by Philip Roy
The dryness and openness of the country continued endlessly, but there were more cars on the road now and more shanties and shacks the further north we drove. People constructed shanties in such a clever way. Against the trunk of a large tree they would lean wood timbers and cover them with sheets of wood or metal or bamboo or even grass to form a roof. The largest trees would support three or even four such dwellings. They were structures that a typhoon would easily rip apart and blow away. But India didn’t seem to be the sort of place where typhoons or devastating storms would often strike. No doubt rain would come in the monsoon, very heavy rain too. But we wouldn’t see it. We would not be here then.
Seaweed sat on his perch on the roof, Hollie stood on his hind legs at the window with the air blowing his fur back on his face, Melissa held onto the wheel with both hands and a firm gaze upon the road, and Radji kept his eyes fixed on the chess set as we were swept up in greater numbers of cars, buses, rickshaws and trucks. In this traffic we were still hours from the city. And then, as chance would have it, we came around a turn in the road and saw something that disturbed us. There was a rich-looking man standing beside a rich-looking car, which appeared to have broken down, or perhaps he had run out of gas. In front of him was another car, an old, beaten-up car. Out of that car had come a group of young men, and there was something not right about them. We all felt it right away. You could tell that the rich man was uncomfortable too. They seemed to be taunting or threatening him. We saw all of this in just a few seconds. Were they intending to rob him? The rich man was looking anxiously at the line of cars passing and was hoping desperately that someone would stop. And Melissa did. Very suddenly!
Skidding to a stop, the Jaguar sent a cloud of dust into the air. It startled both the rich man and the suspicious-looking younger men. Melissa was as bold as a tiger. It was something I really liked about her. She opened her door, climbed out and went right towards the group. I told Radji to stay where he was and went after her.
“What is going on here?” she barked. She went right past the young men, who stepped back. She approached the rich man. “Are you having trouble?”
The rich man was very relieved. “Thank you, madam, for stopping. My car has stopped working; I have no idea what is wrong. I must get into the city right away, I have important business. These young men . . . I don’t have a good feeling here. We must be very careful.”
Melissa turned and glared at the young men. I stood beside her. There were five of them. If they tried anything bad I would do everything I could to defend her but I was nervous. What if they were carrying weapons? I thought of Radji and Hollie in the car. I needed to protect them too.
“Lock your car,” Melissa said to the man. “Take your valuables with you.” Then she glared at the men again. She was so tough; I was impressed. I tried to stand a little taller, stick out my chest and look angry. But the young men didn’t look afraid, just uncertain. I felt it was only a matter of time before they tried to do something, maybe rob the man or steal his car, I didn’t know. They were definitely not here to help.
The rich man took his jacket and briefcase, locked his car and walked with us to the Jaguar. He looked at his car worriedly.
“Come,” said Melissa firmly, and he did. She climbed into the front and I took my seat as usual and he opened the back door. Then he saw Radji and stopped. No, I thought, surely he won’t make a fuss about that now? He did. He stared at Radji, who dropped his head and hid his hands beneath his thighs. Seeing this, the rich man frowned. He turned and looked back at his car with a terribly worried expression on his face.
“Get in!” barked Melissa. But he wouldn’t. The young men started to edge closer. The rich man stared at Radji again and made an angry face. “I sit in the front,” he said. I shook my head, though it was Melissa’s car. It was her decision. “Get in!” she barked again.
“I sit in the front!” he insisted.
“You sit in the front in your car,” she said angrily. “In my car you will sit in the back. We are leaving. Get in or get out!”
Melissa put the Jaguar in gear. The rich man took one last frantic look at his car and the young men approaching, jumped inside beside Radji and we took off.
He looked at Radji with fear, as if he thought he was going to catch leprosy or something. Radji didn’t turn away from him as I thought he would. He surprised me. He raised his head and with determination turned and looked directly at the man. The man turned away and stared out the window. He was offended. Then Radji did something else that surprised me even more. He opened up the chess set on the seat between himself and the rich man and set up the pieces. The man couldn’t help peeking to see what the little boy was up to, then stared at the chess set with intense curiosity before turning away again. After a while, Radji said in a slightly sweet, slightly irritating voice, “I can beat you.” He was actually talking to the rich man. I couldn’t believe it.
