by Iram Dana
He stopped talking and grew red in the face.
“Rain, you’ve seen what Quniverse is. The last thing you need to worry about here is family planning.” said his Geeya gently, taking pity on him.
“But still … all this privacy, and no mating! Cheez!” he grumbled, pushing aside another snail. “What happens if you break a rule?” he asked. Just for information, of course. It was always good to be informed.
His Geeya raised a discerning eyebrow. “You remember the trees at Seekers Field?”
“Those creepy, twisted things? Sure! They appear in my nightmares occasionally, hugging Miti and strangling me.” he said dryly. “What about them?”
“All rule breakers disappear from Quniverse and reappear on the Seekers Field-as trees.”
“Should have known.” said Rain sullenly. “Those trees … are they really alive?”
“You mean the consciousness of the person?”
“Yes.”
“They are. They can sense everything, but they can never move.”
Rain threw up his hands and shuddered, lost for words. He couldn’t believe he had spent almost a month camping out in a field surrounded by humans cursed forever to remain as trees. A thought struck him then and he looked up at his Geeya with a stunned expression on his face.
“Wait a minute … are you sure this is a rule?”
“Absolutely certain.”
“Oh no…” he shook his head sadly, “my brother is going to end up on the Seekers field as a tree!” he said, only half-joking.
“Has a penchant for breaking rules, has he?”asked his Geeya.
“Compulsion’s more like it!” laughed Rain.
He was still grinning to himself five minutes later when he stumbled over a small mound of grass and fell, face first, onto the ground. There were several loud cracks as he landed on four unsuspecting snails crawling along slowly.
“How did that get there?!” he exclaimed, getting up and dusting himself off.
“They were trying their best to move out of your way, but I suppose they were too slow.” said his Geeya with mock gravity.
Rain threw her an exasperated look. “I was talking about this!” he said, getting to his feet and pointing to the mound of grass he had tripped over. He then checked himself for damage.
He had scraped his palms and elbows, and the scratches were starting to bleed lightly. He took a quick glance at his chain. Was it glowing? Had he missed a cue? Rain saw that his chain was not glowing and sighed in relief.
He walked over to the shapeless mound of grass. There was a foot sticking out from one end of it.
“It’s a human! Buried under the grass!” he said, quickly shoving aside the piles of grass, revealing an unconscious ashen-faced man.
Rain bent down to check if the man was still breathing – he was. He then reached forward and lifted the unconscious stranger’s wrist to check for a pulse and noticed a Geeya mark.
“It’s a sequestor! And he’s alive!” exclaimed Rain, almost shouting in his excitement and beginning to pump the stranger’s heart. Feeling a warm wetness, Rain drew his hands back to find blood on them. Rain realized that the sequestor was badly injured and in need of urgent medical attention.
Seeing his hesitation, his Geeya spoke up; “Are you planning on help him?”
Rain gave her an incredulous look. “Of course I am! Is that even a question? I’m just wondering if I should attend to him myself or have Subodh take a look at him.”
His Geeya nodded.
“If that’s what you plan to do, then I think you better take him to Subodh. He doesn’t look too good. I think he’s been unconscious for some time now.” she suggested.
Without hesitating, Rain lifted up the wounded sequestor and carried him as quickly as possible back to the hut.
****
Rain half-jogged back to the beach and found Subodh already outside the hut, waiting for him.
“What took you so long, boy?” inquired Subodh impatiently, pointing to a spot where a makeshift bed had been laid out, ready and waiting for his incoming patient.
“How did you know I was coming here with an injured person?” huffed Rain, setting the sequestor gently down on the bed.
“Not just an injured person … a badly injured sequestor.” grumbled Subodh.
He set to work at once, ripping open the man’s blood stained T-shirt and wiping away the dark, clotted blood from the wound.
“How’d you know that?!” said Rain, gaping in amazement at the old man.
Subodh paused in the act of disinfecting the wound. “All those birds and animals we healed together, you think I found them by co-incidence?”
“Well … aah, actually …” stalled Rain, not sure it was safe to say yes.
Subodh picked up his walking stick and waved it threateningly in front of Rain’s face, confirming his fears.
“Think and answer boy, think and answer.” he warned, looking angrily at Rain.
Rain gulped. “Uh … no, I guess they were not.” he said quickly, his eyes following every movement of the stick swaying in front of him.
“Good thinking.” said Subodh, calming down instantly.
He put aside his stick and returned to the task of tending to the injuries of the wounded sequestor.
“Remember one thing, boy. There is no such thing as a co-incidence in this world. Whatever happens, happens for a reason.” rasped Subodh, now applying a brownish paste on the wounds.
“Everything?” asked Rain skeptically, and then darted a quick, nervous glance at the walking stick.
“Yes,” said Subodh, meeting Rains eyes, “everything. Think about it boy, and you’ll realize that what this senile old man is saying is right. There are no co-incidences in this world.”
Subodh had finished wrapping up the wound and was now cleaning up after himself. Rain got up to change his shirt, which was stained with the injured sequestor’s blood. He was still unconscious. On removing his shirt Rain exposed his chain which, he only just noticed, was glowing.
