Amballore House by Jose Thekkumthala

out from his confessional stand and occupied the stand himself, asking the priest to confess his sins to him.
    This role reversal took some parishioners by surprise; some of them were trying to suppress the laughter rising uncontrollably from the pits of their stomach, and yet others were worried enough to call church security.
    The security officers dragged him out of the confessional stand. “I am a decent man,” screamed Thoma as he was carried forcefully from the stand. Thoma later claimed that even though he could not extract a confession from the priest, his dramatic action advertised to the world that he was a decent man.
    ***
    During the earlier days of their stay in Mannuthy, Thoma used to be very wild, especially towards Ann. It was typical of him to barge into home at the end of the day, totally drunk with
kallu
. He would then pick some reason to start a fight, such as dinner not being ready or the prawn not being fried fully.
    One evening during supper, he stood up and shouted at his wife, “This rise is overcooked. Make it evenly cooked, you whore!”
    While the assembled children looked at the mad man with fear, expecting a blow to land on Ann any time, Ann replied: “I cannot make overcooked rise less cooked. That would be a miracle.” Bhavany, the good neighbor, would hear about this exchange the very next day and would have a hearty laugh. She agreed that the undercooked rise could be worked on to make it properly cooked,whereas the overcooked rise would have crossed the limits, and could not be altered to evenly cooked status.
    Thoma was in no mood for smart aleck statement from Ann. He stood up and started attacking the simple woman.
    He unleashed a barrage of beating by forehand and backhand towards the undefended one-woman army of Ann. She would start moving backward to duck the blows, but then Thoma would keep up the pace, moving forward in synchrony with Ann’s backward march. The forehand blow would tilt Ann’s face to her right; a rapid follow-up by his backhand would tilt her face to her left. These rapid-fire blows would turn Ann into an owl, looking to her left and right in quick succession. Soon, Ann would reach the end of the room, up against the wall, both literally and figuratively. She would be stranded. As if on cue, she would turn back and resume her backward march to the opposite wall, and Thoma would follow her religiously. Soon the opposite wall would block Ann, and she would resume her backward march by turning around, Thoma following her steps in perfect coordination. He would be screaming at her all along, and she would be weeping helplessly.
    The kids, the whole gang of them, would be scared out of control by now, and they would start crying one after another, and soon the entire group would cry in unison, staging an unorchestrated symphony of loud bawling. This scared group, watching the beating drama, would shout at Ann to block the blows with her hands, but Ann would be too absorbed in the blow absorption and too transfixed and devoured by fear to hear them. They would then send their representative, George the eldest, to defend Ann.
    George would approach Thoma and pull his mundu to get him away from Ann and Thoma would turn around and push George so hard that he would travel with a speed equaling light velocity towards the dining table and toppling it along with the overcooked rice that Ann prepared for the dinner. George would pick himself up and stand there as if in daze. But the younger siblings would push him to the battle zone again, to protect their mom.
    “I will make fresh rice for you; stop beating me,” Ann wailed at herhusband, but Thoma would have nothing of it. He continued bombing the enemy target.
    George would expertly place himself between the invading army and the retreating army. This would enrage Thoma even more. He would switch gears and start delivering freshly minted blows to George. Soon, George, in perfect imitation of Ann, would tilt his head