The rich man was wearing expensive clothes. Every hair on his head was in place. He wore a shiny, expensive watch and big gold rings on his fingers, which were fat. Even his teeth glistened with gold and silver. On top of that, he was wearing more perfume than Melissa. Radji spoke again, quietly, but with conviction, as if it were a simple truth. “I can beat you.”
This was too much for the rich man. He turned and glared at Radji with a furious look. Then he spoke back. “Don’t be ridiculous!”
Melissa made a quick turn of her head and blew Radji a kiss. It was her way of saying that his place in the car was secure; the rich man was on shaky ground. Radji pushed the game a little closer to the man and insisted, “I can.” Then he moved his pawn. The man saw the move out of the corner of his eye. I couldn’t take my eyes away from him. You could almost see his thoughts turning around in his head. I wished I could have heard them. I tried to see the hundreds of men standing in front of him. Were they all merchants? Were they all wearing fine clothes, fancy jewellery and rich perfumes? Did they own large pieces of land and fancy palaces? Did they hunt tigers for sport?
As we drove closer to the heart of the city and were swept up in thicker traffic we had to slow down. The rich man continued to stare intensely at the chess board in front of him. He was debating with himself. I saw him turn and look out the window. We were passing one of the very poor areas. His eyes rested on a group of poor people huddled around a small fire in the centre of a road. Then he turned and stared at Radji, and his eyes fell on the chess board once more. Radji was staring at his own pawn that he had moved, waiting. The rich man sighed, reached over with his heavily ringed fingers and moved his pawn.
It was the strangest chess game I ever witnessed. Radji played as he always played, with an intense concentration that took all of his energy. The rich man played with a look of anger on his face, as if he were doing something he knew he shouldn’t but couldn’t help himself, like playing a game with the devil or something. The devil had challenged him and he had accepted, only so that he could prove himself a better man and put an end to this madness.
But it wasn’t so easy for the rich man. I saw as he tried to pull a fast one on Radji, a quick seven-move check-mate. It didn’t work. Radji saw it coming! I was impressed. But then the rich man made a really clever move, and I didn’t think Radji saw it. Suddenly I felt my gut twist up inside. Radji moved his hand towards his bishop. I saw what he was planning to do but if he moved his bishop he was going to lose his knight a couple of moves later. I couldn’t bear it and so I did something I knew I shouldn’t have done. I coughed. I coughed when I didn’t have to cough. I couldn’t help it. Radji hesitated. Had he heard me and understood? I wasn’t sure, but he hesitated. He took more time and scanned the board. He didn’t move his bishop. Thank heavens!
The rings on the rich man’s fingers were made of the finest gold. I knew that because I had once found a small chest with twenty gold coins on our maiden voyage, and I learned that the best gold was a soft yellow, almost like cheese or honey. There were diamonds on his rings too.
I was sure they were worth more than the Jaguar; or maybe even Melissa’s house, or maybe even the sub. But they didn’t actually do anything except look fat and shiny on his fingers.
The game grew intense. The rich man started to sweat and Radji started to breathe heavily. They both lost pawns. Radji lost his other knight and the rich man lost one of his knights. And then, the rich man was just a move away from capturing Radji’s rook. If he took it, the game would swing quickly in his favour. I started to get that twist in my gut again. I watched Radji closely. He could see that his rook was in trouble and he was trying to save it but didn’t know how. He reached for his bishop and pulled his hand back. He reached for a pawn and pulled his hand back. He was confused. Then he went for his knight but hesitated. It was the worst move. If he made that move he would lose both his rook and his knight. I couldn’t bear it. I raised my hands over my head in a fake yawn and yawned loudly, shaking my head from side to side. Radji pulled his fingers away from his knight. I dropped my head in shame. I had become nothing but a cheat.
