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The boy kept staring at the jeeps. Though Ajith felt like waving his hand, he could not do it. Why was he so drawn towards the kid? The woman who called out once more now came to the door. Her tanned face was bathed in the golden sunlight. She was wearing a purple skirt that reached below her knees and a yellow blouse with sleeves to her elbows. Seeing her the child said something to her kiddingly and ran towards the road.

A soldier drew his gun without a second thought.

“Don’t” someone yelled out loud.

The boy came smiling and sat on the hardened dry earth.

Saying something, the woman came towards the road. With one hand she shaded her eyes. The boy was sitting almost in front of Ajith.

“Gentlemen, I am taking my child away, O.K.?” The Tamil woman spoke in very clear Sinhala marveling several men who were nearby.

For a moment, Ajith’s eyes stopped at the woman’s eyes. With some attraction they stared at each other. Ajith had no idea what this magnetic force was. She was a young woman. Her tanned face was beautiful. But what was this magnetic draw which he did not find in any other woman so far? Where has seen this mother and child before?

“Sir,” the woman said again. “Sir, do you know me?”

“Your face looks familiar,” Ajith replied effortlessly. But where? and when?

“Like you know me?”

“N..No.”

“Your face looks familiar to me, sir…. we have gone to Colombo. We have relatives in Colombo.”

“Where?”

“In Wellawatta…. come here, Vasantharaja.”

“Wellawatta?…. No we are from Nugegoda.”

“Oh? we also lived in Nugegoda, sir. When I was very small.” Her eyes were filling with tears.

She bent down to draw the boy towards herself. When the boy’s arms were raised, Ajith saw the birth mark on his chest. Because of the dark skin it was not very visible.

Holding the boy’s arm, the woman hurried back towards the hut. As she turned around several times, Ajith also kept looking at her as if in a trance.

“Why sir? Did she steal your heart?” Manathunga asked with a smile.

“NO ..no. It looks like a very familiar face. I must have seen them in Colombo.”

“You are from Nugegoda, aren’t you. sir?

“Yes.”

“That woman said that she lived in Nugegoda.”

A whistle announced that all the vehicles were ready to move on. The tobacco leaves rustled in a gentle breeze.

Ajith could see the woman and the boy entering the hut beyond the tobacco plants. He wondered what their life must be like.

What could her name be? Where was her husband? What would he look like? Does he treat her with love and respect? How much love she must have for that boy? How did she end up here in Niveli? Were her parent in the same house? Who is she? Who is she? Even after getting into the jeep, he kept looking at the hut.

The young woman was seen coming to the door and standing there. Ajith was sure that she was staring at him. Her figure far away was bathed in the golden sunlight. If she were a goddess that would be her temple. Ajith exhaled lengthily and tried to ease his heart as the vehicle started its journey.

As they sped away, a tremendously heavy loneliness was born within his heart. Who was she to steal his heart?

For a very long distance, it was the image of the farm in Niveli and the young woman’s figure that haunted him. Not that the little boy was also not in his memory. But there was a fear in him towards the boy. It was because of the way the boy looked at him once. In that stare was a repulsion. If love and hate were two sides of the same coin, then the myriad of feelings born within him were nothing to be amazed of. In this attraction within him was a pain in one way. It was an inexplicable emptiness.

When the army unit reached the Jaffna camp it was nighttime. After taking a cold shower Ajith had dinner with the other soldiers in the mess hall. But this night he did not feel very hungry.

As they passed Niveli he got a headache. Another short distance away, what he noticed stronger than ever was the smell of petrol fumes emitted by the vehicles. All of a sudden he could not bear this stink any longer. His head was reeling. After arriving at the camp he showered hoping this would help in easing the pain. But there was no release from the heaviness in his head.

“Looks like you are drawn to that Tamil woman, sir,” when Manathunga said on the road, Ajith forced a smile on his lips. “You cannot trust any of them, sir. We don’t know which one is a Tiger.”

“That’s true.”