Maya's Aura: Goa to Nepal

by Smith, Skye

  She started pushing her way backwards through the heavily overcrowded bus, while he revved the engine and clicked the gear lever trying to find first. The bus leaped forward about the same time he heard a howl of pain. Good, the driver was still alive.

  The smoke billowing out of the building was so thick that he couldn't see much in there, but he did hear some loud crackling and popping noises, and he figured that the fire had spread to the old timbers. This was not the time or place to hang around. The bus made a wide turn and then headed towards the parked cars. He slowed as they rolled past the main doors, and opened the bus door with the door lever to check it out.

  He could see men’s arms and legs pushing to make the opening of the smaller door wider so that they could get out. He spun the steering wheel, yelled at everyone in the bus to hold on tight, and then floored the gas in low gear and hit the side of the jeep with a crash that drove the thing sideways into the door.

  There were screams of pain from behind the jeep. He found reverse and backed away. The pistols. He didn't want to get caught with the pistols if they were stopped by the highway police. He leaped out of the driver's seat and stood on the bottom step of the bus and pulled both triggers repeatedly. He emptied first the little pistol and then the big one high into the main door. With his shirt tail he wiped his prints from both of them and then threw them into the jeep.

  "Stop fooling around!" yelled a woman with a British accent. "The fire is into the roof. Get us the bloody hell away from this building!"

  Fooling around, he thought as he smiled at the woman and nodded, and then jumped back into the driver's seat. A two-point turn had them pointed out of the parking lot and the bus rumbled down the drive towards the road. "Maya!" he yelled again and again, until Maya's face was beside his. He stopped the bus with a screech of worn brakes and opened the door.

  "Love," he handed her his car keys and pointed to a bamboo thicket. "My Gypsy is on the other side of that bamboo. Take the keys and turn it around and follow its own tracks back to the road. We'll meet you there." The slender woman turned without a word and jumped down out of the bus. A little girl tried to follow her.

  "No Nia, you stay on the bus," Maya said. "That man driving is Will. Will is a good man. You stand beside him at the front of the bus." She looked up at Will. "This is Nia. She's a smart girl and speaks English. If you need to tell the children anything, ask her to translate." She leaned forward and gave Nia a kiss on her filthy cheek, and then turned and ran towards the bamboo thicket.

  In the ten minutes it took for Maya to get the little Gypsy across the rice paddies, Will did some thinking. Everyone on the bus was watching the fire. The roof had caught, and once the fire was into the roof it raced through the rest of the building. While they watched, a part of the roof collapsed and they could see searing flames flushing out of the building in all directions.

  Marique pushed her way to the front and watched the fire with Will. He pulled her close to him by her waist and whispered in her ear. "I hope those men got out okay. I was just trying to slow them down so they couldn't follow us."

  "I 'ope they all burn in 'ell," Marique hissed. "If the bosses made it out, they will seek an 'orrible vengeance against us. The only good I wish for them is that they 'ave a quick death."

  "I think you got your wish, love. I lit that fire only to keep them busy. I never thought it would race up to the roof like that. You saw the roof collapse. The rush of air spread the fire everywhere instantly."

  "Good, then we 'ave lots of time to figure out what to do with this lot," she waved back at the bus load of girls.

  "Wrong. I've just committed arson, arson that cost lives. That jeep I pushed into the doors was a police vehicle. I have to disappear before the police catch me." While they waited for the Gypsy to catch up, Will ran some ideas past her. By the time Maya bounced the little Gypsy over the last rice paddy dike and onto the road, they had a plan.

  Maya didn't even get a chance to step out of the Gypsy. Marique was herding the three English women towards her. Her friend filled her in on the plan. They were going to Anjuna in the Gypsy to drop these women off at wherever they were staying before they were Shanghaied from the full moon party.