Chapter Twenty-three
ORANGE AND BLACK RICKSHAWS, pink and purple buses, black cars, white cars, bicycles, trucks and cows pressed close all around us. We were stuck in traffic. Drivers were honking their horns but no one was going anywhere. Radji and the rich man were so wrapped up in their game they never saw any of it.
I didn’t know why I wanted Radji to win so badly but I did. It felt like more than a game to me. The rich man held such an air of importance, as if his time, his money and his person were all more important than Radji, a ten-year-old boy who couldn’t even read or write, who just happened to have been born an Untouchable, who had run away from home and been living in a hole in the wall of an ancient warehouse, where I found him. Radji was a good person. I knew it. And he had his whole life ahead of him. He deserved so much more than he had, or that anyone seemed to want him to have. Somehow, if he could just beat the rich man at chess, it felt like that would prove to everyone that they were wrong about him.
But the worst possible thing happened: the rich man took Radji’s queen. It happened so quickly I didn’t have a chance to warn him. Radji had pulled his queen out to attack the rich man’s bishop, but the rich man very cleverly placed his own queen in such a way as to force Radji to choose between losing either a pawn or a bishop, and that distracted him; he didn’t see the real danger. He moved his bishop to safety, and the rich man rushed in and took his queen. He made a strange grunting sound as if he were an animal but he was just really excited. Radji was breathing so hard now I was worried about him. And yet he didn’t despair, and he never stopped trying. He did his very best to the end. And then, something wonderful happened.
The rich man had been on a roll. With Radji’s queen gone, he began attacking his other pieces and it didn’t seem possible for Radji to stop him. The end was coming soon. Radji was concentrating very intensely on the position of his king, though I wasn’t certain why. And then I saw what he had done: he had positioned his king such as to create a stalemate. The rich man didn’t see it coming; he was just so confident he was going to win. But he didn’t win. All he managed to do was force a stalemate so that nobody could win. The game ended a tie. I couldn’t help it; I burst out: “Woooo Hoooo!” The rich man stared in shock. “No! No! It can’t be! No!”
But it was.
The traffic moved a little and stopped again. Men pushing carts leaned close to the car and stared in out of fascination at the rich man sitting opposite the poor boy. The sun was high and it was hot but I thought I could smell water. Hollie’s nose was twitching wildly. It must have been the river. I raised my head to see that Seaweed was gone. I looked up and thought maybe I saw him in the sky. But perhaps he was already down at the water somewhere, mingling with other seagulls.
Radji cleared the game and set it up again. He always set the game slowly and methodically, as if it were a ceremony. The rich man was upset. I didn’t know why he didn’t just get out of the car now. It may not have been the best neighbourhood, but he could find a telephone and call someone if he wanted. But he didn’t appear to want to. He couldn’t seem to let the game go. And sure enough, as soon as Radji put all the pieces in order, the rich man moved his pawn and they started another game.
The traffic moved a little and we went down the street. While Radji and the rich man lost themselves in their game, Hollie and I stared out the window at the pretty pink buildings. The closer we came to the river, the more colourful the houses became. This city was old, really old, like thousands of years old. And it felt like it. Melissa kept her hands on the wheel with the patience of an elephant. She appeared to have something on her mind. I wondered what it was. She was squinting her eyes and it wasn’t for the sun. Was she feeling nervous about putting her brother’s ashes in the river?
I turned around in my seat to watch the game. Radji was in danger of losing his knight again. I leaned closer and tried to catch his eye. He looked up at me. We stared at each other for just a second and he said, “No quarter.” I smiled at him. He wanted no help. He wanted to play the rich man on his own. I respected that. I turned around and looked out the window again with Hollie.
