The man’s uninvited arrival took her by surprise and fear, the bad memories rushing to fill her mind. She quickly grabbed the cross hanging on the wall and flashed it in front of him, hoping to drive him away. He got hold of Ann by her hair, dragged her to him, snatched the cross and tossed it out. He then pushed Ann against the wall.
Thoma convinced himself that he was not dreaming by pinching himself. He needed a conviction that it was not one of the dreams that he was having while he was napping. He reached out and touched the black circles of beedi smoke that he decided to light up after his interrupted nap, which arose in front of him like giant O-rings, just to make sure he was awake. Ann looked scared and screamed at her husband for abandoning the church and God, thereby inviting the bad spirit to their home. She knelt down and started rolling the rosary.
The Misery Man’s black robe dragged behind him like a bride’s gown would follow her while on her way to the altar to be blessed in holy matrimony. Though frightened out of wits by the unexpected arrival of the Hunger Man, they could not help noticing astonishingly that he was growing taller minute by minute.
OMM headed towards the lone coconut palm tree by the side of the outhouse. Thoma or Ann could not forget that tree —the same one he had shaken off Number-Six from, to land him in a pile of shit in the outhouse, few years ago. The moment the Hunger Man reached the destination, he became as tall as the tree.
“Your end is near,” he shouted in his thunderous voice to Thoma and Ann. The man’s black robe had grown longer and longer as he had become taller and taller. He looked like a gigantic scarecrow planted in their backyard. The crows and other birds took off from the Misery Man in panic, with their frantic wing beats speaking volumes of the terror he instilled.
“I am here to take you to your end,” he solemnly declared to Thoma and Ann.
He then tossed a card to the couple. Ann picked up the card, only to read her own obituary written on it! It startled her to read that she was going to die on that very same day! She started wailing. Thoma grabbed the card from her. He looked at it, and flipped the card, only to read his own obituary, with the minutest of the details written, including the date he would die: It was that very same day!
***
It had never occurred to Ann that Thoma and she would one day leave this world and go away from their beloved home. She was troubled. She was scared. She started crying.
The prophecy of the Old Man Misery confirmed the foreknowledge of the palm reader at the famous Trichur Round, who predicted the imminent death of Thoma, judging from the disappearing lifeline in his right palm. He was attending the famous Trichur Pooram when the palmist did the reading.
“You don’t have much of a future,” said the palmist to Thoma. He said it politely, instead of making a loud declaration that he was going to die soon. Thoma was mad to learn of his fate and in protest, refused to pay the palmist. Ever since this prediction took place, he declined to see any traveling palmists who came by his house.
Adding to this alarming news was the instance of an inexplicable photograph taken during the wedding ceremony of their youngest daughter, Number-Ten. The bride and the bridegroom were seated on a pedestal on the wedding stage in the presence of Thoma and Ann. The photo was of high quality and clear, except there was something out of the ordinary: there was a ghost standing behind Thoma! There were five people in the picture, including the ghost, instead of the four people who were photographed.
The ghost appeared to be holding Thoma by his shoulders as if to protect him. Some thought that the ghost was cradling him and consoling him and shielding him from an impending disaster. There was terror written on Thoma’s face, as if he was seeing the hellfire that he was assigned to be tossed into.
People who attended the wedding function remembered that he was smiling when the photograph was taken. All the people who were photographed were smiling on the happy occasion. The frightened Thoma of the photo, with his gaze riveted to a frightening scene, probably a raging inferno of hell, was nothing like the Thoma who attended the whole ceremony with a smiling face. Such a sharp contrast between his live appearance and his photographic image intrigued his relatives and neighborhood friends alike. Some speculated that he was assigned to hell upon his death—that he was looking at hellfire, and the ghost was trying to protect him, trying to block him from entering the hell. The hellfire was not visible in the photograph; however, its presence was implied by the terrified look on Thoma’s face.
