. That’s the story." The shy Lal started fidgeting nervously again.
The children had listened attentively and were thrilled. Even the teacher was pleased. He praised Lal and Lal’s shy little face filled with happiness.
That day, the children wrote an essay on ‘How the Weaverbird Builds His Nest’. Sumith really enjoyed writing on that topic.
Sumith and Sivaraj felt
wonderful. All these things had happened because of them, because they had
taken the weaverbird’s nest to class. After school, the teacher took the
nest to the house where he lodged.
CHAPTER V
It was a Sunday, so Sivaraj and Sumith decided to go into the jungle. When they first came to Achchige Watte, Sumith used to be afraid but now he is very fond of walking there. Sivaraj knew it inside out so there was nothing to fear.
Watching the birds and little insects as they roamed the forest together was so interesting. He loved to tour the jungle, creeping under thorny bushes and resting under great big trees. Thanks to Sivaraj, Sumith’s fear of the jungle had lessened. He had learned to avoid danger and enjoy its beauty because of him.
Today, it was Sumith who suggested that they walk in the jungle. This time Sumith suggested that they go into the part across the tarred road and Sivaraj agreed.
Once you cross over, a short walk leads to the railroad. Beyond it was a forest full of huge trees.
The railroad ran from the cement factory in Puttalama, through the forest to Aruakkadu. All it did was transport lime that was used to make cement.
Trains ran to and fro about ten or twelve times a day. Sometimes faint sounds of a moving train could be heard at Achchi’s Estate. The jungle on either side hid the railroad from the tarred one.
A pathway across the railroad led to the forest. The two friends followed it.
"I’m not afraid to walk in the jungle anymore."
"But you have to be careful when you do," Sivaraj warned.
Agitated by their voices, a huge squirrel tried to jump from one tree to another with its baby and fell off. But before it reached the ground, still in mid–air, the mother squirrel grabbed her baby and leapt onto another tree.
"Aney, Sivaraj, let’s catch that small fellow. We can take care of it," Sumith pleaded, staring after it.
"My goodness! Don’t even try! These squirrels have teeth like razor blades and it’s never easy to catch them. Besides, my Appa doesn’t like to put animals into cages. He says it’s a sin. See how much freedom they have in the jungle and so many fruits to eat," said Sivaraj.
"That’s right. Even the young priest in our Dhamma school taught us not to harm innocent animals. He told us that putting animals into cages is a way of harassing them," Sumith agreed.
"What’s that loud noise? Isn’t it a gun–shot? Must be one of Jonathan uncle’s or Sadiris uncle’s guns!" Sivaraj followed the direction of the sound, his eyes filled with curiosity.
"Do you think it was an animal?"
"Let’s go and see!"
"Ohh… I don’t know…." Sumith shivered in fright. "There’s no need to be frightened now. The gun has already gone off."
"It won’t go again?" a worried Sumith followed him, terrified that he or Sivaraj would step on a string tied to a gun.
"Please Sivaraj, be careful. There may be other guns," Sumith kept on warning Sivaraj.
"I’m careful enough. You be careful," Sivaraj replied over and over again.
Creeping, under thorny bushes, Sumith’s body was covered with scratches. Eraminiya thorns stick to the skin if you rub against its tree and then, when you sweat, your skin burns, but Sumith and Sivaraj took no notice.
"I think the sound came from there," said Sivaraj, pointing to a particular area.
"I can’t imagine where!" Sumith exclaimed.
Sivaraj seemed puzzled, too, and looked around more carefully. Suddenly, he stopped. Standing stock-still he whispered to Sumith.
"Can you hear that noise?"
Sumith listened, more carefully this time.
"It’s someone groaning!" Sumith said, still alert. "That can’t be an animal’s cry!"
"Isn’t it a man?"
"I’m sure it is! Let’s go closer."
Sivaraj went first.
Even the birds seemed to wail in agitation. The monstrous forest surrounded him on all sides. Sumith’s skin broke into goose bumps.
Both of them were alert, filled with a mixture of curiosity and fear as they walked towards the sound. At last they saw a man lying under a bush, groaning with pain.
"My God! It’s Jonathan uncle!"
