The Dead

“Have you heard that servant lady died?” the village lady told. She was telling my mother about the death of our ancestral caretaker’s daughter. We were living in the town part of the state, and they were living in the village. They often came up to our home to drop off our ration and update us on what has and is happening with the village folks.

Though the slavery age was long over, some of the villagers true to their ancestor blood followed us, and the one dead was one of them. She had four children; the second eldest was in my class. He was quite the character, a shy and an obedient child. When the news of the mother had spread around to everyone, the boy had already dropped off school to take care of his younger two siblings and help the elder brother.

“Life is so unsure, she came to us today and we were talking about the monsoon harvest”, said my mom. People said that the mother was murdered, she was found dead in the bushes near the biggest river of the village. Her neck was sliced and had a tiring look as if from a struggle. After the police investigated and had the suspects in custody, one by one, things were coming out. Secrets she wouldn’t have wanted if she was living, came bursting out the mouths of the suspects.

She had affairs with two of them, and most probably one of them had killed her. One of the men was the driver who had driven her to our home that day before her death. He revealed the first affair of hers with him. After reaching the village he had dropped her off 2kms away from her house as she didn’t want her kids to them.

After so much of instigation, the second suspect was found and all the leads were pointing the murderer to him. He accepted the fact that she had an affair with him too but denied the murder. A month had gone by and he still denied and then he was out on bail. Then, news of him breaking his leg in an accident at the exact place of the murder incident came out.

The police found clues leading to his home, and there was the knife that had sliced her. The suspect finally accepted the murder; that night, when she was dropped 2kms away from home, he had seen her with the other man and that had blood boiling in him. Topping it off she was pregnant and was threatening him to marry her, and of course, he couldn’t do it since he was already a married man and he knew she had affairs with other men.

The night was not bringing any decision that was reasonable, both had lost the mental stability to think and solve. She couldn’t take it anymore and was leaving saying that she would tell his wife of their affair and child. And that moment in a blink, he had her in her knees, neck sliced. She wasn’t dead yet she was struggling to flee when he tied her legs and hands with the rope he was carrying for the herd, dragged her and strangled her more in the bushes with enough frustration and anger to regret a life.

He was announced a life sentence but couldn’t survive a month. Rumours say that he was haunted by the death for the justice of her children and herself. His legal wife became paralysed for the rest of her life after his dead and it is said she had helped him hide all the while before the truth was revealed.