Free Beauty Is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan, Annie Tucker

gaping at her as if she were a she-devil. He refused to touch her, shrieking whenever she forced herself near him, and hurling whatever he could grab at her. When Dewi Ayu relented, he curled up in the corner of the room shivering and crying like a baby in its cradle. Dewi Ayu waited patiently, sitting not far from him, still in her wedding clothes. Once in a while she would try to coax him to approach her and caress her, and even make love to her, since she was now his wife. But whenever Ma Gedik began to scream again, she would stop her seduction, and return to sitting there quietly, flashing him a smile now and then in her patient efforts.
    “Why are you afraid of me? I just want you to touch me, and of course sleep with me, because you are my husband.”
    Ma Gedik didn’t respond.
    “Think about it, let’s say we are married and you don’t sleep with me,” she continued. “I will never get pregnant and everyone will say that your dick doesn’t work anymore.”
    “You are a she-devil seductress,” stammered Ma Gedik finally.
    “I’m a beautiful temptress,” Dewi Ayu added.
    “You are not a virgin.”
    “Of course that’s not true!” said Dewi Ayu, a little hurt. “Sleep with me and you will know that you’re wrong.”
    “You’re not a virgin, and you’re pregnant, and you want to make me into the black sheep.”
    “That’s not true.”
    Their debate continued until the middle of the night, and then until the early morning, and neither of them changed their mind. When the new day came and the light streamed into their bridal chamber, Dewi Ayu was exhausted by the man’s electrifying screams and gave up on approaching him. She took off all of her clothes, her wedding dress and her tiara, and threw them on top of the bed. Stark naked, she stood in front of the still hysterical old man, and said loudly in his ear:
    “Do it, and you’ll know that I’m a virgin!”
    “I swear to Satan, I am not going to do it, because I know you are not a virgin!”
    Then Dewi Ayu inserted her middle finger into her vagina, deep inside, right in front of Ma Gedik’s nose. The girl whimpered a little at the pain, and trembled every time her finger moved in between her legs, until she pulled it out and showed it to Ma Gedik. A drop of blood hovered on her fingertip, which she then smeared in a straight line from the tip of Ma Gedik’s forehead to the edge of his quivering chin.
    “Well I guess you’re right,” said Dewi Ayu. “Now I am no longer a virgin.”
    She left to bathe and after that she slept atop her wedding bed, as if she didn’t care about the old man who was still shivering in the corner of the room. She hadn’t had any rest for a whole day and night, and so she slept quite soundly, not responding when the servants tried to rouse her for lunch. She awoke in the afternoon and without bothering about Ma Gedik went right to the table, eating with gusto, and with no conversation as the servants looked on, waiting for her orders. When she returned to her room, she realized that the old man was gone. She looked for him in the bathroom, in the yard, and in the kitchen, but she didn’t find him. Dewi Ayu finally asked one of the guards in front of the house.
    “He ran away screaming like he’d seen the devil, Miss.”
    “You didn’t catch him?”
    “He was running so fast, just like Ma Iyang ran sixteen years ago,” replied the guard. “But Mr. Willie chased him with the car.”
    “And was he caught?”
    “No.”
    She ran to the stable and joined the chase on horseback. Dewi Ayu guessed, although she was slightly mistaken, that the man had run toward the peak of the rocky hill where Ma Iyang had flown down and was lost in the fog. It turned out Ma Gedik had not run to that hill, but to another hill located to the east. After questioning some people on the side of the road, they picked up some Colibri tire tracks, which led them to the foot of that hill. Dewi Ayu found Mr. Willie sitting on the