Struck by the Sea

by Daniele Galasso

  Struck by the Sea

  Daniele Galasso

  Translated by Caroline Schena

  “Struck by the Sea”

  Written By Daniele Galasso

  Copyright © 2017 Daniele Galasso

  All rights reserved

  Distributed by Babelcube, Inc.

  www.babelcube.com

  Translated by Caroline Schena

  Cover Design © 2017 Miriam Galasso

  “Babelcube Books” and “Babelcube” are trademarks of Babelcube Inc.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Struck by the Sea | Part One - Sri Lanka

  Second and last part - The United States

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  Struck by the Sea

  Part One - Sri Lanka

  The life of Amandeep and Nilanthi was just as monotonous and as calm as that of the other abandoned children hosted at the Dharma orphanage center of Batticaloa, on the island of Sri Lanka. At first glance, no one could tell them apart and, although they were genetically identical and had grown up in the same environment, they had an entirely different personality. In fact, Amandeep was sweet and obedient, while Nilanthi was rebellious and quarrelsome. Both sisters were thin with very long hair and deep brown eyes. They had been living in the center for quite some time and the management was considering making room for other children: smaller, unfortunate and more helpless children than them. One day, an old lady offered to take care of the twins in exchange for a little "help" with the housework. As soon as they turned twelve, the sisters were transferred to Mrs. Chaudry's home, a hut near the beach. They felt as if they'd been thrown from the frying pan into the fire because the sweet little lady had not been so honest about their newly acquired accommodations. The girls imagined that the director of the Dharma orphanage center, Mr. Thusara, had probably sensed something was amiss about that woman, but that he had just preferred to ignore it. Ever since their first day in that place, Amandeep and Nilanthi were forced to make paper flowers from dawn until sunset. And, once again, the two sisters reacted very differently to their new situation. Amandeep knew other children of the area were subjected to similar conditions and thus preferred not to complain about accomodations. Nilanthi, however, was one of those individuals who did not give up easily and she just couldn't accept the fact that she had to give up on the few hours of schooling that had given meaning to her life until that point. She also missed the precious moments spent with her teacher Dilip at the end of each class. He was a university student who worked for free and who made sure the only class of the orphanage would receive a minimum of education. Mr. Dilip believed Nilanthi had that extra something compared to the other children: a talent and natural understanding that few individuals possess. He even lent her his medical schoolbooks once, just to see how she would react to that stimulus, and was stunned to discover how quickly this puny girl had learned most of the secrets of the human anatomy. Nilanthi was interested in all subjects, but she had a certain inclination towards genetics. She knew everything there was to know about cell division, mitosis or meiosis, as well as Mendel's laws, and had been very sad to have been forced to stop studying Morgan's experiments on Drosophila flies.

  Sometimes, she admired her sister, who was just happy to know how to read and write. Nilanthi felt that a life spent making fake flowers in a factory and without books to study was pretty useless and this made her even harsher and more bitter. Only "her" Dilip was able to make her smile, like that one time when he’d surprised her with a visit.

  They had hugged each other like old friends and had walked on the beach together.

  –“How nice to see you little one! The director, Mr. Thusara, told me where to find you. How are you and Amandeep doing?”

  -“Well, thank you. But... I miss school.”

  -“I thought so and that's why I'm here. I got permission to let you attend the classes offered by the Dharma orphanage center. You could come for the lessons and stay for a chat after class, like old times.”

  -“I don't know if Amandeep is interested, but I sure am!”

  -“I was hoping you’d say that Nilanthi. I'll be waiting for you and your sister!”

  After they had said goodbye to each other, the small girl ran to the house to speak with Mrs. Chaudry. The latter was not against the idea, but wanted to make sure the flower production wouldn't suffer any consequences. Nilanthi decided she would work until late at night to make up for the few hours lost during the day and to keep her daily one-dollar earnings.

  Amandeep, however, rejected the offer saying she was already satisfied to know how to read, write and count money.

  -“If I must sacrifice myself, I will make a few flowers more and keep them aside for you, to make sure you don't have to work too late at night.”

  -“Thank you sister! You're so nice and sweet!”

  -“You are too and I'm sure you'd act like it if we had parents and a real home.”

  -“I don’t know what life would be like in that case, but can imagine how it would be if I had a chance to study.”

  -“Perhaps, under such circumstances, I would've have studied too, but - right now – it’s too much of a burden for me.”

  They fell asleep holding hands.

  Over the following months, things were going the right way for Nilanthi. She spent a few hours to go, study and come back and only had to recuperate one hour of work a day, thanks to her sister. Their organization was running smoothly until Dilip had to start his internship at the multidisciplinary hospital of Colombo, in the capital. As a result, the education service of the center was suspended - of course - and this was a big delusion for Nilanthi. In fact, she began to lose interest in the world around her and stopped eating her already meager portion of rice. Shortly after, Nilanthi became ill...

  There was a medical facility three kilometers away, in the hinterland, and their neighbor had offered to accompany the girl on her wagon, which was pulled by an ox.

