An (I)nhuman Act

An (I)nhuman Act

Gayatri and Varun stared at Dr Peter in stunned incomprehension. Varun was the first to recover. He echoed, ‘What do you mean by that doctor? A Monkey bite can turn a person from a human being into a monkey or something like that?’

‘I did not mean that exactly. What I am saying is, though the liquid found in those pustules do have most of the characteristics of human pus we have also found that it is very densely populated with some foreign virus which are never found in human beings. What has happened to your wife is not something that is normally observed when monkeys bite people. So, we must be sure of what those viruses really are. And that is the reason we have sent a sample of the pus to our lab at Bombay.’

Varun buried his face in his hands and Gayatri spoke. ‘Will she be able to recover from this, doctor?’

‘That depends on what the test reports from Bombay say. But let us be positive about it.’

Gayatri stood up and moved over to where Varun was seated. She gently patted Varun on the back and said, ‘I know how you feel about this, Varun. Let us wait for the results before we start assuming the worst.’

Gayatri and Varun took leave of Dr Peter and decided to take a walk and relax on the shores of the Calangute beach. They stepped out of the gates of the hospital.

Immediately the woman with the Elephant’s leg appeared from somewhere and came near them. She cackled with loud raucous laughter and the security guards began shooing her away. On an impulse Varun walked up to the woman and stopped the guards.

He looked into the woman’s eyes and asked roughly, ‘Do you know anything about all this?’

‘All about what Sir?’

‘About what is happening to my wife.’

‘That is something I won’t tell you. Because if I do, I will have to bear the curse.’

Saying that, the woman ran away from them. Varun walked back to where Gayatri was waiting for him.

‘Who is she?’ Gayatri asked.

Varun told Gayatri about his earlier encounter with the woman.

‘You believe she knows something about Anandi’s illness?’

‘I don’t know what to believe Gayatri. I am totally confused. First thing is I had never imagined that such a tiny monkey could attack anyone so viciously. You should have seen the way it dug its nails into Anandi’s face the other day.’

After some time, Gayatri said, ‘Do you think it would be a good idea to find the boy to whom the monkey belongs?’

‘Oh! That is a good idea. With each passing day this thing is making me wonder if there is something supernatural involved in it.’

‘Varun don’t tell me you believe in that kind of nonsense. I never thought you were the type.’

‘I am not.’ Varun asserted. ‘In any case let us go and find the boy.’

They asked a few people on the beach about the boy and his monkey. It looked like they were a regular fixture on the beach and soon they were able to find the place where the boy lived with his father. They were also told that the boy’s father was a drunk with a vile temper.

They made their way to the boy’s hut and knocked on the rusted Iron door. It was opened by the boy himself, but as soon as he saw Varun, he tried to close the door in a hurry. But Varun put his foot in, pushed the door open, and spoke gently to the boy, ‘We are not looking for any trouble. We just want to ask a few questions. We promise we will not harm you in any way.’

‘I can’t let you in. If my father finds out he will beat me Black and Blue.’

‘Okay. If that is the case, is it okay if we just stand here and talk?’

‘Okay. What do you want to know?’

Realizing that the monkey was nowhere to be seen Varun asked, ‘Where is your monkey anyway?’

‘Monkey gone.’ The boy said with tears in his eyes. ‘Strangled by my father. I don’t know how we are going to manage now. We have to get another monkey and train him…’

                                                                                             To Be Continued...

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