Encounter in Hell

Dragoni (aka the 'Beast') was Lima's husband's sister and had disliked Lima from the time Lima married her brother. Lima never knew the reason for the dislike. But one thing was certain; the dislike soon became a mutual one.


The Beast was on the telephone, pestering Lima about attending to the old lady (Lima's husband's mother) who lay with a broken arm in the hospital. Lima would have stayed the night if she could but she had a six-month-old baby and there was no way she'd put her infant daughter through a night at a hospital. In fact, most hospitals don't let infants enter for fear that the babies might catch some infection! The Beast knew the helpless state of Lima perfectly. Yet she mercilessly persisted in trying to make Lima stay with the old woman. Lima gritted her teeth and said a final 'No' before slamming down the phone. A conversation with the cunning Beast was enough to drive anyone mad!


A neighbor stood in the doorway, listening to Lima's frustrated responses with amazement. She had never seen Lima like this albeit the acquaintance wasn't much. Yet the two women who'd been conversing pleasantly only minutes before now stood before each other mindful of the awkward situation. "It was Dragoni", Lima finally breathed. "Chechi, you have no idea what she's like!" Lima went on to talk about the most despicable person in her life - Dragoni - and how the latter had made Lima's two-year-old marital life miserable right from the start, sowing seeds of suspicion and discord in the new bride's mind against her new relations and even against her own husband - Dragoni's own brother! The evil plan that Dragoni devised of alienating Lima from one and all had begun to take a fearfully realistic shape.


Dragoni, the politician, the cold, heartless monster and manipulator! What words could possibly describe her? Dragoni, the immaculate Deceiver had pretended sisterly-affection and faked concern in Lima's new-bride anxieties and together with her mother even succeeded in getting Lima to believe her preposterous lies against close members of the joint family. Lima could never even fathom that a woman carrying a baby could be so devoid of anything remotely human so as to engage in the mind games that Dragoni did. The mother and daughter together had displayed tears aplenty (crocodile tears as Lima later came to realize) while telling tales of the mistreatment and snubs they had received as 'helpless victims' of a callous and calculating chachi (father's elder brother's wife). By turns they had succeeded in making Lima feel sorry for their plight (while Dragoni had been pregnant when Lima first met her days before her marriage, the mother wept copiously and posed as the helpless victim), angry (by implying things and trying to turn Lima against her husband) and flabbergasted by saying that their chacha (father's younger brother) had remorselessly "mentally tortured" their father. This last of the allegations Lima felt to be completely untrue because despite the bad-mouthing of the chachi and chacha's children (particularly the second daughter) Lima felt a conviction that the chacha was innocent. Having met him, even thought briefly, she could make out that he would not even hurt a fly, let alone hurt his own brother! 


By the time she began to suspect Dragoni of ulterior motives and making a fool out of her, Lima was totally perplexed as to whom to confide in the new family that she had become a member of. There was only one - her husband - but even he was someone she'd known only since her marriage; the marriage had been an arranged one after all. Lima's mother-in-law was a staunch supporter of Dragoni (always turning a blind eye to her daughter's faults no matter how grave they were). The mother had become a mere puppet whose strings were in the daughter's hands. Consequently, the old woman was convinced that her new daughter-in-law was her enemy and duly reported all Lima's actions and movements promptly to Dragoni. But most of all Lima was stunned to see the animosity that Dragoni had fanned in the old woman against Lima's husband. The mother was so deeply deceived by the Devilish daughter so as to turn against her own son! Frequent quarrels in the household, some public and humiliating, with the son shouting at the mother and she in turn sending out a shower of curses on him became a familiar sight. To Lima, who had never witnessed such family discord before, it seemed like a nightmare - as unreal as a scene from a prime-time soap opera. But she always tried to reason with her husband persuading him not to shout at his mother in public. Lima had issues of her own with the old lady and she pointed them out whenever she could whether it was cooking, cleaning or other household chores. Having been conditioned to a life where cleanliness and neatness was a way of life, Lima found it hard to adjust with a kitchen that was perennially messy, dirty bathrooms, and a house where ants scuttled about on bed sheets and spiders freely hung from ceilings. She tried giving suggestions that she thought would help with the mess. But little did she realize that what she thought were helpful words were actually being twisted and convoluted into a domineering behavior by the mother-daughter duo who went about fabricating wild imaginings into sordid tales of mistreatment of the old woman at Lima's hands! 


They succeeded in completely alienating Lima in her new household. Almost all the relatives believed them. And all the neighbors, ever-hungry for juicy gossip, soon believed the tales too. Together as one they passed judgement on Lima as the cruel daughter-in-law subjecting the helpless old woman to untold  mistreatment. Lima did not say anything; she knew that no one would believe her. She decided that she'd confide in no one and instead treat everyone as they treated her. Seemed a fair enough deal to her especially in a place where there was not a single friend or ally for miles! The husband had put himself in no-man's land - he would be a disinterested spectator of the follies (as it amused him to see) of the women in his household! For him, his "mentally unstable" sister was someone he could not forsake as a brother, and no matter what curses his own mother rained down upon him or how willingly she took active part in schemes and machinations engineered by his sister against the members of his precious joint family, including his wife, he would continue to be a dutiful and loyal son. As far as he was concerned, it was his wife's fault for obsessing about cleanliness and nagging his mother in the kitchen. He went even farther and wondered that probably his wife's upbringing had not been "proper" casting aspersions about her parents and their poor parenting skills!


