by A. H. Shinn
As Kellie lingered by the door, she worried about who had knowledge of her food reserve. She could say it was for a late-night snack. Nevertheless, she had to be more careful so she wasn’t suspected of any fishy business.
There was still no noise from the other side. Kellie knocked on the door. She waited and knocked a second time. No answer.
Could it be unlocked again? She grabbed the handle and gave it a shove.
The fresh air hit her face; what a pleasant change it was from her small, stuffy room.
“Hello?” she called. Nothing stirred except the crickets.
As Kellie stepped out into the cold, her senses awakened and her cheeks began to cool. There was a peaceful calm in the atmosphere without the nuns scurrying around. It must have been the middle of the night and everyone was asleep.
Kellie took a seat on a boulder by her room and stared at the sky. The outline of the leafy branches from the tall trees looked as if they were painted in front of the clouds and floating full moon.
For the first time, she didn’t feel like a prisoner. Sitting alone outside without being under the scrutiny of her abductors reminded her of the times she’d found quietude on her porch back home. Sometimes Master Chen had sat with her, and together they’d enjoyed the stillness of night.
Most of the torches were out, and the areas where the trees surrounded the living quarters were pitch-black. This must be the reason her room had been left unlocked and unattended. The nuns knew it would be difficult and dangerous for her to run away in the dark.
Suddenly, Kellie questioned her escape. Was it safe to trek down the mountain even during the day? What type of wild animals existed in Bhutan? Even if she made it out of the mountain, it would still be a long journey to find help. From what Simi had said, a town wasn’t very near.
“I’m going to be stuck here forever,” she muttered.
Branches rattled in a tree across from her. The disturbance made its way down the trunk, and a small furry tail wiggled out. The animal then scampered away.
The wild creature reminded Kellie of Shifu Lau. He had loved to share his passion of the ecosystem of the forest by teaching her about different plants and animals.
Her soul grew heavy remembering his death. But she also remembered his courage. If Shifu Lau had been brave enough to face the wrath of an evil monkey, she had to be brave enough to traverse the mountain.
Wide awake now, Kellie found that the chill was no longer refreshing, but nipped at her face and toes. She made her way back inside and found nothing to do but lie in her bed and stare up at the ceiling.
Doors to the other rooms began to open and close. The women here were up at dawn every day. Kellie expected it to be brightening outside.
What would she do today? She considered staying in her room to fully recuperate, but exploring a new part of the monastery was essential. It was her fifth day and she had not yet been around the entire place. Her mental map was getting filled in, but there were still some empty regions.
She rushed to take her cold shower and ate another tasteless meal. At the dining hall, she spotted Simi and waved to her.
Simi came over, and Kellie noticed she had bags under her eyes.
“Good morning,” Simi said softly, her glance shifting around.
“I’m sorry I was hard on you yesterday,” said Kellie. “I was in pain…but the soup did wonders. I’m much better today.”
Simi’s eyes narrowed as her mouth tightened. “I understand.”
The nun was uncharacteristically disheveled. Her clothes were wrinkled and the green stain from the soup was still on her shirt.
“So what are we going to do today?” asked Kellie. “I would really like to see the rest of the monastery.”
“You would?” Simi asked, her tone, flat.
Kellie worried Simi had grown tired of her brash attitude, or maybe she’d been the one to discover the stashed food.
“It’ll take my mind off my friends and family…I really miss them,” Kellie said, attempting to get some sympathy. “So is there something else I can learn today and help with?”
Simi crossed her arms and dropped her shoulders. Kellie wasn’t quite sure how to read into her reaction.
“We’ll go to the weaving room,” said Simi.
“Weaving?”
“We make clothes and blankets for ourselves and to sell or barter with. Textile in Bhutan is a big part of the culture. Our sisters are some of the best weavers.”
“And you must have a car to get to the city…to barter or sell?”
“A few cars…” Simi answered with hesitance.
Kellie really wished she knew how to drive. “I never got my driving permit. I was going to ask Master Chen to teach me how to drive this summer, but—” She swallowed the lump in her throat.
Simi looked away. “Let’s go,” she said. “You can watch…or try weaving yourself if you’d like.”
They went in a new direction. The path was easy to follow, and their destination wasn’t far.
A large building similar to the dining hall came into view. Dense trees surrounded the area, much like all the other parts of the monastery. On Kellie’s mental map, each section she had been to was carved out from a forest of trees and shrubs.
Simi held open the door, and what Kellie saw inside was vastly different from the plainness of the nuns and simplicity of the monastery. There were brightly colored and decorative cloths hanging on racks and stacked against the walls. Unlike her room, windows provided light for the workers, who were making loud, banging noises.
For as many weaving devices that could fit inside, there were as many nuns at work. Some of the women were sitting on the floor with straps around their backs, connecting them to their devices.
“This is a loom,” said Simi, pointing to one of the equipment made of wood. A nun sat in front of it, stringing together a colorful pattern.
“She’s making a kira, which is a dress for women. We also make clothes for men, scarves, and brocades for other monasteries. We trade with them, but also get paid well for the more elaborate designs.”
