1 - The Weird Master

This was like a daily ritual. He would bring a new girl in the evening. He was six feet tall, barrel-chested, handsome man with hypnotic eyes. When he walked the thick, heavy wooden floor creaked under his weight. I was supposed to keep the place speck less and tidy. There was no television in the house. No newspapers, magazines or the likes. I used to prepare dinner for him but have never seen him eating. But the food was never left in the plate that made me guess he eats it with the girl inside the room. After sitting in the drawing room, the girl would be asked  - ‘coffee or tea?’ with his lady killer smile. She would opt for one. I would prepare the stuff as per the choice and put his magic powder in the girl’s cup.

Even before finishing her drink, girl would complain of not feeling good. He would stand up and offer her a glass of water himself and in doing so he would touch her on the side of her neck or open shoulder or back. She would take the water, drink it but would not let him go away. The magic powder started its effect in seconds. Now girl would feel ecstatic where ever he would touch her. Slowly, and then on girl’s pleading, things move faster a little further from touching to fondling and that was the moment I was supposed to leave the room. He would bolt the room from inside and I could only imagine what would be happening behind the closed doors. In the morning only he would emerge from the drawing room’s front door alone. That means he had seen the girl off through the door in the backyard sometime during the night as usual. I had never seen him doing so but heard the noise of the drawing room’s back door to a gallery - that in turn lead to the backyard – open and close. I could never understand this strange way of seeing off your guest.

I can’t dare peeping through the key hole. Yesterday only I had made that mistake and lost my left little finger. This was the punishment to play peeping Tom on him. He was very caring and loving if you obey him like a slave but he was a monster if you trespass. I was peeping through the hole but I could see nothing except his legs without boots. The door creaked and he came out of the room like a ghost, holding a small axe in his hand. I ran. He threw the sharp little axe on me. To defend myself I had nothing but my bare hands which came in front of my face as a reflex action. The lethal axe heading towards my skull, cycled through the air with a faint swoosh and took away the little finger of my left hand. It was blood – thick, hot, sticky, red blood all over my shirt. I had never seen so much blood ever in my life and started screaming hysterically more with horror than pain on seeing my own, gushing through the wound at the terminal spot of missing finger. Missing did I say? No, finger was not missing; it was lying on the floor in a small puddle of blood. Horrified, I pleaded him for pardon. He cooled down and warned me not to do this ever again or he would cut my head and feed it to dogs.

Today he had gone out as usual in the morning. I had buried my finger in the corner of the backyard. He never had time to tend the backyard. It was a place filled with food cans and other domestic dry waste, most of it dug and buried into the ground. You can’t remain in backyard for more than a few seconds. The filthy smell of the dirty place will not let you. I wasn’t allowed in the backyard without his permission but since he was not at home I went there to bury my finger. After the burial ceremony I came into the living room and lied down to sleep as usual. There was nothing to do for me except keeping the place clean, cooking and sleeping. He didn’t talk to me unless necessary. I don’t remember for how long I had been with him. Sometimes I used to wonder whether he was my father or elder brother may be. Today I was finding it hard to sleep. I was caressing the wound which I had nursed myself. There was still time in his returning home. He had never returned home before evening. Whole day he used to hunt for the girls. I had never seen him bringing in the same girl twice. Something pesky was hanging on my head today. Something, which I could not put my finger on. My irksome mood was making me restless. What is it? Why am I feeling distressed? Why am I sweating? I stood up and started strolling inside the large living room. I recalled yesterday’s incident and shivered. I could never forget that faint ‘swoosh’ sound that the axe had made in the air before hitting me. What would have happened if I did not bring my hands in front to defend myself? The sharp edge of the axe would have stuck deep in my cranium. Another cold shiver bolted down my spine. I would have died a horrible death. He wanted to kill me. That thought froze me in my tracks. I stopped strolling. Seeing him making love with a girl without her consent by doping her was not that serious an offence that he tried to murder me. And he knew that from the keyhole, in fact, nothing could be seen then why did he try to kill me? He could have beaten me, punished me in some other way but killing me? Too much of a punishment for such a small offence.

And afterwards why didn’t the girl suspect of her rape? Something strange is there that I didn’t know. There was still time so I decided to go into the drawing room. I went there and looked around. Nothing strange or out of place! Then I saw the aquarium that was kept in front of the closed cupboard over a wooden table covered with a white cloth. What was there in that cupboard? I had never seen inside that cupboard. The heavy aquarium was kept touching its closed doors. It was opened on the top. Probably there was nothing inside the cupboard. But my curiosity was too much for that reasoning so I decided to move the aquarium and open the cupboard. I could replace the aquarium in its original place long before he would return. I caught hold of the wooden edges of the table. All the fish inside the aquarium seem to be staring at me saying – ‘we will tell him what you had been up to’. I smiled and exerted little force on the table. It didn’t budge. I tried again. No result. Frustrated, I gave a hard push. Water inside the aquarium jolted as if a little tsunami has struck inside. A few fish dropped off with a splash of water. The fish started gasping and rolling on the floor. The cloth on the table top got wet. Panicked, I picked up the fish from the floor and dropped them back home. I prayed that the cloth will dry before he comes. I noticed that my whole body was sweating profusely out of terror. He will definitely hack me with his axe if he finds out what I had been up to. I decided to drop the idea of this trespassing when I saw that table was moved up to a distance away from the cupboard so that cupboard’s doors can be opened. I opened the doors. Inside there was a huge camera. So he used to make dirty pictures of the girls, blackmail them for money. That is why he was living so lavishly with no other means of earnings and no bank account even. I carefully replaced the table and came back to the living room. Where did he keep the films? In cupboard there was single partition and there was nothing except the camera. He sure kept the films somewhere else. Not in this house. There was no place in this house known to me where he could hide the films. Even then I searched the whole house but discovered not even a scrap of a film.

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