The Rising

She got up, her hair is dank, her face pale. It was that nightmare again. The one which she dreaded. Instinctively her hands felt her legs and arms for scratches, bruises, and wounds. Nothing. Just a petrified woman glittering in the dark in her sweat.

She couldn’t sleep. Getting up from the bed, she put on her flip-flops and went to the living room. She paused near the rectangular patch of light thrown inside through the windows by the streetlights outside. The darkness surrounding her was scary. She flinched, remembering the darkness into which she was flung.

She checked her watch. Four forty-five am. Two hours before she’d go to her work. She touched her face, but it was dry, except for the fine sheen of sweat on her forehead. Her eyes were dry. It happened on the way to work. Her own students. Boys of eighteen and seventeen. And she was the one to get blamed.

She stood frozen in time. How can you expect them, to behave, when you wear such short dresses before them? The attending officer had asked. But it’s my job, I’m a swimming instructor. How do you expect me to work without a costume? Besides it’s a unisex swimming club, she had pleaded. Shaking his large egg-sized head the officer had said, they are just boys. How can they control it? Then looking at her breasts, he added, you are a beautiful woman. Do you think anyone can resist your charms? She hadn’t known what to say.

She pulled on her tracksuit. It was 5:45 a.m. picking up her nylon bag containing all her necessary items, she set out for the swimming club. She hugged herself, looking down. She fought her tears. The godown near the right was where they forced her into. Where they had struck her head and clenched her arms and thighs with rough hands and sharp nails. Torn off her clothes. Left her to injury and infection throughout the day. Left her to her naked shame.

The members of the club stared at her when she entered. She avoided their gazes because she knew what she would find there. Helplessness. Anger. But the boys had got their deserved punishment. Not by the law, but by God. He was watching. They were caged in a lifetime of hopelessness. A year ago they had an accident due to drunken driving. Now they were in a coma.

She entered the ladies’. Changed into her clothes. Looked at her 5’ 9” figure in the mirror. She paused and tried to smile. Getting out she addressed her students,

C’mon kids it’s another day. Hurry up…

The members weren’t looking at her, but she knew they were smiling.