"Hasn’t he been shot?" Sumith asked. There was no answer from Sivaraj. The two friends turned to Jonathan.
"Jonathan uncle!" Sivaraj whispered.
"Mm….mm....... Ah ... Ah..." After a long groan which took a lot of effort, Jonathan opened his eyes. "I got shot .. a..y... boys."
The shot had hit him below the knee. Blood gushed out from the wound. After another long moan, his eyes closed. The two friends looked at each other and shivered.
"Did he die?" Sumith asked.
"No. I think he fainted. Tell you what? You stay right here while I go call father."
"Okay, but hurry!"
Sivaraj disappeared under the bushes. He ran, creeping through them and avoiding the dried sticks and branches, which were deadly.
Sumith was terribly afraid. "It’s so scary to be with an unconscious man in the middle of the jungle," he thought.
Jonathan had still not regained consciousness. "Or is he already dead…? Am I standing next to a corpse…?!"
Sumith was frightened, afraid that a tiger or a bear would jump on him any minute. He imagined monstrous faces of wild beasts surrounding him. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know where to look but he tried hard to calm the fear in his heart.
Half an hour later, Muththaia and Piyasena came back with Sivaraj. The first thing Muththaia did was to examine the gun that had gone off. It seemed to have gone off while Jonathan was still trying to set it.
"It’s not a gun that is often seen. See this string...It isn’t even tied yet," Muththaia explained.
"He came here to set up the guns totally drunk!" said Piyasena, smelling him. "He reeks of Kasippu, I can’t bear to go any closer to him."
"Let’s carry him on our shoulders," suggested Muththaia.
Piyasena and Muththaia lifted him onto their shoulders with difficulty. The two skinny men found it very tough to carry a heavy man like Jonathan. They had to keep bending down and straightening up again through the trees and under bushes until they got their load out of the forest, balancing it carefully all the way. Sumith and Sivaraj followed.
Although Jonathan was a cruel man, the two friends couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for him.
As they reached the road, Gunapala’s van came along. The van pulled up as soon as Gunapala spotted them.
Jonathan and Gunapala were close friends. Gunapala’s van transported the poacher’s meat, which was then sold illegally. Gunapala was shocked to see Jonathan in this condition.
He jumped out of the van, slamming the door shut with a bang.
"Isn’t this our Jonathan? What happened to the devil? How did he get shot? Is he drunk? Where did he get shot?" Gunapala asked a string of questions.
"These children saw him lying in the jungle and told us."
Not waiting for answers, Gunapala turned to the people in the van. "Can everyone in the front seat move to the rear so that we can put the sick man in front? Quick, come, move, put him in!"
With great difficulty, Piyasena and Muththaia put Jonathan onto the front seat.
"I’ll take him to the hospital. You stay here." Saying that, Gunapala jumped into the van and started off. Piyasena and Muththaia were reluctant to go with him, as they weren’t wearing the right clothes — they were in their work clothes.
The two of them went back home with Sivaraj and Sumith. The two children were scolded for roaming around in the middle of the jungle. Muththaia blamed Sivaraj for taking Sumith into the thick of the forest. The two children said nothing.
Jonathan came home from
hospital in less than a fortnight. The wound was not a very serious one. Less
than two weeks later, he was back to his usual job.
CHAPTER VI
Kira is a big fellow now. He comes running out of nowhere when his name is called. At first, the two friends were afraid that Kira would go back to the jungle when he was old enough but now they are sure that Kira will never desert them.
Earlier, Kira preferred Sumith’s house. Now he likes both. Both homes treated him equally well. Though Sivaraj’s dog, Kalu, didn’t like Kira in the beginning, you often see them playing together now. Everyone enjoys watching them play.
When the two boys start off for school, Kira goes with them.
"Kira, you have to stay home till we come back. If you follow us, the principal will beat us," the two friends pleaded with Kira, petting his head gently. Leaving him behind is no easy task.
The two boys save some of the biscuits they get in school for the folks at home. Sumith keeps some for his mother, sister and Upali and some for Kira too. Sivaraj does much the same. It is Kira who gets the most in the end: one from Sumith and another from Sivaraj.
