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A few days after this, they received the news of a cashier at a bank in Kandy disappearing with a large amount of money. When they talked about this, Lionel’s comment was that there was nothing wrong in some poor person stealing that way. He also added that under a capitalist system, this was all a down-trodden person could do to survive.

‘That man had a job. So how could he be poor?”

“A man doesn’t become rich just because he has a job, Anu.”

“You have no idea what poor is, Lionel. If you knew how we grew up, you wouldn’t say such things. There were days that we had nothing to eat.”

“Whose fault is that? Isn’t it the fault of the social system that destroyed us?”

“The social system maybe wrong. It can be changed only by ourselves. We have to get an education and serve our country.”

“The education we get now is just a part of that same capitalist system, Anu. You cannot build up the country with that system.”

“How else?”

“I can’t talk all this with you. You don’t understand these things.”

Every time, Lionel would stop abruptly in his conversations and fall into a deep reverie. Or else he would suddenly get up and leave Anula.

Anula was boarded at a campus clerk’s house in Penideniya. She shared one room with another student named Renuka. There was a separate door on one side for them to go in and out. This way they did not disturb the owners of the house.

Sometimes Lionel came to see Anula in this room. When this happened, Renuka would leave them alone and go out either to the garden or some other part of the house. But lately Anula did not enjoy these meetings with her boyfriend. The cause for this was how Lionel distanced himself. Some days their conversations turned into bitter arguments. But the following day Lionel would come back and ask for forgiveness.

Anula felt that there was an unquenched hatred and an anger within Lionel’s heart.

When she asked him about this one day, Lionel started to cry and blabber.

“I have always been an outsider. My mother and father both scolded me for no reason at all. And they both beat me. Everyday they pointed out my faults. I always thought about taking revenge from them. Anu, I was born to that family because of a previous bad karma. It was my mother and my father who made me hate my younger sister and brother. It is not that I don’t have love in my heart.”

Lionel hid his head in Anula’s lap and cried. With a maternal affection, Anula stroked his hair.

“Remember how they ragged us when we first came to the campus? When they were torturing me, I had an urge to kill them all and kill myself. Why do people hurt and torture other people, Anu? Why?”

“Some people are like animals, Lionel. Though some live comfortably, within their hearts are brewing feelings of hatred and jealousy. It is like embers under the ashes. When they get the opportunity to act out these animal emotions, these awful feelings flow out effortlessly.” Most of what Anula went on saying was not heard by Lionel. On her lap he felt a comfort he had never felt before. He was so relaxed by her warmth and her scent. It was like a comfort that a child would get from his mother. While he was consoled this way for a long time, Anula stroked his head. The last red rays of the evening sun seeped in through the iron bars of the window above the bed and fell on the opposite wall. In this light, Lionel lifted his head and saw Anula’s head with a halo of sunlight around it. She had become a mother of kindness. But at this moment, he did not have the courage to reveal the deepest secret in his heart to her.

Anula felt that Lionel had become close to her once more. But how temporary was that feeling!

A few days later, on the first of April 1971, the police found a stack of bombs hidden in a room in the campus. These bombs were very crudely made. Gun powder mixed in with nails and shards of glass had been filled into small clay pots. The uncovering of this ammunition took place because one of the bombs had accidentally exploded. In the mishap one student lost one of his arms. Two other students were taken into custody.

After this incident many students were seen gathering in clusters and talking in hush hush. Everyone was acting suspiciously. No one seemed to know which among the students were the revolutionary Che Guverists.

That evening in her room, Anula discussed this matter with Lionel.

“Nobody that I know,” was Lionel’s nonchalant answer.

The next day, Anula did not see Lionel. He was nowhere to be found.

On the third day evening he came to her room and acted restlessly.

“Where’s your rooma?” Lionel inquired about Anula’s roommate.

“Renu has gone to her village. She got a message that her mother was sick.”

“Really?” Lionel sniggered. Anula understood the meaning of this much later.

“Shall I make a cup of tea for you?”

“O.K.”

Anula boiled the kettle on the hot plate in the room and made some tea. Lionel sipped the hot brew and commented how tasty it was. All of a sudden there was an unusually loving tone in his voice. “When I marry you, would you make tea for me everyday?”

“I will also show you how to make tea.”

“What a thing to say? Why do I have to make tea as long as you are there? Come here, my girl.” Placing the cup of tea aside, he pulled her towards him. Their lips joined. The warmth of the tea was still upon his lips. She could feel this warmth right in her heart.

Outside the darkness spread gradually. The twittering of the birds could be heard amidst the branches and the leaves.

“I am going to Colombo tomorrow, ” Lionel whispered. “Some work pertaining to my younger sister.”

“You can stay the night here. if you wanto to.”

“How about dinner then?”

“Let us go to the store and bring some.”

“You stay here. I will go and bring something for both of us.”

“I will come along with you.”

“No, Anu, you stay here. By the time you get ready, I can run to the store and be back.”