Tears | [BoyxBoy] | English

20

'Yashodhika... let's go to the car without showing a drama here!' Yeheni's father sternly told the woman who came there once again while Shanalka squeezed my hand tightly with a long sigh.

Yeheni's mother looked at the newly arrived woman with slightly angry eyes. I realized that there was a family problem here that I couldn't understand, but I just stood there without saying anything.

'Let me see her. At least for now. Please I beg you.' The woman pleaded once more.

Yeheni's mother pulled the woman by the shoulder and pushed her aside. 'Don't you think you have done enough, Yashodhika? Let that child stay and you go.'

Shanalka gritted her teeth and squeezed my hand tighter. 'Oh, my fucking god...' he mumbled under his breath so that only I could hear.

'What's going on here?' I asked him.

Shanalka said nothing and sighed again.

Shanalka took a step forward as the argument between the three elders dragged on. 'We will both go home... Miniru has blood all over his body. We will wash it and get clothes for Nangi and we will come again.'

As Yeheni's father nodded nonchalantly, Shanalka took my hand and walked towards the parked car at a pace between a walk and a run. After he sat in the driver's seat, I sat in the other seat. Shanalka rested his head on the steering wheel, honking the car's horn. I pulled his head and pulled him back because I was afraid people would look at us. Shanalka looked at me with confused eyes.

'After six years, she has just arrived.' He told me that I should not be conscious of not understanding it.

I stared at him.

'It was Yeheni's real mother. Yashodhika aunty...' He sighed and leaned his head on the seat.

I stared at him without saying a word.

'Ah... Miru fuck everything... I feel crazy.' Shanalka struck his thigh with clenched fists while closing his eyes.

I grabbed one of his hands and kept them on my thigh. Although it reminded me of Sahesh for a moment, I knew that now I couldn't stop thinking about Sahesh.

'Is she your mother too?' I finally asked.

Shanalka shook his head. 'I lost both my parents by an accident. Yeheni's mother is my mother's adopted nangi. When I was the only one left in the car alive, Yashodhika aunty adopted me and took care of me. I was two years old then. After that... Yeheni's father raped Yashodika aunty at the work and she gave birth to Yeheni. A court order gave Yeheni to Yeheni's father. That man agreed to adopt me. So... that's how Yeheni and I became siblings.

That family mess wasn't as complicated as my own, but it took me a few seconds to figure it out.

'Oh...' escaped my lips as I had nothing to say.

Shanalka began to draw patterns on my thigh with her fingertips. 'Now Yeheni's mother has arrived... after six years. If Yeheni sees her mother, she will go crazy.'

I had nothing to say. I also couldn't help but think of Mehansa. I could see that both Yeheni and Mehansa were traveling through similar times. I feel my throat tighten as tears gather at the corners of my eyes again.

'Shall we go home? It's uncomfortable with this blood soaked shirt.' I finally said. Shanalka sighed and drag his hand away from my leg and started the car.

We were silent the whole way home.

Knowing the hidden story beneath Shanalka's smile gave me heavy feeling.

When we both reached the house, we could see police vehicles around the house.

Shanalka heaved a heavy sigh. 'Gosh, this time they won't let it go away easily.'

I wanted to tell how Mehansa's case was covered by money, but I thought it was not relevant here, so I kept my mouth shut. Shanalka motioned for me to stay in the vehicle and went to a police vehicle and spent about five minutes there. I also saw him making a phone call.

Shanalka came back into the vehicle and closed the door.

'We aren't allowed to go in until the amma and thaththa come. They have to find evidence. It seems that the incident has already gone to the newspapers.'

Shanalka's parents were social workers. I was not surprised at accident flying so fast among people because of that. We both spent another twenty minutes in the vehicle until Yeheni's parents arrived.

It was another few hours before they finally arrived and it was all over. They even took Yeheni's bloodied shirt that I was wearing saying that they needed it as evidence. When answering, I tried my best to say that Shanalka and I were lying in bed normally while trying not to say that we kissed. Shanalka was silent. It was clear to me that he didn't say anything more than me because the police didn't ask anything again.

At the end of five in the afternoon, Shanalka and I took some clothes that Yeheni needed and went back to the hospital. We got to know that she had already been taken for an operation and Yeheni's actual mother was staying there with her. She hugged Shanalka and started crying and I stood aside with the luggage and looked at them with a feeling of isolation.

'This is my best friend.' I smiled when Shanalka finally introduced me.

There is a real difference between a best friend and a lover, but it wasn't important at the time.

The three of us sat on chairs and waited for Yeheni to be brought back. Shanalka looked at me with a relieved look as a nurse told her that she still hadn't regained consciousness, hinting at Yeheni's real mother.

About an hour and a half passed while Shanalka and Yeheni's real mother were talking and I was reading the newspaper reports about Yeheni's accident on Shanalka's phone.

My phone, which had been switched off since Mehansa's death, had not been activated even though it had been seven and a half months now.

I had a real fear of reviving it. Its foreground is a picture of Mehansa grinning by the sea, so I didn't want to see it again.

After an hour and a half and almost 7:40 in the evening, a nurse came to us saying that the doctor needed to see us.

Leaving the bag with Yeheni's clothes aside, the three of us went to where the doctor was. This time there was a different doctor.

'Yeheni?' he inquired.

Shanalka nodded.

The doctor took off his glasses and put them in his pocket, taking his eyes off the report with a serious face.

'We have to remove her left breast.'

All was quiet for a moment.

'We have to remove his left breast.' The doctor said again because none of the three of us responded.

It happened suddenly.

Yeheni's real mother fell to the ground with a wail as tears began to fall from Shanalka's eyes.

I looked at the doctor.

My chest started hurting.

I felt empty.

My ears filled with emptiness as Yeheni's smile played in my head.

Unbeknownst to me, tears began to roll down my cheeks.

_________

TEARS

2022. 08. 01