The two friends love to feed Kira biscuits. When a biscuit is put into his mouth, he munches it noisily, then eagerly asks for another. Then, they give him some more. Kira finishes that, too, and asks for more again!
"That’s all for today little one. We’ll bring you more tomorrow," they say, petting his head.
One day, the two friends started off to school as usual. Halfway through, they were surprised to see Kira following them.
"Look at that, Kira has followed us. Can you believe it?"
"He must have slipped away from Malli and followed us."
"But how did he find the way?"
"They’re not like us. They have instincts," Sivaraj concluded.
That day, Kira went to school with them. He even crept quietly into a classroom and wandered around the whole building.
The two friends were scared that they would be shouted at for letting Kira come into the school, but the children and the teachers thought it was great fun to have a tame fawn around.
Ever since that day, Kira goes to school with his friends. He plays in the nearby jungle all day until school is over. During the break, he comes back to the school garden, where he is given biscuits.
One day Kira even went into the principal’s office. The principal gave him a few biscuits. Kira munched them noisily.
The two boys go to school with
Kira in the morning and come home with him in the evening. Knowing that Kira
is tame, no one tries to hurt him.
CHAPTER VII
The drought is so severe that even the forest has dried up. All the trees seem to be looking up to the sky, waiting for a drop of water to quench their thirst. They have all started to droop, all but a few like the Tamarind and the Margosa.
This drought has gone on for over a month. Sumith and his family first came to live on this estate during a similar one.
There is water only in the deepest part of Mohotte Tank and even that is too polluted to use. All the other places that once held a bit of water have dried up and are full of cracks.
The well dug in the bed of the tank is also drying up fast. No one is allowed to use the water in this well for washing or bathing. To do that, every one has to go to Kala Oya, a river that is far away. Water from the well is only used for cooking.
The Water Resources Board distributes drinking water in a tanker. When the tanker arrives, people bring their water–pots and fill them. People go to the Kala Oya, about seven miles from the tenth mile–post, to bathe and wash their clothes but the poor cannot even do that.
The severity of the drought has forced people to work in welfare camps. Here, people are asked to clear the roads or mend tank walls. In return, they are given wheat flour. It is with the relief aid given to them that people feed themselves during the drought.
Sumith’s mother and Sivaraj’s mother go to these camps. On the way home from school, the boys often meet people coming back from the welfare camps. Even people living as far as Wijayapura and the eleventh mile-post stop at the Mohotte Well to get a pot of water. They are forced to carry the pots on their heads as they walk back long distances to their homes. The drought has become a great menace to the people of the area now.
People live a very difficult life during droughts. Some children bear their hunger and attend school. Some children don’t because they had nothing to eat for breakfast.
If biscuits are to be given to them at school the children do not stay away. But when schools run out of aid and fail to provide them with biscuits, attendance drops quickly. On days like that, children who come all the way from the eleventh mile-post do not attend school at all.
The August vacation is only a few days away so schools hold their term–end tests. During the tests children don’t have to carry all their books to school. Sumith, Sivaraj and others in their class write answers on papers torn off from their exercise books. They cannot afford to buy foolscap papers so their teachers have told them to use exercise book paper instead.
One day, as Sumith and Sivaraj reached school, they met some children who were already going home. One of them, Soma, said in a know–it–all voice. "Its no use going to school. Today is a holiday."
"You’re nuts! How can it be a holiday? Today is only Wednesday!" said Sumith.
"Go if you want to. But you’ll get a pug." said Soma.
As Soma walked past them, Sumith and Sivaraj looked at each other in surprise.
"Soma is a lie–making factory. Let’s go and ask our teacher."
Both of them walked on quickly. Kira followed them, playing around and then sniffing his way ahead.
All the children who had reached school early were now going back.
Two teachers, Shelton Sir and Reggie Sir turned them away. "Children, go back home. We don’t teach today," Shelton Sir told them, standing in the doorway.
"Why is that, Sir?" Sumith asked.
"There’s some trouble in Colombo. Because of that, all the schools are closed. You all better go home now," Reggie Sir, who was standing in the school garden, explained. Sumith and Sivaraj turned back.
"Why are they closing our school because of the trouble in Colombo when our school is so far from Colombo?" Sumith wondered. The two of them were talking about how pointless it seemed.
