A/n: hey y'all! I was inspired for this story by mygoodbones who wrote Sorrelmarsh - a Finnish story written in English - and it made me want to write something in Sinhalese directly translated to English - disclaimer: to be clear, Bones' prose is beautiful and poetic and mine is neither of those things xD

This is a super experimental work and my first time trying something like this. It's very different to my usual writing style so idk how I feel about it really! It may not be super polished, but it was fun to try something new ^^

This story is basically about four women who talk like roadmen trying to find a husband. I've written it sort of like a social satire/exaggerated parody so it's not necessarily depictive of Sri Lankan culture as a whole. It's a very multicultural place with varying practices and traditions - so please don't take it as an accurate representation of the entire culture.

Although the characters are speaking in English they're using some Sinhala-English slang so the language/syntax I'm using here may be confusing and some grammar is purposely incorrect. In addition to the notes here there's more explanation at the end of the story.

- The names of the four characters are direct translations from the original language name meanings. They're unisex names but spelt/pronounced differently for men and women in Sinhalese.

- Amma/Ammi: mum

- Any older lady is called Aunty whether or not you're related.

- Nangi means 'little sister' - again, you don't have to be related and it's not necessarily a platonic term unless it's used by your own sibling or cousin.

- It's typical for girl friends to use dude/bro/men when talking to each other; it's not gendered.

___________

'Guys, everyone has turned against me!' Starlight cries as she bursts through the door to Purity's apartment. Faithful and I are already here, manspreading on the couch and secretly gobbling kokkis that's meant for tomorrow.

'Who, men?' Purity asks.

'My family,' Starlight says. 'Dude - there is A Drama™.'

'A Drama™?' I shoot up, shooting kokkis crumbs from my mouth. They land on Faithful's sleeve and she squeals 'eeewww' and shakes them off.

'Yes yes, Big Drama,' Starlight confirms, glowing in our attention. 'Have to tell you The Gossip.'

'Tell, tell,' Purity urges, scooting forward from the edge of the couch. 'This is our official Gossip Corner™' She lowers her voice so that all the people above and below and around us won't eavesdrop - people mostly meaning her Ammi.

'Oi, Innocence, move your hairy leg, men. Let me sit.' Starlight whacks my leg till I move it.

We huddle into the Gossip Corner™ and Starlight looks pleased as all our eyes affix upon her.

'So I cooked lunch today for my family,' Starlight starts, 'and my idiot brother wouldn't come to eat. I told him the food was there also and he was like, wait wait, and wouldn't come out of his room. So I kept the food on the kitchen table and the ants came and ate it. Now my parents are blaming ME,' her tone turns indignant, 'saying that I'm not feeding my brother!'

My blood boils on Starlight's behalf. 'Tell your brother to feed himself, oi, he's a twenty-year-old man, noh.'

'Can't say that, oi. My parents are both angry and yelling now. I also got angry and I went to the beach to stare at the sea in anger.'

Faithful snorts. 'You went to the beach? Then what happened?'

'Listen, so!' Starlight jabs her. 'I walked to the beach and I was standing by the ocean, staring at the waves thinking how everyone is against me. And then the sea was also against me - it came and crashed on my foot and wet my sandal.' Starlight lifts her dry foot for us to view, quickly adding that it was wet but it dried on the walk here.

'So your family was also against you and then the sea was also against you?' Purity asks, clearly disappointed that this is apparently the end of The Drama.

'Yeah, and THEN, a child came and said "Aunty, be careful, the sea is rough today."' Starlight looks around to gauge our reaction. 'A child called me Aunty! As if I'm that old - I'm not an Aunty! So the child was also against me.'

Faithful stiffles a giggle. 'So the ocean, and your family, and some random child were all against you?'

'And then,' Starlight pauses for maximum dramatic effect, 'A man arrived.'

'A man?' All three of us are bouncing in excitement now, gleefully asking 'a man?'

'Don't tell the man was also against you now,' Faithful warns.

'No, no, the man was flirting with me!' Starlight hits Faithful's arm a few times in excitement. 'He came and stood next to me by the ocean.' Here Purity interjects a very romantic before Starlight continues, 'He was asking "nangi, where are you from" and all. But then I forgot how to talk English.'

I demand, 'What do you mean you forgot to talk English - you're talking English right now!'

'But in that moment I was so angry! I couldn't even think!' Starlight wails. 'I was thinking how everyone was against me and all the words left my head. I just said 'what' to his flirting and then he asked if I speak English and I said 'okay'.'

'Okay? Just okay? What does that even mean?'

'I don't know!' She switches to Sinhala for a moment to be more dramatic. 'My rageful thoughts were rendering me mute. I couldn't speak any language in that beat of a moment.'

We all sit and ponder this state of affairs.

'So what happened to the man?' Faithful finally asks.

'He went, so.'

'Aiyo.'

