Waves to Whispers

It happened in the years 1994 and 1998. I had a brother, a sister, and me in the family. I was 19 years old back then, and we lived in Unawatuna.. When I was seven, my father died, forcing us to carry on without him. My mother worked hard, weaving baskets and tailoring clothes to feed the three of us. My mother had tried lecturing us, but my brother and I had never had any sort of work ethic. We were really in the market for money because of some personal family problems. We fished, sold chickpeas in the evenings, and mended torn bags for schoolchildren. Many times we would go up to tourists on the beach and actually sell them seashells.

My brother sold chickpeas on the side of the road. and I sold chickpeas on the beach since he didn't speak English. I was able to talk to the tourists a little bit in some sense. One afternoon while I was on the beach, two young women passed and I stopped them for a chat, as was my wont. I didn't realize that the events of that day would change the course of my life. That was the day I met ''Anne''. She was a 31-year-old woman from Poland who lived with her parents. Our conversation had barely lasted two weeks before we fell in love. At first, I was in it for the money, but over time I really fell for her. (And she told me how we met but I’m not going to repeat it because I’ve no time for that.) Anne visited our home for five weeks, and they were blown away by her humility. After coming back to Poland we kept writing to each other and she told her family about us. Eight months later she came back to Sri Lanka with her parents, and we had a simple wedding. Finally, in July 1995, I went to Poland.

When we arrived in Poland, I was in a pretty village near a rustic two-story house, in which our dwelling was on the ground floor. After a couple of weeks, I started to feel as if the house was a tiny bit odd. Every day seemed to be the same, and although most homes in the modern era would have had an item displayed like a photo albums, they did not. They found a few very old photos, mostly of Anne from about 25 years ago. The house had 4 rooms, but 2 of them were locked and the basement was inaccessible - it was hidden under trapdoor. The place didn't feel the same even though others were in the house. Feeling somewhat uncomfortable about this, I decided not to ask more about it. For a time, I kept having this dream, Anne on the beach as I first saw her but another girl in her place. I told Anne this, Anne, who took it lightly, only I saw this look of Flemish fear on her face, which I did not say to her.

I got work in a warehouse after a while. It was during our expecting our daughter. The activities of that period had seemed so vague and dream-like and questionable to me that I find it hard to convince myself that I could really have experienced what I did. I’d often wake in fear, the terror of women trying to asphyxiate me in my sleep with a pillow. Every nightmare had the same woman in it. This happened a few times and I told Anne as soon as I came home. This was her response, and I had a feeling in my gut that there was something she wasn't telling me.

The next day, I left work early because I was so sick. When I got home there was a priest in the house and everyone seemed nervous that I was there. Anne and her father came up to me to speak her mother is in no condition; she could not think of anything; she could not but feel her; I was with her at the time: So you say, I hear, with great indignation, that the Mr. Musgroves have seen you, and that you are to re-visit them as soon as possible. They said the priest was there to bless me as I had been having nightmares, but I could tell they were lying. I felt rage and disgust, and I slunk off to my room and did not speak to anyone. Three days later, I came home later than usual, to discover Anne asleep. So I took a shower, then went to sleep. Our room had a fireplace into which we'd put wood for heat on cold nights, but Anne had it ready already. While I slept, I gradually became conscious of just how hot the fire was. And the bed starts to shake at the same time, and I look over at Anne. To my horror, the woman from my dreams was bouncing up and down on Anne on top of her, Anne fast asleep! I woke up suddenly then, feeling an upwelling of relief when I realized that it was only a dream, with Anne sleeping beside me. As I gathered her in my arms, I could feel that she was cold and shivering, but when I tried to awaken her, I found out that she was bleeding. We took her to the hospital.

But we lost our baby at the hospital, and only later found out she was a girl. When we got back home, Anne didn't speak for two or three days and we didn't push her. One day we finally went to dinner.