Beauty Is a Wound (58 page)

He chose to escape to the jungle on the cape because it was almost completely deserted. It was a protected forest, and because of that there were no farmers working the land, just a few lazy forestry officers. He hoped that by escaping there, he could buy some time before being discovered by the soldiers, who might not be able to kill him, but would nevertheless be deeply annoying. He was trying to make a decision.

“There is no way I am going to stay alive when I know that all of my friends have been killed in a massacre,” he said in a heartbroken tone.

“There is no way I am going to die while many people are still enjoying their beautiful lives,” said Romeo dryly.

“But I am also still thinking of my wife. She will be so sad, especially since we have already lost our daughter.”

“I don’t care about my wife. She can still find lots of guys to have sex with who won’t care how ugly she is,” said Romeo. “But I still prefer to live.”

They arrived at a small hill with a cave that the Japanese had carved into one of its slopes for defense during the war. They both rested at the top of the hill, as Maman Gendeng continued to weigh his desire to put this life behind him against his reluctance to leave Maya Dewi all alone on this earth. He looked at that Japanese cave, so dark and humid, with its boxlike walls, looking more like a prison cell than a fort. But a place like that was quite fitting for meditation. Maman Gendeng wanted to meditate until he achieved liberation and left this earth in
moksa
, but he continued to think about his wife until he said finally:

“Whatever the case, sooner or later, death will come. And she is the strongest woman I know.”

He decided to meditate in the Japanese cave, and went inside. He ordered Romeo to stand guard at the top of the hill in case the soldiers had sniffed them out and chased them to that spot. “Come get me if those soldiers arrive,” he said.

“I will kill them dead before they even have the chance to arrive,” said Romeo.

“Your voice doesn’t sound that reassuring,” said Maman Gendeng, “but I trust you.”

Maman Gendeng went down into the cave, sat on the moist floor, and began to meditate. Not long after, he attained
moksa
: disappeared and dissolved into little orbs of light. He didn’t kill himself, but he left this world by shedding his body, abandoning all the material that shackled his soul, and now he was one with all light, sparkling like crystal and rising up toward the sky. But before he reached heaven he saw four soldiers pointing their weapons at that guy Romeo on top of the hill. He wanted to help the man by blurring the soldiers’ vision, but before he could, he heard Romeo say:

“Don’t kill me! I’ll tell you where Maman Gendeng is hiding.”

“Okay, tell us,” said one of the soldiers.

“He’s meditating in that Japanese cave.”

The four soldiers went down and searched the Japanese cave. But of course they weren’t going to find Mamang Gendeng. Romeo was going to take the opportunity to run away, but Maman Gendeng wasn’t going to let that happen and held him back, so that Romeo found himself running and yet unable to move from his spot.

“A traitor is always a traitor,” said Maman Gendeng, and Romeo, who couldn’t see him, could still hear his booming voice.

Maman Gendeng then transformed Romeo’s face into his own face, exactly at the moment those four furious soldiers returned.

“So finally we find you, Maman Gendeng,” they said, aiming their weapons at where he stood on the crest of the hill.

“I’m Romeo,” said the man, “not Maman Gendeng!”

But two shots of a rifle had already ended his life. One bullet in his head and another in his chest. It was that corpse Maya Dewi found, while Maman Gendeng rose up to heaven and visited her on the third day after he attained
moksa
.

THAT MIGHTY EVIL
spirit was now overjoyed to see all its victories, to see all its rancor and hatred avenged, even though it had been forced to wait for so long.

“I have separated them from the people they love,” he said to Dewi Ayu, “just as he separated me from the person I loved.”

I have separated them from the people they love, just as he separated me from the person I loved
, its voice echoed.

“But I loved you,” said Dewi Ayu, “with a love that came from deep in my guts.”

“Yes and so I ran from you, granddaughter of Stammler!”

Yes and so I ran from you, granddaughter of Stammler!

Dewi Ayu couldn’t believe how firmly that evil spirit’s longing for revenge had been rooted. He had always seemed just like an ordinary ghost. She had known that he had evil plans for some point in the future, but she had never imagined that he could do so much harm, never guessed how deeply his bitterness had been planted in his heart.

“Look at your children,” said that evil spirit, “they have now all become pathetic widows, and the fourth is a spinster who has never been married!”

Look at your children, they have now all become pathetic widows, and the fourth is a spinster who has never been married!

This was after the ghost had killed Shodancho in his guerrilla hut, the place where he used to hold dominion. When Shodancho appeared out of the blue early in the morning and squatted before the hearth, Dewi Ayu, who had been dead for years and even when she had been alive hadn’t had any contact with him for a very long time, had truly forgotten that he was her son-in-law. The man said that he had been combing the cities and the jungles for years, ever since he had massacred the city thugs, searching for his daughter’s stolen body. He was exhausted and had returned to the city a failure. He didn’t dare go home to his wife, Alamanda, so he had come to the house of his mother-in-law, Dewi Ayu.

“I didn’t have a character suitable to play the role of Shodancho’s killer,” said the evil spirit, “So I did it myself.”

I didn’t have a character suitable to play the role of Shodancho’s killer, so I did it myself
.

“I knew from early on,” said Dewi Ayu, “that you were an amateur comedian.”

