1.
Away
from here in a magical theatre of a township whose inhabitants were Heroes, Demons,
mythical superhuman figures, Dragon-slayers, Demons, Goddesses, Celestial
warriors, giants, Angels, Bodhisattvas, dwarfs, crusaders, Elves, Saints,
sorcerers, Infernal spirits, Goblins, Knights, Emperors, Werewolves, the Lotus Lord of Dance,
Vampires, the Wise Old Man, the Divine Child, the One, the Trickster, the shape-shifter,
the tamer of monsters, the Mother of Gods (sadly no Mother of Dragons), the
wanderer and many others, there lived amongst them in total seclusion, a really
evil Witch.
The
Witch, in her prime, was so evil that she had tamed the Devil as her disciple.
But long gone were those days and now she was getting older and her bubbling
cauldrons and her magic spells had long lost its charm and her broomstick lay
in a corner gathering dust. She was webby and lonely and too weak to hop on her
broom stick for a joy ride. For most of the time, she sat by her cold stone
fireplace cursing the humans that walked the earth and beyond. She desired
company. Someone to talk to. Someone with whom she could share the secrets of
her witchcraft and her woeful anecdotes.
And then one fine day, she came across Maria.
2.
Maria was born at the exact time when the sun
was eclipsed by the moon. Her timely birth bestowed on her the lunar powers of
bewitching people by metamorphosing into whatever people desired to see. For
someone she was a cute kitty-cat...for the others she was a mean bitch in the
manger.
3.
When Maria, knocked at her door, The Witch, who
was busy as usual dreaming about her meal, couldn’t believe her aging eyes. She
was too flabbergasted stupefied boggled-over for a moment. For the first time
in her life she realised that miracles do actually happen without anyone ever uttering
abracadabra. Maria, a lost soul had wandered just a bit too far and tired and
starving had stumbled upon the Witch’s Home. (How she got lost in the first
place, nobody knows, and I sure wouldn’t know anything about this and I most definitely
cannot confirm how she was drugged, wrapped in a garbage bag and dumped in the dumpster
which empties the city trash outside its limits. No idea. This I can say to you
with first rate certainty.)
Maria wasn’t expecting this.
4.
Maria cried in pain but the Witch was in
sing-song mood, busy chopping vegetables and tossing them in the pot as outside
it rained. As the oil began to boil, Maria spoke, “If you let me go soon, I will
give you the Moon.” The Witch, who was never hitched, was stunned for a moment.
She dropped her knife and grabbed Maria by her hair. “How do you dare, girl?”.
“The Moon! It would be yours
forever. Let me go or never.”
“And how do you propose, this lie of yours to
dispose?”
“I need a boat, yes a boat. A boat that rocks
to and fro and is neither too high nor too low. I speak the language of the
Moon and can bewitch it to my tunes. I will let it to you, if only this eat-me
you won’t do.
“Ah!” The witch said as her heart she itched.
“Now you speak like me bitch!”
Having thus explained, the witch thought for a
moment. A ball of cheese. A giant ball of cheese. Beneath the dusty setting lay
a golden ball of cheese aged to perfection. The witch dropped her knife and
rubbed her hands in anticipated glee.
“Halloumi!!”
“I will get the boat”, the witch said.
“Aye Aye!”
5.
Maria Maria rowed the boat till she reached the
middle of the lake. It was chilly and the clouds cast eerie shadows as they
covered the Moon in the night sky. The Witch was by now too impatient and she
couldn’t wait any longer. She had decided to eat Maria once she gets her hand
on the Moon. But this was taking way too much time than foreseen. The Witch
demanded Maria to get the Moon in quick time or else she will be relished in
equally quick time.
Maria was sweating praying hoping that she gets
away. And then, by a miracle of the
extraordinary, the clouds parted and there appeared the Moon in the sky in its
full bewitching glory.
“Voila!” Maria gaped, totally enamoured by its
capturing beauty.
“Now!” said the Witch, “It’s high time.”
Maria extended her hands and brought them
together over her head, closed her eyes and mumbled some mumbo jumbo and then
she straightened her right hand towards the water and had her index finger
extended pointing indicating to the reflection of the moon in the lake.
The Witch’s eyes grew saucer-wide like two full
moons on her own face and she wasted no time as she leapt like a frog with
wings into the heart of the Moon and landed with a loud splash in the cold calm
quiet of the night.
6.
Maria waited for a few seconds. It seemed like
an eternity. Timed by the bubbling gurgling of the air bubbles sprouting out
from the lake. She was half hoping for the Witch to spring up and catch her by
the neck. But soon she came to her senses and picked up the oar and she rowed
the boat as fast as she could. “Die Hexe”, she muttered, and never looked back.
7.
Imagine my surprise when Maria knocked at my door. Why! the whisky
glass in my hand was not for celebration but a proper case of gloomy despair
for her absence!
We never heard from the Witch again. The lake
turned black as the night and nobody dared venture toward it to investigate. I
meanwhile, sipped my soup with anxious anticipation under the watchful eyes of Maria
Maria.
Read also: Death's Angel
Read also: Death's Angel
