The Sea Singer

by Shome Dasgupta

Genres: Action & Adventure; YA Action & Adventure

Synopsis

There was a voice once that sang the ocean to sleep? March is born in April, just as the sun is setting. A singing baby who cannot sleep, she sets Kolkaper on edge. The Town Council orders scientists to take her away and study her at the Cave Forest, a place for freaks like her. Acting quickly, March?s parents send her away to the distant town of Koofay. But March?s destiny is tied to that of Kolkaper. She must return to save the city from itself. An enchanting fable about love and faith and accepting the odd ones among us.

Release date: February 25, 2016

Publisher: Accent Press

Print pages: 160

Sample

1



MARCH WAS BORN IN THE MIDDLE OF April. The morning of her birthday was rainy, but by the evening the rain had stopped and the sun could be seen setting. She was born in the period of the waning rain and sun. The hospital was a small one, only a year old. Funded by a prominent local family, the Medallions, it was built after the death of their child, Ney. The town of Kolkaper was bordered by the Bay of Bengal on the east coast, Hyderabad was west of the city, Chennai to the south, while the Cave Forest lined the northern and western edges.

There were two causes for the death of Ney: she had caught pneumonia as she was received from Francesca’s womb at the Medallion Mansion, and once she had entered the world with that sickness, the hospital refused to take her in. Ney’s life was brief but momentous, because the events leading from her birth up to her passing laid the path for the wonderful life of March.

When the Medallions took Ney to the hospital, Dr Frez was stubborn and bitter. He held a grudge against the Medallions, particularly Nirana.

‘We have the right to refuse business to any customer,’ Dr Frez said.

Two years before the birth of Ney, Nirana and Dr Frez were involved in a lawsuit. The doctor had sued Nirana for being healthy, because he never needed to go to the hospital for treatment. When Dr Frez was just becoming a doctor, Nirana had assured him that he would be one of the hospital’s best customers. However, due to the healthy and well-nourished life that Nirana was living, he never had cause to go to the hospital until the birth of his daughter. The case was faulty; it was clear that Dr Frez’s insanity was increasing. Years and years devoted to his profession in medicine had eroded his rationality. He confused needles with noodles, crutches with stilts and, at one point, he thought a stethoscope was a dinosaur.

He insisted that the Medallions were nothing but a parasite’s parasite. Nirana wanted no part of the case. He knew of Frez’s insanity, and he didn’t want to cause any further damage to the doctor’s health. However, when the doctor claimed that the Medallions’ ancestors lived lives full of cheating and stealing, Nirana had enough and he took the matter to court.

‘He can say anything about me,’ Nirana said. ‘But my ancestors, and my ancestors’ ancestors, they have nothing to do with this.’

The judge ruled in Nirana’s favour, citing that, ‘It is not Nirana’s duty to become ill under any obligation.’

Frez never forgave Nirana. Ney’s sickness was the first time since the lawsuit that the Medallions had gone to his hospital.

After denying the baby admission, Frez realized the injustice he was committing and rushed out of the hospital to call back the Medallions. ‘Please, come back; the expenses shall be paid from my own salary,’ he said. ‘Within my insanity, there exists a small measure of rationality.’

The Medallions hurried back to the hospital. But as they placed Ney in the emergency room, she died from a sneeze.

‘Achoo,’ Ney said.

She had closed her eyes to sneeze and they never opened again.

Dr Frez could not look the Medallions in the eye. He put his hands on top of his head. He stuck his tongue out. He tried to speak, but nothing came out.

Without a word, Nirana and Francesca returned home. They were quiet during the drive back in the carriage. The driver whispered to the horses to be gentle. When they arrived at the mansion, Francesca was the first to speak.

‘I must dream of my baby,’ she said.

Ney was their first baby. Francesca spent the day in her room crying over the pure white cloths given to them by her friends to serve as bed sheets for the crib. Francesca’s tears dissolved the sheets and there was nothing left but sorrow.

Nirana took time off from his work as a lawyer to console his wife. The citizens of Kolkaper made a pact to not commit any crimes or break any laws as long as Nirana was not working.

