It was on that tapering summer night they opened the shutter of dam above the town. The irrefutable water soon filled the canal near the enormous old house .It was a much awaited but an unexpected act from the government at this time of the month. The man of the house Mr. Gregory took cotton to stuff in his ears and looked outside the window. He felt everything was lit in blue. He walked over to the other window without disturbing the furniture and looked up to see the immaculate bowl, full and round today. He read that morning in papers about the farmers struggling with government to release water for their lands which were drying out of the prolonged summer. He couldn’t see the water in the canal, but he felt the cold bite in the air.

He got the feeling that today was something different from the other horrible summer nights. Every day he spent, counted on to his age with 50 years, 3 months and 19 days, and he was cautious about it. Looking at the clock, he made some mind calculations and wiped the tiny droplets of sweat from his forehead. He pulled a chair near to the window and adjusted it so that he could see the moon from the chair. Greg sat down and lit a cigarette. He had cut down on his cigarettes, now he just smoke one a day, at this time of the night. He though about the good old days of his life, his youth, his friends and family, then about how the time had made him stubborn! How he developed his strange habits. He took and deep breathe coming back to the moonlight.

            After he put off the cigarette, he stuffed cotton in his ears. The lonely house in blue was the oldest house of the town, which he had bought to settle in country side with his wife. He wore a grey night gown, and with a face that made him look older than he was, Gregory slowly walked toward his room upstairs. It should have some time after 10. Unlike the normal people, Gregory had this strange habit of going to toilet only in the night, after everyone sleeps.
            He felt it was the most convenient time; he could go in the morning and sit on the water commode for hours without any defecation. The first thing he would do sitting on the commode is a calculation of what all he ate the previous day, then he would calculate how much would it weigh and how much he expects to come out today. He is not a happy man if his expectations don’t match, he would keep thinking that there is some more left back in there and that thought would make him restless. He would also try classifying the good and the bad ones for his stomach, like ground beef as danger and fresh cooked vegetables as green. He then will start to feel the movement of mildewed train in his lower abdomen. That would make him assured and he would feel that he is ready and "wagon train" is on its way. He is sensitive to sound in between his routines, any disturbance he will have to start everything all over again with the same calculations, same classifications, same thoughts, and then, the “wagon train”.

 As time passed, he got rid of everything that made noise in that old house. They had cats, they had rabbits they had the famous peacock of the town which he got from one of the hunting trips he had in his youth, but nothing remained now. His only company in the house was his solitude. He got rid of the servants who were permanent and appointed a boy who comes everyday, cleans and cooks for him and at the end of the day he goes back home.  When he felt even the tick of the needles disturbed his concentration, he broke the clock which was an antique and dumped it as trash in the upper deck of the house. There was literally nothing left in the house which made a noise that could break his solitude, other than him.

 He got in the toilet after a regular check up of the house, the bedrooms down and upstairs, the kitchen, the hall, the courtyard, the endless dark corners which smelled death. He removed his gown, he was still fit at 50, he looked in the mirror and admired his body, he felt the pride of an officer in uniform. He had a close look at cleanliness of the commode; the boy had done a good job. He made sure the cotton was stuffed in properly and he sat on the commode. Hi thoughts started flowing with concentration for his “wagon train”.

There was a loud noise! It disturbed Gregory, he felt as if he heard something fell down. He took the cotton out and stood motionless in his bathroom. He waited to for some hints from where the noise came from. It’s been a long time since he was disturbed in his daily routines, the last he remembered was an orphan cat, he got out of the toilet and shot it with his double barrel gun. The news spread in the town but no one knew what made Greg to shoot a cat with double barrel gun. He lost patience and went straight to the adjacent room where the gun was hung on the wall. He took the gun and without making a noise started searching the house. The frustration was piling up on him and it was evident on his face. Then he didn’t care about the furniture, he went around knocking everything which came his way. He searched the store room, he looked in the bedrooms in the house and he also went downstairs to the basement. All the lights in the house were lit and he couldn’t find anything which moved. He looked towards the ceiling. There was upper deck on his house, which stores the wood for heating and some waste trash after the house was renovated.

He heard a noise from outside, in front of the house. He walked in a hurry holding his double barrel gun towards the front door with a determination of quenching his anger. He saw someone coming towards the front door. It was a figure covered in blanket; he had a close look at the half covered face.

It was her!

The unexpected water in the canal had destroyed someone else’s plans, Wilson should have been sleeping at home, instead, he had to give a story at home and now he was hiding in the bushes in between the canal and Gregory’s enormous old house.  Theft was not so common in town, but for a person who had to take care of storing some illegal goods, just to earn little extra money to keep the home running without poverty, the house was never a safe bet. That was when he decided to store the stocks in different places and he would change it often, this time it was an opening in the canal just below the surface, in the bushes.  He was just in time to save them from water. He knew the old house very well, he was not prepared to transfer his boxes to any other place at that time, and he had to opt for the upper deck of the old house. He thought Gregory would have been sleeping. But his calculations went wrong. And with the arrival of the guest he had to wait for long in those bushes to take his box to the deck. He went in and found a place in the deck, hid one box and while returning he accidentally tumbled over an old clock. Then he knew Gregory was not asleep, he managed get out of the house without getting caught, but he was still left with a box more to hide.

Greg was excited at the same time worried. He looked at the clock .He didn’t realize that an hour had gone past since he got out of the toilet. He peeked out of the window and scanned the road, kept his gun apart.  He then opened the door for her.

Greg was pleased to see her hair left free; she had long thick black hair. She put the blanket on the sofa and looked at him; she was radiant in her red dress.

“Why, you didn’t want me to come today?” she spoke with a juicy look.