"We studied so much for nothing! I hope they’ll re–open day after tomorrow."
They could not understand the situation that had arisen. Later in the day, a news broadcast stated that the Sinhala people in Colombo had troubled the Tamils. The news spread like wild fire. The Sinhalese had attacked all property belonging to the Tamils — shops, houses, factories had all been burnt down. It was said that the Sinhalese were making trouble for the Tamils because the Tamils in Jaffna had killed a group of Sinhala policemen.
"So why should they kill the Tamils in Colombo for that?" Sumith silently wondered. A later news broadcast said that an all–night curfew would be enforced and that schools would be closed until further notice because of the state of emergency in the country.
That night, while Sumith and his sister and brother were having their meal, a mob armed with torches entered Achchi’s Estate. They were shouting at the top of their voices.
"Muththaia, get out, we are going to get you!"
"Muththaia,You pariah Tamil!"
"Your dogs killed our men, you will have to pay!"
With these awful words, they jumped over the closed gate and entered the estate.
Piyasena was not at home at the time. He had gone to meet someone at the eighth mile–post.
Sumith started shivering from head to toe. Somalatha bundled the children into the house, closed the door and ran to Sivaraj’s house to warn them. Sumith didn’t know what was happening. He shivered again as he pictured these men hurting Sivaraj and his family.
Jonathan uncle’s voice rose high above the others as they passed Sumith’s house. You could also hear Somalatha speaking.
"Aney, Jonathan, Aiye, why do you want to bully those innocent people? Go back, Aiye, please go back, please don’t do anything to them, Aiye!"
She ran after the mob, pleading with them. Sumith wanted to run after them, too, but how could he leave his brother and sister alone?
The whole area is pitch dark. When Jonathan shakes his leaf–torch to and fro the fire seems to burn with a new energy. The men with him were Sadiris, Sethupala and two more boys from the twelfth mile–post. They carried long kattys and clubs.
"Are you supporting this Tamil bunch? We’re going to kill them because their dogs killed our people!" Sumith heard Jonathan shouting.
The gang entered Sivaraj’s home. With one kick, Jonathan sent the door crashing into the house.
There was no one there. Somalatha had warned them just in time. Sivaraj’s family had enough time to go and hide in the jungle.
Angered by their absence, the crowd started shouting slogans again and again, waving their torches wildly. They looked around the house for someone they might find. Jonathan let out a loud hoot and held a burning torch to the thatched roof.
"Aiyo, Amma! They set fire to Sivaraj’s house!" Sumith shouted unwittingly.
The roof, dried up by the long drought, turned into a ball of fire. It lit up the whole estate. Sumith felt his heart catch fire and burn up in an instant.
"Muththaia, come out from wherever you are! We want to finish you!" Jonathan raved like one possessed. Huge tears rolled down Sumith’s cheeks. The two younger children were crying too. Then, Jonathan moved towards the little shed behind the house, brandishing his torch. Sumith suddenly remembered that Kira was inside. Having seen the house on fire, Kira got out and started to run. Sadiris gave him a huge blow on the head with his club. Sumith’s blood turned to water. He ran towards Kira in the thick darkness, knocked against a stump of a tree and fell down. He got up and with his lips bleeding, started running again.
"Aney, Jonathan uncle, don’t kill Kira, he’s mine!" Sumith cried out but it was all over by then.
"Get out, you son of a dog! I’ll kill you in just the same way!"
Saying this, Jonathan uncle started skinning Kira with the help of his friends. Sumith couldn’t bear it any longer. He screamed, loud enough for the whole world to hear, but no one even spared him a glance. Sumith cried louder still but there was no one there to hear him.
After skinning Kira, the crowd left the estate, singing victoriously.
When Sumith saw the mob leaving the estate, he walked to Sivaraj’s house. It was turning into one big heap of ash. Half–burnt ribs of thatched leaves falling from the roof crackled brightly as they touched the ground. Only the walls still stood erect. The beams above burned red–hot before they turned to black.
Very slowly, Sumith walked up to the place where Kira had been killed. Kira’s head, skin and intestines still lay there. His eyes were open, a hint of tears around them. Sumith sat there and cried for a long time. "Why was Jonathan uncle so wicked? When Jonathan uncle lay in the jungle, shot in the leg, how Muththaia uncle had helped him! Who took him out of jungle?" he asked angrily.
