THE MIST-II

Before I tell the story of Dorothy and the Snake God that drinks her blood, I need to tell my readers about myself and how I stumbled into Dorothy.

I met Dorothy, the girl in the mist, at a time when my own life was going through an extremely foggy period. I was blundering through life. I was walking the thin line between the legitimate and illegitimate. My mind was immature and my thought process was chaotic. I was unable to make some sense of the world around me.

I am a small town boy born and brought up in the state of Assam in the North Eastern part of India. I was a studious chap and normally keep to myself. I was not bad in my studies though I was not brilliant. As I left school and entered college, an important change happened in our part of the country.

The whole state of Assam went through an outburst of political upheaval. Today what we see in Kashmir, happened in Assam, during the eighties. There was a great political unrest and hatred for the Indian political system. In our colleges, the students debated about “Federalism”, “Colonial exploitation of the state by India”, “Independence and recognition as a separate country”, etc.

Immature minds among the students even discussed armed revolution and took hesitant steps in that direction.

The Government tolerated for some time and then unleashed the state forces, to contain, what they essentially saw as a law and order problem. The action of the law and order machinery created more flare ups. In the end – hostility as an option was accepted by all. Both sides indulged in atrocities due to which at a later point in time it became impossible to find out who started the fire. The environment of the state went into a downward spiral of political unrest and brutality.

In my college, there was a senior who was studious and a natural leader. I used to go to him for certain study-related matter. He used to collect the boys and discuss many things pertaining to our society and political situation. All of us, who were his followers, were convinced that we need to do something drastic to free our society from all its ills.

He enrolled us in a newly formed extremist organization that spoke about the emancipation of the Assamese society. As a first step, he arranged a 10-day basic training for us, in the hideout of an extremist organization that was started in 1979. I explained to my trusting parents that I am going to a friend’s house in the village for 10 days and got my permission.

The training was in a place set up inside a reserve forest for this purpose. We had to stay in mud huts and do a lot of physical exercises. Camouflage-clad senior leaders came and gave us various lessons in the evening. They basically indulged in the indoctrination of the boys and girls who joined the organization. Among the enrolled, the people who were found to be more capable were sent for more intensive and serious arms training to Kachin, which is in Myanmar.

I was not selected to go to Kachin. Internally I was relieved though I did not show it. One day my handler – i.e the senior guy asked me if I will be willing to take part in a small job. I accepted and was assigned the task of bringing a small consignment from a place named Balat in Meghalaya. The place bordered Bangladesh, from where traffickers supplied arms and ammunitions to the militants.

Since I was a student of Geology, I had a ready excuse to go to Meghalaya. I took permission from my professors to study the rock formation of the hills of Meghalaya and was immediately accorded permission. My college identity card and books of Geology that I always carried with me gave me an authenticity which enabled me to cross barricades set up by the police very easily.

The consignments that I brought from Balat were very small. A few Gelatine sticks, five six meters of fuse wires, cap head to initiate the blast, etc.  A few times I also carried packets of 9mm bullets.

It was my 4^th visit to Balat and back to Guwahati that I met Dorothy under very strange circumstances. During this visit, I was feeling very nervous, right from the beginning. A strange fear and foreboding filled my mind as I started for the assignment.

While in Balat, I heard that the Indian Army has been called in. The Indian Army had a fearsome reputation among us at that time. While returning from Balat, our vehicle was held up on a hilly road. Peering out of my vehicle window, I saw a newly barricaded check post manned by soldiers. Our vehicle was sixth on the line. What terrified me was that the soldiers were checking the bags very thoroughly.

I knew if the soldiers frisk me and find my consignment, I will have to face the horrendous consequences of third-degree interrogation. It might make me a cripple for life. They might also kill me in a staged encounter.

Trembling in fear, I decided to run away before the soldiers come to frisking my vehicle. I collected my backpack and quietly told the conductor of the bus not to wait for me but go ahead. He understood my situation and told me to leave quietly.

After getting down from the bus, I was terrified. In case the Army men see me getting down from the bus and going away they might charge me or even shoot me. Their body language conveyed an image of a serious and alert sentry.

Again the mist saved me. The hills were already misty since morning but as I got down from the Bus the rolling mist descended and engulfed everything. It reduced the visibility to a few meters. I did not take the road back but started climbing downhill. That way within a span of fifteen minutes I was deep inside the jungle, clinging to the vegetation and completely away from the Army Men’s view.

After about thirty minutes of climbing down, I stopped hearing the sound of the vehicles plying on the road at the top of the hill. I rested for some time in the thick foliage and ruminated on what to do.