'But I need to go back to the beach and find him now!' Starlight says, grabbing a kokkis and cramming it in her mouth. 'You'll can come wingman to help me talk to him.' The kokkis crumbles around her face, flakes scattering down her floral blouse.

'Don't spill on my couch, oi,' Purity says. 'Amma will kill me.'

As if sensing the ruin of her couch, Aunty puts her head through the door. 'Here, what are you'll doing? Purity! Don't eat that kokkis - it's for tomorrow!'

'Noooo, Ammi,' Purity tries to deny through a mouthful.

Aunty shakes the wooden spoon at us. 'I made some noodles for you'll, noh?'

'We're not hungry for noodles!' Purity protests.

'But you're hungry for kokkis? Very nice!'

Once she leaves the room, Faithful suggests, 'Let's get some drinks and go to the beach. We can find Starlight her mannn.'

'Are they even selling alcohol today? It's Avurudu, noh.'

'People drink on New Year's, bro; they won't sell beer on a full moon day.'

'But it's the day before Avurudu,' I point out, waving towards the open windows that the bad spirits from the old year are supposed to leave from. 'Hence why we're not allowed to play music, watch T.V, or do anything fun basically. Besides, I think it's a full moon as well today.'

'Is it? Check the calendar,' Faithful says.

'Okay, okay.' Purity goes to fetch the calendar hanging behind the door. 'What day is it?' she asks, flipping through the months. Her calendar hasn't been changed since February.

'Are you stupid, men? New Year's Eve is 13th April, noh.'

Purity finds it, tracing her finger down a row of red Sundays. 'Full Moon Poya Day was yesterday.'

'Sucks that the Poya fell on a Saturday,' Faithful remarks. 'I wanted an extra holiday on a weekday.'

'I think I have a couple beers in the fridge anyway,' Purity says. 'We can share. I hid them under the chicken; I just have to wait for Ammi to leave the kitchen.'

Faithful takes a moment to wrap her hijab around her hair and then we sidle to the kitchen.

Aunty harrumphs. 'Are you'll coming for the noodles now?' she asks. 'Eat it - otherwise all your Ammi's will tell me now that I'm not feeding you'll when you come to my house.'

'No, no, can't eat noodles, Amma....'

In the background, Starlight and Faithful are bickering. I hear one of them muttering 'go men' alongside a rude gesture - the customary 'go men' gesture - and Aunty rounds on them. 'Now you'll are always talking like indecent girls. How to find a husband when talking like this?' She jabs the spoon at her daughter. 'I told this one - no man will want to marry her if she's talking like this.'

'Aney, just wait, Amma,' Purity says. 'We're going to the beach.'

'It's the same if you eat and the same if you don't, the same if you stay and the same if you go.' She mutters to herself for a while about our uselessness as we stand there staring at her. Finally she says, 'Watch the pot, Purity,' and pushes the spoon into Purity's hand. 'Let me get some money from my bag.'

Purity dives for the beer in the fridge as soon as she's gone. We hustle to jam it into my shoulder bag in record time.

Aunty comes back waving two hundred rupees. 'Here, get some milk to boil tomorrow morning for New Year.' She holds it back for a moment as Purity reaches. 'Don't use it for anything else. Milk bottle is only Rs. 135/- at Arpico and I want the balance, okay?' She eyes the rest of us. 'Make sure she doesn't spend it - this one can't be trusted.'

We promise Aunty and hightail out of the house. Not wanting to get back in sneakers, I poke my toes into Uncle's slippers outside the front door. Faithful opts to go barefoot.

As soon as we get to the beach, Purity runs to buy pickled fruit with her two hundred rupees.

'Don't you need milk, oi?'

'Wait bro, there will be enough balance for milk. This is the only way I can be rebellious from time to time - it's the principle of the matter.'

Purity shares her pickled fruit with us, so we don't say any more on the matter. We sit on a stone ledge, getting sand on our feet. We keep our eyes peeled for a man.

'It's so hot.' Starlight runs her hands through the hair on her legs. Her palms come back slick with sweat.

'That's sooo hairy,' Faithful says, turning admiring eyes onto Starlight's leg hairs.

'Go men, your leg is also hairy, noh? You're just covering and waiting.'

'Where is the man?' I interrupt them, reaching over to snatch a bit of pineapple off Purity's cup, using one of the provided toothpicks to spear it.

'Can't see him now, he was somewhere that way.'

We all crane our necks in the general direction. It's like a barren, man-less wasteland.

I sigh. 'Was he hot?'

'I don't know, he was a man so.'

'Give us a description so we have something to imagine and thirst over, at least,' I urge.

'He just looked like A MAN.' Starlight sounds frustrated. 'I don't know how to describe him.'

'I thought you liked him,' Purity says. 'You were excited when telling the story.'

'My family is always telling me to find a man - so now I'm excited everytime I see a man,' Starlight holds a piece of mango up on her toothpick, admiring its glow under the burning sun, 'But I don't know if I even like men.'

