Land Of My Childhood

You are going to marry this prick with a
foreign job?ANURA PERERA IS coming over tonight.
Amma - my mother - says I ought to take him
seriously. I told Vijay about it.
So?
He's coming to see me because he is
interested in me and he has serious
intentions. He lives in Australia!
Vijay grinned and said nothing. That's the
way with Vijay.
Do you know who Anura Perera is?He shook his head, no. Then he laughed,
So he's looking for a Lankan wife?
Yes! I said. Anura Perera has a dollar job, a
Sydney house, and an Australian ticket.
So what are you saying? Vijay laughed.
You are going to marry this prick with a
foreign job? Is that what you've come to tell
me?
That wasn't what I had come to tell him at
20 all. I first met Vijay at the new disco. Itwas a
birthday party and there was a crowd of about
twenty people in our group. I didn't know
many of them. My friend Lakshmi took me
along to it. It was her friend's birthday but we
had all been waiting to go to this new place.
Everyone was talking about it. It was packed
out that night. The dance floor was fabulous:
round, with lights flashing underneath and all
sorts offantastic gadgets turning around the
room. Vijay was not in our party. He came up
to me and said, How about a dance? I could
hardly hear him, but I could see his mouth in
the dark. And when the lights flashed on him I
could see him looking straight at me like he
really wanted to dance with me. We danced
all night. He bought me rum and coke and
smoked lots of cigarettes. In the end heasked
whether we could meet again.
Only the next day I discovered he is the
40 cook at the Beach Hut. He is older than me;
tall and long and always smiling. He has such
a mop of hair and is so skinny. He never eats!
He says he likes to see his food eaten by
other people. To watch his customers, his
friends, grow fat and happy. He says there is
nothing he likes better than to stirhis pan
of squid in front of the ocean. His face is
big and square like a bony box stretched
over with skin; his lips barely keep his teeth
in and he always seems about to burst into
a laugh. And when he does the whole sea
seems to crease up. The beach is so lovely
with him.
When I went to see him today he said
hello with a big grin on his face. Come sit
down, I won't be long.He had a basin full of
enormous prawns on his lap. Loku isso, he
said.
A newspaper spread out on the floor
60 under him was heaped with plucked prawn
heads and shells. Orange whiskers. After
peeling each prawn he carefully pulled out
a thin blue vein that curved around it like a
backbone. Look at that, he held the vein
up: sea-poison.
At first I didn't even want to open mymouth about Anura Perera, but Amma says
you must always go for the best you can.
And I know Anura Perera will come in a big
Mitsubishi, air-conditioned with tinted glass
and a stereo. I wanted Vijay to know.
When he finished with the prawns he
washed his hands and poured out some
coffee for me. What are we going to do? I
asked. I wanted to know what he really felt
for me.
Aboutwhat?
About us, I said. What are we going to
do?
80 He said, There's an American film at the
Majestic.
It is so easy for him. He doesn't see
anything. There are no problems, no hangups. He's not like the other guys around
here, always trying something on. He
comes straight out with what he thinks. But
I must have looked worried; he leaned
forward. What is it you want to knowthen?
he asked, touching my hand. He has such
a light touch. His fingernails are like sea-shells, slightly pink, with little half-moons
peeping out. When he touches my hand with
his fingers I feel tremendous and I want to go
on like this for ever, just drinking coffee
together and looking at the sea.
I told him we've got to sort things out.
Going to the pictures won't solve...