Parvati had one of those days at work. Murphy’s Law was in full affect, whatever
could go wrong did. For the last two
hours of shift she kept repeating her mantra in her head; it is almost beer
thirty. This gave her the strength to power
through to the end of shift. As soon as
she heard the bell signaling the end of shift, she jumped in her car and headed
to the closest water hole, McNellie’s Ale House.
Parvati was a regular at McNellie’s. In fact, she considered it her cheers. It is where everybody knows her name. She settled in at the bar and ordered her
favorite beer, Moose Drool by Big Sky Brewery.
She was not even halfway done with her pint when three frat boys walked
in and sat next to her. The leader
introduced himself as Shumbha,
and his cronies Chanda and Munda. She
found them rude and crude. All she
wanted to do was enjoy her beer in peace, and not be harassed by three
jerks.
In desperation she sent a text to her best friend
Durga. The 911 text was a plea for help,
to get rid of the three frat boys. Durga
immediately responded and said she would be there in fifteen minutes. When she arrived, she tried her best to shut
down the frat boys’ advances. After
twenty minutes the three wastes of space did not get the point that the two
ladies wanted nothing to do with them.
In fact, Shumbha said that if
they invited one more friend then they could have three couples.
That was when Durga realized that the only way to end this
was to text Kali. Fortunately, Kali was
just finishing up her jujitsu training session down the street. It just so happens that Kali dominated her
last mixed martial arts match. She said
she would take care of the oxygen stealers then the three girls would have
dinner. This made Parvati and Durga breath
a sign of relief.
Not two minutes had passed when Kali strode into
McNellie’s. Kali had a presence that
made everyone in the pub stop what they were doing and take notice of her. Kali walked right up to the three frat boys
and informed them that they had two choices.
One, they leave Parvati and Durga alone, or she would make them.
All three started to laugh and said they would like to see
her try. Kali bared her teeth in a wolfs
grin, and said they just made a huge mistake.
Chanda and Munda were the closest to her and the easiest to
dispatch. In no less than three moves
she had both men eating the hardwood floor.
Shumbha, taken aback by her ruthless efficiency
said that she would have no such luck doing the same thing to him. With a sneer Kali said she would not have
too. Out of nowhere, Durga grabbed Shumbha in a classic choke hold, and he
passed out in forty-five seconds.
The three best friends looked down at the three unconscious men
and admired their handy work. Everyone
in the bar cheered, because the three frat boys had caused trouble at
McNellies’s time and time again. The
manager was so happy, he gave all three of them free food and drinks for the
rest of the evening. Parvati smiled and
thought that her day was finally improving.
Author’s Note
This story is based on the Amar Chitra Katha comic Tales ofDurga: Tales of the Mother Goddess.
Written by, Subba Rao, art by Souren
Roy. In the original comic Durga came
out of Parvati’s body. Durga fought
Shumbha. He was a powerful demon who kicked
all the Gods out of heaven. When Shumbha’s
army attacked Durga she became so angry that Kali came out of Durga’s head. Kali killed the army and Shumbha’s commanders
Chanda and Munda. Together Durga and
Kali kill Shumbha. Kali prevents his
blood from being spilled, while Durga throws him to the ground from the sky.
For this story I focused on
plot changes. First, the goddesses are
human and separate people. I liked the
idea of the events happening in a bar.
The reason is because most people have had an experience with that one obnoxious
drunk person in a bar. Also, since it is
a modern day setting the ladies only beat up the three guys instead of killing
them.
