The Rope of Fate

Mistake

Sujeeva's problem was facing Jinasiri. Sujeeva knew that Jinasiri would break down and come running here at any moment.

"It would be better if he came here after drinking a little bit"

Sujeeva thought without hesitation

Jinasiri, who was a serious person in ordinary life, was a light-hearted person when he was drunk. Jinasiri had no history of exchanging blows and shouting. The only mistake was that he always gave a part of what he earned in the evening to the butcher's market and came home.

Sujeeva was responsible for the four or five cows. Even when Sujeeva married Jinasiri, the Jinasiri family had a herd of cows. But with the death of Jinasiri's father, the herd of cows, which had decreased by one or two, was now limited to five. Milking is Sujeeva's first task of the day. Jinasiri goes to the shop and delivers the milk.

Jinasiri was very fond of this cow. Jinasiri, a bricklayer, could not afford to send his two children to school and make ends meet with the meager income he brought in the evening, so the four or five cows were a great help to Sujeewa.

The free dung was used to build a stable and a stable. That was also an additional income for Sujeewa. Jinasiri never found out how much Sujeewa earned and what he spent it on. On days when he did not get any work, he had no money to drink in the evening, and at that time, he gave Jinasiri something at Sujeewa's request.

The white cow that had been tied to a coconut tree behind the house the previous evening had been untied the day before yesterday morning. When he went to look with the bucket to milk it, the cow and the cow were nowhere to be seen. Sujeewa, who thought that the knot had come loose and the cow had been untied, woke up Jinasiri and searched the surrounding bushes and forests, but the cow was not there.

The people from all over the place searched until eleven or twelve in the afternoon, but the cow was not found. Jayasinghe, the neighbor, said that the dog in his house had been barking non-stop during the heavy rain the previous night. Sujeewa did not hear anything. He had been wandering around all day, even going to the market in Moronthuduwa, and when he returned, he fell asleep as if he were dead.

Everyone said to go to the police and file a complaint. Jinasiri is a thief who is always on the run. That's why Sujeewa had to go to the police station, riding his bicycle and saying, "I'll check a little more"

and leaving.

He went with Kamalawathi aunty and filed a complaint. Ralahami asked who the suspect was. But Sujeewa didn't think of anyone to suspect. All he could think of was that he had walked somewhere on the rope.

Even after coming home, Sujeewa didn't even feel like cooking and eating. Since he was a child, he had been raised like a child, and when he thought about whether the animal had even been sacrificed to the butcher shop, tears welled up in his eyes.

Three of the five cows were heifers. They had two calves. Sudi gave the most milk. Sujeeva was in a state of shock when she thought that her children were also receiving most of their milk from Sudi.

Although she suggested to Jinasiri,

she said, "Let's try it for a while,"

she said,

"That's a lie,"

and did not suggest anything else.

Kamalawathi aunty had come with a tip about a place called Pena. Even though she said that there was a place called Pena right in the Bandaragama area and that Pena was after four in the afternoon, Kamalawathi aunty had no intention of joining Sujeeva on that journey. Kamalawathi aunty took care of her two children after they returned from school, when they went to work.

Since it was useless to tell Jinasiri, Sujeeva decided to go on this journey alone, knowing that every second she was late would shorten the distance between Sudi and the butcher's shop.

After distributing rice to the two children who had returned home after school, Sujeewa went out onto the road, saying that he would return by the bus leaving Bandaragama at seven. If his father had not returned home by then, he told his elder son to come and pick him up at the Kaju Gaha junction where the bus would stop.

By around three in the afternoon, the place where the fortune-telling was held was filled with people, proving that no matter how advanced science is, that science is incapable of solving all problems.

When the pujas and prayers were over and the fortune-telling began, it was already dark. The fortune-telling was said by calling out his name. Sujeewa was not called out until six o'clock. The fortune-telling was just about to come, when the fortune-telling was called out.

The fortune teller, who started by telling about something lost, went in the direction of a lost ring. Even though Sujeeva intervened and took the right path, the fortune teller said that the rain would come home in two days with the rope.

When Sujeeva reached the bus stop, the last bus was already arriving. As soon as she got on the bus, the conductor shouted that the bus would only go to Moronthuduwa.

"How will we go the rest of the way?"

Sujeeva was confused.

It was around eight o'clock when she got off Moronthuduwa. Although there was a short road from Moronthuduwa to the village, it passed through thickets of forest and deserted rice fields. Sujeeva had no other option but to choose that road, which was scary to take even for ten days. The mobile phone in her hand was also dead because the battery was low.

Even after searching for a three-wheeler, there was not a single one in the parking lot. Sujeeva was afraid to even stop a three-wheeler on the road and ride it alone. Sujeeva went to a nearby shop and asked the woman there,

"Do you have any candles, sister?"

because he could not walk in the pitch darkness.