Eka Kurniawan - Beauty is a Wound

The evil spirit was right.

“But you have not yet killed him.”

“I haven’t killed him yet.”

I haven’t killed him yet.

One night, when she once again heard a strange commotion, like the grunting and groaning of people making love, Dewi Ayu finally broke down the bedroom door with a mighty heave of an axe. She was disappointed, to say the least, to discover that someone was making love to that ugly Beauty. Somebody loved her, and that was exactly what Dewi Ayu hadn’t wanted since before the girl had even been born. Overcome with resentment, she wanted to know what kind of stupid man would love a girl like that. But she didn’t see anyone in the bedroom except Beauty, who had been startled and was huddling stark naked in a corner of the room.

“Who were you making love to?!” Dewi Ayu demanded in anger, disappointment, and panic.

“I’ll never tell. He is my prince.”

But Dewi Ayu saw something, little more than a blur, moving as if coming down off the bed. Then as she walked around toward the bedside table, she could barely make out some footsteps on the floor, a little damp as if from sweat, faint under the light of the bedroom lamp. The invisible figure parted the curtain in quite a hurry, opened the window, and of course then he jumped out. At that time Dewi Ayu thought the ghost had come to make love to Beauty, although she couldn’t guess why.

“No, it wasn’t me,” said the evil spirit, offended.

No, it wasn’t me .

“You prevented me from seeing who it was.”

“That’s true. Ha. Ha. Ha.”

That’s true. Ha. Ha. Ha .

It’s as if his revenge had been carried out perfectly, almost without a hitch, and his curse continued to destroy whatever what was left of her family. Alamanda had lost Shodancho, and despite the fact that she had never really loved him all that much, and actually mostly hated him, there had still been a few moments when she did sincerely care for him. And after losing her first two children, she had lost Nurul Aini the third, Ai, who died at such an early age. And Maya Dewi had lost Rengganis the Beautiful even more tragically: someone had killed her and threw her into the ocean, and no one knew who. Then her husband vanished through moksa , after having seen almost all his friends slaughtered. Dewi Ayu’s second child, Adinda, had seen her husband, Comrade Kliwon, dead after hanging himself in his bedroom. But she still had Krisan. And it turned out that Beauty had a lover. Dewi Ayu had to save whoever was left from that evil spirit. She would not let Krisan be taken from Adinda, nor let Beauty’s lover be taken from her, whoever he was. Dewi Ayu would stake anything to fight the evil spirit before her.

“I must stop you,” she said then.

“From what?” asked the evil spirit.

From what?

“From destroying my family.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha. Your family’s ruin was fated long ago. Nothing can stop my revenge now.”

Ha. Ha. Ha. Your family’s ruin was fated long ago. Nothing can stop my revenge now.

“You were unable to tear Henri and Aneu Stammler apart,” said Dewi Ayu.

“Because one of them is the flesh and blood of my beloved.”

Because one of them is the flesh and blood of my beloved.

“And I’m Ma Iyang’s granddaughter.”

“That’s already too far removed.”

That’s already too far removed .

Dewi Ayu slowly slid a dagger out from the pocket of the gown she was wearing. The blade was the kind used by soldiers, shining and sturdy. “I found it in Shodancho’s room,” she announced. Kinkin watched in horror (an angry woman holding a dagger!) but the evil spirit only smiled in disdain. “I am going to kill you with this blade.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha. No human being can kill me,” said the evil spirit.

Ha. Ha. Ha. No human being can kill me .

“Might I at least try?” asked Dewi Ayu.

“Go ahead, be my guest.”

Go ahead, be my guest .

Dewi Ayu approached as the evil spirit smiled a way more disgusting, contemptuous, and self-assured smile. Kinkin, unable to bear being a witness to the murder, hid his face. After glaring at the evil spirit for a few seconds as he glared back, Dewi Ayu, with all the power of a woman carrying a profound rage, maybe in the end with a power and force as strong as that of an evil spirit, stabbed her ex-husband with all her might. Blood spurted out, and she stabbed him again, and blood spurted out again, and she stabbed him again, five stabs with a strength that grew from one stab to the next.

The evil spirit collapsed on the floor, moaning and holding his chest.

“How is it possible,” he said, “That you were able to kill me?”

How is it possible that you were able to kill me?

“I died when I was fifty-two years old, from the strength of my own will, in the hopes that I could someday resist and contain the strength of your evil soul,” said Dewi Ayu. “And today I have come. Do you believe that a mere human could rise from the grave after being dead for twenty-one years? I am no longer human, and so I can kill you.”

“You may have succeeded in killing me, but my curse will live on.”

You may have succeeded in killing me, but my curse will live on .

Then that evil spirit died, turning into a dense cloud of black smoke and disappearing, swallowed up by the atmosphere. Dewi Ayu looked at the kid Kinkin.

“My duty is done, and now I will return to the world of the dead,” she said. “Goodbye, child. Thank you for all your help.”

Then she vanished too, changing into a beautiful butterfly who flew away through the open window and disappeared into the yard.

The man often appeared out of the blue, but because it happened so often, Beauty was no longer surprised by his presence. He had been showing up like that ever since she was young, inviting her to talk. Rosinah was often by her side, but Rosinah could never see him, even though Beauty could. Rosinah never heard the man’s voice either, even though Beauty could hear it. She learned how to speak from that man. He was old, so old his eyebrows were already all white. His dark skin had been burned by the sun, and he had lean muscles that had been forged from years of hard work. She learned everything she knew from him. When Rosinah had tried to enroll her in school and the principal didn’t want to accept her, and she herself didn’t even want to go to school, the man had said:

“I will teach you to write, even though I never learned how to write.”

I will teach you to write, even though I never learned how to write .

He continued:

“And I will teach you to read, even though I never learned how to read.”

And I will teach you to read, even though I never learned how to read .

She had everything she wanted, it seemed, and never needed anything else because she was so happy to be friends with him. Other people didn’t want to associate with her, because she was ugly. But that man was friends with her and didn’t care that she was hideous. Other people didn’t even want to cross her path, but he spent time with her. They often played together, and Rosinah was frequently startled by the little girl’s joyful outbursts that seemed to come suddenly and without apparent reason.

Little Beauty was so happy to be able to read and write. She found all the books that her mother had left behind, and read almost all of them with an overflowing joy, copying over parts of them in her efforts to learn to write and finding a similar delight. But Rosinah looked at her with a gaze full of confusion.