Some people believed that poor development of the negative gave rise to the artifact mistakenly interpreted as a ghost. Some thought maybe the picture got smeared with inadvertently spilled water or curry, giving it the appearance of a ghost. The lens quality was examined and found to be satisfactory. The chemicals used in the processing of the film were examined and found to be without blemish. Both these findings were reported by the photography studio.
No other picture taken during the wedding had this sort of bizarre nature. No other person photographed on the happy occasion had altered looks in the photo. None else had a ghost protectively holding him or her, unlike in the case of Thoma.
This incident added credibility to the widespread belief that there was an impending tragedy in Thoma’s life.
The pious friends of Ann from Saint Joseph’s Church, including Annamma, claimed that the ghost was nothing but guardian angel protecting him at the moment of his death. They speculated that he was assigned to hell by mistake, and therefore the angel appeared on the scene to take him away.
It was soon discovered that the photograph was changing as days went by, adding to the alarm it already created. It was as if a changing photograph was narrating a story through its evolving content. Suddenly a hellfire appeared in the photograph! As time progressed, the fire became more intense and crimson in color. Thoma appeared more and more terror-stricken as days went by.
An additional entity appeared one day in front of him: a devil with a menacing look and with two prominent horns on its head and a tail. Thoma was caught between the ghost behind him, who was restraining him, and a devil pulling him to hellfire. It was as if the devil was leading him along a red, fiery carpet of welcome to his eternal damnation. The devil seemed to be winning. The ghost’s hold on Thoma appeared to get weaker as time progressed.
And then it happened one day: the photograph suddenly started making sounds. The sound effects started with frightening laughter from the devil. The laughter became more alarming, getting louder and louder as the days went by. The sounds then underwent a transformation, and spoken words started emerging. There was a one-way conversation between the devil and Thoma. “Come to the eternal hellfire, Thoma; we keep you warm for eternity; you will not feel cold anymore,” the devil told Thoma, sarcastically of course.
Meanwhile, the protective ghost’s hold became weaker and weaker, and one day, the ghost disappeared for good. The remaining days showed further transformations. It became a full-fledged movie!
In the movie, the devil shouted expletives at Thoma and showed him how the inhabitants of hell were suffering. The frightened Thoma screamed in terror on the next-to-last day of the transformations. Then the last day’s chilling scene was shown where Thoma was engulfed in the hellfire. Thoma was screaming amid the raging fire, alone. Even the devil abandoned him.
Then movie stopped suddenly. It became a still photo of raging hellfire engulfing Thoma.
While this drama was going on, the other side of photograph showed that Ann was also destined to end her days on earth. It showed Ann being escorted to heaven by an angel. On the day when hellfire consumed Thoma (the last day of the movie), Ann was shown being inducted into the halls of heaven.
On the last day of the hell-bound movie, the photograph caught fire. The nightly scene of the photograph invading the bedroom of Thoma and Ann, shouting obscenities at them, was replaced by an angry photograph catching fire in the middle of swearing, right in their bedroom. It then burned out and perished, spewing out black smoke
.
The implications were disturbing. The inexplicable melodrama portended a horrifying future for Thoma but a happy ending for Ann. Hidden in the fathomless pits of a run-of-the-mill still photograph was the prediction that both Thoma and Ann would be saying good-bye to the world on the same day.
Did the lens capture the immediate future of Thoma and Ann? Was death stalking the couple? Did Thoma have premonition of his own death, which made him unusually quiet and introspective recently?
The Hunger Man’s announcement that their end was near put a final nail in the coffin, no pun intended, and confirmed the widespread speculation that Thoma was living his final days, and that both Thoma and Ann would disappear from earth on the same day, he to hell and she, to heaven.
***
The news spread around Amballore that a supernatural thing appeared in Thoma’s side yard and was stationed there to fetch them to their end. This unusual development drove a large crowd to Thoma’s home. The populace started calling it a “thing,” for lack of a better term. It was not a devil, it was not a ghost, and it was not a spirit. It surely was something out of this world. Therefore, they called it a “thing.”
