flower girl part 2

 

The little girl was wearing a gaudy dress. She was not smiling. There was lipstick on her mouth, cheap makeup on her face. 

‘Her mother is in the ward, thrashed black and blue...' Vishnu managed to say through clenched teeth. His hands were trembling. 

A man entered the hospital compound. He stood near the entrance, staring at the little girl.

‘So, there you are, you rascal. Didn’t I tell you to stay put at the resort? And I had to learn from the guests that you had run away, you good for nothing.’

Vishnu charged, flinging himself against Suresh, catching the man unawares and the two went down in a heap. They rolled in the dusty courtyard, grappling for a hold, scratching, gouging and trading body blows.

At first, Vishnu managed to use his agility and small build to parry and evade. The bigger man rushed Vishnu and crashed into him in a flying tackle. Vishnu fell over backwards and his head hit the ground with a sickening thud. 

Suresh walked towards a small garden patch, dislodged a heavy rock from the garden’s boundary and came back with that. He gave Vishnu’s chest another kick. Then the brute squatted on one knee, raised the stone, ready to crush the skull before him.

‘Enough…!’ 

Suresh moved away from Vishnu. He dropped the rock.

Natarajan went up to the prone figure of Vishnu. He studied the bloodied face and beaten body with a great deal of amusement and satisfaction. He prodded Vishnu’s body with a foot.

‘You should stick to your pens and books, useless wimp,’

Natarajan walked up to Suresh. For a man so slight, his backhand slap seemed to have surprising power. The brute moved back and it was rather remarkable watching that bigger man fall to his knees, sniveling, crying and begging for mercy.

‘You want mercy…?’ Natarajan asked before giving the kneeling man another resounding slap.

Natarajan turned away and shifted his attention to Vishnu. The hate or dislike was still there on that face but there was something else too; maybe, that’s what respect for one’s enemy looks like. Under the watchful eyes of the doctor, Vishnu was taken inside on a stretcher. 

Natarajan’s eyes then shifted to the tiny form of the girl who had watched the whole episode impassively. His shoulders stooped and his eyes looked wearier than usual. He ran his hands over his face and hair, as if he was trying to rub away some ache there. He then turned around and walked away from there, head bowed, shoulders drooping and with heavy steps.

I do not know what happened to that little flower girl in Kadalil.

from

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/11/flower-girl.html