Chemban Kunju’s madness subsided in a few days. But his brain was slightly damaged. He became morose and silent. He moved about as if he had lost everything and was a beaten man. Wasn’t it true? From his point of view, yes.
Both the boats of Chemban Kunju were so damaged that they could not go out to sea. His nets, too, had gone bad because they were not attended to and mended in time. Altogether he needed a large sum of money immediately. He had nothing of his own. His new family was an expensive one.
Pappikunju looked after his affairs. She urged him to borrow money to repair the boats and nets. But who would lend him money? There was no one on that seafront except Ouseph.
In the old days when her mother lived, Panchami used to gather cast-off fish. She had thus saved twenty rupees. That money she now gave to her father. Chemban Kunju accepted the money in his hands and wept.
“If I had gathered fish every day, I would have made more, Daddy,” Panchami said. “Or if Mother were alive - that would be sufficient.”
Chemban Kunju said nothing. Such poignant thoughts were too distressing.
Gangadattan kept nagging his mother to help him go away. But Pappikunju could not bring herself to take the matter up with Chemban Kunju. She herself lived under great stress and she put up with a lot for Gangadattan’s sake. Panchami had not stopped being cruel to her. Pappikunju was nagged with the worry that Gangadattan had no right to live there. Above all, there was the state of Chemban Kunju’s mind. She did not want to add to his suffering. She was his protector.
Pappikunju had looked after a husband before. She knew how to do that, but she sometimes wondered if their present difficulties were her fault. Chemban Kunju tried hard to take his appointed place where someone else belonged. And she herself tried to take her place where another woman used to be. Chemban Kunju prospered in Chakki’s time. He was ruined in Pappikunju’s time. Chakki was the wife of a Karakkan. But Pappikunju was the wife of a Valakkaran.
After supper one day as Chemban Kunju sat lost in his thoughts. Pappikunju went to him and asked, “will it do for you to sit like that? We must repair the boats.”
He raised his head and looked at her. He didn’t say anything. She asked him again. He said yes, it had to be done.
“Shall we send for Ouseph?” She asked.
“Yes, send for him.”
He answered rather suddenly. Did he realize what he had said? Chemban Kunju knew better than anyone else what it meant to borrow money from Ouseph. In his present state he must have said it without a thought. If he had considered it carefully, would he have said it? Perhaps he hadn’t worried about the boats being idle on the ashore either.
In that home, in the old days, there had been many such scenes during the respite after supper. By the flame of a cheap kerosene oil lamp Chemban Kunju, cheerful and full of life, his brain sharp, had sat with Chakki while they planned for the future. Their children slept inside, no bad dreams unsetting their peaceful sleep. Now Panchami was groaning in her unquiet sleep.
“What do you want me to do?” Pappikunju asked.
He did not answer.
“I am a burden to you. I am good for nothing,” she continued. “What should I do? I have always lived in a family where the men worked to support the family.”
Chemban Kunju heard it all silently. Pappikunju wept.
“How many people have I ruined! From the moment I set foot here, there has been bad luck.”
Pappikunju sent for Ouseph, and when he arrived, she explained the situation. Ouseph agreed to lend the money, but he wanted both the boats and the nets to be mortgaged to him. If she didn’t pay the interest at the stipulated time, he would take possession.
Chemban Kunju said nothing.
“Why don’t you say something, Chemban Kunju?” Ouseph asked.
“What is there to say?” Chemban Kunju said. “I need the money at any cost.”
The very next day Ouseph brought a written contract. Chemban Kunju did not even read what was on it. He signed it. Ouseph counted out seven hundred and ninety-five rupees and gave it to him. He maintained that he had kept five rupees for some special expenses. Chemban Kunju locked the money in his safe.
After a while it seemed that there was a little improvement in Chemban Kunju’s behavior. He began to talk of repairing the boat and other things. He also said they should return the money within the stipulated date. Otherwise it would lead to serious trouble.
Gangadattan worried Pappikunju more than ever, whether it was because he knew about the money or not, one couldn’t say. He said she must send him away. He would not stay there another hour. Pappikunju touched his feet. Let the boats be repaired and go out to sea. She would then manage to get him the necessary money somehow or later.
“No, I can’t wait,” he said firmly and finally.
Pappikunju lost her temper.
“If you can’t, then don’t. What can I do about it?”
“ Then from now on forget that you have a son.”
Pappikunju could not answer him sensibly. She was his mother. She had given birth to him. She had set aside her memories of his father, and gone over to Chemban Kunju. She said in her helplessness, “how can I ask that man for money?”
“You must send me away, Mother.”