‘This is no time for crime,’ one thug said.

‘We will show our enemies their due respect,’ another thug said.

‘How can we steal when there is no one to challenge us?’ a reputable criminal said.

Those Nirana had sent to jail by successfully prosecuting them in court expressed their condolences. Jay – a man who was convicted of stealing the roots of trees and selling them in the black market as ancient elephant tusks – sent Nirana a card. And Brie-Logan, who had instigated the Great Bar Fight of the Century, had one of his cronies send the Medallions a crate of liquor and cheese.

Frez never forgave himself for the death of Ney. Seven days after her death, when no one was hospitalized, he gave the other workers the day off and locked himself in the same emergency room where Ney had passed away. He poured a bucket of gasoline all over the room and over himself. Before he had even lit a match, the heat from his own guilt caused a spark, setting him on fire. It eventually spread throughout the hospital, burning the building down. Ney was the last patient to have died under Frez’s care. On the same day as Frez’s fiery guilt, seven days after Ney’s sneeze, the Medallions cremated their baby. The ashes were thrown into the ocean.

‘She will have quite a journey,’ Francesca said.

‘An ash to each corner of the world and beyond,’ Nirana said.

As they returned to their mansion, they saw the burning hospital and ran to the site, which was already surrounded by the townspeople, including the police and the firefighters.

‘Frez has burnt himself to death and he has taken his whole life with him,’ Francesca said.

‘It wasn’t his fault, though,’ Nirana said. ‘There was nothing that could have been done. A sneeze is a sneeze.’

They stood there until the sun set over the ocean and watched the last trails of smoke make their way into the sky.

‘Poor man,’ Francesca said. ‘He always wanted to do right. And though he tried, things never went the way he wanted. Unnecessary guilt. We should have asked him over and told him that everything will be okay.’

‘I now realize the pain he must have been carrying this past week,’ Nirana said. ‘It is our fault he died.’

‘Too many deaths,’ Francesca said.

The others had left for their nightly activities. But the Medallions remained until the last of the smoke disappeared and then went back to their home.

2



SOON AFTER THE ASHES OF NEY AND DR Frez were released into the sky, Nirana met with his financial advisor, Chek. Nirana had a plan that he had come up with in his sleep the night before. They were to meet at the mansion. The smell of curry and vegetable soup filled its rooms as Chek knocked on the oak door. Chek and Nirana were childhood friends. They had gone to the same schools, from elementary school to their college years.

‘Smells delicious,’ Chek said. ‘Let us skip this meeting and eat these savoury, scented foods.’

‘Your appetite hasn’t changed,’ Nirana said. ‘And I hope that it will always remain the same.’

In a sudden change of mood, Chek turned towards Nirana. ‘My condolences to you and Francesca.’

Francesca met them in the foyer, known as the Pablo Hall, because its walls were filled with an assortment of Pablo Picasso’s paintings, including Guernica and The Old Guitarist. Chek hugged Francesca and whispered his condolences to her. Francesca kissed him on the cheek.

‘Now, hurry and finish this business you all have to attend to and let us eat,’ she said.

‘It shouldn’t take too long,’ Nirana said. ‘Come Chek, we will talk in my office.’

They walked through the foyer and living room, and into the office. Chek noticed the change in decoration and that the walls had been re-painted since he had last been there.

‘This is wonderful,’ he said.

‘We’ve been trying to keep ourselves busy,’ Nirana said. ‘We thought that changing the look of the house would help us cope.’

Nirana sat behind his marble desk and Chek sat opposite him, the folders held underneath his arm. Nirana lit a cigar and offered one to Chek.

‘I’ve stopped smoking since the hospital burned down,’ Chek said.

‘You are wise,’ Nirana said. ‘I’ve started smoking since the hospital burned down.’

Nirana pulled out a folder from the drawer.

‘I want to fund the building of the new hospital, in memory of both Ney and Frez. It will be dedicated to them both. I wish the lawsuits had not come in the way of our friendship. Our family knew Frez for years. We tried, Chek, we tried to . . .