Across the Kala Pani by Shevlyn Mottai

Author:Shevlyn Mottai [Mottai, Shevlyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Published: 2022-09-16T09:10:11+00:00

Back in their little room at Stanger Tea Plantation, Vottie reached for her spice dhaba. She splashed oil into the karahi, waited for it to heat up, then added some tiny mustard seeds. Next she added the chopped onions with the mirchi, followed by the pumpkin cut into cubes. She closed the lid and waited, wafting the little puffs of steam escaping from the sides of the pot where the lid was slightly warped and didn’t sit flush.

She and Sarju ate their evening meal quickly and in silence, then Sarju joined the men in a game of cards and drinking, while Vottie sat with the women, who smilingly accepted her into their group.

She answered most of their questions about where they’d come from and what the journey had been like, but when the women ventured onto the subject of children, and why Vottie didn’t have any, she wanted to scream. On leaving India, she’d hoped perhaps that this would fall away but clearly it had not.

‘Don’t worry. See Munichi sitting over there? She came here with no baby and now she has a second one on the way,’ an old woman said to Vottie, reassuringly.

‘When it is right, I’m sure God will bless us,’ Vottie said quietly.

She returned to their home shortly afterwards and sat down heavily on her bedroll.

Sarju returned a few moments later, banging the door open and entering the room with bluster. ‘You sleeping next to your husband tonight, Vottie?’ he slurred. ‘Don’t think this can be the case every night,’ he said, waving a hand at her separate bed. ‘You are my wife!’ His demeanour was calm, his voice soft and almost soothing. The sinister curl of his top lip was the only sign that he was angry.

Vottie felt a wet fear slide from her chest to her bowels. Dread coiled itself around her heart and sat blinking its cold, yellow eyes. Past experiences had taught her that Sarju wouldn’t leave her alone for long. He wasn’t a man to be deprived of what he saw as his right.

Facing the wall, Vottie removed her sari and put her nightshirt over her underskirt and blouse even though it was very warm and sticky inside the room. She could feel Sarju’s gaze on her.

She felt her heart racing but continued to look away. ‘Everyone here seems nice. There’s even a lady with her son from our village. They’ve been here four years now.’ She could hear that her voice sounded high and nervous.

‘How long, Vottie? How long do you think you can keep playing these games with me, eh?’ Sarju was suddenly up against her, pressing his hands into her shoulders. He swung her around to face him but she turned her head away. Grabbing her face between his thumb and fingers, he forced her to look at him. ‘Look at your face. It is not even healed yet, and yet you forget that I can smash this face to pieces and no one will even know you are Vottie high-and-mighty.

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