Wednesday, June 13, 2012

The Letter - PART 2

Before reading the second part of "The Letter", you may want to read PART 1 here.
You can also read the entire story here

After 2 wonderful years of married life with Keith, we had a beautiful and precious daughter whom we named Kiara. Kiara was my princess; she adored me as much as I adored her. I would go on to state that I loved her even more than Keith. This statement says a lot about my love for Kiara, because before Kiara was born I didn’t think it was possible for me to love anyone more than Keith. The three of us, I, Keith and Kiara formed a loving, caring and a wonderful family.

Then, when Kiara was 5 I lost Philip, my brother, to a car accident. Philip who was my other musketeer, my soul brother was gone forever. My grief knew no bounds; it was as if a part of me had also died with him. Philip’s funeral was to be held in George’s house. And even though I totally abhorred meeting George again, I had to say my last goodbye to my dear brother. I had to do it for Philip’s sake. Keith and Kiara decided to come to the funeral too. George’s house was in fact a beautiful Victorian mansion. No one knew how exactly George had amassed so much wealth but he was now a rich, eccentric old man. He was not able to kick his old habit of bottle even after becoming a rich man. He was drinking even more now and often used to lock himself in his study for long hours. This suited me well as I was not keen on seeing him again.

After Philip’s funeral we had decided to return home the same night as I couldn’t stand to stay in the same house as George. The afternoon after the funeral, I couldn’t sleep well and decided to make myself a cup of tea. When I walked into the kitchen, I froze. There my precious little Kiara was perched on the kitchen top with her hand in the cookie jar. And George was standing next to her, with his hand in my little girl’s skirt fondling her genitals.

I think something broke in my mind that moment, maybe I lost all sense. There was a red haze in front of my eyes and all I could see was my old house, the living room and George on top of me, forcing him on me, abusing my body and soul. For a moment I thought of dropping the kitchen knife into his heart and dragging it through his body so that I could shred him into thousand pieces. I wanted to kill him; I wanted to drink his blood. I was a mad, infuriated animal in thirst of George’s blood.

As soon as George saw me he retreated back and hastily fled from there. Sense prevailed in me and I took my little girl in my arms and ran into my bedroom. I had difficulty in breathing; my breaths were coming in short gasps. Once I had safely tucked Kiara in the bedroom I started pacing the room. I was feeling a gamut of emotions, anger, disgust, shock, fear, rage. But I was furious with myself. I was a coward, a coward for sitting silently all these years. The first time George had touched me I should have hit him between his legs, should have shrieked, should have said my mother, and should have said the truth about that man. I should have done something but not sit silently, suffering the abuse. Yes, I was a coward all these years. If I had done something years back George wouldn’t even think of touching my girl. But I wouldn’t be a coward now. No, not when it’s my Kiara’s life. George had to pay for his deeds. Slowly a plan formed in my mind. I don’t know what made me do it, maybe it was the red rage in front of my eyes, but I wanted revenge. I decided that I had to do it the same day else I would change my mind. I had to kill George the same day.

George’s mansion was in Seabay’s Hill, a wide cliff top which had a beautiful view of the sea. He had his own private area of the beach too. The few days I had been there, I had seen George taking his drink outside around 7 in the evening. He had a large bottle in his hand and often he stood near the edge of the cliff, staring blankly out at the sea. The day I had arrived at the mansion I had taken a walk around the house and observed that the cliff was steep and there were huge boulders below. George would not be able to survive the fall. His body would break on the boulders, in the same way that he had broken my body when I was 6. Yes, I would kill him in cold blood. I dint think much of the consequences, all I wanted was revenge.

That evening I was standing in the shadows near the back yard, waiting for George to arrive. Around 7, George came out with his drink and I noticed that he was heavily drunk. He couldn’t even walk straight and was murmuring to himself. Perfect for me. As expected he walked to the edge of the cliff and took a swig from his bottle. I silently crept behind him and made sure that no one was watching me from the house. Then I pushed him below. I stood there for few minutes to listen to the thuds of his body breaking against the boulders. Satisfied, I ran into my bedroom and slept next to Kiara. I slept peacefully, without any nightmares.

The next day when George went missing, they organised a search party. I on my part looked distressed and helped in searching George. I even cancelled my return back home till George was found. Maybe a part of me wanted to see his dead body. Around noon, one of the men from the search party found George’s body below the cliff, beyond a huge rock. They also found his bottle a few feet away from him. There were police investigations but the police came to the conclusion that either George had committed suicide or he had a fatal accident. Everyone knew about his drinking and his reclusion, so it was not much of a surprise that George had met his end in this way. No one even suspected that it was a murder, a cold blooded murder.

No one except for me knew how he died. I am a good Catholic person, a God-fearing person.  And even though I have satisfied the desire to take revenge, I have not been able to sleep peacefully ever since that day. I know that George deserved what happened to him, but I am sure that I have sinned and God does not approve of what I have done. I am at a cross road in my life. I can either confess my crime and be imprisoned for killing the devil himself. I will never be able to see the 2 most important people of my life-Keith and Kiara. Or, I can keep mum about what happened and think that George deserved what happened and that his end was written in my hands. I am not able to decide and this is where I need your help.

I have complete trust in you that you will be able to lead me to the right path. So I will not question your decision but, follow as you say. Please help me and write back to me.”

Needless to say, I lost my sleep after reading this letter. I could not believe that a woman could place so much trust in me to take such a important decision of her life. My decision could make or break her life. Do I trust myself to take the right decision?

As a psychiatrist I have to listen to my head. I have to be practical, logical. I have to decide rationally. This woman has committed a crime, killed a person and the law says she has to be punished for the murder. But did George really have a right to live? Why dint he get punished for his heinous acts. What good could he do by living? In fact if he was alive then there was a possibility that he would commit the same heinous crime with another innocent child. He could rape another child from her childhood. He was better off dead.

For once I decided to go with my heart. I wrote back to the lady saying that George deserved what he got and that God had taken a decision for George through her. I advised her to keep mum and enjoy her beautiful life with Keith and Kiara.

4 comments:

  1. Lovely, I would have killed him as well. This is no crime for all that George had done - he deserved to end like this.

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  2. Scene construct is good, narration and sequencing is nice, maybe just a little more build up would have added more weight to the story. Overall- enjoyed reading it.

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  3. Ashwini: Thanks for your comments. I feel the same way too :)
    Gyanban: Thanks for your inputs. It encourages me to write more :)

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  4. Prasanna Rao , I just mentioned you on my blog. Presenting an award , hope you will like that :)
    http://ashsonline.blogspot.com/2012/06/award-2.html

    ReplyDelete