  -“Now, you'll have to do your sister's work as well,” resentfully said Mrs. Chaudry to Amandeep, who did not dare ask to accompany Nilanthi at that point.

  It was clear that their host didn't want to give up on the half dollar she kept from their pay for the expenses she claimed to sustain.

  When Nilanthi arrived at the clinic, she was deemed very weak and in need of hospitalization. There weren't any beds available, so the staff arranged on a worn lounge chair for her to lie on, fed her with a glucose IV tied to a broomstick and abandoned her there.

  After a few days, a young nurse finally convinced her to eat vegetable soup and to drink fruit juice. The small girl gradually began to regain her strength. However, just as she was about to be released, something terrible happened. The patients and medical staff froze, as if petrified, and immediately interrupted their activities: a deafening roar had taken their breath away. The noise was coming from the coastline and, after a moment of hesitation, many headed that way to find out what had happened. The small crowd went eastward and, as it progressively came closer to the sea, it brushed against debris and fragments - like those of a shipwreck - and the ground was as wet as if it had recently been struck by a rainstorm. At a certain point, Nilanthi felt her blood turn cold: the body of an obviously lifeless old man was lying on the ground with his face submerged in a pool of water. The girl had a horrible feeling and accelerated her pace. When she arrived to the beach, she realized she had passed the point where the hut had once stood. She backtracked and didn't find anything. There was absolutely nothing left where her "house" had been l
ocated. She didn't even recognize the beach and never would have recognized the place with exact precision if the century-old palm tree hadn’t still been standing there. That’s when she understood a tidal wave had swept everything away.

  "Where are Amandeep and Mrs. Chaudry," she initially thought. She looked around and realized that all those who had lived along the beach had suffered the same fate. She started wandering around aimlessly, rummaging through the remains of boats, shacks, screaming people with injuries and lifeless bodies... She had to find her sister. After a few hours of searching, she was exhausted and knelt down near the sea realizing that Amandeep and her had never been separated for so long. Five days seemed like an eternity to her. At a certain point, she decided to rely on that sixth sense that binded twins from birth.

  -“If I must trust what I feel, then Amandeep is still alive and looking for me.”

  She got up and tried to regain her strength. She caught a glimpse of the tourist village, the one where rich foreigners came to stay, from afar. It didn't seem to have suffered any damage and was probably worth investigating. At a close glance, there weren't any buildings: the fury of the water had only spared the wall structure, but all other details had been erased. "Luxurious rubles," tables, chairs and umbrellas... Everything scattered as if a group of vandals had ravaged that privileged village.

  If there had been any wounded individuals, someone must have had already rescued them because there weren't even traces of any corpses lying around.

  Amongst the rubbles, Nilanthi found two bananas that had miraculously escaped the fury of the sea. She picked them up. Further ahead, there was a pack of cookies and she also collected it. She asked herself if she was stealing these items, but decided there was no reason to be so scrupulous under similar circumstances. She ate the bananas and placed the cookies in the large pocket of her dress. With a full stomach, she was able to concentrate again, “if Amandeep is also looking for me, then she's probably at the hospital”.

  She walked barefoot for three kilometers, supported by the desire to hug her sister. However, even there, her search had been unsuccessful.

  There wasn't any more room for the wounded and the hospital staff had accommodated them in the square, on the opposite side of the entrance. The most voluntary survivors recovered the bodies and aligned them in the back of the structure for the authorities to identify. She had to hurry: even children knew that natural disasters were likely to be followed by epidemic outbreaks and that they would probably spread in an exponential manner at those latitudes.

  Nilanthi gathered her strength and went to the place where the bodies were gathered. "Just to exclude the worst hypothesis," she said to herself.

  With knots to her stomach, she carefully examined the smaller bodies before moving on to the others and jumped back when she saw Mrs. Chaudry's lifeless body... Thanking God Amandeep had not been there.

  More desperate than ever, Nilanthi returned to the beach and decided to seek shelter underneath the wreckage of an overturned boat for the night. At dawn, she remembered she still had some food stored away and took three of the twelve cookies in the pack to put them under her teeth. This was not a first time for her... She had already eaten cookies before, on some special occasion at the orphanage, but the ones she was eating now were much better.

  She was unable to suppress a sense of guilt for not being able to share such delicious treats with her sister.

  She started looking for her again, but without any particular strategy in mind. She was exhausted and exasperated, especially after seeing an ambulance of the Red Cross parked next to one of the army’s. Together, the two vehicles made both a collection and refreshment post. As soon as the volunteers saw her, they ran towards her and offered her a bottle of water. After a few sips, Nilanthi asked about her sister. She didn't even have to show them a picture since her sister was her identical twin. Everyone she spoke to regretfully shook their heads. No one had seen a girl who looked exactly like her.

  -“Come with us to the relief campsite,” said a young, white and English-speaking woman with a paramedic armband.

  -“Your sister could be there or even meet you there soon. In any case, you will have a bed for the night and a meal a day.”

