2 -competition - 2 second episode

 https://lakshmanillangakoon.blogspot.com/2021/03/competition-short-story.html

“ Here, I brought the sharpened tools, our nilame”. When he said this, his assistant  who came with him, kept down the heap of sickles he carried on his shoulders. “Ok, heen akka – little elder sister, we are planning to harvest hapugaswela paddy fields day after tomorrow, right?” arachchila wanted to confirm dates from  someone inside.

A woman, who was of the same age as kiribanda, little fairer than him, came to the veranda. “ it is not day after tomorrow but two days after tomorrow  Banda. You forgot it this soon?” she turned to Skiner after asking that question.

“loku nilame, then I’ll bring the few hey sticks  tomorrow evening after fixing the handles . There were few in the shed as well.”

“Ok naide, I think it is time to sharpen mammoties too. From the darkened skies these days, it looks like this time’s yala also will not be a bad season for us.” Arachchila smiled happily looking at the western sky.

“Will sudu mahaththaya – white gentleman,  go now our nilame? Nayide, who knew arachchila would not expect a reply for the earlier observation, asked.

“Why? Are you thinking of practicing horse riding until he goes, if he gets late to go?” Arachchila joked.

“What horse riding for us nilame? On the other hand, didn’t we ride horses for last Mihidu perahara, although they were hay ones. This boy likes to see how white master gets on to the horse” nayide had his own joke.

“ He will take a little longer to go. If he wants to see that, ask him to wait a little.” Arachchila focused again on Skiner after saying this.

“So, how many times did you climb to  the top of Samanala hill? 7, 8 times was it?” he asked Skiner.

“Not 7, 8 times arachchila, 30, 40 times. There were days I climbed the mountain twice. When I started climbing I lost to 17 soldiers out of 30 soldiers of our Malay regiment. In the 10^th climb, only our sergeant finished climbing down before me. When I climbed for the fifteenth time, I came back to the foothill two hours before sergeant.” He proudly presented the whole report of his Samanala hill climbing to arachchila.

“Skiner unnahe ( a respectful form of address to a equal), didn’t you take anybody from the village when you climbed  Sri pada?” Asked Kiribanda arachchila. He lit his cigar again which was already half burnt, and was stubbed out, earlier.

“listening to the recommendation  of  people who came to do road construction  duties, we took three good climbers and climbed twice.. In both days they climbed down between I and සාජන්. They  couldn’t even get close to me.” He smiled proudly. “Thinking they are losing to me out of respect , I told them I will release them from road duty and give them panam each  as well if they win. But nothing much changed.

“Dark tall guy, climbed in the same speed as me. But when coming down, he was one hour late.”

 “Do you remember how these two guys looked like? One is dark and thin other one is fair, but short, right skinner  unnahe Arachchila asked looking at the faraway sky.