He wouldn’t listen to anything she had to say. Once he was out of the way, she would be solely Chemban Kunju’s.
“I came here for your sake as well, Son.”
“ Even so, you must send me away.”
Pappikunju didn’t have the courage to bring her problem to Chemban Kunju. But it was something she could no longer control. On one side she had a forlorn husband. On the other was the demand of her son.
In that terrible duel the mother won. Only the mother could have won. Pappikunju was prepared to starve, to wander homeless. That might be the ultimate outcome. What connection had she with that home? Come to think of it, none. And if Chemban Kunju went ruined? That meant starvation for her. If Gangadattan went out with some money and made good, she had a chance of survival. And if she lived, Chemban Kunju would live too for certain. So the mother won.
One day when Chemban Kunju and Panchami were out, Pappikunju opened the safe. She took two hundred rupees from the money that had been borrowed from Ouseph. And she locked the safe again carefully.
That night Panchami saw mother and son talking secretly on the west side of the house. She eavesdropped from behind a coconut tree. She heard Pappikunju begging Gangadattn to be content with two hundred rupees for the present. She would find the rest later.
The son went away with the blessings of the mother. She stood there watching him leave. Her eyes filled. She wiped her eyes and returned home.
Panchami now had a fine weapon in her hands. Her stepmother had provided her son with money. She didn’t realize that it had been stolen from the money that Chemban Kunju had put away carefully, but she had no doubt that the money had come from that house itself. She would tell her father that when he mortgaged his boats and nets, her stepmother had money in her hands. That money she gave to her son.
When Chemban Kunju went out on the seashore the next morning, Panchami went out with him. In a short while he returned home looking like a madman. Chemban Kunju opened the safe and examined it. He found only five hundred and ninety- five rupees. It was a roar that they heard the next moment.
“Did you take the money that was here?”
Pappikunju confessed. She confessed everything. Unable to control his anger, Chemban Kunju shook.
“Get out of my house!” He shouted.
Pappikunju went out silently. Panchami enjoyed the scene.
“Go, go on the sea beach and don’t enter this house any more!” Pappikunju walked out toward the seashore. He shut the door. On that long, long seashore the helpless woman could be seen walking. She was once the wife of the great Kandankoran Valakkaran, now the wife of Chemban Kunju.
Again, Chemban Kunju found a new strength and a new enthusiasm. The strength that lay dormant for some time, the strength that seemed to have ebbed away from him.
The story of Chemban Kunju sending Pappikunju out of his home became the talk of the village. Pappikunju sat under a coconut tree. There was no other place on this earth for her to go. And there was no sign of Chemban Kunju’s heart melting. But everyone felt that the matter could not be just left that way. There was a helpless woman wandering homeless on the seashore.
The elders of the village got together and went to the Headman. He had never approved the idea of a woman who belonged to the family of the Headman of Ponani, and once the wife of Pallikunnath Kandankoran, following Chemban Kunju to his home. It had seemed to him that it was an insult to the Headman of every village. He had said firmly and clearly once that he did not want to hear anything about a woman who had behaved thus against all the customs and traditions of the community. The Headman was in a bad temper. A serious situation had been created. A woman was wandering about late on the seafront with no home to go to. Was it right?
“Do what you like,” the Headman said. “Beat them up, both of them, and drown them in the sea.”
Ayyankunju asked in all humility, “Is that right, sir?”
“ What else should I do?”
“You must send for Chemban Kunju and tell him.”
“ No, I can’t. What should I tell him?”
“Then what can we do? Who else can straighten up such matters, if not you?”
Confronted with the question of the elders, the Headman had to give in. He had to do something. It was someone born in a Headman’s family who was wandering about homeless on the beach.
“This is the result of forgetting one’s customs and traditions,” the Headman said, “If she had stayed in a Headman’s family, this would not happened.”
From Chemban Kunju’s home the stepmother who had taken the mother’s place had been banished. The maid who had been working there also left. Everything was once again as before. Panchami nestled up to her father, waiting for a chance to tell him something. She must tell her father to bring her sister back. If that could happen, the home would be like the old home again. Only her mother’s presence would be missed. With Karuthamma there Panchami could bear even that.
But she got no opportunity to suggest it to her father. He wouldn’t stay put for a minute. With his new courage and strength, he was a changed man. He had decided to become the old Chemban Kunju. Pappikunju was a ruinous person. The moment her shadow crossed his threshold it brought ruin. He cursed the moment he decided to marry her.
“I wonder what took possession of my senses! I must have been infatuated with her complexion, her glorious hair and her fine figure.”
He also talked of Karuthamma. After having had an affair with Pareekutti, she left him for a fisherman as soon as one came along. She was not his daughter. He wasn’t ever going to think of her as his daughter again.
