The Crow Eaters Read Online Free

sole purpose of irritating him. Often he struck his head in despair, bemoaning his fate and wondering what monstrosities he had committed in previous births to merit this punishment.
    He could not bear the way she appropriated the largest, choicest portions of food when they sat at table. Every time she pounced on the chicken dish, prying out bits of giblet and liver with her fingers and popping them into her mouth, he winced. The more he flinched, the more she delighted in swiping these delicacies from beneath his very nose and stuffing them into her voracious mouth. She would then sink back contentedly in her chair and pulling all the dishes closer to her plate, proceed gluttonously to help herself to second favourites.
    But there is only so much a man can take. One lunch-time Freddy exploded. Taking firm hold of her plucking hand, he guided the giblet-pinching fingers across Putli to Hutoxi, who was now three years old. Ordering the startled child to ‘Eat!’ he quietly restored the plundered hand to its dumb-founded owner.
    Wagging a long retributive finger across the table, wildly misconstruing the English text, he thundered: ‘Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings! Yes, you are eating out of the mouths of babes and sucklings!’
    Not understanding the words but impressed nevertheless, the table waited in nervous suspense for him to continue. Jerbanoo squirmed in her chair, hatefully conscious of his stern, ascetic eyes and wagging finger. Whatever it was he said, there was no doubt in her mind that the thundering sentences were meant to vilify, condemn and annihilate her.
    A solemn moment later, he demanded: ‘Are you a growing child? Must you eat all the liver and fat from my babies’ mouths? Look at them – see how thin they are!’ He pointed his quivering finger at Hutoxi and her year-old brother, Soli. They were rosy-cheeked and sturdy.
    ‘As a Zarathusti I am not permitted to look upon a crime and remain guiltless. My children are being murdered beneath my very nose and –’
    Putli chimed a warning: ‘Mind the Demon of Wrath.’
    ‘The Demon of Wrath! Murder is being committed before my eyes and you want me to do nothing? I shall be as guilty in God’s sight as this glutton! There ought to be a law to flog greedy grandmothers like her,’ he proclaimed.
    ‘Freddy!’ squeaked his shocked wife.
    ‘You heard him! You heard what he said to me!’ squealed her mother. ‘Oh, that I should live to hear
him
say that to
me
! Oh God, rip the earth apart and swallow me alive!’
    Jerbanoo surged mightily to her feet, knocking back her chair with a crash. For a fearful moment Putli believed the Deity, having taken her mother’s plea to heart, had sundered the floor of their dining-room.
    Kicking the fallen chair aside, Jerbanoo stormed out and shut herself up in her room with a shattering detonation of slammed doors and bolts. She lay down, flat on her back, panting furiously.
    An hour later she tiptoed to the kitchen and polished off the dinner prepared for the evening.
    For two days Jerbanoo ate sparingly. Thereafter her hunger grew voracious and, undaunted, she gorged herself before her son-in-law’s burning gaze. She appeared to expand beneathhis very eyes. And the fatter she grew the leaner he became – and the leaner he became, the more Jerbanoo ate to vindicate herself – until both felt quite ill.
    Her sudden expansion awed the household. Jerbanoo threw her newly acquired weight about with avenging zest. Not knowing what to make of her, Putli, the servants and the children allowed her domination. She swaggered all over the house, roaring commands and bequeathing counsel. She took complete charge of their lives and Freddy, too weak and bewildered to counteract her bullying, allowed the situation to slip out of hand.
    Increasing her circle of acquaintances, Jerbanoo invited droves of plump, middle-aged ladies to long sessions of morning gossip and emotional unburdening. Nodding with sympathy, these