  After that they were to drive to their own room and pick up their things and then head to the highway and turn south. Will would be waiting for them at the big gas station about half way to Panaji. If they drove up and saw cops, they were to keep on going to the turtle beach.

  At the sight of their nice bungalow, the only thing that Maya could think of was having a shower. Marique vetoed that idea. Will was caretaking seventy souls, all refugees from the sex slave business. Cleanliness could wait. Everything could wait except for helping Will.

  * * * * *

  * * * * *

  MAYA'S AURA - Goa to Nepal by Skye Smith

  Chapter 7 - Panaji, Goa

  Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good. Mahatma Gandhi.

  It was Marique that saw the bus, because poor Maya had her eyes glued to the pandemonium of moving vehicles that Indians call traffic. They pulled up behind the bus and Marique hopped down to see what was happening.

  Food was happening. The bus was stopped just short of the gas station at the local equivalent of a truck stop. Truck stop simply meant a long stretch of wide shoulder where drivers could pull off well out of the traffic. Locals set up food stalls all along these pull-offs.

  Currently there was an assembly line of banana leaf plates holding rice and lentils being put together by three different food stalls, and being passed hand to hand into the bus and then down the rows of seats. A man with a barrow was walking down the length of the bus passing water bottles in through the open windows to waiting hands.

  None of the vendors, men or women took any notice of the two slender blonde women who just arrived in the old mini Gypsy. They were just more ferengi sluts. They had all had a good look at the ones that had tumbled out of the bus when it had first driven up.

  "Okay, okay!" yelled Will, clapping his hands to get everyone's attention. After paying off a woman for buying her entire basket of ripe oranges he yelled, "Everyone back on the bus." He sort of expected to have trouble with the eastern European women, but they just shrugged and got back on the bus with the Nepali children.

  Marique handed him a card. He memorized the address on it, and gave it back. "No, you keep it. Maya has another one. It is in English and Hindi so if you get lost you can just show it to someone."

  Will turned and picked up little Nia, who had spent most of the last hour holding onto his trouser leg, and then climbed aboard the bus. He yelled out to Maya, who was still behind the wheel of his Gypsy, "You follow me. I'll go slow. Don't pass me."

  They drove through the growing morning traffic into Panaji and then around the south of it and towards one of the southern neighborhoods that were built out on a peninsula. He found the street, but couldn't see any house numbers. It turned out he didn't need numbers. The building was obvious. He sat in the bus and watched as Marique and Maya walked up to the door and used the big brass knocker.

  A small local woman in a drab dress answered but did not let them in. They waited outside, and shrugged their shoulders at him. Next a young couple, feringis, came to the door. Maya talked to them, waving her hands as she spoke. The tall man just shook his head. Will stepped off the bus and went to join the argument.

  "We can't get involved," the tall man was saying with an American accent. "This is an affair for the authorities, not us."

  "Bull feathers," said an exasperated Marique. "It is time that you stop thumping your bible and spouting your religion, and start doing some real good for the people that need 'elp."

  Will had heard enough. He backtracked to the bus and told everyone to get off and follow him. Leading seventy homeless and scared waifs he marched up to where the blonde couple was arguing with his friends, pushed his way through them and led his wards into the cool of the church.

&n
bsp; The American man followed him inside, continuously objecting, but Will just stared at him and said, "These children claim sanctuary, or are you going to refuse to help them like your church refused to help the Haitians during their earthquake?"

  The American man's wife walked up to her man and grabbed his arm. She lifted her face to his and said "We can at least keep them safe here for a day until we call the authorities, can't we?" She pointed to Maya and Marique. "They helped us with those thieves on the train. Now they are trying to help these children. We owe them that much."

  Will didn't wait for the answer. He handed Nia to the woman and told her that she spoke English and then he grabbed his two friends by their arms and pushed them back outside. "Go inside," he told the Moldovan women who were hesitating at the door. "They will keep you safe."

  The American man ran after them. "But you must stay too," he said internally wrestling with his thoughts and fears.