After a while, Piyasena came to Sumith. His eyes were filled with tears and he gave a long sigh. Sumith’s eyes were still flooded with tears too.
"Let’s go home, son," Piyasena said. Piyasena held Sumith’s hand and took him home. Sumith’s mother sat in the veranda, crying.
"The dogs didn’t burn the house because they had any love for the Sinhalese! They were waiting to take revenge on Muththaia. They couldn’t steal coconuts from the estate as long as Muththaia was there. Sethupala was once caught red–handed." Piyasena’s voice echoed his pain and anger.
Sumith realized that his mouth was bleeding. He had broken two teeth when he had stumbled against the tree stump. There was blood on his chin and tummy. He wiped it off with a piece of cloth.
All night, Sumith’s mother and father talked about Sivaraj’s plight. No one knew where he and his family were hiding. There was no way they could go looking for them now either. "Where can we find them? How could they sleep in the jungle, quaking with fear?"
Sumith couldn’t sleep. He
could not get over the shock. He sat next to his mother and decided to stay
awake but, without realising it, he fell asleep in the wee hours of the
morning.
CHAPTER VIII
At daybreak, Piyasena crept into the jungle looking for the place where they were hiding. Sumith wanted to go along but his father didn’t take him. As soon as he could, Sumith went to the burnt house. He could not believe the damage done, all in just one single night. Some of the timber was still smoking. All the furniture inside the house had turned to ash. Sumith knew that the clothes and the books would be ash too.
He saw ants crawling all over the place where Kira had been killed. Tears filled his eyes once again.
"How can we go to school without Kira? How cruel it is to kill such an innocent animal!"
It was not just Sumith and Sivaraj who loved Kira. All the children and teachers in school loved Kira just as much. Sumith couldn’t bear to think of the frisky little Kira who had skipped along to school with them. "That innocent Kira who followed Sivaraj and me home from school. How sad!"
Sumith dug a hole close to their flowerbed and buried Kira’s remains. He made a mound, planted a Jasmine tree in it and watered it carefully. Piyasena came home around 9 o’clock and told them how hard it had been to find Sivaraj’s family in the jungle.
Somalatha made roti with the flour they received as relief aid. She also made a sambol to eat it with. She filled a can of water and gave it all to Piyasena. This time Sumith went to the jungle with his father. They looked around carefully before they entered it. Sivaraj’s family was hiding in the middle. As soon as he saw Sumith, Sivaraj ran towards him.
"See what happened to us?" his eyes were filled with tears. Piyasena gave the packet of roti to Meenachchi. They hadn’t eaten anything last night. The mob had come looking for them just as they were getting ready for dinner.
"Aa — Sumith — have some," Sivaraj broke off a piece from his roti and gave it to Sumith.
"No, go ahead. I had enough before I came."
Sivaraj started to eat as Sumith kept fussing.
"Those devils burnt your house down." Sumith told him in a voice racked with pain.
"Yes, we watched them from our hiding place." Sivaraj’s face turned pale.
"The devils killed Kira!"
"Aiyo, what a sin!"
"I begged them not to, but they were a pack of devils!"
Tears poured down Sivaraj’s face. Sumith couldn’t control himself. He broke down too.
"Where are you going to live now?"
"My father wants to go to India."
"India? India is another country — abroad?"
"Yes. My father says that this is why the Sinhala people harass us."
"Who told you this?"
"My father did. We are supposed to be Indian Tamils. My mother and father came here from a tea estate in Kandy."
"But if you go I’ll be all alone here!"
"What can we do Sumith? My father received a letter from the government a few days ago asking us to get ready to leave for India."
"Don’t go Sivaraj — I’ll tell your father not to go."
"It’s useless telling father, Sumith."
"But then, at least you can stay behind with us."
"How can I do that? My father wanted to become a Sri Lankan citizen and stay on. But now that the Sinhalese have started to harass us, my father wants to go to India."
