Calm down, he told himself. It was only a bullet. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them had been fired at him in the time he’d spent at war but for some reason this one was different. His lieutenant said everyone had one with their name on it but George wasn’t eager to find his.
The sounds of the battlefield were growing louder every minute, rising and pounding in his mind until he knew the enemy had to be standing just above him. They’re here, he thought. This is it. This is how I die. He grabbed his gun, determined to go down fighting, and was just about to climb over the top when a body fell over the edge and landed at his feet.
“You there, Bennett!”
“Me?” George turned away from the man who was bleeding and screaming in agony. His commanding officer was standing so far away it looked like he was at the end of a tunnel but he was pointing at George frantically. He looked down to find that out of nowhere a bag with a red cross on it had appeared slung over his shoulder and his jacket was decorated with very different insignia.
“You’re a medic, aren’t you?”
Am I? He looked down at the man and knew at once that he was dying. I must be, he thought. But what am I supposed to do?
“What are you doing still standing here?” His commanding officer was suddenly standing by his side. The man at his feet was still screaming and George started to kneel down. “Bennett! I told you to go over the top!”
“It’s not my time,” George heard himself saying, only his voice was deeper. Older. “I have to save this man. He’s injured.”
“Who do you think you are? You’re no doctor, just a coward afraid to fight for his King and country!” His words stung the young soldier, who stood and looked up at the edge of the foxhole. A wooden ladder was propped up against it and it shone with a strange white light. “Get over there! It’s your duty!”
My duty, George thought. Yes, that’s right. He climbed the ladder, pulled out his service revolver, and went over the top.
Instead of landing on dirt and dead grass, George’s boots splashed into water. He frowned and looked down to see that he was standing on a lake. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world and he took a step forward. Ripples traveled over the surface with every step but he never felt in danger of sinking. Whether he was on the battlefield or not made no difference. Out here he was utterly and completely alone.
Beneath the water, something moved and George looked down automatically. He couldn’t see what it was in spite of the fact that the water was crystal clear so he knelt down for a better look since there was no one to stop him. It became evident that it wasn’t something under the water but someone and as much as his mind begged for him to turn away he couldn’t. Not until he recognized Sylvia’s face. Her features were as black as if she’d been painted with ink but it was definitely his ex-wife. He reached down to touch the water just as her eyes opened and George woke up, fighting back a scream of his own.
He barely had a moment’s time to register that he was in a tent when something moved in the darkness across from him. The dream was still fresh enough in his mind that his hands were shaking but somehow he knew that this time he was awake. His eyes adjusted to the dim light that was coming from the open tent flap and his breath caught in his throat.
“Alice?” Everything around him was thrown together with what he’d seen in his dream and it took him a moment to remember that she really was there with him. At first he thought she was coming to his bed, an idea that somehow terrified him, but when she brushed past him without so much as a word he knew something was wrong. The others were still asleep and she didn’t make a sound as she passed.
For a moment George had almost convinced himself that she was going to the latrine. Then she walked into the tent flap instead of pushing it aside. The rough canvas slithered over her face and he was out of bed, stepping into his shoes to go after her. He fumbled for his glasses on the top of the suitcase where he’d set them and knocked them onto the floor. Silently cursing, George rubbed them on his pajama top and put them on.
By the time he made it outside Alice had already disappeared and he ran to the cave, hoping she had gone inside instead of out into the mountains. The air was cool and still in the cave and fresh torches had been lit. George barely had time to wonder why when he saw Alice kneeling beside the wall, just under the carvings.
“Alice!” He hurried over to where she was and knelt beside her. She seemed to be scratching at the wall, her fingers digging frantically at the floor in direct contrast with the peaceful look on her face. “What are you doing?” She didn’t answer and he leaned in front of her, trying to get her attention. “Alice!” Her eyes remained closed and he frowned. Sleepwalking? He looked back down at her hands and saw to his horror that her fingertips were bleeding. “Alice, wake up,” he said, grabbing her wrists so she couldn’t continue digging.
“I’m coming,” she said, so softly he almost couldn’t hear her. “I hear you.”
“If you hear me, then open your eyes,” George said, even though he knew she wasn’t talking to him. He hadn’t seen many genuine cases of sleepwalking before and Alice had always been the one able to sleep through anything, but he couldn’t remember a single time when she’d so much as talked in her sleep, much less done something like this.
“What’s wrong with her?” George looked up in surprise to find Phillip standing over them. The fear on his face made him look even younger than usual and he continued to hold on to Alice’s hands. “Is that blood? What’s happening?”
“I can’t say that I know,” George said. He looked up at Kiran, who had apparently woken up and joined them. Just like Phillip’s presence it was a surprise, but his only thoughts were for Alice. Kiran held up the lantern he was carrying so he could look at her more closely.
“What’s happened to her?”