  "You keep the bus. The driver who helped to shanghai this lot is tied up in the back. The police will want to question him. We've got to get out of here before the police come. We broke a few traffic laws while rescuing the children." With that, Will climbed into the Gypsy and started her up.

  The wife came out of the church with little Nia holding onto her skirt. She waved and blew a kiss to the two women from the train, and then herded the Moldovan women inside. The man watched the little Gypsy swing around and head out of the neighborhood, now beginning to wonder who he should phone first - members of the church, members of the press, or the authorities. Duh, the members. He would need their help in dealing with the press and the authorities.

  * * * * *

  Once out of sight of the church, Will pulled over. "Now let's get something straight," he said. "We are fugitives from the police. They will be looking for two blonde ferengi women in a mini Gypsy."

  "But we saved all those children from sex slavers, and from the Russian mafia," argued Marique. "We are the good guys."

  "Think about it. All that the cops know is that there was a suspicious warehouse fire that fried a bunch of rich men. Think about it. How would those holy rollers describe us? We can hide out at my house for a few days so long as two blonde heads aren't seen there. After that, well we will have to keep our ear on the news."

  "He's right you know," Maya said. "One of the men caught in the building was like, the local chief of police or something. And you saw all the cars in the parking lot. Most of those were expensive cars."

  "So," he interrupted, "I don't care how hot and stuffy is gets, you two must stay down on the floor in the back and keep covered up by the blankets, okay?"

  They did has he asked. They endured almost two hours of being bounced around on the hard floor like sacks of potatoes, with blankets covering them. The last five minutes were the worst. That was along the dirt track that went the back way up the hill and got them close to the beach house. They were never so glad that a car trip was over, as when they crawled out of the back of that mini Gypsy.

  Will was pleased. They were passed by a couple of police cars, and had passed a place were they were just setting up a roadblock, but no one had waved him over. Better still, the day was hot by the time they reached the village on the coast highway where he turned off, so no one was walking around. Everyone was doing shady things like eating or napping.

  The first time the girls had seen Will's house it had seemed like Tarzan's tree house. Now, it seemed like luxury. Now, it seemed like home free. Will helped them unload and carry all the stuff to the house, but then he left again. He wanted to get the Gypsy back to his local partner, who was the registered owner, and pick up his boat. As he walked back to the car he told them to stay out of sight.

  "Out of sight of what?" Marique asked sarcastically. "Your house is not exactly easy to see."

  "Just keep those blonde heads of yours from being seen from the river, or from any boats. They are too noticeable."

  The exhausted, filthy, overheated women didn't know what to do first. Go for a swim or have a cold drink. The cold drink won, or rather, beer. They had Will's house keys and unlocked the cement bunker so they could get to the fridge. There were only three bottles left, though liters, and they sucked them down. They sure hoped that Will brought some more back with him.

  They were swimming, or rather, floating since they were too tired to swim, when he pulled into the tiny cove in his boat. He laughed aloud and his heart soared at the very sight of them. The girls strolled out of the water, squeezing the water out of their hair and got ready to help him with the boat.

  He timed the ocean swells, and then gunned the small motor and ran the boat up the beach. When it could go no higher up the beach, he hopped over the gunnels and dug his heels into the sand and stopped the boat from being dragged back by the receding swell.

  Marique ran up to him and helped him to drag the boat higher on the next big swell, so he could tie it off. The high tides were lower and lower now for a week, so unless there was a storm, the boat would be safe enough left on the beach.

  "Did you bring beer?" she asked.

  "Wasn't there some in the fridge?"

  "Well there was," she replied sheepishly, "but they didn't last long."

  He lifted a cardboard case of liter bottles out of the bottom of the boat and she cheered. The next thing he unloaded was a large, old fashioned radio. "With this we can hear the English news stations," he explained as he placed it down on the third step up from the beach, high and dry out of harms way. "But first, I have to get clean and cool off."