Rain clutched at the chain, staring at in alarm. How long had it been glowing? And how long did he have before he got pulled into his next mini-Quest?
Washing the blood off his chest with a few quick splashes of clean water Rain quickly put on a fresh shirt and touched his Geeya mark, since he could not see his Geeya anywhere nearby. She appeared beside him swiftly, her face an unreadable mask, but Rain had no time to dwell on her expression - or the lack of it. He had just finished buttoning his shirt when the wind picked up and he felt the ground move from under his feet. He closed his eyes.
*****
CHAPTER 5
The first thing that floated into his view when he opened his eyes was the face of his Geeya, and she was smiling.
Was this good news?
He looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings. He appeared to have landed in some sort of a village. Wherever he was, it was damp, cold and early in the morning. There were small mud huts wherever he looked. One or two men, dressed simply in loose drawstring pants and straw hats as farmers probably would, were riding a bullock cart. He spotted a group of children playing in one corner of an open field and decided to approach them first, since they were the least threatening.
As he came nearer, he noticed that all the children had two teeth missing from the front. Strange, thought Rain, reaching the group and halting uncertainly while he scanned the small, boisterous crowd. He spotted a chubby little girl who was standing off to one side, all alone and who seemed to be having some difficulty joining in on the games being played. He called to her and she came to him immediately, smiling a friendly gap-toothed smile.
“Hello, cute little girl.” he greeted her.
She covered her mouth with two chubby palms and giggled.
“I think you’re cute, too!” she said.
“Well, that’s relief.” joked Rain. “What’s your name?” he asked, thanking his luck and smiling and taking her small hands in his.
&n
bsp; “Are you the golden traveler?” she inquired of him instead.
“The what?”
“The golden traveler.” she repeated. “The soothsayer said a golden traveler would arrive soon. Are you that golden traveler? If you are, then I’m not scared of you. Everyone else is scared, but I’m not.” she said, squaring her shoulders boldly to emphasize her point.
Rain could hear Subodh’s words echoing in his head, ‘Think and answer, boy, think and answer.’
He looked at the rest of the children, who had now stopped playing and were eyeing him nervously. He smiled at them, trying to appear harmless and not wanting to cause any unnecessary trouble.
“Well, I don’t think it was me the soothsayer was talking about … here,” said Rain, reaching into his belt to remove one of the many sweets he had and giving it to the little girl.
She smiled brightly and took the sweet from him, popping it into her mouth immediately. Seeing that, all the other children rushed to him eagerly, hands held out, all their fear from a moment ago forgotten. Rain laughed and gave them all one sweet each, marveling at how easy children were to get along with.
“What village is this?” he asked.
Several children answered at once.
“This is the Village of Fools!” they answered gaily.
Rain’s eyebrows shot up in surprise but he kept his voice even, wary of showing any reaction.
“Is there anyone here I can speak to? Maybe your parents?” he said, searching the tiny faces.
“Come, meet my father.” said the chubby little girl, pulling him away from the rest of the children. Her message was clear. She had met him first, so he was her friend. Rain tagged along with her as she led the way to her hut.
“You didn’t tell me your name.” said Rain conversationally as they walked along, the girl leading him by his hand.
“Do you have another sweet?” she asked, smiling up at him sweetly.
“Yes.” said Rain, handing her one more.
“Thank-you.” she said, popping this one into her mouth as well. “My name is Pulina. But everyone calls me Pu.”
Rain looked down at her and smiled. He was immensely happy that he had managed to save these sweets, for they had been of tremendous help in breaking the ice with these children. He remembered then, what Subodh had told him just a while ago, and began to question his own beliefs. Did everything really happen for a reason? Or was it just a happy co-incidence that he had managed to save these sweets? Him saving something edible was an absolute anomaly, Rain knew, so maybe Subodh was on to something here.
“What’s your name?” asked Pu, sucking on the toffee.
Rain snapped out of his reverie. He had a job to do here. He looked at his Geeya and she floated beside him.
“My name is Rain.” he answered.
“Rail?! What a funny name!” she giggled.
Rain smiled and didn’t bother correcting her.
“Tell me Pu, how come all of you have two teeth missing?”
“This?” she said, opening her mouth and pointing to the gap.
Rain nodded.
“It’s all because of Jamun. We were all playing ‘blindman-blindman’ when the silly fell down and broke his tooth on a rock. There was so much blood and he cried a lot, too. The soothsayer suggested that, in order to prevent this from happening again, we should all break our two front teeth. So we did.” she explained gravely, feeling very important now that she had his full attention.
He exchanged a silent, amused glance with his Geeya who warned him in his head against laughing out loud.
“We are here.” announced Pu, leading him around a bend and up a narrow mud path, at the end of which stood a mud hut much like the rest. A middle-aged man was pacing agitatedly outside the door of the hut, where a woman sat wailing and sniffling into her skirt. A young boy of about 12 was perched on the roof of the hut, his face swollen and tears streaming down his puffed cheeks.