  -“Thank you, ma'am,” replied Nilanthi, feeling bad for having already broken her oath to remain there until she’d found Amandeep. However, she thought it would probably be a better idea to go where the others people of Batticaloa were being sent.

  Nightfall had already settled when she arrived. A woman registered her name in a register and assigned her a cot in the military tent reserved for women.

  -“May I look at that list, ma'am? I can’t find my sister and I've been looking for her for two days...”

  -“It's late now, go to sleep, we'll look at it tomorrow!”

  That night, however, Nilanthi was unable to sleep and started wondering from cot to cot... Whispering the name of Amandeep. The light of the only lamp in the pavilion was very dim and made it difficult to recognize any face. After a few unsuccessful attempts, she decided to slightly raise her voice, but quickly received a "stop it" in return.

  -“I got it,” she replied and would wait for dawn to resume her search.

  She slept little and badly, but, as soon as she woke up, she rushed to look for Amandeep’s name in the register.

  She didn't find her sister amongst the thousands of names registered, but this didn't prevent her from exploring the female sector... with no avail however.

  Her wandering led her to a fence that separated the men from the women. After a while, she recognized Mr. Thusara, the Director of the Dharma orphanage center; she called his name with all her might, but a deafening buzzing muted her voice.

  She then tried to recruit a little boy, but he didn't want anything to do with her. One of her peers, who had witnessed the scene, approached her, asking if he could be of any help.

  -“Could you please look for director Thusara? I just saw him heading that way.”

  -“Tell me what he looks like!”

  -“He's bald, very tall and has a white goatee.”

  -“Wait here!”

  Soon after, she saw the director approaching with a smile.

  -“Nilanthi! Thank God you're alive!”

  -“It's nice to see you again sir! I'm looking for my sister, Amandeep. We weren't together when the tidal wave struck and I haven't been able to find her. I just don't know what to do anymore!”

  -“Listen, Nilanthi, a police squad will come to the campsite this afternoon. Ask the officers about her and make sure they add her name to the list of missing people.”

  At the sound of those words, Nilanthi felt faint and the director quickly realized it.

  -“Listen my child, you will find her! But, in the unfortunate event that this should not happen in the coming hours, it's important to make sure there is a written record of it for the long-term searches.”

  The girl nodded and thanked him. Before leaving, the director added, “Please do not wonder too far in case she should come here to find you. Perhaps, she could go looking for you again and would not be here upon your return, you’d miss each other”.

  Nilanthi thought the director was right and said goodbye with affection.

  -“Goodbye little one. The center will reopen in a few days and you can find me there if you need anything. Take care of yourself!”

  Nilanthi remembered she still had cookies in her pocket, realizing she had subconsciously kept them for Amandeep. "They could go bad if I wait too long," she thought, "how can I make sure they don't go to waste"?

  She called the boy who had helped her earlier and handed him the pack, folded as best as she could have done.

  -“Thank you girl! I will share them with my brothers!”

  -“Thanks to you for your help, “ she replied as she moved away. "I also would've liked to have shared them with my sister," she thought.

  Over the following days, the relief campsite gradually began to empty
itself, but Nilanthi resisted without losing hope. She went to the police post every day, to see if there was any news.

  One day, while she was eating her rice and veggie soup, she saw a beautiful Sinhalese woman pass by. She had an elegant sari dress, of various shades of red, and was accompanied by a Western man who had her arm nicely tucked under his. The lady walked passed Nilanthi smiling and the girl subconsciously returned her smile. She watched the lady speak to a man with an armband on which the words civil defense were inscribed. She first seemed to be trying in English, then in Sinhalese and, finally, in the Tamil dialect, but did not apparently get any satisfying results in return.

  While the Western man was lighting a cigarette, the lady came to sit besides Nilanthi.

  -“Hello! My name is Shaheen and yours?”

  -“I'm Nilanthi.”

  -“Are you here alone?”

  -“Yes, I am waiting for them to find my sister. We are alone in this world. And you?”

  -“I live in America. That man is my husband and we just heard about the tsunami...”

  -“About what?”

  -“Tsunami is a Japanese term that means huge wave in the harbor, or something similar, and this word was used to determine the tidal wave that devastated Sri Lanka, but also Thailand, Burma and the Maldives...”

  -“I didn't know it had affected other countries as well.”

  -“Unfortunately, yes! As I was saying, we came to find my aunt and cousins, who live in Batticaloa.”

  -“But... That's where I'm from!”

  -“Yes, I imagined. Fortunately, all my family is well. I had anyhow been planning to come here for some time now.”

  -“If your family is safe, why do you continue on searching? If I may ask...”

  -“Of course, little one! You see... My husband and I wanted to visit an orphanage in this area.”

  Nilanthi smiled.

  -“There are plenty of orphans around here. My sister and I grew up in an orphanage.”

  Shaheen was amazed to see how this child spoke of her orphan life with such calmness, as if it were normal, and thought of how fortunate she’d been to have grown-up in a solid and close-knit family. She was born in America after her Sinhalese parents had immigrated there and had thus received all the moral and material support she needed. Neither Shaheen nor her brothers were ever neglected anything.