The good neighbor Annamma decided to pay a visit to the supernatural guest. She came with apprehension, crossing the back fence, and with curiosity to see how evil spirit invaded Thoma’s home. She also thought of driving the spirit out, being a loyal follower of the church and its teachings.
Ann was happy to see her good friend and confidante, Annamma, joining her. The neighbor’s presence instilled renewed courage in Ann. The two women talked between themselves, conspired, and reached a conclusion. They agreed upon a plan to scare away the spirit and discourage him from taking Thoma and Ann with him.
They sent message to the vicar of the Church to come and join them in their fervent prayer to drive out the evil thing. Annamma joined Ann in her rosary recital. These were two women famous in the church as saints, and their prayers were believed to have results.
The number of spectators was increasing minute by minute, and they watched this melodramatic development with intense interest. They watched the thing growing taller and taller and witnessed this supernatural scene with rapt attention. The throng in the street swelled uncontrollably, so much so that they broke the gate and spilled into yard near where the supernatural encounter was taking place, with two simple women kneeling and praying desperately to the patron saint of the nearby church. The crowd looked like a swarm of bees and they occupied the main road leading to Saint Joseph’s Church. Traffic was redirected by police. The suspenseful melodrama transformed the simple house of Thoma to a shrine. People knelt in the yard and started praying. They wished the thing would go away, leaving the living alone. They prayed for a miracle. However, no miracle took place. The situation became even more critical when the vicar of the church made his way through the crowd and joined the praying women. The spectators knew that the situation reached a critical point, serious enough to bring a priest to their midst. God’s man sprinkled holy water on the thing to drive it away. It did not work.
Annamma and her husband, Mathettan (who joined the two women during the commotion), promised that Thoma’s food and medicine would be allowed to continue uninterrupted, and on this solemn promise, they requested the Misery Man to reconsider his mission of abducting the couple. Their petition went unheeded. All the developments pointed towards the unavoidable conclusion which the assembled humanity feared—Thoma and Ann were going to be taken away from them.
Night was fast approaching. Twilight was still present. The gathered mass held candles and most of them were kneeling in the yard and the road. The well-wishers approached Ann and embraced her—the final embrace, since they were convinced that they were leaving. Ann started crying, since she knew what the embrace meant—it signaled the imminence of a supernatural event for her and Thoma.
Ann realized at the moment of the embrace that she would no more have to cook rice and wash dishes; she knew Thoma would not be hitting her anymore on the pretext of catching a fly; she knew she would miss her sentimental belongings in her dear kitchen where she spent most of her time; she knew her rosary would hang on the kitchen wall without ever being looked at; she knew the chickens and ducks in the yard would miss her forever; she knew that the trumpet flowers that greeted her every morning would have no one to greet after she was gone; she knew that the wood-fueled clay oven would no more get her soft blows; she knew the clothes left behind would never be washed to the perfection that she always gave to the task; she knew she would miss the protective presence of Subashini.
She knew everything. It was mostly with a sad heart that she would be saying her final good-bye to her home. Subashini was wailing, because her life-long friends were leaving. Ann released her from the cage. The bird flew out of the cage, never to come back to Thoma’s home again. She flew up to the top of the palm tree and then disappeared from the scene.
Old Man Misery revealed his plan of taking the couple to their old Mannuthy home. “That is my parting present to you, my friends! You sure would want to visit your happy home” he howled to the couple sarcastically. They noticed that his voice was becoming hoarser as he kept on becoming taller.
“I did not abduct you two last time I met you in Mannuthy. Now is my chance. Get ready for your final trip, my friends,” he told them. He then produced two sacks from his pockets: One, a white sack from his right pocket and the other, a black sack from his left pocket. He picked up Ann with his gigantic arm and dropped her in the white sack. Then he picked up Thoma and dropped him in the black sack. He deposited the sacks in his pockets.
