One
dictionary definition of comeuppance is 'just deserts.' In other
words, justice by non-sentient natural processes; not by the
enforcement of human-devised legality.
ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญIn
44 b.c., Julius Caesar, the greatest military General of the Roman
Empire, was cowardly assassinated in public, in the City of Rome,
by his best friend, Brutus.
Two
years later, in the vicinity of the City of Philippi in Macedonia,
Brutus got his comeuppance. The army he led was defeated in battle,
and he killed himself on the battlefield, in despair, knowing that
his wife had already killed herself in despair in Rome. They had no
children.
His
comeuppance was absolute in that, with his death, his genetic line
came to an end forever.
About
seventy-five years later in the City of Jerusalem, in Palestine, the
man Jesus was betrayed by a friend, Judas. Within days of the
betrayal, Jesus was arrested, tried for blasphemous treason, found
guilty, and crucified to death by the Roman rulers of Palestine.
Within
days of the death of Jesus, Judas got his comeuppance by being driven
by his guilty conscience, to hang himself. He had no children. His
comeuppance was absolute in that, with his death, his genetic line
came to an end forever.
One
thousand and sixty-eight years later, in the City of London in
England, William Shakespeare saw a parallel in the comeuppances of
Brutus and Judas, and so he wrote a play, "Julius Caesar",
in which he symbolically portrayed the parallel.
The
play had the distinction of being staged for special performance in
the City of London for Her Majesty, the
Queen
of England, Elizabeth I.
To
establish further the parallel between Brutus and Judas, Shakespeare
has a scene in his play in which, figuratively, in Brutus, like in
Judas, a guilty conscience arises.
In
the Bible story, a guilty conscience in Judas drives him inescapably
to his comeuppance suicide.
In
Shakespeare's play, the guilty conscience of Brutus is portrayed as
the ghost of the long-dead Julius Caesar. The ghost appears to Brutus
on the battlefield at Philippi just before the battle, and it
threatens him with defeat. Brutus accepts the possibility of defeat.
This acceptance makes his comeuppance suicide, inescapable.
In
the 1960s, at the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa, there
were three students attending the same classes for the same
University degree. One young woman, and two young men.
She
was most beautiful. The two young men were equally most handsome. The
three of them were close friends of one another, and somewhat close
friends of mine. I was not in their university classes. Since two of
the four of us are yet alive I will refer to the three as X, Y, and
Z.
X
was the young woman. The young man, Y, her close friend, fell in love
with her and declared his love. She turned him down, informing him
that she was in love with Z, their other mutual close friend in the
group, who, as yet, was unaware of her romantic love for him.
X
and Y agreed it would be best if the three ceased to continue as a
group, and that she would let Z know of her love for him.
She
let Z know. He was taken by pleasant surprise. He accepted her love,
and lied that he had always loved her, too.
Immediately
later, Z sought out Y, and insisted on the two of them remaining
close friends, unknown to X. Z admitted to Y that he did not have
even an ounce of romantic love for X, or any woman, because he
suspected he was homosexual. But because X was perfectly beautiful,
and was of a very wealthy family, she would be a most safe wife to
have if he ever found out he was homosexual.
Homosexuals
in those days were not accepted, and were always at risk of being
seriously molested by strangers.
Sadly,
in the weeks that followed, Z related to Y the fun X delighted in
making of Y's declaration of romantic love to her. She was
particularly offended by Y, being of a poor family, daring to think
she could love him.
Eventually,
Y said to Z the both of them had to stay away from each other because
of the pain Z was experiencing relating X's obnoxiousness about Y.
Months
passed. Y and Z lost contact. X got her comeuppance when a pandemic
was in the second year of sweeping all over the world in 2022. Among
the millions that died of infection worldwide, was Z, a few days
before he and X were to be married. And worse, because of the risk of
contagious infection, she was, legally, not allowed to attend his
funeral.
And
worse yet, she discovered she was pregnant with his child.
In
the 1930s there were two brothers living in Durban, Natal, South
Africa.