Simi took her over to a hanging textile. “We use natural pigments for dyes. The blue color is from indigo plants and the red from madder roots. Others use chemical dyes, but our buyers pay more for the colors from natural resources.”
The clothes Kellie and Simi were wearing were blank canvases compared to the vibrant textiles. The only time she’d seen the Druk nuns wear color was on the plane when they had worn traditional, orange robes.
“Why don’t we wear these beautiful fabrics?” asked Kellie. She purposefully emphasized the “we” to make Simi believe she was becoming one of them.
Simi paused, eyeing Kellie.
“Our daily, neutral wear is a symbol of our unity as sisters and the value we have for inner strength and physical skills. We have no regard for outer, superficial beauty. It is a waste of time to be concerned with appearance. That is another reason why we shave our heads.”
Simi glanced around. “Please, feel free to examine the textiles. Maybe one of them will let you use her loom. I’ll be back soon.” She fished through a pile of material, picked out what looked like a knapsack, and left.
Kellie dawdled from one textile to another. Gliding her hand across the rich material of a hanging fabric, she was impressed with its sophisticated style. Who would have known how artistic these hard women were. After making her way around the room twice, she crept up closer to the weavers.
None of them spoke to her and simply acknowledged her with a nod. They didn’t speak to each other either; they were too focused on creating their masterpieces.
Kellie watched as a nun moved skinny wooden sticks up and down and in and out of the yarn. Then she used a large, flat piece of wood and banged downward to create the fabric as it rolled in front of her.
Another used a different technique. She wove the yarn across with a smaller stick as if she was knitting. Her fingers manipulated each string into a more complex pattern than the other weavers.
“What are you making?” asked Kellie.
“Gho.”
“I thought it was okay to be in here…I’ll leave.”
“No. Gho is a robe for men.”
“Oh! Well, it’s very beautiful.”
The nun nodded and kept weaving.
Where had Simi gone? Kellie expected her to return quickly and was beginning to get anxious. She sat on the floor, thinking that this was a waste of precious time. She hadn’t gained much useful information so far, except that there were vehicles parked somewhere.
Contemplating on whether she should try to take one of the cars, she imagined crashing into a tree. She shuddered, then had another thought. If she couldn’t drive away herself, learning where the cars were could lead her to the trail out of the mountain. Or perhaps she could hide in the trunk?
It seemed as if the weavers had forgotten about her. Their eyes were glued to their looms. She wondered if they would say anything if she left. Getting up and wandering around again, pretending to examine the textiles, she inched her way closer to the door.
None of them noticed, so she opened the door, only to find Simi standing before her, looking stranger than ever. There was dirt on her shirt and she breathed rapidly.
“I was wondering where you went,” said Kellie.
“Follow me,” Simi said roughly, pulling her arm.
Was Simi turning her in? Was she going to tell the others about the stash of food and expose her plan?
As they walked past the training area, she let go of Kellie’s arm when they moved past Choden and some of the other bhikkhunı−s. The nuns glanced at them momentarily, but continued with their conversation as Simi led Kellie toward the private quarters.
Before Kellie stepped foot on the trail, she noticed a freestanding wall made of thick wood, which stood about ten feet wide and fifteen feet tall. It must’ve been as heavy as it looked because it was set on wheels. The archer was using the wall for target practice; she was shooting her arrows at the bull’s-eye.
“Come on!” said Simi.
When they were alongside the brush Kellie had once peered through, Simi abruptly turned around, halting them in their tracks. Simi grabbed her and pulled her in close.
“Listen to me carefully,” Simi said. “Walk about a kilometer through the woods until you see a huge tree stump that is uprooted. You can’t miss it. Turn left and hike down. You’ll run into a road at the side of the mountain. Wait there until you see a colorfully painted van. There’s a picture of a dragon on it.”
Simi moved slightly away from Kellie as she shifted her stance. Two nuns shuffled past them.
Simi glanced over her shoulder and also checked behind Kellie. When no one else was nearby, Simi grabbed a bag from under a bush. It was the one she’d taken out of the textile building, now bulky with something inside. She yanked tightly on the drawstring and pressed the knapsack into Kellie’s arms.
“Hitch a ride from the van and ask them to take you to Damphu. The van belongs to the monks of Gatokto Monastery. They are kind people and will help you.” She spread the familiar gap in the shrubs and shoved Kellie through.
Kellie faltered to the other side and stared at the branches closing in front of her.
Simi patted the leaves back into place. “I’m the one who found the food in your room,” she said through the shrubs. “I’m sorry. Go home.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Survival
“Thank you, Simi,” Kellie whispered, but she had a feeling she was already gone.
Turning around to face the path to freedom, she took a deep breath as she scanned the area. “Walk a kilometer…How far is a kilometer?” Kellie said out loud. Tossing the knapsack over her shoulder, she went in search for the uprooted tree stump.
“Keep going until I see the stump and turn right. No, she said turn left…I think.”
Kellie had been caught off guard by Simi’s erratic behavior and hadn’t understood at first what was happening. Once she had realized that Simi was executing an escape plan of her own, Kellie’s loud, thumping heart had overpowered the instructions. She bit her lip as she tried to remember Simi saying something about a dragon, colorful van, and monks. What was the name of that monastery? Where was she supposed to ask them to take her?
