It was so unlike Aulakka to wander away from home and be lost. Distraught with anxiety, Pathumma his wifewas panting for breath and remained awake for most part of that ill-lit night. Towards the wee hours of the night, weary, she brought herself to recline against the pole. The very pole that had until yesterday supported the awning over the three steps leading into her house. And instantly, she had crashed out into an agitated sleep chockfull of nightmares. Three hours later, against a blurry dawn, she was woken up by a man in hot haste entering her hen scratched yard. Without flinching, the bloke broke the news that he had found her husband lying lifeless in a shallow rainwater stream across the fields, with his blotchy tongue lobbed out. Troubled as she was, Pathumma was in no state of mind to receive such dismal news at the start of…