No, he didn’t really do it himself, not with his own hands. But indeed, no human being killed Shodancho. In the forlorn solitude of his old age, without the courage to face his wife, who had sent him away after he turned her younger sisters into widows, and having lost his beloved daughter, Shodancho frequently tried to make himself feel better by going to his guerrilla hut in the middle of the jungle on the cape. The hut was just as it had always been, not quite as sturdy as before, but still strong enough to carry him back to a comforting nostalgia.

He also tried to keep himself busy by once again raising wild
ajak
around the guerrilla hut. He was already quite old and feeble, but he still took the pups from their dens. Then one day, their mother came looking for them.

He was lying down on the rock that he used to eat on with his men, the same rock that Rengganis the Beautiful had lain the corpse of her baby on before throwing it to the dogs, when that female
ajak
came with her pack. This bitch didn’t wait too long when she saw her enemy in such a vulnerable state, lunging right for him and tearing into the muscle of his thigh. To repeat, Shodancho was now quite old, his reflexes were slow, and his resistance was weak. He hadn’t yet been able to fight back when other
ajak
began arriving, one pouncing on his arm and the other snatching at his calf. Gaping wounds opened up across his body and his old man’s blood flooded out over the rock. Shodancho was still able to twitch and kick this way and that, hoping to shake off those
ajak
, but his wounds were quite severe, and he exhausted himself. He began to quiet, looking up at the sky, realizing that his death was imminent and that it had come at the hands of the
ajak
he had cared for his entire life. He died with his body torn to shreds, eaten alive. Please do realize though, that in truth
ajak
are lazy creatures who usually only eat carrion. Shodancho is perhaps one of the only people to have ever been eaten alive. His death was destined to be just that tragic.

Dewi Ayu began to worry about Shodancho when he hadn’t returned from the guerrilla hut after a week’s time, because he usually didn’t stay for quite so long. With the help of two retired soldiers who had once been Shodancho’s men, she hacked through the jungle on the cape looking for him. They found an appalling and pathetic corpse. His face was almost completely destroyed, so the only part of him they could immediately recognize was the remnants of his uniform. The
ajak
hadn’t dragged him away, they had eaten him on the spot, while he was still warm, and the buzzards were pecking at what few pieces of muscle and meat still clung to his bones. Dewi Ayu had arrived right before these began to rot.

They brought him back to Alamanda in a black plastic bag, the kind firefighters use to carry the corpses of burn victims to the morgue, and to her, after placing the black plastic bag at her feet, Dewi Ayu said:

“Child, I am bringing you the bones of your man. He was killed and eaten by
ajak
.”

“I had a feeling that might happen, Mama, ever since he came to town with those ninety-six
ajak
to hunt pigs,” said Alamanda, not looking in the least bit forlorn.

“Be a little sad,” her mother said. “At the very least because he didn’t leave you anything in his will.”

Alamanda buried those bones with the bits of torn flesh stuck on them, looking like beef bones that are chopped up and sold for soup. Shodancho was buried in the memorial cemetery for war heroes and they held a military ceremony for him. At least Alamanda gave thanks for that, because if he had been buried in the public cemetery, she would have worried that his ghost would fight with the ghost of Comrade Kliwon. He would be peaceful in the memorial cemetery for war heroes, with a casket and the national flag wrapped around him. They shot off the cannons to pay him his final respects, but Alamanda imagined that her husband’s ghost was being catapulted, so that he would be as dead as dead could be, and that made her a little bit happy too.

Now she was truly a widow, just like her two younger sisters.

“I first realized you were on a quest for revenge when they massacred the communists and that Comrade had to face the firing squad,” said Dewi Ayu, returning her attention to the evil spirit.

“He should have died then, an excruciating death.”

He should have died then, an excruciating death
.

“But love showed its true strength,” said Dewi Ayu. “Alamanda intervened right at the moment he was to die.”

The evil spirit laughed mockingly, “And then she fucked him more than ten years later, right before he killed himself. Killed himself. Killed himself!!! He died! Ha. Ha. Ha.”

And then she fucked him more than ten years later, right before he killed himself. Killed himself. Killed himself!!! He died! Ha. Ha. Ha.

“But I finally realized what was going on.”

It was true. Dewi Ayu had realized that the evil spirit was plotting its revenge. She had guessed that he would try to destroy the love of her family, the remaining descendants of Ted Stammler, just as Ted Stammler had destroyed the love he had with Ma Iyang, although she didn’t think the revenge would be this cruel. Even when that evil spirit was still alive, still just a man, Dewi Ayu had felt his bottomless sorrow deep in her own heart, even before she had met him. This led her to blind love, and drove her to marriage. She wanted to give him the love he had never gotten from her grandmother Ma Iyang after she had been stolen by her grandfather Ted Stammler, but the man had refused to accept her love, a love that was completely pure, that came from deep within her guts. That was when Dewi Ayu had realized that his love for Ma Iyang was irreplaceable, and she felt how he suffered more and more, after his one and only true love had been ripped out at the root. So when he died, Dewi Ayu knew that he was sure to become a vexed and vengeful and tragic ghost who would never rest in peace in the world of the dead. And it was true. That ghost followed her wherever she went. She had sensed its presence at Bloedenkamp, in the whorehouse, and in both her homes. But she hadn’t known that it had been plotting its evil revenge until the morning she heard that Comrade Kliwon, the man beloved by both Alamanda and Adinda, was to be executed.