Ular Yang

Ms. Gracion Slats gets a bigger shock than anybody when SHE saves the day.

 Ular Yang

It was a special day in India. I remember it like it was yesterday. Ms. Gracion Slats was having her fifteenth birthday on March 23, 1832, and the great Annie Headwase was coming to her party. Gracion wore a flowing yellow gown that exaggerated her figure too much, but she liked it because she thought it would make her look older for Annie. The other servants and I had pulled her short black hair back with bobby pins and a pink and purple flowered clip for the bangs that brought out her pale face. She was the heiress of her father’s famous fortune in Agartala, India. In these wretched times, England was still in rule over the country.

"Are you ready?" I heard her father call from down the stairs. He was obviously trying to get Gracion to speak English, but Gracion did not play his game.

She replied in a strictly Indian language, "Saya tidah akan sepertu yang ontuk menjawaik peeraryaan."

Both her father and I knew what that meant. Gracion was saying, "I do not want to answer that question." I looked down the stairs to check on her father. He was rolling his eyes and finally walked away with a swift movement, straightening his suit at the same time.

Magarette, Gracion’s personal servant, finished with the hugan’s (or birthday girl’s) hair just as Jared, the translator, walked in. Gracion was still admiring herself in the mirror, so Jared didn’t say anything. He knew she was still upset that she was the only one in the house that couldn’t speak English, but Gracion kept quiet until the party began.

The party started at 8:00 p.m. sharp, but Annie arrived "fashionably late" at 8:02 and with a bang!

"Annie," Gracion greeted her. "Tunan meda!" Jared happily translated it to "Annie, my young friend." Annie wore pearls everywhere, as American’s do. Her corset was tightly fastened and you could easily see the embroidery over her plump body. She smiled a fake smile at Gracion, meaning ‘I’m not that young, child.’ I saw the whole scene from my place next to Gracion’s side, ready to act at her request. Annie’s statement had been true. If my memory stands correctly, she was to be eighteen by June that year.

Before Annie could present her rebuttal, Gracion’s father, Master Jasper Slats, walked in to start the party.

"Selenat datany ke mumah saya, tenan meda," was his opening statement. It meant ‘Welcome to our party, young friends,’ but no translation was needed for Annie, because he was just starting the ceremony. This time, the ‘young’ part was true since Master Slats was sixty-four, and his birthday was only seven days away. In one quick moment, he broke off into a frenzy of English language. Everyone in the room, except Annie and Gracion, could understand both languages, so Jared was constantly leaning into Gracion’s ear to translate the dictation. I’m surprised that as a translator he didn’t get tired of repeating things people had already said; to me it would be boring and repetitive.

The estate’s servants, like me, escorted the guest to an appropriate seat decided by the hosting family. The dining room was large and echoed often. It smelled of chicken, steak, and a variety of homemade Indian spices.

Gracion’s charcoal eyes widened with rage at the site of Annie sitting at her father’s right on the other end of the expansive table, the closet seat to the veranda. By the looks of it, they were talking about politics, and Annie was especially surprised at how well his English accent had gotten from the last time she’d seen him, at her "sweet sixteen" in Boston.

Gracion got furious at this private conversation between her father and Annie, so she leaned over to Jared and said in an overly loud tone, "Ular yang, ular yang, jangan panik, ular yang." Jared was easily frightened, and Gracion had said, "The snake, the snake, don’t panic, the snake" Jared was debating, out loud, about whether to run or tell Annie. Gracion was obviously thinking ‘tell Annie,’ because then that American girl would think she was a hero, but once Jared felt that poisonous creature lightly sweep his toes with its scaly skin, he yelped in horror and ran out the room screaming ‘the snake’ in both languages. Jared and everyone else in the room were now overly protective of their newfound importance of their lives.

I moved from behind Gracion for the first time tonight and headed toward the kitchen for a bowl. I was silent, but I was sure if you listened closely, from the dinig hall, you could hear the milk pouring.

In about one minute, I came back in the room. The glass bowl was tightly held in both of my scrawny hands. No one but Annie moved a muscle. She lifted herself straight up, breaking the seat and stabbed a finger at Gracion.

"You!" she yelped. "You have all this nonsense of snakes; you lie to everyone in this here room." Gracion bit her lip as her leie had been revealed. I had set the bowl out on the veranda but quickly pulled it back up when I realized that Gracion’s statement was just a simple cry for attention. I was behind Gracion in a moment, still holding the milk on the tips of my fingers, but I flinched as I saw something slither across the back of Gracion’s silk.

"Yang!" she yelped. "Yang!"

Cazme, a servant boy, ran over to me as an effort to save everyone’s life and yanked the bowl away from my hands. He was around Gracion’s age, but bold-hearted and brave, not like any normal fifteen-year-old.

"Jangan!" he screamed when I tried to fight back. This meant ‘No!’ or ‘Don’t!’ I was stubborn in those times. I was too late to act. The bowl was out of my grasp, and my body was limp on the floor. I could see under the cherry-wood table with ease. That was when I caught sight of the snake, again. It hissed at the sign of my raging expression.

By now, Cazme had also seen the snake by now. He carefully but quickly placed the bowl under Annie’s chubby feet.

As the snake slid toward it, Cazme slowly inched the bowl closer to the veranda door. The tip of the bowl was now flooded with spilled milk.

The snake followed.

Cazme moved the bowl one step closer to the veranda. One more move and it would be outside.

The snake turned and slid to the bowl.

Cazme jumped out onto the veranda and gabbed the gun that was lying on the chair incase of emergency.

The snake’s tail stayed in the room, almost as if to hold the door open.

BANG!

The gun was shot.

The body of the snake was dragged out to the small hill in the yard. Everyone, including me, got up to watch the show. Cazme had saved the day!

Everybody looked at Gracion was surprised that that little fifteen-year-old had noticed what the others had not. Her diligence had been crucial. She just smiled back at them to show that she got the message.

When the party was over and everyone was gone, I was getting Gracion ready for bed. She was almost asleep when she rustled the covers and whispered my name.

"Tinta?" she asked. "You know what was really amazing back there?" I didn’t know what she was going to say at the moment, but the only amazing thing that I saw was that the words she spoke were pure English! That was also the only time she ever said them.

"What?" I asked, answering her question.

"Well," she started. "Back there…I really didn’t notice the snake."

I acted surprised, though I truly wasn’t.

"Well, actually…I was making a false statement. I thought that if Annie thought there was a snake in the room, she would notice me," The words were really pouring out of her now. "…And maybe…well, maybe…she wouldn’t think of me as such a child, but maybe-"

I cut her off, "As a hero."

She smiled.

"Wow. That’s some interesting story. Well, if you ask me, I would say it was lucky that you made that fib. You saved the day more than Cazme did."

Gracion smiled, but relaxed as she drifted off to sleep.

Since that day, she was never known as little Gracion, anymore, but always as the greatyang pembunuh.

Author's Note

I wrote this for a contest in sixth grade. Does it have value in a field?

Reviews

[deeps]

Interesting piece here as well. I think this is one of my faves i have read by you so far.

[Gregory Hill]

Very nice it is good writing. Gracion bit her lip as her leie had been revealed. It should be lie. Other than that great job.