Read Online The Tusk That Did the Damage by Tania James - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Tania James
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might have found humorous if it did not so closely resemble my own frame of mind.
Yet I was not her only fan, so to speak.
Two fellows called me out of the house one day, asking for Podimattom Leela. One had a long face, lizardy features. He said he knew her from before, that they were old friends. Business associates, said the other, a fellow with a face all wrinkled and scarred like a halved head of cabbage. They had heard about her financial trouble. They thought they could help.
The lizard smiled with tiny teeth. She can find us at Hotel Meriya, he said and left.
I found Leela out back, standing over a massive jackfruit, one of the three Synthetic Achan had given us, knowing I favored the fried chips. She bit her lip as if angry with that spiny green boulder, its stem dribbling sap.
“Are they gone?” she asked.
I nodded. She handed me the hoe. I lifted the thing over my head and struck the fruit. I turned the jack by a degree, then hacked again. Turned it. Hacked. Turn. Hack.
She bent and used her fingers to pry the halves apart, the gluey sap fouling up her fingers. Each half displayed a daisy shape, with its pale yellow bulbs of fruit like petals around the pulpy core. With a kitchen knife she began carving the halves into quarters, still saying nothing, her mouth in a knot.
I asked why they had called her Podimattom Leela. She told me it was the place where she was born.
“No one calls me Sitamala Manu.”
She was quiet.
“They said you were business associates,” I said.
“Customers.”
“What kind.”
“Same kind as your brother.” She spoke oh so casually, but I could see the tears sitting on the rims of her eyes. I felt a small mean wish to see them fall.
Instead she tossed the knife onto the newspaper and dipped her fingers in a steel cup of oil, rubbing the white from her fingers as she brushed past me.
I caught her by the arm. “I deserve to know …”
“Know what. Spit it out.”
Heat filled my face. The question required finesse. I had no finesse. I had a hoe in my hand.
“All that honey talk about sandalwood trees …” She shook her head. “Don’t talk to me about deserve.”
I dropped my gaze. I could think of nothing to say.
After a while she spoke in a small voice. “Knowing those two, it will be all over town by tomorrow.”
“It will not. I won’t let them.”
“Oho. My hero.” She smirked at the mess of jackfruit at our feet. “Leave it, Manu, just leave it.”
Another man would have let the moment pass and put the matter out of mind. But I was not a man; I was a boy of sixteen seething with impulse and anger, and I felt it my job to defend her. Raghu refused to join me, having seen the cretins and citing very bad odds.
I found the lizard at the shappe next door to Hotel Meriya,holding court among his fellows, not a puddle’s worth of sense among them. The lizard caught my approach out the corner of his eye and threw himself wholeheartedly into a one-man show. Podimattom Leela! Like a butcher he appraised her parts, tongue by breast by thigh, and oh the things she could do with certain of them. Her menu never changed, long and all-inclusive, nothing left off the list and believe you me her mouth never tired—
“Neither does yours.”
The shiteater grinned at me. I kept my hands in the pockets of my brother’s old trousers. “Ah. Here’s her bodyguard.”
“Leela Shivaram is her name.”
“How was I supposed to know that? She didn’t invite me to the wedding.”
“Now you know.”
“I knew her differently.”
“You knew someone else.”
He shrugged. “Wash a crow all you want, it won’t turn white.”
I asked him to step out. Lazily he sucked at a fish bone before heaving himself up from the table. It was difficult to maintain my air of aggression while he rinsed every mote from his mouth.
He followed me some ways from the shappe to a stand of trees, where I turned to find the cabbage head in attendance. My heart fell. “What is
Yet I was not her only fan, so to speak.
Two fellows called me out of the house one day, asking for Podimattom Leela. One had a long face, lizardy features. He said he knew her from before, that they were old friends. Business associates, said the other, a fellow with a face all wrinkled and scarred like a halved head of cabbage. They had heard about her financial trouble. They thought they could help.
The lizard smiled with tiny teeth. She can find us at Hotel Meriya, he said and left.
I found Leela out back, standing over a massive jackfruit, one of the three Synthetic Achan had given us, knowing I favored the fried chips. She bit her lip as if angry with that spiny green boulder, its stem dribbling sap.
“Are they gone?” she asked.
I nodded. She handed me the hoe. I lifted the thing over my head and struck the fruit. I turned the jack by a degree, then hacked again. Turned it. Hacked. Turn. Hack.
She bent and used her fingers to pry the halves apart, the gluey sap fouling up her fingers. Each half displayed a daisy shape, with its pale yellow bulbs of fruit like petals around the pulpy core. With a kitchen knife she began carving the halves into quarters, still saying nothing, her mouth in a knot.
I asked why they had called her Podimattom Leela. She told me it was the place where she was born.
“No one calls me Sitamala Manu.”
She was quiet.
“They said you were business associates,” I said.
“Customers.”
“What kind.”
“Same kind as your brother.” She spoke oh so casually, but I could see the tears sitting on the rims of her eyes. I felt a small mean wish to see them fall.
Instead she tossed the knife onto the newspaper and dipped her fingers in a steel cup of oil, rubbing the white from her fingers as she brushed past me.
I caught her by the arm. “I deserve to know …”
“Know what. Spit it out.”
Heat filled my face. The question required finesse. I had no finesse. I had a hoe in my hand.
“All that honey talk about sandalwood trees …” She shook her head. “Don’t talk to me about deserve.”
I dropped my gaze. I could think of nothing to say.
After a while she spoke in a small voice. “Knowing those two, it will be all over town by tomorrow.”
“It will not. I won’t let them.”
“Oho. My hero.” She smirked at the mess of jackfruit at our feet. “Leave it, Manu, just leave it.”
Another man would have let the moment pass and put the matter out of mind. But I was not a man; I was a boy of sixteen seething with impulse and anger, and I felt it my job to defend her. Raghu refused to join me, having seen the cretins and citing very bad odds.
I found the lizard at the shappe next door to Hotel Meriya,holding court among his fellows, not a puddle’s worth of sense among them. The lizard caught my approach out the corner of his eye and threw himself wholeheartedly into a one-man show. Podimattom Leela! Like a butcher he appraised her parts, tongue by breast by thigh, and oh the things she could do with certain of them. Her menu never changed, long and all-inclusive, nothing left off the list and believe you me her mouth never tired—
“Neither does yours.”
The shiteater grinned at me. I kept my hands in the pockets of my brother’s old trousers. “Ah. Here’s her bodyguard.”
“Leela Shivaram is her name.”
“How was I supposed to know that? She didn’t invite me to the wedding.”
“Now you know.”
“I knew her differently.”
“You knew someone else.”
He shrugged. “Wash a crow all you want, it won’t turn white.”
I asked him to step out. Lazily he sucked at a fish bone before heaving himself up from the table. It was difficult to maintain my air of aggression while he rinsed every mote from his mouth.
He followed me some ways from the shappe to a stand of trees, where I turned to find the cabbage head in attendance. My heart fell. “What is
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