Even Odds Read online

pray.

  The wind will blow,

  Our tears will flow.

  "God shows His pity

  To every single city.

  And comes the rains

  To let out all grains.”

  (He laughs again)

  Dear, there is no God but gold,

  Like beans are always in a pod.

  There are no means as might,

  Like no sight without some light.

  (He grins)

  And that my lovely holy dear,

  I tell you without reservations;

  Is what I think of her grey hair

  And her silly, weird resolutions.

  (He laughs louder)

  Like everybody else

  I act on my best sense.

  I may cry when I’m sad;

  Bite my nails when it’s bad.

  I have searched thoughts of earth

  And heard great tales with strength.

  I am yet to solve so many puzzles,

  My heart roams in empty bubbles.

  If I am to know any peace;

  Not just its soothing breeze,

  Then I must open all my holds

  And soak my mind in the words;

  ‘Only when the bubble bursts

  And every known evil has lost

  Will I bow and share my thought

  With any being, with all my heart.’

  (BI remains quiet as NE exits slowly.)

  BI:

  It must surely make him hurt,

  For from the day of my birth

  I have been of another path.

  (Thoughtfully)

  He laughs at me

  Because he can see

  What my fate will be.

  That old maid’s God

  Makes my soul cold

  And I feel all sold.

  Those feelings I didn’t know,

  They’re contrary to my own;

  Feelings I have ever known.

  (Painfully)

  I hurt my swollen firm pride

  And now I must run and hide,

  For never will I be a proud bride.

  Our archaic heartless custom;

  Which we never do overcome,

  Enslaves me till my end come.

  It is the same faceless culture

  That has managed in its nature

  To render all of us so ill-mature.

  (She places both her hands on her head dispiritedly)

  It has me by the edge

  And I can hear the sage

  Announce the end of my age.

  (She sighs visibly and places her hands akimbo)

  I'm no one’s game,

  To cunningly tame.

  (She let her hands fall)

  If there is any justice,

  I’m sure it takes notice.

  For my sake as any other,

  It shall bring all to order.

  (She shut her eyes and frowns)

  A song of my naïve stupidity,

  I am surely loosing my sanity.

  Maybe I have lost it for long

  And I’m singing an old song.

  When situations bring rage,

  Words could give courage.

  (NE storms in angrily, startling BI.)

  NE:

  What is this rubbish I hear?

  Can’t I run things my way?

  Who gives orders around here?

  Am I not with the final say?

  I see you let our old maid leave

  And it isn’t even on some errand,

  For all she owns she didn’t leave.

  What is all this I don’t understand?

  BI: (Appears surprised)

  I surely did no such thing!

  You were wrongly informed.

  I didn’t know of her leaving,

  Nor was her purpose mentioned.

  NE: (With a bewildered expression)

  If I say I saw such a thing,

  Then truly so did it occur!

  Go and see if I am mistaken,

  And pray so in your heart’s core.

  (BI hurries out and leaves NE pacing back and forth. Lights dim out slowly.)

  (Lights brighten up suddenly. NE continues pacing as BI run in, panting.)

  BI:

  There isn’t a single soul here.

  I call but nobody here to hear.

  NE: (Continues to pace back and forth)

  Please allow me to think.

  Don’t let your heart sink.

  (BI falls to her knees in resignation as NE stops pacing abruptly. He look at her and smiles broadly as she looks back at him inquiringly. He remains quiet and suddenly she gets up and attempts to exit again.)

  Woman, bother no more and hear.

  It is now obvious we are alone here.

  BI: (She stops and returns)

  We should go out and look for them.

  If you won’t come I’ll go alone then.

  NE: (He grins)

  Can you not for once just listen?

  Chances of escape rarely heightens.

  Yes, it is missed again and yet again,

  Then gotten back again, like some pain.

  Listen to what I am saying first,

  Must you think you know best?

  (BI hesitates briefly but still exits.)

  The confused ignorant fool,

  She will swim in her blood’s pool.

  I wonder why she can’t see it all,

  As it stands before her so, so tall.

  The poor, poor child,

  She truly needs a guide.

  (He laughs curtly)

  Even the wind senses it too

  Hence it refuses to blow through.

