Moral Science in America -4

 Suddenly, someone screamed. It was Venkat. His wrist was bleeding. Binoy had sunk his non-vegetarian teeth straight through the veins.

Venkat jumped in pain and seemed to regain his senses. He looked more horrified than his victims. 

Binoy stood up and blinked. He seemed horribly shaken. He looked at me, pale as a sheet and breathing hard.

' O dear,' He said. 'I hope that thing doesn't get septic.'

My brain became available to me again.

' The lamady', I mumbled.

'What?' He asked.

' The landlady, you should tell the landlady. She's also a doctor.'

So we went downstairs and explained everything to the landlady. She banged on Venkat's door and forced him out. The wound wasn't going to get septic, she said.

' If you kids are telling me the truth, you better go to the police you know'

So we did. The police weren't moved by this tale, they had seen and heard far worse. But one of them pointed out that if one eventually managed to kill the other, the police might get into trouble, so they decided to go investigate.

They knocked on Venkat's door and asked him what had happened. He pointed to the fresh bite marks on his wrist and said, 

'You see this officer? this is the only problem here.'

'Really', Said the officer, "but why did he bite you in the first place?"

Venkat didn't have the balls to fabricate a story. Or perhaps, he thought his honesty would be received with understanding. 

"You see officer, this guy here, he's weird. He isn't like us normal people. So I decided to show him a little lesson. He doesn't get it when I just tell him."

" Tell him what?"

" Tell him how things are done. He just doesn't do things like the rest of us. Like I said he's weird and things had gone far enough. So I decided to teach him a lesson."

Thats when I really got the wind of who these characters were in this story. Venkat and I...were the same person.

The policeman, who sat comepletely frozen till then and slowly rose up to his full height. He walked over to Venkat at an even, deliberate pace and looked down at him.  He pressed down on Venkat's shoulder and forced him back into his seat.

"Son," He growled. " You look weird to me. You don't hit people just because you think they are weird. If you so much as touch this guy again, you are going to jail for a federal offense." Then the police officer turned on his heel and walked out of the apartment.

Venkat went back into his room and slammed the door shut. Then he cried like a baby.

I still meet Binoy and Alan these days at the usual bars, although Alan and I have been broken up for a while. The three of us sit around and talk science or art or politics or take turns imitating Hannah Montana or came up with ideas to save the cheerleader. Binoy always orders cherry coke, burps out the gas and eats up all the peanuts, but nothing he does seems to bother me all that much anymore.