“Sleepwalking,” George said, looking back down at Alice, who was still trying to get to the wall. Is there any way we could block up this door?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” Kiran said apologetically. “We can put a tarp over it but if she’s not aware of what she’s doing she may simply walk through it.”
“You’re probably right.” Carefully, George let go of Alice’s hands and lifted her off the ground. He was relieved when she didn’t struggle, and as soon as she was away from the wall she stopped trying to reach out to it. He carried her out of the cave for the second time and was finally able to breathe a little easier when her body relaxed in his arms.
After he put her in bed and carefully disinfected and bandaged her fingers, George went back around her screen to where Phillip, Nadir, and Kiran were standing anxiously. He knew they were waiting for him to tell them what to do but he didn’t have the slightest idea what to say. This wasn’t the hospital and he was completely out of his element.
“I don’t think we should wait to go to the Vidyapith,” he said finally. “I think we should start on our way first thing in the morning and have you radio them while we’re on the way. She’ll be able to get into the archives, I’m sure of that.”
“Yes,” Nadir said. “I agree. Whatever it is that’s happening to her, we can’t let it go on. There’s no guarantee that it won’t happen again, and the next time she could be seriously injured, especially if she wanders into the mountains.”
“The Vidyapith is in Ahmedabad,” Kiran said. “It’s a long ride, even by train. Dr. Bennett is correct, it is the best course of action to start on your way. I know of this Dr. Patel and if they are friends he will certainly give her access to the archives.”
“Where is the nearest train station?”
“I’ll fly us,” Phillip said before Kiran could answer Nadir’s question. “That’ll be the fastest way there. I just want to get her out of here and figure out what’s going on.” George nodded, grateful to the boy for his offer.
“I fully agree. We’ll start off first thing in the morning.” With nothing left to discuss, Nadir and Phillip went back to their beds and Kiran blew
out the lantern on his way out of the tent. George lingered by Alice’s screen and watched her sleep for a long moment. Her breathing was deep and regular and she looked as quiet and peaceful as she had in the cave. Whatever was happening to her, it wasn’t painful and for that he was glad. Then he thought of the last time he’d had to bandage her hand, back before he was actually a doctor, and he turned away from her.
Every time he looked at her he remembered waiting for her that night. She was supposed to come back from the Vidyapith and join him at his flat for dinner. Rather than going out for the evening, George had brought food in and set it out on the table with some excellent wine he’d managed to import from France and had been saving for a special occasion.
He’d been too nervous to settle to anything as he waited, and he’d lost count of how many times he’d put down his paper and picked it up, looked at his watch, then started to walk the floor. In the end he’d gone to her place and knocked on the door, worried that something had happened to her. When he talked the landlord into opening it for him, she was gone. All her things were still there but the girl who had called herself Alice Poole, the one who had slept beside him for more than two years, the one who had told him she loved him more than life itself, was gone.
Now she was back, dropped back just as suddenly into his life just as she’d fallen out of it, and as much as she tried to be kind to him he could only remember the way it had felt to wait for her. Wait for her and then admit to himself that she couldn’t have loved him as much as she claimed if she couldn’t have even taken a moment to tell him goodbye. He looked at her sometimes and wanted to hurt her as much as she’d hurt him, but immediately felt guilty when he did. The look in her eyes when he was examining her was one of pure trust and he couldn’t decide if it made him angry or happy.
George took off his glasses and set them on his suitcase again. This would all be over soon and he could go back to pretending she had never existed. As long as he could find a way to forget her eyes he would be just fine.
Ten
There was no point in looking at the roof of the tent. With the exception of a sliver of moonlight that came through the door, the tent was completely dark but Phillip looked up at it anyway. He lay on his back the same way he had when he was a boy, replaying the day’s events in his head and trying to make sense out of them.
When he saw Alice fall in the cave his heart had almost stopped. He’d only seen one person faint before and that had been in flight training when they were all supposed to practice maneuvering away from enemy planes. Something about the idea that they could very well be shot out of the sky one day had spooked the other pilot and when he left the hangar he had never come back. As far as Phillip knew, he was still on the ground doing paperwork. Alice had been different. It had been more like she was dying than simply passing out and the limp, doll-like way she had looked when George picked her up had made his heart drop in more ways than one. He wanted to protect her but with the doctor around it seemed like it would be impossible.
He wondered if she had been dreaming. Before he had woken up he had been dreaming himself, remembering the times when he was a boy and had been swimming in the lake. It had been fun but in the dream there was something else. Something sinister. It was waiting in the water, waiting for him to drop his guard, and he had tried to get out. With every step it felt like he was sliding backwards and he had begun to panic as he realized that he was going to be pulled under. Then, just like that, he was awake again and disoriented.
The dream had felt so real that it felt like a memory of an afternoon he’d already lived. Phillip usually didn’t remember his dreams but if someone asked him, he would have been able to tell them every last detail as if looking at a photograph.
It took some time to fully pull himself out of the world of the dream, but when he remembered where he was, he looked around at the shapes in the beds and became aware that both George and Alice were missing.
