HELEN SARCHOVICH
SHORT STORY
Nobody knew Helen better than me, because we attended the same elementary school in the fall. Autumn had a lovely vibe to it, with colourful leaves and a fresh earthy smell that mingled with that of full barns, doves, and white gravel that reached the sea. All autumns had produced a special impasse, with winds by the barns. Helen and I were in the same class. Our school has two courts, so I’ll play football with her and she’ll cheer me on when I score goals. And she’ll play volleyball, and I’ll be brave. We’ll be cheering each other on the field now that it’s become a regular occurrence. We’ll go to the coffee shop along the passageway to have coffee after the play sessions.a few of my pals ooked at me in jealousy, but I was not bothered. In that season I had to sell my scooter to pay the fees. I contacted the auto driver of another student to find a buyer.
Finally, he got one broker, a man in his sixties with a limp in his leg I’m not sure whose leg it was, but I’m sure he walked with a limp. He was a pleasant but astute fellow who was willing to assist me, and he offered me the money to pay the fines, even though the sum was only half of the initial scooter price. This purchase was made with my eldest cousin’s credit card [my elder aunts’ son], and the cousin wanted the additional fees he suffered as a result of my late loan payment. That was something I was willing to do. I was also relieved of the regular notion of filling the fuel can, which added to my financial load.
Helen’s father was wealthy, so she footed the bill for the majority of my coffee and snacks. I didn’t feel bad about it because our parents were excellent friends and had moved from the same village, so there was a sense of brotherhood between us. Some of their forefathers were thought to be good buddies, particularly during floods, which were regular in our parent village. But there was nothing wrong with our friendship, and we shared many secrets, such as when she told me about males, which I liked at the time, or when I told her about my aunts, which she didn’t enjoy. We were separated for a few days, yet we still saw each other.
2 Then, in my youth, I made it a point to travel and see as much as possible, both within and outside of the country. First, I went to Dehradun, then the border states, and then, the following year, I went on various abroad trips. It was once my love to see fresh individuals immersed in a foreign culture, and I can guarantee you that it was not a futile endeavour. These youth excursions made me more receptive to different faiths, though not entirely wise. During those years, I also harboured a secret desire to marry Helen if at all possible, and I knew that the best way to do so was to exert influence over her grandfather and cater to his many shortcomings..
And I was looking for such an opportunity during those years. I went to the Pyrenees with a friend and his family the next year… With a companion, I was travelling through the Pyrenees. This friend was visually challenged and I was like his guide. -Pirineus in Catalan; Pirinioak in Basque – Then I returned to Egypt for business. My parents, on the other hand, were encouraging me to take competitive examinations, so I rented a spacious room in a big city and began working for them, but I found it difficult to concentrate. I found myself in movie theatres by 6 p.m., and this was a habit I couldn’t give up anytime soon. That chain of cue, routine, and reward was so deeply embedded in my consciousness, it was impossible for me to forget it. But the fortunate aspect of that little visit was that I was able to see several good films, like A TIME FOR KILLING, SUMMER OF 42, BEN HUR, and others, as well as pictures starring Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery, and others. Looking back, it was one of the best moments of my life in the sense that, despite being short on funds, I had a degree of leeway in terms of travel and meeting new people
3
Then I went out of the country on business as a merchant on a different road, starting a business of Zari embroidery and finished needlework products done by skilled craftsmen in the streets of Agra. They are artistic geniuses, and the majority of their creations are traditional in nature, passing down from father to son or mother to daughter in a form of family trade. And I made a lot of money off of these people’s labour. When I returned home, I made sure I had suitcases full of expensive goods to distribute. I used to operate a pet shop in town, but it didn’t perform well, so I shut it down. And then started a laundry shop and it fetched good business, but I had that urge to travel and I gave it off to my younger brother and travelled as far as Egypt. We went to a city hall and wrote the cardinal examination she got through to become an educator and married clergyman and he was posted in a border state known for malaria. Sometimes I made a living by copying old masters and some other time as a model and then as a translator. but I did not like any of these professions. then I went to an old dwelling where my father lived for some time and occupied the upper story which was given for rent and changed the people to the lower story and collected certain books from the bookstall And started reading. and sometimes I wrote book reviews and film criticism, and so I did under a pseudonym because my parents did not like me around anything, they liked doing trade, and that was where they thought you received ample cash.
4
In that season, i desperately wanted to marry Helen and was devising a plan. In nearly every way, she was ahead of her time, and I foolishly felt she loved me. Despite the fact that I am not a poet, I penned a few poems and songs about her and performed them with my own music. The majority of the songs were inspired by Bollywood movies, which I occasionally viewed. I was aware of the seasons, but I had been gone for so long that I had forgotten about her whims. And believe me when I say that I became a poor as a result. Helen said her father was poisoned one day because he owned several properties and was relaxing in the farmhouse when the incident occurred. He was accompanied by the caretaker, but everyone assumed it was just indigestion because he vomited.