He became immensely tall. He became so tall that his body encompassed the solar system. None around Thoma’s home could see his face any more. He was still firmly grounded in the side yard by the side of palm tree. He wore a gigantic black robe that reached the invisible distance in the sky, and that robe housed Thoma and Ann in its two pockets.
The scary man then started moving. He walked with small steady steps to start off. Every step he took made a rumbling sound, because earth was shaking in step with his steps. He escorted the couple outside the house. The prayer from the crowd reached a crescendo, desperation coloring every chant in its tone and volume, raising hope that there would be a last-minute miracle, a last-minute change of heart reversing the decision of the Hunger Man. But this did not happen. The man with his face near the planet mercury took painstakingly small steps and walked slowly, steering himself through the weeping crowd, which parted like the Red Sea when Moses approached.
Outside the house, the road was brimming with people and inaccessible to traffic. The crowd had grown all the way to the graveyard of the church located half a mile away. People came from all over to witness the supernatural encounter. The Old Man Misery now took larger strides, stepping over the assembled crowd, and moved forward. Some of them were trapped under his footsteps and died instantly. He snorted. It sounded like a thousand beasts roaring at the same time.
The massive ocean of citizens gathered waved to Thoma and Ann, though they were invisible, being trapped inside the sack; some followed the black spirit-like thing; some wept. As the trio reached the church, Old Man Misery lingered over the cemetery for few moments.
Ann looked down from Hunger Man’s right pocket that was way up in the sky. She saw an ocean of lit candlesticks held by Amballoreans, like a humongous assembly of glow worms. The scene resembled light assembly of Diwali festival called festival of lights. She bid farewell to Amballore. She wished she could talk to Thoma at that time. But she could not, since he was miles away from her, even though he was in the other pocket of the same gown where Ann was housed. Old Man Misery had grown not only in height, but also in front-back and lateral dimensions, placing his pockets far apart.
Old Man Misery lifted his arm and grabbed the sun from the evening sky and took it down to earth. Suddenly there was a bright day in the late evening, as if it was noon. The assembled crowd could not stand
the scorching heat and many of them died instantaneously. Some of them became blind seeing sun at close distance. He then swung his gigantic arm and threw sun upwards, sending it to where Pluto orbited. The town froze in the instant winter that ensued.
He then suddenly took off. His strides became miles wide, in step with his monumental height. His robe looked like a black veil that paraded the earth like a sprawling broom, sweeping it while he walked. Within few minutes, he reached Mannuthy and stopped in the street across from Thoma’s old rental home.
***
Old Man Misery dished out the white sack from his right pocket and deposited it in the street. She got out. She was excited to see her old home. The house represented the most miserable years of her life. She walked toward the home, tears running down her cheeks, overcome by emotions at seeing her past. The house was standing there as if it was expecting her. The yard and the surroundings were in the same shape and form as when she left in 1975, thirteen years ago. She was greeted by Bhavani, her good neighbor, who was still living there. The two women embraced each other.
Ann entered her old home, now empty. Inside the home there was an overpowering silence.
Here was a home whose walls could write a long, sad novel about her and her family, and yet it was standing there silently. Here was a home whose interior echoed with loud laughter, soft weeping, quarrels, and shouting once upon a time, but now it stood still.
She entered the kitchen, walking though the porch and bedroom, and saw it was whitewashed, ready to rent. Once upon a time, its walls were anything but white, blackened with soot. The smoke from the clay oven had painted the room black. She bent down and looked at the oven for old time’s sake. Tears stirred in her eyes. She sent a soft blow to the unresponsive oven.
She used to spend untold hours there, dark smoke hovering around her, until her incessant blows would suddenly light up the firewood that she collected from the nearby rubber estate along with her children. She looked at the kitchen door that once used to host a sizeable hole that let in a stray dog that ate their dinner occasionally, leaving them all hungry. Now the door was repaired, and the hole was gone.
Amballore House Page 12