He had done some foolish things. But now he was going to start a new life.
Nallapennu took Pappikunju home and gave her shelter. Panchami was jealous because that awful woman, instead of being sent away, had been given shelter by Nallapennu. She could have borne it if anyone else had done it. Hadn’t Chakki on her deathbed entrusted Panchami to Nallapennu’s care? Why should her aunt behave this way? Chemban Kunju too felt badly about it. But he had some consolation. Achakunju, it seemed, had always been jealous of him.
Panchami was even more determined to get her sister back. She watched for her chance and one day she said, “Father, why don’t you bring Karuthamma home? She is a gentle soul. All that they say of her is untrue.
Chemban Kunju went into a frenzy of rage.
“Who is it you said should be brought home?” He shouted.
Panchami was terrified.
“Even if Pareekutti’s curing yard has gone broke, he is still on this beach. I shall not allow an adultress in my house.”
Panchami said nothing.
“Are you planning to follow her example?” Chemban Kunju asked. “In that case you better get out now.”
When the Headman of the village arrived to inquire into Pappikunju’s case, the elders of the seafront summoned Chemban Kunju and Pappikunju to the spot. This was a big event on the seafront. A number of people gathered. There was only one person who prayed from the bottom of her heart that it should not end amicably.
“Goddess of the sea, Mother, let not this matter be amicably settled.” Panchami prayed silently.
“What is this, Chemban Kunju?” The Headman asked. “Why is it that you are behaving against all customs and traditions?”
The Headman warned to frame some serious charge against him. The second marriage itself had been arranged without the Headman’s approval. He asked Chemban Kunju what he had to say about that.
“Well, Chemban Kunju, speak,” he said.
Chemban Kunju stood upright, his head high. He seemed taller and bigger. He did not seem to care. His face looked terribly serious with an indescribable kind of determination. He had never looked like that before.
The village Headman repeated the question. Like a bullet, the answer came out.
“I didn’t marry her.”
That was an unexpected answer. Everybody was shocked. The Headman too held his breath and swallowed hard.
“Then, did this woman follow you?” He asked.
“I brought a woman to keep house for me. What is wrong with that?”
The Headman lost. His first charge was refused. Would the rest of his charges collapse like this?
The Headman asked Pappikunju to come forward. He looked at the woman who had defied all codes of conduct and custom and asked, “Is this true, woman?”
Everybody thought that she would deny all that Chemban Kunju had said. But Chemban Kunju didn’t turn a hair.
The Headman repeated the question to Pappikunju. Her answer stunned all of them.
“Yes,” she said quietly.
“Didn’t Chemban Kunju marry you?”
“ No.”
“Were you working there as his housekeeper?”
“ Yes.”
The fair-minded Headman sat for a while, lost for words. Chemban Kunju himself had not expected such an answer from her. The Headman looked with contempt at Pappikunju, who had cut herself off from her own family and had now brought disgrace even to him.
“You deserve all this. You had lived with a fine man-”
The Headman did not finish what he wanted to say. He felt that he shouldn’t allow Chemban Kunju, who stood there like one totally unconcerned, to be made into a hero.
“Even if she were your housekeeper, how could you send a woman out of the house onto the open beach?” He asked Chemban Kunju.
To that, too, he had an immediate answer.
“She stole.”
Again the Headman was stunned.
All this sounded legalistic. But the truth was different. Everyone knew that Chemban Kunju had brought Pappikunju home to live with him as his wife.
The Headman resorted to another trick. He tried to frighten Chemban Kunju.
“You are too arrogant. This is nothing new. You have always been like that. Do you know what that will lead to?”
Chemban Kunju curled his lips disdainfully and asked, “What is there to know? And what can you let me know? Chemban Kunju has the sea in front of him and the sky above.”
“There is nothing to worry about,” he continued. “Everything is finished. I am not going to bother about heeding anyone’s advice. You needn’t worry about it either. I have decided not to listen to anybody. Why should I? You are afraid of the open road only if you are carrying gold.”
The Headman threatened him.
“Don’t fool with the community of fishermen.”
Before the Headman had finished that sentence, Chemban Kunju, his whole body shaking, said, “If you want to keep your self-respect, you better calm down.”
No one had ever dared to talk to the Headman like that. It was not merely an insult to authority. It was an insult to the entire community. What was Chemban Kunju trying to do? Had he gone totally mad? Had he no thought of his future?
Chemban Kunju left without saying another word.
The Headman was humiliated. The villagers looked at one another uneasily. Pappikunju followed Chemban Kunju.
Chemban Kunju did not stop her.