No Pain Like This Body by Harold Sonny Ladoo Read Free Book Online

walked out of the kitchen into the drizzle and the night.
    About an hour after Nanna left, Nanny started to beat the drum. The rain was falling making its own music. Sunaree was playing the flute. Nanny’s fingers were long and bony. They touched the goat’s skin as if they were accustomed to it. She beated the drum slow slow. Sunaree played the flute good; her fingers touched the holes in the bamboo flute as if they were made for them. The music of the flute was sweeter than sugar; than life even. Ma was dancing. Balraj was watching. The kitchen was full of music and sadness: music from the sky and the earth, but sadness from the earth alone. And their spirits were growing and floating in the air like silkcotton flowers.
    Nanny started a song. Her eyes were dark and sad. She sang a part and Ma repeated it. Ma sang a line, and she repeated it. So it went on and on. The song was in Hindi. The sky God was listening, because the drum was beating like cake over Tola; like honey. It was beating and beating and beating; beating only to keep them awake like bats; it was beating only to keep them happy and sad, happy and sad; it was beating for the black night that was choking Tola, and the rain that was pounding the earth; the drum was beating in the sky and it was beating on the earth; it was beating, and even the great sky God could not stop it from beating, because it was beating and beating and beating just as the heavens roll.
    Suddenly it ended. Nanny said to Ma, “You have good chirens. God go help dem one day. Wid all dis blackness choking Tola from all sides, it hard for dem later on.”
    â€œGod go help dem,” Ma said with great sadness in her voice.
    Nanny beated the drum again. This time she beated for the tadpoles, the scorpions and the night birds; she beated not only for the living things of Tola; she beated a tune for all that lives and moves upon the face of the earth. She beated and she knew that the great sky God was watching with his big big eyes.
    A large cockroach with long wings flew flut over the light. It settled taps on the earthen wall. It was wet; it came from the rain to shelter near the light. Nanny took the brown hand drum and crushed it crachald Then Sunaree took the flute and crushed it; crushed it to nothingness.
    The rain continued to fall. Fall really heavy, as if the rice-land was going to overflow and cover the whole house. Ma, Nanny, Balraj and Sunaree stood inside the kitchen. White sprays jumped over the wall and soaked them. The wind was strong; it was as if big big winds were leaving from far away and blowing over Tola and the whole of the island; blowing with such force and temper; blowing with the intention of crippling even the trees, blowing just to cause trouble and
    hate. Ma kept lighting the flambeau. Each time she did, the strange winds outed it. Rain began to fall through the holes in the roof, soaking their heads. Some of the needle grass was blown off the roof by the wind. Rain poured through the holes more and more. Inside the kitchen, the floor was getting slippery; almost too slippery to stand. There were small holes in the earthen floor. They were filling up with water. Ma kept lighting the flambeau; it was no use.
    â€œLike Pa send dat wind,” Balraj said.
    â€œDe wind and de rain too strong for de flambeau,” Nanny said.
    They couldn’t stand any more, so they squatted. Nanny held the drum in her lap. Cold water from the rottening rafters kept falling on their heads. Falling and running down their faces. There were crickets too inside the kitchen; by the tens, jumping crazily. Balraj and Sunaree were afraid of them.
    Ma pulled out a strip of tarpaulin from behind the machan, it was cold, with holes all over; but it smelt like something to eat. She gave it to Balraj and Sunaree to cover their heads. Now the water was flowing on the earthen floor; just flowing as a river flows. It was getting colder and colder.
    â€œAy Ma!” Panday