“This is my father, Pepito. Over there is my mother, Peppina. And my brother Pepe is on the roof.” Introduced Pu, oblivious to the dilemma the three of them seemed to be in.
“Hello, good sir. My name is Rain. If you do not mind telling me, what seems to be the problem here?” Rain inquired politely.
Pepito stopped pacing.
“Hello, Rain. I would say I am pleased to meet you, but at this moment, nothing can please me. For I am doomed! Doomed I say!”
“Maybe I can help if you tell me what happened?” suggested Rain.
Pepito seemed to oppose the idea for a moment and then gave up with a sigh and throw of his hands.
“Yesterday, there was a terrible storm, and it rained incessantly all day and all night. Soon, our roof began to leak. We tried - and managed - to stop most of the dripping water, except one small hole that we couldn’t plug no matter what we did. Soon, the buckets we had placed under it were all full. That was when my wife suggested that we should send our son to the roof so he can plug the hole with his finger. We did that, and it worked perfectly. But my son had to remain there all night, keeping the hole plugged. And now, he has very high fever. We told him to get down so we could show him to the village doctor but his finger is so swollen, it won’t come out of the hole! The only way to free him so we can save his life is to cut off his finger!” cried Pepito.
Then he began to pace agitatedly again and his wife burst into fresh wails, thumping her chest and swaying wildly.
“Oh, where will I get another son?! This one is sure to die now. I am doomed!” cried Pepito, looking quite deranged.
“What do you mean by that?” asked Rain.
Pepito shot him a glare of irritation. “Have you no sense, young man? My son’s finger is connected to his hand, which is connected to his arm. The arm is connected to his shoulder, which in turn is connected to his neck. In order to cut his finger off, I will have to cut the boy’s neck!”
Rain turned in shock toward the boy sitting on the roof, with his finger still jammed inside what must have been the leak in the roof. They were planning to cut off his neck?! These people were crazy! The boy looked ready to drop down dead with fear anyway.
“No, no, you must not chop off his neck, or finger or anything for that matter! The fever is probably causing the swelling in his finger and he might have caught a mild infection due to the cold. Do you have any mint?” he said, talking fast.
Pepito paused and nodded.
“Then please bring me some.” said Rain, bringing out a small vial from his pocket which contained a mixture of some medicinal herbs that he had prepared for Subodh. “I will make a paste of that and ginger, using this healing mixture. Apply the paste to your son’s forehead. His fever should come down in about an hour and hopefully bring down the swelling along with it.”
Pepito looked at Rain with new hope in his eyes.
“Can you really do that?”
Rain nodded vehemently.
Pepito turned to the little girl behind him, who was bouncing gently back and forth on her heels, quietly listening to everything.
“Pu, go and bring some fresh ginger from your aunt’s house. I will get the mint.”
The girl scurried off and Pepito turned to Rain.
“Please make yourself at home. I will be right back.”
He turned to address his wife, who had stopped wailing and was now quietly sniffling into her skirts.
“Peppina, please serve some tea to our guest.” he instructed, and then turned and jogged off towards his destination.
The woman got up gingerly, wiping her face with the hem of her skirt.
“Please come inside.” she said in a quivery voice.
“I’d prefer to wait out here, if you don’t mind.” said Rain, politely declining her offer.
The hut was too small and dark and he wanted to sit outside where it was bright. He pulled a small wicker stool lying nearby and sat down on it.
Pepito and Pu were back soon with the necessary ingredients and Rain made the medicinal paste
to be applied on the boy’s forehead. Once he was done, he gave the paste to Pepito and sat back sipping on the tea served by the sniffling Peppina, as he watched Pepito apply the paste on his son’s forehead. Twenty-five minutes later, the boys face began to lose some of its flushed color and started to appear more normal. Soon, the swelling in his finger receded and he was able to pull it out of the plug and climb down the roof with his father’s help to where his mother was waiting. As soon as he was down she engulfed him into a suffocating hug, kissing and slobbering all over him while her husband looked on at the two of them proudly. When the family reunion was done with, the boy slowly walked up to Rain, looking weak and exhausted, and thanked him profusely. Then he was ushered inside by Peppina to get some rest.
“How can I thank you?” asked a visibly moved Pepito.
“Well, I am here with a purpose.” replied Rain, seizing the opportunity. “You could help me with that. Do you have a village elder, or a leader?”
“Yes. Our village head Kane Kunga died an untimely death a year ago. His son Dammy Kunga acts as the village head now.”
“Could you take me to him?”
“But of course. Please follow me.”
Pepito led the way to the village head’s house, which he said was not very far away. On the way there, Rain saw a man with frazzled white hair and a long, bony body rolled in reams of flimsy red cloth, dancing and swaying while singing his lungs out.
Who’s that? Rain projected the thought to his Geeya.
That’s the village soothsayer. She answered him.
Rain stared at the ridiculously dressed man now thumping out a beat on his head.
Looks like a lunatic. He snorted, unable to tear his eyes off the madman as they passed him.
The village head’s house was huge compared to the tiny huts that dotted the rest of the village. It was the only house made of bricks.