"I hope and I know this creation will touch 'the Heart Chakra' of many who read it, especialy youth. Because this story speaks to undiscoverd area of human heart."

Upul Nishantha Gamage, Resident Teacher

Page 338 (Unceasing Sufferings)

     She picked up a newspaper from a nearby table. She could speak but didn’t read Sinhalese very well. There was something about a new government and new peace talks with LTTE in the headlines - nothing worthwhile to read about.

     She walked to the canteen and ordered a cup of tea. It was early afternoon so many people were still eating lunch. Almost all of them were civilians and there were no soldiers. They must be eating at their mess hall. She noticed a stout man with a thick mustache eating rice in front of her. He had prawns, eggplant and coconut sambol on his plate. The big serving of rice on the plate was steaming hot. The man seemed to love his meal but he was not patient with his food, making a mess trying to eat the hot rice, picking some from here and there and burning his fingertips… and tongue too.

     Her mind drifted to a faraway place…

     Geetha was dressed in her full uniform - washed and neatly ironed for the occasion. She was escorted through the compound by two heavily built men who did not bother to utter a word to her or to each other. They didn’t carry guns nor were there any armed guards inside the house. An odd situation, considering the contingent of men and women armed to the teeth at the entrance and all around the cluster of buildings. What surprised her most was that nobody cared to search her when she first entered, quite contrary to what they had heard.

     They shoved her into a dimly lit room, a large space with a square dinner table and two chairs as the only furniture. Both fixtures looked very expensive and showed excellent craftsmanship. Two dinner plates, finger-bowls full of water and napkins were already set on the table. The wall behind the table had a large flag of Tamil Eelam, nothing else on the other walls. The men left her there and closed the door behind her.

     She just stood still, not knowing what would be next.

     “Sit down.”

     She had no idea how he came near her. The door behind was still closed and she saw no other entrance. It was no occasion to wonder about such things. She promptly got down on her knees and greeted him by touching his feet.

     A chef arrived rolling a trolley full of dishes as soon as they sat down. Aha… then she figured - there was another door below the flag!

     The chef served rice, fried prawns, potato curry and coconut sambol to both of them without bothering to inquire about their preferences. Then he took other dishes out, one by one, and asked only her whether she liked them on her plate. She shook her head promptly to deny each and every one of the extra delicacies; dhal broth, papad, murunga curry, squash, etcetera. She hesitated only when the chef offered fried eggplants. A sudden urge went through her body to accept it.

     Why am I craving for this dish? Is that the desires of two hearts?

     She refused fried eggplants too with great effort.

     He was known to be extremely edgy with many things. But, within minutes Geetha came to know one thing about the man that he was very patient about.

     The rice was steaming hot. He started from a corner of his plate, mixed only a small amount of food using his fingertips and put it in his mouth only after convincing him that the bite was not too hot or not too cold for his palate. He slowly yet methodically and steadily worked his plate. Only when it was completely empty, the chef rushed in and refilled it with, again - rice, fried prawns, potato curry and coconut sambol.

     Geetha hardly ate but just kept on mixing her food with her fingertips silently, her head lowered and her stare… blank. As her dinner companion was consuming the feast, she began to notice his features. He was not as tall as she had imagined. The fully built figure they always see in the posters then seemed like… just fat. His eyes were not as fierce as she had thought them to be. They were pale yellow and seemed lifeless. The person in front of her who was eating his dinner so devotedly looked less than the God she wanted to venerate.

     All of a sudden she had a revelation of the true nature of the hollow room in spite of the expensive furniture, the large flag and two people eating hot rice.

     It was a death chamber!

     There was nothing that treasured life inside that room. It had only darkness of the other world - no luminosity of this existence. It was all about death and death only. Nothing else…

     Except the life eagerly waiting to see the light of day inside her body…

     She felt weak and nauseated. She clutched onto a leg of the chair she was sitting on. The wooden leg felt rough and had a sharp edge. She wiggled it making it little loose without realizing what she was doing.

     A strange thought came to her mind at that point.

     It would take only four seconds for her to break the leg out of the chair and plunge the stake into his chest or forehead. Forehead would be hard to penetrate. But it would be the way to go because he may have time, perhaps two seconds, to go under the table covering his chest before she reached him.

     It would be over in ten seconds. And she could wake up from this nightmare then.

     “You may try it, but I can guarantee that you will be dead before you get up.”

     She had been so buried in her thoughts that she didn’t realize that he was already done with the food and was watching her intently. The fears that she had experienced before any combat was no match for the deep chill went through her spine. She saw the tiger in his eyes for the first time during the meal.

     How did he know? What would happen to me now? Should I care?

     I will be dead anyway sooner or later?

     “We are entering a new phase in our struggle so you may not need to do this after all. But our goal remains the same. I have the power to deliver a country to our people, but they have to fulfill their historical duty first. I am their only hope - they should understand it. I may not posses this power forever. So, be ready when your time comes. We will let you know what your duty is.”

     With that he stood up and left.

     She waited a few moments thinking of what had just happened. His last words reverberated in her head. By the time she gathered enough strength to get up; she had realized one more thing.

     With all the authority he conveyed when he spoke, with all the mighty strong words he uttered, there was still a vituperative tone in his voice, as if he was grumbling - almost lamenting for something that he had not yet been offered on his plate…