The Tale of a Female Waiter
(Short Story by M Menonimus)
The Tale of a Female Waiter
The Tale of a Female Waiter
Karl Rogger is a prisoner in the central jail of England. He is an old man above seventy. He has been in prison since his sixties. He is now a decrepit one and waiting for his last day to come. Though he is senile and waned yet his physical structure bears the stamp that he was once a robust angry man. The charge against him was that he was a patron of a gang of pirates and under his behest, more than a thousand people lost their life. He has been sentenced to life-long imprisonment. But with the passing of time, he seems to grow more and more gentle, melancholic and benign. The other prisoners often gather around him and hear him tell his past horrified missions.
One summer evening some prisoners gathered around him under an oak tree that stood proudly for half a century in front of the big Prison Hall. One among them asked him to tell a story of his life which he thought to be a memorable one. Then Mr Rogger turned his eyes to a young prisoner who had come recently in jail and began to tell:
I belonged to the province called Wales which lies on the west coast of England. Along the coast, there is a range of hills and mountains. Naturally, this coastline is very charming and I built my abode on the hilly slopes of the coast. Near my abode, I opened a hotel which was the seeming means of my earnings. But in reality, the hotel was an appearance only; my sole earning was pirating and my hotel was virtually the parliament of a gang of pirates comprising about forty cadres. I was the de facto leader of the gang. Every day, after sunset, all the cadres gathered at my hotel. We ate, drank, danced and conversed, made plans all night and operated our mission.
In summer the sea became more angry, uneasy and mad and storm wind was almost a daily occurrence. In the storm wind, the cargo ships often met an accident in the coastal hills. In order to save the ships from being got a fatal strike against the coastal hills, a large conflagration was set in and in the light of the fire, the ships would harbour in a safe place. But the pirates did not allow anyone to set fire on the fuel provided for the act by the authority. Instead, the pirates took such measures that the ships could get into peril easily. They sent one from them who did not set fire to the fuel but they took a lantern and roamed about there as a signal of safety. Following the signal of safety, the sailors tried to lead their ships toward the coast and consequently, the ships got struck against the hills and were smashed. After this, the pirates ran to the ships and looted the goods of the ships and if there had been any passenger surviving somehow they threw him into the sea.
In the hotel, there was a page-girl named Liza who was very dutiful and by nature taciturn. I was very cruel to her. She was used to waiting upon the pirates. She never seemed to be weary of her duties. We used her to carry the lantern up the hills to mislead the sailors in stormwind. She did not come to know that by means of her task of carrying the lantern many and many people had happened to lose their life.
Near my hotel, there was a church. The priest of the church was an honest and bold one. He came to know our crimes and he often criticized our activities. My waiter Liza sometimes used to go to church on Sundays. One day, during sermons, the Priest made a reference to our sins and injustice. That day Liza came to know that she was virtually an accomplice of their sinful activities and since then she decided not to help the pirates in misleading the ships.
That very night the pirates congregated in the hotel and criticized the sermons of the priest and decided that they would, by any means, compel the priest to leave the church.
Then suddenly that taciturn girl Liza protested and said, “The priest has not told anything wrong. He is right.”
The unexpected sudden interference of the girl made the pirates astonished. Then we began to beat her and in anger, I decided to kill her. But one among us interrupted.
One night, after a week, a stormwind began. The sky became dark with the cloud. There was constant lightning. The sea surge became perilous. In short, to say, it was considered a golden chance for the pirates. All the pirates soon gathered in the hotel and began to shout, “A golden chance! A golden chance!”
In the meantime, an associate came running to the hotel and informed, “A ship is coming towards the coast. If they want, they can mislead the ship and loot it.”
Then without delay, we sent the girl with a lantern in her hand and ordered her to do what she was often used to doing. The girl without uttering a word walked ahead up the hill. On the way, she crossed the church that reminded her of the sermon of the priest and determined that she would not act upon the order of her host. Instead, she would set fire to the fuels so that the sailors might escape the trick of the pirates.
As she determined so did she. She went up to the hill and set fire to the fuel and in the light of the fire, the sailors came to see that the coast was not safe and hence they led the ship to another safe place. On the other hand, we became blind with rage and began to rebuke her as much as we could. In addition to rebuking her, I went up to the hill with a heavy bat in my hand and approaching her gave a fatal blow on her head. Her head split into two and she died instantly.
But though we all were the worst of people everybody of us often praised her in secret because of her humanitarian feeling.
After some days, all our crimes came to light. I along with some of our associates was caught by police and since then this prison cell has become my abode. 0 0 0
The Tale of a Female Waiter
N.B. The short story ‘The Tale of a Female Waiter’ originally belongs to the book ‘The Prostitute and Other Stories‘ by Menonim Menonimus. The Tale of a Female Waiter
The Tale of a Female Waiter
Books of Composition by M. Menonimus:
- Advertisement Writing
- Amplification Writing
- Note Making
- Paragraph Writing
- Notice Writing
- Passage Comprehension
- The Art of Poster Writing
- The Art of Letter Writing
- Report Writing
- Story Writing
- Substance Writing
- School Essays Part-I
- School Essays Part-II
- School English Grammar Part-I
- School English Grammar Part-II..
Books of S. Story by M. Menonimus:
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