The rich man beat Radji. It took him awhile though. Radji hung on for as long as he could. And though he tried to force a stalemate again, the rich man was ready for it this time. The game ended just as we turned a corner where a crowd of pilgrims were carrying a statue through the street. It had the head of an elephant, the body of a man, four arms and a big fat belly with a snake wrapped around it like a belt. “Ganesh!” Melissa said. “The god of new beginnings. His belly is full of sweets.”
We stared as the procession went past. The rich man was beaming. He seemed awfully happy for a middle-aged business man who had just beat a ten-year-old boy at chess. He couldn’t help himself. But as Ganesh teetered gently past us in the other direction, such that we were all given a close look, the rich man’s gaze fixed upon the god and his eyes went all dreamy. Then he glanced down at his watch and was pulled back into the real world. “Oh! Oh, I must go!” He stuck his head out the window and looked all around. “Where are we? Oh, yes, I know this place!” He pulled his head back inside and looked at us as if he were seeing us for the first time. “Where are you going now?” he said. “Why have you come to Varanasi?”
I didn’t know how to answer him exactly so I reached down and lifted the urn off the floor and raised it up so that he could see it. He nodded respectfully. “And Radji,” I continued, nodding my head towards Radji, “has come to bathe in the Ganges.”
The rich man no longer carried anger on his face. Now that he had beaten Radji, he was suddenly friendly and full of energy. He stared at Radji with curiosity. “You have come to bathe in Mother Ganga?”
Radji nodded his head.
“From where have you come?”
Radji didn’t know how to answer, so I did. “From Ernakulum.”
The rich man raised his eyebrows. “All the way from Ernakulum? Just a boy?” He looked down at his watch. “You know you must go to different ghats, to bathe and to spread your ashes?”
Melissa turned her head slightly. “Oh?”
“Yes, yes! You must! Different ghats for bathing and ashes.”
“Okay,” I said. “We’ll figure it out.”
He stared at his watch as if he were trying to make an important decision. He looked at Radji again and then he made it. “Turn here,” he said to Melissa firmly. “I will take you to the ghats myself. Turn here!”
Melissa did as she was told and followed his directions. We left the main road and drove through narrow streets lined with tall buildings. Even though it was sunny, the buildings cast dark shadows into the street. There weren’t many cars here but it was a challenge for Melissa to navigate through the rickshaws, people and cows. It became so narrow and crowded it felt like we were driving underneath things.
We came to a dead end. “We get out here,” said the rich man. He got out of the car. I put Holli
e in the tool bag; we rolled up the windows, climbed out and locked the car. I saw the rich man talking to some young men on the street. He handed them money. He was paying them to watch the car for us.
Melissa, Radji, Hollie and I followed the rich man between some buildings and we came out at the crest of a hill. Below us lay the river. The Ganges. My first thought was that it flowed slowly like chocolate milk. It was brown and smooth and wide. There were lots of narrow boats, like dories, and swarms of people bathing in the water or standing on the steps next to it. The steps came all the way up the hill. The saris of women spread below us like colourful flames. Many people were in white, and many had pulled their pant legs up as far as they could go and were stepping into the river that was their goddess. It was such a colourful scene. I even wondered if the river could really be a goddess.
The rich man pointed down the steps to a platform beside the water. There were a lot of steps. “Down there,” he said. Then he pointed downstream. “Over there for ashes.” Melissa nodded to show she understood, but didn’t say anything. We were all a bit overwhelmed, for different reasons. I looked at Radji. He looked at me. His eyes were as wide as saucers. I wondered what he was thinking. The rich man turned to go. I watched him. He went about ten steps, stopped, turned around and stared at Radji, who hadn’t moved an inch. He was fixed in his spot. The rich man breathed deeply, stood as tall as he could and looked down at the little boy. Then he came back. “Come,” he said to Radji, “I will show you.”
While Melissa, Hollie and I followed, the rich man took Radji’s hand and led him down the steps of the ghat. He stood out from most people there because he was wearing a dark suit, and it was so expensive. But that wasn’t what made everyone stare as much as the fact that he was walking down hand in hand with a poor young boy. But the rich man didn’t care what anyone thought. He had made up his mind.