Just before the road bends

Mutthu took some water from the nearby hand pump and wetted the area where the crow had dropped. Soon there was a dark circle on his shirt near his right elbow, from the moisture which had dissolved the corvine excretion. He muttered under his breath and got back on his cycle. The road to Jumhuri was a long straight stretch with small shacks arranged alongside here and there.

Mutthu was a snake man. The reptilian craze had bit him when he was a boy. Childhood passion had become manhood profession. He helped nearby villagers catch Nags and Dhamans which posed potential threat to man and animal. Today was just another call.

The flies were now irritating him. He pedaled fast. The sky was a scorching hot, June month in South India, just not the time when crows would be flying past relieving themselves. In these parts it was a bad omen if it dropped on your right side. Mutthu pedaled fast, bending forward with the restlessness which the dropping had brought.

He had woken up to the harsh hissing of his cell phone. Like man like ringtone. The voice which pierced the stillness of Mutthu’s reverie was filled with alarm and fright. ‘Mutthu ghar ke aangan mein, paani ke nal ke peeche do saap chhupe baithe hai. Mera ghar Jumhuri road pe hai..aakhari ghar..road mudne se pehle’ Mutthu’s just woken brain captured the keywords only .. saap, Jumhuri road. He understood only Tamil and some broken English. He replied, ‘Where you house?’ The voice responded ‘Jumhiri Road, just before the road bends’

‘Just before the road ends, that’s what the man had said.. but where the hell does it end? thought Mutthu. The cool breeze blew his grey hair, fanning the forehead where tiny beads of perspiration were joining into a rivulet.

to be continued...