During our training, we were taught that in case we lose ourselves in the jungle, the way out is to follow the course of a river or a stream. Every hilly stream falls into a bigger stream and finally a fast flowing river. In case one walks by the side of a river he is sure to find signs of human habitation and security.

I located a stream by its sound and started climbing downhill keeping near to its course. After about two hours of climbing downhill, I came upon a small wooden hut by the side of the hill. The mist was so thick that I could not see any other hut or make out what kind of place it is.

I knocked on the door and a fat woman with a wrinkled face opened the door and looked at me. Her eyes were pleasant and she did not seem suspicious. I tried to explain to her that I am a student who lost his way while prospecting in the hills. She did not say anything but ushered me in.

The house was mostly bare but comfortable. One single room had everything, a bed, a fireplace, a wooden table and an armchair. The house was warm and comfortable since a fire was roaring in the fireplace. As my eyes adjusted to the dark I saw a slim girl sleeping in the lone single bed.

I came to know that the girl was running a high fever. I opened my backpack and gave the old woman a tablet for the fever. As she partly lifted the girl to feed her the medicine, I was dazzled by her strange beauty. She was slim with long and straight hair. She was fair to the point of being pale. The most interesting part of her was her eyes – they seemed green and glowed like a cat’s eye in the wood fire.

Outside the rain started and the woman told me to sit down. Within half an hour of giving the medicine, the girl stirred as the fever left her and she looked at me. She told the old woman something in their own language and the woman brought a bowl with some food in it for me. I was ravenous by that time and finished the food.

The girl sat on the bed and looked at me for some time. Then she asked me in impeccable English, “Who are you?” I told her the same things that I told the woman. She listened for some time and said, “I mean, who you really are?” I saw that she is intelligent enough not to take my story at face value. I kept quiet for some time and said, “I mean no harm, I just want a little shelter from the rain, I would rather not divulge too much about myself now. I will leave this place whenever you tell me to.”  She kept quiet for some time and again reclined on the bed.

The evening descended and the old woman left us putting on her raincoat. I kept sitting in the corner of the hut as the mist rolled and the wind kept wheezing outside. At times I went to the fireplace and stirred the fire into a healthy glow. The fever of the girl returned and she started moaning. I went near her and offered her one more tablet. She took it. As I helped her sit up in the bed I was stuck by the high fever she was having. Her skin was boiling and her eyes looked glassy.

Again the fever subsided and she went to sleep. I slept curled up near the fireplace using my backpack as a pillow. Deep in the night I heard a moaning sound, she was calling me, “Hello Stranger, can you hear me, I want a glass of water”. The rain continued hammering in the roof top as I stirred the log fire for some light and gave her a glass of water from a jar on the table. She again went back to sleep.

We both woke up as the old woman knocked on the door. It was morning and there was no respite from the rain. I opened the door and the old woman went to the girl and inquired about her condition. She then went about tidying the house and cooking some food.

While in our training we were taught to be useful to the host in whose house we might be uninvited guests. Our trainers used to tell us, “Try to be productive members of the household. Remember we require the goodwill of the people to fight for the revolution of our society”.

I helped the old woman in cleaning and tidying the house. I next went to the backyard and finding a piece of log with an axe chopped the log into tiny pieces so that the old woman can easily light a fire. The backyard had a small kitchen garden.

After some time I came back in and found that girl was all right and having her breakfast. She told me, “Come, Stranger, join me in my breakfast”. The name Stranger stuck to me. Dorothy always called me “Stranger”. She addressed me by that name even in her last letter to me before her death. Another thing I learned with time was, her sickness was equally strange. One moment she will be alright and suddenly a high depilating fever would attack her. Once she is in the throes of the fever she will be delirious. The fever left her as suddenly. After the fever leaves her she recovers and starts working normally. The sudden attacks of fever leave her with a general weakness.

It was around 11’ O’ Clock in the morning when the rain abated and the sun came out. I went to open a window of the hut and looking out felt weak in the knees. The scene ahead was breathtakingly beautiful. Blue hills one after another stretched far out into the horizon. Some parts were cloudy and some parts were Sunny. The grassy meadow near the window was filled with tiny wildflowers.

I told Dorothy that I will restart my journey. She packed a small bag of food for me and offered to show me a shorter route to the main road from where I can hitchhike a ride to Guwahati. She came along with me till a certain distance. As I thanked her for her hospitality she thanked me for looking after her in the night.

As I said my farewell to her she said, “In case you get stuck in a misty evening near to my home, come to me, I shall light a log fire, offer you a glass of hot drink and you can sleep peacefully near to me”.

All throughout my return journey, I kept thinking about the strange circumstances under which I met the enigmatic girl. Her last words kept hammering in my head. Did she mean, “Sleep with her or in her house”?

To be continued.