They
were named Grey, and Stanley. They were married, with children.
They
were notorious for being unfaithful to their wives. They were
suspected of fathering illegitimate children with other women
throughout the city, married and unmarried.
Grey
had to run away from his wife and his five children and the city
because other married men teamed up to capture him and do serious
harm to him.
He
ran from Durban to live in Cape Town in 1938.
His
comeuppance began when he married a woman in Cape Town he thought to
be the only child of wealthy parents. He had two children in that
marriage. His wife died of natural causes. That's when he discovered
his wife had been an orphan, adopted unofficially, by a childless
married couple. She, herself, had not known that the adoption had
been unofficial. Grey inherited nothing when she died. His shock led
to his final comeuppance. He died unconsciously drunk in a gutter on
a side street in Cape Town in 1967.
Stanley
became a policeman. He was stationed at the Police Station in
Montclare, a suburb of Durban. On his way to work every day on his
Government-issued bicycle he rode by my home on 20 Cherry road,
Clairwood suburb. Sometimes I would see him when I was sitting on our
front verandah, a few steps from the road. I was nine years old.
On
one of those days, after he had ridden by, he rode back to give me a
two-and-six coin, as a gift. Two shillings and sixpence;
half-a-crown.
His
comeuppance began one day when he was riding by and waved to me and
continually rang his bicycle bell for my entertainment.
I,
in ecstatic childlike fun, waved back. The ringing angered some
stinging flying insects. They attacked Stanley. He crashed and fell.
I dashed into my home, and slammed the door shut behind me.
Because
of the insect stings, he became seriously ill. He could not return to
work as a policeman. He became addicted to the medicine prescribed
against the insect sting poison. He became addicted to the Cane
Spirit alcohol he took refuge in against the hopeless deterioration
of his life. I saw him a few times staggering along a road.
His
comeuppance ended with his dead drunk body being found in a roadside
bush not far from his home, in 1967; the same year his brother Grey
was being disgracefully and finally comeuppanced in Cape Town, dead
drunk in a roadside gutter.
In
the Bible, there is an account of a comeuppance happening in a
family, thousands of years ago. Remarkably, similar comeuppances
happened in my family in the 1960s; just as in the instances of
Brutus and Judas, coincidences and similar comeuppances happening
many, many years apart in different countries.
In
the Bible story, Jacob, aided and abetted by his evil mother,
Rebekah, deceived his blind father, Isaac, into giving him the
blessing owed to Esau, his older twin brother.
Similarly,
my mother's two brothers, Nathan Perumal and Sullivan Perumal,
deceived my granny into bequeathing the family farm to them,
disinheriting my mother.
Jacob's
comeuppance was that all his posterity suffered slavery in Egypt for
generations after his death.
The
comeuppances of Nathan and Sullivan was that both my mother and
granny outlived them.
Nathan
died in his sleep at age 56. In 1967, Sullivan and his evil slut wife
died; he of throat cancer. I never found out the cause of the death
of his evil slut wife. I have long forgotten what her name was.
In
the case of Sullivan and his evil slut wife, their comeuppances were
extended.
When
Nathan died, Sullivan became the sole inheritor of the family farm.
In celebration, Sullivan and his evil slut wife decided to have a
child to whom they would bequeath the farm.
They
named the addition to their family, Jack, after my grampa who had
died of natural causes many years previously.
Sullivan
and his evil slut wife already had three adult children, the eldest
of whom, Adam, was not pleased with being disinherited, as his father
had my mother. I vaguely remember visiting Adam at his home at King's
Rest, a suburb of Durban, when we were children.
Adam,
adult, murdered Jack. Everybody in the family believed it. The crime
was never solved by the Police. Adam knew the family believed he
murdered Jack. Adam also knew the family knew Adam was a much-feared
local gangster criminal.
Even
as I write this, I am told by ever vigilant relatives, both with
inheritance and those disinherited, that Adam Perumal is alive and
well somewhere in South Africa.