  It was rare for him to be nude with the women around. Usually he wore either surfer shorts, or the military shorts with the heavy duty pockets that he had just taken off. With reason. With his shorts off, he couldn't hide any of his lusty thoughts. The two women joined him floating in the crystal waters of mini beach. Even two of the monkus joined them, proving that they were just as agile in the water as on land.

  * * * * *

  With the errands done, and with nothing left to do but just hang in paradise, the effects of the last two days started to settle on the trio, and each in a different way. Maya was subdued and thoughtful, almost depressed as her mind came to terms with the deaths they had caused, and the tragedy of the children that had been caught in a web of sex slavery. Not the ones that they had saved, but fhe countless that were still caught.

  Will was still running on adrenaline, and was feeling fullfilled down to his very soul. This had been the kind of mission that he had dreamed of when he signed up for Canada's peacekeeping forces. And what an outcome. It was not important to him that he was know he was probably a wanted man. The end justified the means. Innocent lives had been spared and the perpetrators of evil had been stopped. Completely stopped.

  Marique had shaken off her depression as the Russian's downer drug had worn off. Now she was feeling the vibrating energy of the last of the LSD high. She was beginning to understand the close call she had just survived, first drugged and abducted, then threatened with sex slavery, and then the escape. Her body was vibrating with an energy that needed a release, and she felt so horny she didn't know what to do with herself.

  Just before sunset, over sashimi tuna and luke warm beer, they listened to a very British voice read the news. Through the crackle and squawk they heard enough to know that the fire hadn't hit the national or international news, yet. Will yawned, twice, then snapped the radio off and suggested an early bed. Maya already had her head on the table.

  Marique was dancing around the house doing dishes and putting the kitchen away and generally tidying. Dressed only in a diaphronous scarf, it was like watching a harem dancer. Her twirls and poses were bringing low moans to Will's lips, especially when she would reach across a counter, bum high, back arched, to put something on a high shelf.

  Maya reached into her purse and searched with a blind hand for a moment and then pushed a small packet across towards Will, her emergency condom. "Tonight you have to," she whispered to him.

 
"But.."

  "It would be cruel not to," Maya whispered. "Before she was willing to do you because she thought I owed you. Tonight it is about her own debt. You must say yes, not even that, you must take her, make her feel desirable."

  "Oh, she is totally desireable, but, I'm totally exhausted. I doubt I can get it up."

  "Look, she's doing that arched back thing again," Maya whispered, "Go. Push against her. Hold her. Kiss her neck. Go." She pushed his arm and then watched him stand and walk softly over to stand behind Marique's stretching body.

  "Here, let me help you," he said pressing himself against her bum and running his hands up her front as if to steady her.

  Maya didn't want to watch any more. She was torn. It was as if this man was the father she never knew, and she didn't want him to be with another woman. It was as if this man was an old lover, and she didn't want him to be with another woman, especially not her friend. She so wanted this man all to herself, and yet not sexually, and yet, yes sexually. Emotions were boiling inside of her. She couldn't watch.

  There was nowhere else to go. Now that the moon was well past full, the night was pitch black for two or three hours before it rose. Without nature's streetlight they were quite housebound at night. She crawled into her own bed and put her pillow over her head so she would not listen, would not see, and fell asleep.

  * * * * *

  Someone was shaking her. She pushed away the pillow. It was first light.

  "A favor, Maya," Will said softly. "Could you give me an aura massage before I sleep? The other night when you did that, I wasn't woken by nightmares. I need some sleep, badly."

  Marique was still and lightly snoring over on his bed. Maya pulled open the mosquito net to invite him in, and then worked his back with her aura. Maya cheated, though, because instead of a massage she used her aura to put him into a deep trance.

  She had a short conversation with his subconscious, building trust, telling him things that both of them knew were true. Then she changed the subject to sleep. "Why aren't you sleeping Will?"