He returned her a smile.  She kept aside her belongings in the blanket as always, not to forget them misplaced when hastening in the morning.  He noticed her ample bosoms forcing out and began flirting with him. He felt the urge to feel her, at that moment he could precisely say from which cell of his body the urge started. He felt as if could even break down the cell to the molecules and identify the atoms from where the energy was arising. She came near to him and pressed herself against him. She was Terasa, the mother of the boy who came to work at Gregory’s house.  By now he the urge which started from an atom had adopted his body and brain. He decided to let the worries pass him and enjoy the pleasant surprise.

“I will switch off the lights and come. Wait for me in the bedroom”

She nodded and walked to the bedroom. Greg watched her climb up the stairs, he switched off the lights, just leaving the one in courtyard of the house and headed to the bedroom. She was in bed as a new born, waiting to consume the forbidden fruit.

“Is everything ok, back at your home”?

“Yes, husband has gone for the other town, wont be back till morning and the boy is sleeping.”

Greg went near her and kissed on her lip, the taste of it was slipping him to a trance, she came to him since the boy came to work in the house. He always loved her lips which smelled of salt cooked potato. The smell of cooked potato made her special from other woman he had in his life. By now he had spend hours tasting just the cooked potatoes. He was obsessed with it now. He ran his finger over her; she ate the tickles biting her lips.

Wilson examined the house from unlit places, he didn’t want to make a mistake this time, and the first thing which came into his mind was the story of the cat. He peeked in the house, silent. For a worker like him, it was forbidden to be inside a house like this, if caught he and his family would be expelled from the village, so the sounds and the movements did not distract him. He made no mistakes this time, but Gregory was disturbed again by his instincts.

“What happened, don’t stop now” she uttered with excitement.

“Something is not right” Gregory was up. “I have to search the surroundings, someone is here”

“You can’t leave me like this” she said in an inaudible voice begging for the compassion.

“Go home”

The determination on his face imparted worry to her mind. If someone sees her, then her life was over, she knew it better than him. Like always she left the house without saying goodbye. He waited till she disappeared from his sight. He armed himself, got out switching on the lights and started searching the surrounds including the garage. He found few foot marks near the bush were the earth was wet, but nothing concrete. After two hours fruitless search he returned to the house and sat in the chair with the gun resting on him. He waited for something to happen, may be something he was afraid off or may be something he wanted to face and take over his frustration.

He was awakened by a fellow village man,

“What’s the matter?” asked Greg regaining his head.

“There has been a death in the boy’s house, everyone is going there”

“Boy? Which boy” asked Greg confused, yet he knew what the answer would be.

“Who comes for work here. “

The fellow did have any information on what happened or who was dead, he was on his way there and he had stopped by to inform Gregory.

Greg felt a quick chill penetration his heart. He was anxious at the same time, daunted. He didn’t care about changing to a neat ironed suit as he always did when he went out; he followed the messenger in his night gown and slippers like a mad man.

Could it be her or her husband? What has happened, how? His mind kept quivering among the possibilities. He was experiencing a feeling that he had never felt before, the anxiety, the anger, and the sadness.

He saw the people gathered in front of the boy’s house, most of the people he knew showed a greeting gesture. Greg did not bother to return them. He went straight into the house. He had never been in this house, but was exactly as he imagined it to be and there were no furniture in the house. His eyes was sunken, there was blood on his shirt. The boy was lying on someone’s lap, he figured out he had been crying for long. He moved to the other room, there were few women on the floor weeping; the body was in the kitchen.

He saw her lying bathed in blood. It was not the color of blood he knew, not the color of blood which oozed out of Greg’s hand when he cut his finger last month, this blood was dark as devil with a stinking smell. It was nauseating. He felt blinded, yet he could see her body everywhere he looked. Her thick hair was glued to the blood on floor. She was in the same dress as she left. Greg felt heaviness in his heart. He felt his legs being paralyzed. He was never so shocked since he heard about his wife’s death. For a moment he repented for his actions, he shouldn’t have pursued her for it. For a moment he thought about other women he had like her in his life. A thick guilt was getting into him. He felt his blood was being poisoned with guilt. He was starting to realize how bad things could turn out. He felt as if he was a fourteen year old, staring at the inclemency of life, he felt the need of a shoulder to weep, the need for a comforting word.

He looked at the boy, he sympathized for the boy that he did not understand the cost he will have to pay for the loss of his mother, and how his life had changed over a full moon night. The melancholy of a prisoner, who was to be hanged, was seizing Gregory’s feelings.

Outside the house, someone told Greg that the husband has not returned yet to decide how to proceed with the matter. That was a relief for Greg, he felt more secure and now there was less chance of him being dragged into his. Yet there was guilt.

Greg felt his legs were turning to be a block of stones, he couldn’t move them as his mind wanted it to. He felt his skin was shrinking. He looked at his hands and for the first time in his life he noticed the wrinkles. The old age got into him in an instant. And in a flash he turned to be an old man waiting for his turn with his destiny from a man who treasured everyday of his life. His steps were getting smaller and heavier, he couldn’t help the stream of thoughts, of the sins and of the guilt. It was just like a lightening struck him, which left nothing but ashes in him. By the time he got to the door of his enormous old house, he was a withered man repenting over his life.

Among the boxes waited Wilson! His hopeful eyes had turned red with revenge, his hands still trembling, he held tight to the knife which had shriveled blood, dark as devil with the stinking smell; his dead wife’s blood and his mind knew only one word, revenge!

Gregory opened the door of enormous old house which was shining in the light from the immaculate fire ball. He opened the doors to the house, where his destiny awaits!