Walking rapidly between the trees and shrubs, Kellie felt the earth under her feet. Her slippers were thin and not meant to be worn for a hike. Rocks pushed into her soles and branches poked through the thin, cloth material. The soil was damp, already moistening the sides of her shoes, but that was a small price to pay to get back home.
The forest was beautiful. The tree trunks were thick and leaves flourished happily at the top. The shrubs were a bright green and rich-colored flowers danced with the breeze. The air was cool, and the weather didn’t warm up like it had the days before. The sun was mostly hidden behind the dark clouds, and it looked like rain was in the forecast.
Kellie needed to find that marker so she could make it down the mountain before it started getting wet. Her steps grew faster and wider as she looked around for the stump. Had she gone a kilometer? Should she backtrack to make sure she didn’t miss the turn?
As she shifted her bag on her shoulder, something hit her eyelash. She wiped the raindrop away as the pitter-patter came faster. Light droplets of water slid off the plants, but soon enough the rain began to bounce off the leaves as the sprinkling turned into a heavy shower.
Monsoon season, Kellie remembered. The nuns had been preparing for it. Fleeing during a monsoon wasn’t the ideal time, but it would make it more difficult for the tracker to find her. Bodhi had located her in another country; searching for Kellie in her neck of the woods wouldn’t be much of a challenge.
Her clothes were now completely wet and her soaked shoes clung to her feet. Should she find cover until the monsoon passed or should she keep going?
Keep going, Kellie told herself. She had been held a prisoner for five days and she would do anything to get home. The weather wasn’t going to stop her from seeing her friends and family again.
The rain was pouring down and it flowed at an angle. Strong winds seemed to have come from nowhere and whipped Kellie’s ponytail across her face. She used her knapsack as a shield over her head, but the blanket of water was too overpowering to see where she was going.
Her feet squished through mud as she looked for the uprooted trunk. She was certain she had not yet passed it and kept going in the direction Simi had instructed.
It seemed as if she had trekked through the mountain for about half an hour. Or was it an hour? Her toes began to numb and the wetness sent a shiver down her spine. Finding shelter underneath a massive tree, Kellie waited, hoping the downpour would cease.
It didn’t. It rained and rained and it seemed to be getting worse. The tree no longer provided any protection. The wind picked up, and the rain darted into her flesh like tiny arrows.
About fifteen minutes later, she decided to head back in the direction from where she’d come. She had to have missed the mark. She walked back for about another half an hour and ended up in an area with less trees and heavy shrubbery. Weaving around plants and boulders, she realized she was lost. There was no uprooted trunk, nor could she find her way back from where she started.
Kellie’s heart was racing now as she struggled to blink raindrops from her eyes. Finally she spotted a rocky area with a small hole carved at the bottom. Perhaps it was once home to an animal, but the hole looked unoccupied and it would have to do. Kellie crawled underneath and squatted. Now shielded from the gush of rain, she wondered how long this monsoon would last. She remembered Simi saying that it could go on for days.
There was no trying
to find her way down the mountain in this weather. She had to wait until the downpour stopped or at least subsided.
Her frozen fingers loosened the drawstring of the bag she was clutching. She assumed all its contents would be wet, but to her surprise, everything was dry! The outer material was made of the nuns’ woven textile, which was soaked, but there was a protective inner lining.
“Good thinking, Simi,” said Kellie.
Going through what Simi had packed for her, Kellie found an extra pair of clothes, thicker-soled shoes, a bottle of water, a bag of vegetables, a bag of porridge, a folded piece of plastic, and bread. She smiled at the roll. Simi had found one.
Kellie dug around some more, hoping to find an umbrella. No luck.
She wasn’t hungry and thought it would be wise to save her food. Shivering from her sopping-wet clothes and shoes, she changed and wrung out the wet ones. She hung the damp clothes on a rock inside the shelter and simply waited.
Still squatting to prevent her dry clothes from getting muddy, she thought of the folded plastic in the bag. After fishing it out, she unraveled it and held up the oversized poncho in front of her.
“Really owe you one, Simi!”
Kellie pulled it over her body, and it fell past her knees. She didn’t put up the hood because she was going to wait out the downpour in her little cave. Although now, if need be, Kellie could make the hike wearing her new rain gear.
She smoothed out the poncho underneath her and sat, watching the rain. The water blew away from the mouth of the shelter, so she remained dry. Curious if the wind in a monsoon could change directions, she thought of Jory.
He would know.
Jory went camping every year and knew about the outdoors. He, Jake, and Kellie had gotten lost in Shenmi Forest, so when they returned home, he retrained in navigation with and without a compass. He was sure he could get them out of that situation if it happened again. Kellie didn’t fathom it could, but here she was, sitting lost in the wilderness.
Most believed that Bobby O’Brien was the smartest kid in their class, but Kellie knew Jory surpassed his level of intelligence. Jory was shy and humble, so he was often underestimated. But Kellie knew the truth. She recognized his big brain as well as his big heart.