Something told him that they were in the cave, and when he got up he found that Nadir had woken up as well and had the same idea. If he’d thought seeing her pass out was frightening, seeing her scratching at the wall until her fingertips bled had terrified him.
The only way that he could think of to help was to fly them to this place called Ahmedabad and he was more than willing to do it if it meant they could get closer to figuring out the mystery behind the wall and get back to the United States. If they could make it home safely he’d never fly overseas again.
In his head he could picture Alice getting out of the cab and walking over to him to introduce herself. He had wondered if it was possible to fall in love with someone he had just met but dismissed it as the confused emotions of a man who had just gotten out of a relationship. Now that he had been around her for a while he knew that his first impression had been right. He was in love with Alice Graesser and there was no way to get around it.
In the bed across from her he could hear George breathing the short, tense breaths of someone who was waiting for something and he closed his eyes. He knew perfectly well that he was staying awake to make sure she didn’t wander off again and felt a surge of annoyance.
He wanted to be the one to look out for her, to run after her and make sure she was all right, to pick her up and carry her back to her bed. Maybe he wasn’t as tall or strong as George but he felt he was a bit better looking. Not only that, he was young. Phillip wasn’t sure how old Alice was but she couldn’t be as old as George, whose hair was sprinkled with gray, particularly at the temples. She needed someone young who could keep up with her, not treat her like a nuisance.
It was obvious that there was something between them, or had been in the past. Alice had said they’d met but he felt like there was more to it than that. It seemed like too much of a coincidence that they had both lived in Surat around the same time but the way George acted made him wonder if their friendship – or whatever they had – had ended badly.
Maybe she just doesn’t realize how I feel, he thought. He hadn’t come right out and told her how he felt so he couldn’t blame her for not knowing, but he’d thought he’d given her enough clues that she would have figured it out. Phillip refused to believe she was ignoring him but at the same time he knew she was a smart woman. It was part of the reason he had fallen in love with her so quickly. She also seemed quite kind, so it wouldn’t have been unusual for her to be trying to spare his feelings by acting as if she didn’t see them. Her kindness even extended to George, who had done nothing for her but throw sarcastic barbs at her nearly every time they spoke.
Phillip realized even as he thought it that he was wrong. George had done more for her than he ever could, simply because he was a doctor. There was a good chance that was the only reason he was taking care of her but if there was another reason, if he shared the feelings that she still seemed to have for him, there would be no hope of her ever seeing Phillip’s affection as more than a boy’s crush.
There was no movement or sound from Alice’s bed so Phillip decided he would get some sleep. As much as he wanted to stay awake longer, his body felt heavy and tired. Besides, he had to fly in the morning. Alice needed to get to Ahmedabad and he was going to be the one to take her. That was something George couldn’t do.
Maybe I’ll figure out a way to tell her while we’re there, Phillip thought. It would easier without everyone else around and maybe she would tell him how she felt. It might not be as deep as the feelings he had for her, maybe not even something she’d considered. But if he told her she would surely put things to rest one way or the other, and that was what was important Right?
Sleep came quickly just as he finished this thought and without warning Phillip found himself back in the lake with his friends. This time, however, he wasn’t a small boy but a grown man in a pilot’s uniform. The others didn’t seem to notice that he was fully dressed and standing in knee-deep water and this time instead of trying to get out to shore he was walking slowly toward the center of the lake. The w
ater was thick and sticky and the bottom of the lake sucked at his boots with every step he took but he moved forward.
There was something out there.
The knowledge was both terrifying and welcome at the same time and Phillip shouted at his body, trying to make it understand that it was dangerous to go out there because Alice had told him it was dangerous. Just as she had been unable to stop herself from going out to the cave, he was unable to stop himself from moving forward to what would almost certainly be his demise.
“Phillip, where are you going?” One of the boys called to him. “We’re going to go play ball!”
“You guys go on without me,” he said, and the voice that came from his lips was the one he knew was his at eight years old. “I’ll catch up with you.”
“Come on, your mom will kill us if we leave you!”
This time Phillip didn’t answer. His eyes were locked firmly on the center of the lake, where he could now see a woman’s shadow standing on the water. He couldn’t tell who it was because her face was turned to the ground but he knew she had to be a ghost from the way she was shimmering. When he tried to call out to her his mouth filled with water and he woke up again, coughing.
“Are you all right?” A low voice came from the darkness and Phillip immediately knew it was George from the accent.
“I’m fine,” he said. “Just got something in my throat.” There was a feeling of hesitation coming from the doctor but he fell silent again and Phillip went back to staring at the roof of the tent.
Maybe he wouldn’t sleep after all.
Eleven
It was hard taking the bandages off the fingers of her left hand when the fingers of her right hand were still bandaged but Alice knew there was no way she could do it the other way around. Her fingertips were sore, which didn’t help matters, and she frowned as she managed to pick off one of the bandages.
Drowned History Page 6