Lima heard everything and let the thoughts that welled up flow away in tears of silent hurt. Raging against the husband did not work. The real cause of the frustration lay somewhere else - miles away in another part of the country and probably having restful sleep, unlike Lima.


Things went on and the summer came when Lima's mother-in-law broke her arm trying to lift something a bit too heavy for her. The old lady had always been just a tad too proud of asking for help when it was really needed. Lima went with her infant child to help the old lady, only because her husband asked her too. It wasn't a question or a request, but a statement that stank of the odor of commands that husbands have been issuing their wives since feudal times - "You will have to go." Lima did not protest aloud, only inside her mind. And she did feel pity for the old woman thinking about her advanced age and the fact that she lived alone. So, Lima went with the baby and on the second day of their arrival the old lady lay in hospital with an increased blood pressure. Dragoni was with her having taken a 'precious leave of absence' from the tuition center where she taught (a much-needed respite for fellow teachers and pupils alike!). It was then that the Beast decided that Lima should be the person sitting in the hospital and not her!


Lima, having spent a sleepless night all alone with the baby, was about to give the baby her bath. As she commenced massaging the child with oil, someone was heard approaching the gates. Looking out the front door, she saw the Beast approach. The neighbor meanwhile had moved to the door too and now stepped out on seeing the visitor. "Chechi, you may go home now." Dragoni's tone was dismissive. The woman, sensing that she was being asked to leave, started to go. Lima pleaded with her, asking her to stay for a mere ten minutes while she bathed the baby (she instinctively felt she didn't want to be alone with the Beast when her baby was there). "No. Chechi, you go home." The Beast sneered. The scared woman took off down the porch and literally ran through the gates. Meantime, Lima with heart beating fast and sensing the unsavory had moved back inside the house and tried to close the front door. Too late, the Beast pushed against the door and being heavier than Lima succeeded in coming through the door. In doing so, she pushed Lima off balance. Recovering, Lima lunged at her thinking of somehow still pushing her out the door. But the Beast retaliated. In the ensuing scuffle, the women came dangerously close to the baby lying on a coir mat on the floor. The terrified infant was shrieking its lungs out. Lima looked down in panic to see if the Beast had stepped on her baby and injured her. "Move away from my child"!, she screamed at the Beast. Still fighting like cats, they moved away. Each was clawing at the other - Dragoni pulled out a clump of Lima's hair and in return Lima punched her on the nose. It must have hit her on the spectacles she wore because she suddenly stopped and took them off to check whether they were broken. She called out a truce. Lima flew to her crying baby and gathering her up in her arms sped out of the house. 


Out the gate and to the approaching road she went. She turned left for the neighbor's house hoping to get succor. But the Beast trailed her, hot on her steps. The Beast followed her into the neighbor's house. There ensued a lot of confusion as the neighbors tried hard to make sense of what each woman said. One was a woman they'd known for the past six years, the other was a newly-wed bride they'd met only recently. The Beast won in the plea bargaining as the neighbors refused to heed a despairing Lima's pleas and did not wish to step in. They wouldn't come to the house as Lima requested them to, not even for the little time it would take to bathe the baby. Lima saw to her horror the complete command that the Beast had over the neighbors - a fact that the Beast boasted off later. So, with a baby covered in oil, Lima left the neighbor's house followed closely by the Beast. "Dragoni, come here" called the neighbor, trying to keep the Beast from trailing Lima. But the Evil Spirit still chased Lima. Separated by the tarred road in front of the neighbor's house, they stood facing each other, Lima frantically trying to contact her relatives and the Beast watching her all the time like a hawk. Lima finally spoke to a relative and asked them to come and pick her up. But she still had the baby in her arms and the child needed a bath. So, despite the Beast lurking behind her, she made her way inside her house. She proceeded to bathe the baby and clothe her. Throughout, the Beast stalked her every move, even coming inside the bathroom where the helpless mother sat bathing her six-month-old on her knees. There was no respite for even a second for either Lima or her infant. The child had been wailing now for about an hour with Lima hopelessly trying to comfort her but failing miserably in the wake of the never-ending monologue of the Beast. The monologue comprised mainly abuses directed at Lima and her family, interspersed by sudden mood swings ranging from rage to fake tears and pleas for forgiveness, back again to threats and abuses. For the first time in her life Lima saw what dementia could be like at close quarters, frighteningly like being possessed by a Demonic spirit, chilling the very bones!


The Dragoni mono act lasted more than an hour during which an exhausted Lima sat trying to calm her baby as best as she could, praying for the nightmare to end. Lima did not know when the Beast left. After a while, when the mutterings had become faint (as the Beast retreated from the house), and finally inaudible, Lima realized that the Beast had relinquished the quarry. She ran to the front door and shut it and bolted it. Likewise, she ran to the back of the house and fastened the back door. Going to the bed where the baby lay she took the baby in her arms and began to cry. The sobs grew and the tears continued falling for a while even as she gently rocked the baby to sleep.


The encounter in Hell would remain etched in memory for a while longer though. The nightmares would continue - the real ones that came at night in dreams. But gradually they grew less and she learnt to cope - mostly with the mind-numbing rage that welled up deep within her every time she remembered how the Demonic Beast had made her baby cry and come dangerously close to injuring the infant! The anger has lessened but will never quite go away she feels, a voice inside calls out for retribution and a strange conviction calms her spirit telling her that it will come - someday or other and in one form or other!