The Chapel (part2)

When Ginnie heard of Ravi's engagement the loathing she had conceived for him grew into a sort of numb hatred. She was soon haunted by a longing to repay that heartless, arrogant brute. She would give anything to humiliate him, to see that leering, conceited grin wiped from his face. But outwardly she was unmoved. On weekdays she went to school and on Sundays she went still to Father Olivier's afternoon service.

"Girl, you sure does have a lot to confess to that whitie," her mother would say to her each time she came home late from chapel.

"He's not a whitie, he's a man of God."

"That's as may be, child, but don't forget he does be a man first."

The months passed and she did not see Ravi again.

And then it rained. All through August the rain hardly stopped. It rattled persistently on the galvanized roofs until you thought you would go mad with the noise. And if it stopped the air was as sticky as treacle and you prayed for it to rain again.

Then one day in October, towards the end of the wet season, when Ginnie's family were celebrating her only brother's eighteenth birthday, something happened that she had been dreading for weeks. She was lying in the hammock on the balcony, playing with her six-year old nephew Pinni.

Suddenly, Pinni cried out: "Ginnie, why are you so fat?"

Throughout the little frame house all celebration stopped. On the balcony curious eyes were turned upon Ginnie. And you could see what the boy meant.

"Gods have mercy on you, Virginia! Watch the shape of your belly," cried Mrs Narine, exploding with indignation and pulling her daughter indoors, away from the prying neighbours' ears. Her voice was loud and hard and there was a blackness in her eyes like the blackness of the skies before thunder. How could she have been so blind? She cursed herself for it and harsh questions burst from her lips.

"How does you bring such shame upon us, girl? What worthless layabouts does you throw yourself upon? What man'll have you now? No decent man, that does be sure. And why does you blacken your father's name like this, at your age? The man as didn't even live to see you born. Thank the gods he didn't have to know of this. You sure got some explaining to your precious man of God, child."

At last her words were exhausted and she sat down heavily, her weak heart pounding dangerously and her chest heaving from the exertion of her outburst.

Then Ginnie told her mother of the afternoon that Ravi Kirjani had raped her. There was a long silence after that and all you could hear was Mrs Narine wheezing. When at last she spoke, her words were heavy and disjointed.

"If anybody have to get damnation that Kirjani boy'll get it," she said.

Ginnie's sisters were awestruck.

"Shall we take her over to the health centre, Ma?" asked Indra. "The midwife comes today."

"Is you crazy, girl? You all does know how that woman does run she mouth like a duck's bottom. You all leave this to me."

That night Mrs Narine took her young daughter to see Doctor Khan, an old friend of her husband whose discretion she could count on.

There was no doubt about it. The child was pregnant.

"And what can us do, Dr Khan?" asked Mrs Narine.

"Marry her off, quick as you can," the lean old doctor replied bluntly.

Mrs Narine scoffed.

"Who would take her now, Doctor? I does beg you. There's nothing? Nothing you can do for us?"

A welcome breeze came through the slats of the surgery windows. Outside you could hear the shrill, persistent sound of cicadas, while mosquitoes crowded at the screens, attracted by the bare bulb over the simple desk. Dr Khan sighed and peered over the frames of his glasses. Then he lowered his voice and spoke wearily, like a man who has said the same thing many times.