'Oooh are you a lesbian?' Faithful asks excitedly. 'My brother asked me if I'm a lesbian one day because I'm always looking at women. But I was just admiring their beauty!'

She shares this little side anecdote as if it's not the gayest thing I've ever heard.

'Dudeeee, no,' Starlight says. 'I like that actor in the teledrama - he's a man, noh.'

Just then, a Man™ runs in front of us, jogging in his tight shorts along the coastline. His muscles bunch with each long stride, sweat dampening the neck of his sky blue tshirt. A long silence stretches over us as we gape at him open-mouthed. I feel pineapple juice dribble down my chin, but I keep my gaze affixed to him as I slowly wipe it off with my wrist. As he passes, all four of us crane our necks in order to get a good view of his ass in those shorts.

I only break the silence once he's gone from view. 'That's one fine male specimen.'

'I thought he could've been taller.' That was Starlight.

'He was tall, so. How tall do you want?'

'The man who flirted with me was taller.'

'He looked sweaty,' Purity pipes in.

My tone turns indignant. 'He has to be sweaty - he's running, noh!'

'Innocence likes the maannnn,' Faithful teases.

'You'll were all looking at him,' I grumble.

'We were just judging him. But you're sticking up for him - ooooh!' Faithful makes heart eyes.

'No, no, you guys are all just dumb. You can't judge a man for sweating when he runs - what can he do, tape his sweat glands?'

The three of them burst into raucous laughter, teasing me endlessly. I pick up a fallen twig to whack them with.

'You guys shouldn't find fault; we can't afford to be picky,' I say. 'We're twenty-five - we're spinsters. I read somewhere that twenty-five means spinsterhood.'

'Where did you read that, Pride and Prejudice?'

'Yeah, well, we're like the shit version of Pride and Prejudice.'

Faithful exclaims, 'Oh-em-gee! Noooo, why are we the shit version?'

'Cause there ain't no Mr. Darcy on this beach.'

'Truueee....'

'Guys, I have an idea,' Purity says. 'Let's all get a house together. We can have four bedrooms and split the rent. We don't need to get married then.'

'But I want to get married,' Faithful argues.

'And I want a child,' Starlight agrees.

I throw my stick, standing up. 'I just want a man.'

___________

A/n: I think this is my first time writing from the pov of a straight character xD

I wanted to explore how heteronormativity is so instilled in society that marriage and kids become the default life path for any woman or afab person, not leaving space to imagine an alternate future - especially when family pressures tie into this.

The characters' identities aren't set in stone, and it's open for interpretation if and how much they really do want the things they're told to want. Personally, I read Starlight as aroace, Faithful as an ace lesbian, and Purity as acespec. Innocence is just horny tho, idk.

I'm curious if anyone read them any other way ^^

I left the ending ambiguous on purpose, but I do imagine them getting a shared house one day :).

Some other story notes:

- Sinhala uses 'eya', meaning 'this one', as a pronoun for everyone regardless of gender. I couldn't use that, however, as the syntax is too different, he/she/his/her/him/hers all simply being 'eya' and then it's the nouns that change according to the context. But I used 'this one' instead of 'she' in dialogue where possible.

- Sinhalese is a very dramatic language so I've tried to retain that, and gossip is a major part of life (not malicious gossip, it's just that any event that occurs is referred to as Gossip™), and people have little conversational nooks that they call Gossip Corners (or maybe that's just my mum, idk) xD

- Hairy legs (lol): it's not common for women to do any body hair removal in more traditional/village places. The city is very Westernised though, so body hair is a Big Deal that must be dealt with there. (Beach areas are super Westernised cuz of tourists, but I needed beach for the vibes so let's just ignore that xD).

- The name 'Purity' in Sinhalese directly translates to 'Swastika' which was initially the Buddhist symbol of purity before it was adopted by the Nazi's to mean something much more insidious. Swastika is still a common name for both girls and boys, and the swastika symbol is sometimes found outside homes, above the front door, in places relatively untouched by Western culture/history - (very jarring if you're a tourist, but these are generally not very tourist-heavy towns).

- Aiyoo: used to express exasperation, disbelief, amazement, or sympathy (highly flexible word! One of my faves!)

- Avurudu: 13th/14th April, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day

- Kokkis: traditional New Year's snack.

- Go men gesture (not actually called that but idk what to call it): a dismissive gesture made with pointing all five of your fingers - a flat palm - at someone, with wrist in neutral position. Can be used to wave someone off or to indicate towards someone rudely.

- Milk boiling ceremony: done at an auspicious time early morning on New Year's Day. Ceramic pot arranged over bricks and firewood. Kids are forced to boredly watch the pot until the milk boils over. I am still forced to this very day; most hellish tradition in my opinion.

- Pickled fruit (achaaru): typically sold at the beach or on roadsides.