Sumith returned home with a heavy heart. He knew he was going to lose his friend just as he had lost Kira. Sivaraj and his family stayed in the jungle for about a week, afraid that the mob would attack them again. Piyasena took them things to eat and mats to sleep on.
After a week, Sivaraj and his
family returned to Achchige Watte. They all stayed at Sumith’s house
though Sumith’s house was tiny and couldn’t really fit in two families
easily.
CHAPTER IX
Even though the August vacation had begun, the two boys were in no mood to play. Sivaraj’s family lived in constant fear.
When the third term started, Sivaraj did not go to school. He had neither books nor clothes for that. They had all been burnt in the fire.
In the new term, Sumith went to school all alone. There was no Sivaraj and no Kira to go with him. The journey there and back was unbearably lonely.
The teacher noticed Sivaraj’s absence and asked Sumith about it.
"Sir, Jonathan uncle and others set fire to Sivaraj’s house. All his books and clothes got burnt. That’s why he is refusing to come to school."
"With what heart do people commit such crimes? I am very sorry about what happened to Sivaraj. Ask him to come to school. I will find him books."
Sumith was touched by his teacher’s kindness. He gave Sivaraj the teacher’s message but as they were getting ready to leave for India soon, Sivaraj thought there was no point in going to school.
The teacher was very disturbed to hear that Sivaraj had given up school. He was even more saddened to hear that they were leaving the country. He discussed the issue in detail with his class.
"Although we speak two languages we are all equal. We all feel sadness, pain, happiness and love in the same way. This land belongs to both the Sinhalese and the Tamils. It is the motherland of all these people. It is true that Sivaraj belongs to the up-country labour force. It is true that they are not citizens of this country. But their ancestors have been working on our tea estates for a long time. They are the people who have worked so hard to earn the most money for our country. Tea is one of Sri Lanka’s three major incomes. We should not consider them low. If we do, then we lack gratitude and are no longer good human beings. We have no right to say that Sri Lanka does not belong to people like Sivaraj."
Sumith saw the truth in his
teacher’s words clearly, but he wondered why people like Jonathan could not
understand it.
CHAPTER X
Much to everyone’s surprise, Jonathan uncle suddenly disappeared. The rumour going around was that he went into the jungle to set his guns two days ago but had not been seen since. His friends searched the jungle but for four days there was no sign of him. A few days later his body was found under a bush in the jungle. The only clue to his identity was the sarong he wore. His body had already started to rot when it was found and had been mauled by animals. It was said that crows surrounded the body when it was found.
Though people had identified it, the body was in no shape to be brought home so it was buried in the jungle. The gun in a gun–trap set for a stag had gone off and shot him. The bullet had gone through his stomach. When his wife heard the news, she rolled on the ground in her grief.
"How many animals’ lives had he destroyed by setting gun-traps? How many times had he bullied the innocent? His setting fire to Sivaraj’s house was a crime even mother earth would find hard to forgive," still, Sumith felt sad about his death.
After that, the use of gun–traps lessened. People were afraid that Jonathan’s ghost haunted the jungle.
When the news reached Muththaia uncle he was very distressed.
"That man set traps for
animals not realizing that he, too, was destined to die. The irony is that he
died because of a trap that he had set for another animal. How sinful!"
Muththaia uncle said sadly. That day, Jonathan uncle was buried.
CHAPTER XI
Muththaia uncle had got almost everything done and was all set to leave for India, Sumith heard him telling his father. They would have to leave before December. Sumith’s days were filled with a sadness that words could not describe. Sivaraj was sad too.
"How many more days do we have together?"
"After you go to India we may never meet again."
"I will come back when I am big enough."
"Will you go to school when you get there?"
"Of course, how would I learn otherwise?"
"But what if there aren’t any Sinhala medium schools?"
"Then, I’ll go to a Tamil one."
"Yes, you’d better study hard and become like our teacher."
Sumith and Sivaraj lay on their sleeping mat, talking. Since two families lived in the house now, both of them shared a mat. On most days they talked late into the night.
Sumith’s father and Muththaia uncle also spent their nights talking about many different things. Most of the time however, their topic was the trip to India.
Though their journey had been carefully planned they had nothing left to take with them. All that they owned were the clothes they wore. Preparations were being made and they were nearly ready.