  Even the noon’s shining sun knows

  And stays behind clouds, in shadows.

  Even the flies understand

  And they all desert the land.

  Even houses feel the danger

  And their walls peel in anger.

  When passing time crawls

  Like a kitten with four hurt paws.

  When the lone sun selects to hide

  Like the helpless earth is after its hide.

  When all the flies flee

  Like no one heard their plea.

  When a house suddenly ages

  Like wilting centuries old hedges.

  Why wouldn’t our servants show it

  And seek to leave before they’re hit?

  Why wouldn’t they run away

  And find a safer place to stay?

  (He starts to pace back and forth again)

  I woke up one quiet morning,

  And all the world is mourning.

  No one cared to tell me why,

  Everyone decides to be shy.

  I ignored all their compliments,

  But my whole mind this torments.

  My inquiries revealed I was angry,

  Still faces without meaning they carry.

  (Softly)

  I couldn’t understand

  Why they took this stand.

  They didn’t want me to worry,

  So they didn’t even say sorry.

  (Louder)

  Though I lost my dear father

  It felt like I committed murder.

  (He pauses and shuts his eyes)

  So what if my dear father was so good?

  Like everyone, he also had a bad mood.

  (Opening his eyes)

  My father died from some disease

  And others, I was expected to please.

  Not even the rest of my own family,

  For like me, they also got no sympathy.

  I was expected to please some haggard old sage

  Who forgot most abilities diminish with more age.

  (Casually)

  I refused and shunned the ruse.

  And they compared me to refuse.

  The haggard old sage casts his spell

  And everyone promised me certain hell.

  (Shouting on top of his voice)
>
  I am of the rarest royal blood,

  My very veins carry liquid gold.

  I was born a royal prince,

  This they’ve known since.

  At birth I was avowed virtually immortal,

  The same haggard old sage made that call.

  He had sought the confirmation of his Gods

  And revealed their own very precious words.

  Father said the haggard old sage wanted mother killed

  For he had claimed the very angry Gods must be pleased.

  Now he stands against his own creation

  With a fake and very pathetic formation

  Of deception alongside a spineless king

  And his joke of a huge army of nothing.

  (He grins)

  On my own part I know,

  Whether later or right now,

  I'll soon have his small head

  Stored beneath my own bed.

  (Laughs)

  He make me laugh each day,

  The old apparition of a beast.

  And it is just as I plainly say;

  On his lifeless corpse I’ll feast.

  (BI rushes in, quite agitated.)

  BI:

  We must now leave!

  We must go, please!

  (She walks around aimless and looks confused. NE ignores her)

  It is he on the throne;

  The one they call bone.

  And the mean old priest;

  The one you call beast.

  (NE smiles indifferently)

  This is not a joke,

  I can see the smoke.

  NE: (He now looks at her)

  Say your piece,

  If you’ll please.

  BI: (Calming down)

  As I ran away from here

  To search here and there

  For our helps who ran away,

  I saw that all along the way

  There is not a soul to be seen,

  So a friend’s place I’ve been.

  I sneaked in through a back door

  And she told me a story so sour.

  (She swallows)

  The old priest has long condemned you

  And this very day it is all to come true.

  This is because our mother wasn’t sacrificed

  After your birth, the day you were sanctified.

  And again because you didn’t respect him farther

  With a befitting gift for burying our dearest father.

  She said he cast a spell on you;

  That will come to pass as true.

  That though no man, beast or thing

  Can on its very own end your living,

  You shall have another means to your end

  And it is such today your life's end will tend.

  He made a pronouncement for your life,

  Cutting your destiny like a sharp knife.

  He said any day for one reason or another

  You lay down your lofty pride all together

  And let yourself drop a tiny tear to cry;

  That same day you must surely shall die.

  NE: (He laughs loud and long)

  Surely he can do better than that?

  And what is the throne’s own part?

  BI:

  The king is terrified of you,

  That much she says is so true.

  However, they wish to make you cry

  And that is the reason why I must fry.

  (BI looks away and shuts her eyes. NE looks back at her with sympathy.)

  NE:

  O’ my one dearest sister,

  Why let your faith loiter?

  BI: (Turns to looks