The old man was taken to the hospital in the company of another suspect in the neighbourhood, who was most likely an accomplice, but all of the characters were able to make the whole thing seem so natural. When she went on study leave, she had a doubt after one of her chats with the farmhouse lady, and she believed that the farmhouse could be the greatest place to focus on the examination. As a result of the man’s collaboration with a drunkard, the latter returned all extra drugs in the hospital at the time of treatment and collected the money. However, the two eventually drifted apart
Coconspirators never become true friends because in later breaks one will be mirroring the other’s evil self and that is tiring for both. And as years go on except a few folks all tend to think about the deeper side of life and are ready to lose a few bucks for good thinking. This was mainly a prick of conscience rather than kindness that prompted them to do that stuff. 5
When the opportunity arose, I went to her grandfather and presented him with two bundles of tobacco, pleading with him to marry my granddaughter. I was twenty-two years old at the time, and she was probably the same. The old guy consented and accepted the tobacco, a few bills, and a silver box in which to store them. He took the cigarette box but promptly forgot about it. But later I learned that he submitted my case to his son, the girl’s father, who did not agree and the old man was rebuffed; nevertheless, he did not tell me the latter store because he didn’t want to lose his status at the end of his life, especially in front of a young lad like me. In the household, there. Another lad in the home was in charge of the animals. He was a close friend of mine and camped in a makeshift camp near the animal woodshed. We both like circuses, and whenever we got together, we would always talk about some of the displays or acrobatics we had seen in the rings that came to our town. He was living in a cow lean-to and knew every cow and bull, but the bulls occasionally came to the shed and caused problems for the cows. I’m not sure how the cows felt about it. However, the bulls arrived..
6 Helen’s kin was a slim fellow who always carried a violin in his hand and was a member of the choir with his younger sister who sung exquisite melodies during one of my stays in the country. The youngster studied science fiction, as well as Newton, and experimented with different colours; watercolour being his most recent endeavour. Then one day, while guzzling water from a roadside water spout, he misplaced his symphonic instrument. After sipping water, he forgot to return it. The cacophony of the new road-building operations, which featured massive canisters of molten tar maintained on site, had him stopped in his tracks.
The brother and a sister were doing some research on sound. The brother was a painter. He painted historical themes, old castles, stone minar steps, and anything that had to do with shapes. that He experimented with colours and created tertiary ones while studying the Principia Mathematica. He was an art and gouache student who had studied some of Newton’s writings, experimented with colour, and created his own combinations in the domain. Going to his room was like visiting a museum, and all of the artworks were created during his off-work hours
7 The brother and sister had a sick mother who grew anaemic and contracted the feared disease after working in closed rooms for lengthy periods of time. She died in the fall, leaving the musical children in the care of a different uncle. 8 I had to return to my foreign business in Egypt all of a sudden. The old dam, meanwhile, was being rebuilt. We met when I was the interpreter for her husband’s cardinal speech. He said several challenging things that I couldn’t understand, and the crowd mocked me. It was raining at the time, and the eyeing was done outside in the open.
It was crowded. I was coming on public transport. She had a big art and her children were bedful and they wore expensive outfits… 9 I was asked to a ceremony upon my return to the nation. Helen, her husband, and her only son were all present at that ceremony. By my Egyptian wife, I had a daughter. My wife, a marchioness and a strong woman like Queen Viveros II, has provided me with a joyful and complementing life. My kid had a dark complexion and was really attractive. Cleopatra is her name. Semele, our adopted daughter, was a college student who aspired to become a nun. I tried everything I could to create Helen’s boy and Cleopatra’s match, but it didn’t work out. Helen and her husband, on the other hand, were planning something different. As a result, my thoughts drifted. Helen’s husband was the keynote speaker at that event. As a result, my mind began to wander. Helen’s husband was the keynote speaker at the occasion. Due to a dearth of qualified candidates, I was asked to interpret the speech. Some of the clergyman’s insightful remarks were lost on me. In the face of the audience’s laughter, I strove to maintain stability and equanimity. Despite the fact that it wasn’t a particularly happy season, I was delighted to see, meet, and speak with Helen after such a long time. I did not stay in the country for long after the ceremony and sailed for Egypt, where the land greeted me like a bashful bride. It was a day of firebolts when I landed in Cairo. The next day, though, the sky cleared. Before returning to India, I spent ten years and nine months in Egypt, which I will tell you about in another post.