They knew they had to go but did not really want to leave their own country. "Still, when people said that the country they were born in did not belong to them, how could they stay on?" Sivaraj wondered. They didn’t know a soul in India and leaving Sumith was what hurt him the most.
The day before they left, Sivaraj went to school with a sheaf of betel leaves. All his friends told him how sad they would be after he went away.
His teacher’s eyes filled with tears. When Sivaraj went down on his knees to salute him, he held on to his teacher’s feet and sobbed. He also saluted the other teachers, Mr. Shelton and Mr. Reggie and the principal. They all said they were really sorry that he was leaving.
"Won’t you come back to Sri Lanka?" his friends surrounded him, asking all sorts of questions.
After school, Sivaraj came back home with Sumith. This was the last time that they would come home from school together.
At dawn, Sivaraj and his family got dressed to leave. Sumith’s family gave them some of their own clothes since Sivaraj’s family had nothing to wear on the journey. Sumith gave Sivaraj two suits from the best three suits he had. The trousers were a bit tight for Sivaraj.
Sumith’s mother gave Meenachchi a saree and Sivaraj’s sister got two dresses which Sumith’s mother kept at the bottom of her suitcase. His father gave the sarong and the banyan he had bought for New Year to Muththaia uncle.
Just before they set off, both families said good–bye, crying their hearts out. Sumith and his father were going to Puttalama with them. As Sivaraj’s family was leaving, Sumith could feel Achchige Watte come alive to bid them farewell. The estate itself was sorry that Muththaia uncle was leaving, someone who had looked after it for such a long time. The wind blew soft groans through the treetops as if mourning the separation. As he reached the road, Muththaia uncle turned back to look at the estate one last time and sighed deeply.
As they waited, a bus headed for Karathive went by. Then the bus from Eluwankulama rumbled along and pulled up. Sivaraj’s family, Sumith and his father got into the bus. Sumith’s sister, brother and mother walked on sadly. The bus started towards Puttalama. Sumith and Sivaraj sat in front.
Sivaraj was not just saying goodbye to the estate and Sumith’s family. He was also leaving the people at the tenth mile-post, the children at school, the teachers, this uncle who drove the bus, the bus to Karathive, Gunapala uncle’s van, these trees that seemed to walk backward as the bus picked up speed, all the houses and the people inside them. Sivaraj would not see any of these things again.
Sumith sat lost in thought. Sivaraj didn’t want to chat either.
Sumith noticed that even the birds and the monkeys sitting in the trees seemed sad. Even the bus seemed to move towards Puttalama very reluctantly.
The bus reached Puttalama town. The salterns, the line of shops, the town, the Mara–tree, the bank, the post office, the bus station, the sports grounds. All these, Sivaraj would never see again.
The bus reached Puttalama. After today, Sumith would never meet Muththaia uncle and his family on the estate. His heart was heavy with sorrow.
They waited a long time for the bus to Talai–Mannar. It would take them from Puttalama to Talai–Mannar. From there, Sivaraj’s family would go to India by ship. What a long distance Sivaraj was going to travel! They had to go across the ocean. Then they would land in a country that they had never seen, never been familiar with: a strange land.
Would Sivaraj be afraid in the middle of the sea? Would the ship be in danger? Sumith trembled at the thought.
The Talai–Mannar bus coming from Colombo stopped at the Puttalama bus station. It was very full. Muththaia Uncle bought tickets for everyone and they all got in.
Sumith and his father watched them as tears rolled down Sumith’s cheeks. Sivaraj’s eyes filled too. In a moment, Sumith would never see Sivaraj again.
"My beloved friend, Sivaraj."
Sumith remembered him saying he would come back after his studies were over.
"Tring.. Tring.. Tring."
The conductor rang the bell and the bus started off. Sivaraj waved. Sumith tried to raise his hand but it seemed paralysed so he tried again. Then, Sumith raised his hand to wave. The bus drove on. Sivaraj watched it sadly. The bus moved further away. Sumith couldn’t see Sivaraj any more, but he couldn’t stop waving.
The bus disappeared.
"Sivaraj has left us," Sumith whispered, tears still flowing down his cheeks.
"Let’s go home, son," Piyasena said, taking his hand.