She really came alive. Her body started to grow more alluring than ever. Her friends who spent time with her every day could not believe the transformation. It had such an effect on them that they found themselves tongue-tied in front of her. They could not believe their eyes. Her beauty filled them with shame about themselves, but there was not much they could do about it, only helplessly resign themselves to it.

Chellathayi was so excited about the baby. She got a lovely cradle made, and she even made baby clothes out of silk. Without any hesitation or embarrassment, she gave money to anyone who was going to the temple festival and asked them to buy wooden dolls and toys for the baby. It seemed as if she did not know how to express the surge of happiness in her.

Then one day, at the crack of dawn, the entire town woke up to her screams. People rushed to her side as she writhed on the ground, tossing and rolling in distress. The way she hit herself on the head was terrifying to watch. It was as if her skull was going to break into a hundred pieces. She was overcome. A cobra had bitten her husband in the screw-pine woods, she said. She had witnessed it with her own eyes. The snake had wound itself around his body from head to toe like the coiled and twisted rope of the temple chariot. It had clamped its mouth around his right foot, while its tail bored into his left ear. The whole town was alarmed. Armed with clubs and bamboo staves, twelve men set off and searched the woods thoroughly. But they could never find him.

The next day, we found Chellathayi’s body hanging from a branch of the tamarind tree. She had fashioned a noose out of the very sari she was wearing.

2

2.

The day after Asan told us the story, we gathered outside Joseph’s laundry shop. We showed up for days, then weeks, waiting for Asan to appear and finally finish the tale.

There was no sign of him at all.