The Orphanage

• Short story

								
Her Trunk of Treasure.

Uncle Suku had been gone for three days. How could a young girl stay in an isolated shack for so long without a soul to keep her company?
Gem looked out the window into the vast paddy field that lay shrouded in darkness between two forested mountains.The tall mountains ran west almost parallel to each other, fanning west from Fox Peak. 
In the pitch darkness of the rainy night, nothing was visible except when lightning lit up the sky.
Both the tree-covered mountains were almost two thousand feet tall with a marsh in between which was developed into a vast paddy field many thousand acres.   Rich in water around the year, the marsh between the vast wilderness either side looked like the unexpected ray of mercy in a wicked mind.
It had been raining cats and dogs for the last three hours
in the paddy field and on the two mountains either side. Normally, standing at the window, Gem could see up to the eastern sky-blue peak, where the two mountains merged, and as her eyes traveled west, the slopes gradually turned green.  Now when lightning flashed, she could see the paddy field had become a vast lake, with the slanting rain drops falling on the red-brown water like grains of sand.
Gem had always loved the landscape as much as her mother Kali.
The paddy field stretched kilometers east till it reached the base of Fox peak where the two mountains merged into one imposing peak, the tallest in the hilly area.
Gem loved to watch the mountains when the rain clouds spread east along the green slopes like invading armies. At times, the clouds raced west along one of the slopes only, leaving the other slope sunbathed, like a family enjoying the neighbours’ woes.
Kalli, Gem’s mother, in her younger days, found employment as the supervisor to the extensive paddy field which Mr. Pillai owned. When Gem was born, the people around believed that the middle aged Pillai had fathered the pretty child. 
A road ran from the big town  to the base of the Fox Peak, first along the north bank of the great marsh and, after crossing it where it was the narrowest, along the south bank. Before the road came, there was an islet of dry land in the middle of the great marsh. The strips of marsh on both sides of the islet were filled with earth and the road crossed the marsh and continued to run east. 
Once, when it was raining heavily like this, Gem heard Uncle Suku telling her mother, “It was foolish of the government to have built this   road across the marsh.”
“But you see Suku,  the road ensures connectivity of a large area to the nearby township. Without a road, how could the farmers sell their produce in the  town?” said her mother.
“But the two mighty streams on either side of the marsh were joined together after the northern stream was made to cross the marsh  along the canal built across the marsh. Now the road acts as a bund preventing the combined flow of the two streams. Admittedly, there is a culvert across the river, which is incapable of discharging all the water   following a heavy rain. The entire field will become a lake and if the rain continues, this dam of a  road will breach, and our shack will be washed away in the great surge,” said Uncle Suku.
On many occasions, when the rain was long and heavy, the field swelled to a lake and water reached the yard of their shack. Gem would wait impatiently for the flood water to rise further and enter the house. However, at the stony basement, the water would hesitate to rise and  start receding. Gem would feel disappointed as when a relative  came home and returned without caring to cross the threshold. 
Gem was a small child and did not know that, if water touched the walls of the house made of mud bricks, the house would collapse.
Gem felt anxious whether the flood water would cross the threshold this time and damage the walls as Uncle Suku had prophesied. Torch in hand, she opened the back door and watched the flood water. It was still five or six inches lower than the floor level but occasional waves were licking the unplastered walls greedily.
Gem wanted to know how much of the dry rubble work in the front was still above water. 
She opened the front window and flashed her torch onto the stone wall. She was surprised that a good height of the stone work was still above the wavy water as if audaciously daring the flood. 
During her inspection, Gem was in for another shocking surprise - a tall young man was standing on the open front verandah of the old shack unmindful of the inquisitive flashes of a torch from inside the house.
“Who’s there?” shouted Gem hoarsely.
Not receiving any response from the stranger, Gem boldly opened the door and flashed the torch on the stranger in a rain cloak that reached well below his knees.
He protected his eyes with his palm from the discourteous attack by the flash of light.
“I was riding  my bike to a place called Kunnumpuram in the torrential rain on an urgent errand. I passed the town of Fox Peak and was about to cross to the north bank when, with a deafening sound, the western slope slid down onto the road behind me, washing away the road and creating a giant crater. I rode on and crossed the marsh to the north, and a little way ahead, a stream was overflowing its banks inundating a great stretch of the road. I returned and took refuge in your verandah thinking that it was unoccupied.
“I'm sorry for the discourtesy!” said the man.
“So, you've narrowly escaped death, and stand on my verandah not knowing that death is imminent for us both. I'm rather happy that I've a handsome companion in death!”
she said.
“What! Imminent death?” the stranger gasped.
“Look at the stone work. You've come down a flight of steps to my verandah. The stone work of the road on both sides and the earth filled inside act as a barrage preventing the free flow of water. Probably, the culvert  you crossed has already been blocked. This weir of a road may breach at any time, washing away my hut. Even if the road withstands the rising water, this shack made of mud bricks  will collapse if the water rises another foot. Occasional waves are already making inroads into my bedroom.”
“It sounds like you are eagerly awaiting death. But I'm in no hurry to die! ”
“If you are so eager to save your life, I'll show you the way. Come in,” she said.
With a large suitcase in hand, the young man followed her. She closed the door behind them and approached the rear door and opened it. When she flashed the torch outside, the stranger saw that the yard was already under water, eager to enter the cottage.
“Look! There is a large body of water in front of you. It must be a few dozen square kilometers  and up to twelve feet deep.
“But there's a seven-foot high bund in the middle of the field going  east. If you carefully walk along the bund, your head will be above water. I'll give a bamboo pole with which you can feel the bund underneath and reach another bund a kilometer ahead, crossing the marsh from south to north.  The lake beyond this bund is rather shallow - only five feet at the maximum.”

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