For
Ogg
, and the ideals he represented and defended. I didn't really know the man, but it's a story of people saving one another in a few different ways. That seems fairly heroic to me.
Also, I've taken some liberties; India and love are very big and can be very complicated.
The first time I saw Erin, she was fast asleep on my sofa. My roommate already had our nightly hookah going and, pointing to the sleeping woman, introduced her.
"Komal, meet Erin. Mind if she crashes here tonight?"
She was adorable and I very much wanted to crash
into
her. Of course I said none of this to my roommate. But this girl, the fairest skin I'd ever seen, long, dark hair, and even curled up as she was, I could tell she had the most amazing breasts.
A blizzard was coming in and Erin didn't want to get caught in it. We spent that whole weekend together and I've never been the same since. I was finishing up my grad work at the same university my roommate and Erin attended for their undergrad degrees. She worked full time and commuted to school with a full course load as a dual biology and history major. The girl was crazy. Even sleeping she looked exhausted. I fetched a blanket and tucked her in. When my hand accidentally brushed her face, she cooed at me in her sleep, rubbing against me at the contact.
We became fast friends, then fast lovers. Secret though that was. Erin was an atheist, through and through. I'd been raised Hindu and sent to a Catholic school. I easily accepted both, knowing everything has its place in this world. She never showed anything but curiosity towards me, and I loved her for that. It's not something that happens often in that country.
My parents, both being devoutly religious themselves, knew their daughter would get married as a virgin. For them, that was purely nothing phallic inside me, ever. I had an easy enough work around for that. Erin was tough as nails, but she was beautifully feminine. We both had curves, and she showed me how beautiful mine were. She never could turn that on herself though. Stoic through and through, until you plied her with some gin.
She'd had a tough life. I'd never known someone so lonely, not that she even knew that about herself. When you work from 6 pm until 2 am, and your classes start at 8 am, with an hour commute between work, school, and home, you don't have time to think, to realize you're not okay.
And I went and fucked all that up for her.
My family is part of the merchant caste, but in the last fifty years we've done exceedingly well. My roommate called me spoiled; Erin called me cherished. I offered to cherish Erin, to pay for her tuition and give her some kind of stipend so she wouldn't have to work so hard. She was touched, refused of course, but really, I missed her dreadfully from the minute she left until the minute she came back to me. I kept putting my parents off of finding me a match or making me find one because I couldn't stand the idea of giving up what we had, of giving her up.
The following summer I insisted she come back to Bombay with me. She'd never even been outside of the states. I'd been traveling the world since before I could even remember. I couldn't fathom having not seen it. She'd refused the Disney World trip I wanted to pay for, but she hesitated to refuse this trip to India. Before her mother died they would take summer trips, nothing too far, but she had a heart for adventure, even if she didn't have the wallet for it.
***
We spent a week in my parents' penthouse, eating all manner of delicacies, chocolates, mangoes, one another. My parents thought nothing of it. Two girls sharing a room, what could be more innocent? Even though I was 25. Of course we went out and saw some of the tourist attractions, but I showed her the real city, too. That wasn't always easy for her. She was the kind of person that would cry if she ran over a chipmunk. I loved her for that, too, though it never did her any favors.
Summer was the only time that worked for our schedules. Unfortunately that meant a lot of our plans got rained out, literally. Monsoon season is no joke, but I still wanted to show her as many adventures as I could.
I
was
spoiled, I can admit that. I've never done a bit of physical labor, I went to all the best schools, when I wanted something, I got it. I'd wanted Erin to come on this trip, and she did. Hesitantly, of course. But once she was here...it was like her soul had awoken for the very first time.
I wanted
that
. Not for me, but for her. I wanted that happiness to stay with her. And I wanted it to be
because
of me.
She was a plant girl. Quickest way to her heart was to take her to any kind of garden or buy her a new plant. It could be practically dying, and she'd love it all the more for the challenge of it. I'd never gone on as many jaunts into the wilderness in my entire life as I did once she and I became close. Her soul may not have awoken on those treks, but it was at least in a place of contentment.
I showed her some temples, other man made wonders, but it was the natural marvels that made those steel gray eyes of hers shine. Caves, waterfalls, lakes, she loved them all. Naturally, I was saving the best for last. I took her to Meghalaya without telling her why. And
of course
they'd stopped permitting tourists because of the heavy rainfall the same night we got in.
"Komal, it's fine! We're only here for two days anyway and then back to reality."
"Don't say it like that! And no! It's not
fine!
I'll be right back. Don't leave the room."
She only spoke English and conversational Spanish and French. She didn't really know how to keep herself safe. Although we had watched plenty of serials together, basically Indian soap operas, and she had picked up plenty of words amazingly fast. She was smart, but whether she admitted to it or not, she was also pretty. Her meager understanding of a situation wouldn't be enough to keep her safe if someone wanted it to be otherwise.
I was eventually able to bribe a few of the guides to take us out tomorrow morning. The rains should settle, they kept saying. It was foolish of me. But I wanted to make her happy.
The men I'd hired seemed on the up and up. That probably should have been the first red flag. They had a camp with a well-appointed tree house, stairs instead of a ladder, nice big bed, wood stove to take the chill off, nicely situated near our destination. It seemed they regularly did private tours outside the scope of the law. That was nothing unusual and explained their price. It may seem odd to some, but that put me at ease. It's bad for business to kill your law breaking clients. You get handled...differently. And lose a valuable resource.
The rain wasn't letting up, but it would still be magical for her. We unloaded our gear and headed out, covered up and protected as best we could. We had three guides. The boss, Harish. He was the boss for a reason, the most diplomatic and clean of the three of them. The other two, younger, hungrier in a few ways, kept eyeing us like starving wolves lost in a flock of sheep.
We started with the Mawphlang Sacred Forest. I wanted to show her the ancient trees and groves, tell her about the wonders and myths of the woods. Given the rains, it didn't go as planned. After a couple of hours we turned around, calling it for the day. Our quickly disappearing path along the river was turning to sinking mud as we tried to walk single file out of the jungle. Mere hours ago it had been like a steady, little stream. Now it was angry and full and raging. It was near impossible to make out much around us.
Everything seemed to happen all at once.
The goon behind us screamed to his friend, barely audible over the downpour, "Fuck, FUCK, Harish is gone!" Turning I saw the last of their boss as he was ripped away from the bank. We were in trouble.
Erin and I huddled together. These guys were losing their shit and now their boss was dead. I hadn't loved how they'd eyed us before, but now that their leash had been cut I was actually afraid. "Erin, if we need to make a run—"
"Got it," she hissed back at me, knowing being as quiet and invisible as possible was our best bet.
We continued on our path back. There was nothing else to do. Returning to camp, she and I took the rooms up in the treehouse, as had been the plan. The guides took up their camp underneath the protection of our treehouse. They'd set up a fire for themselves, leaving us to do our own dirty work. I wasn't used to that, but Erin thought nothing of it. She knew what she was doing.
Within minutes she had a steady little firing go in the wood stove up there. It wasn't terribly chilly on its own, but we'd been soaked to the bone and were both in an odd kind of shock. We'd seen a man die earlier, because of us. And now we were at least in some kind of trouble. There was no reaching the outside world, and I didn't know what else to do but wait and see what they were going to do with us.
"Komes, we're in trouble."
"Yeah, I think so."
"What are we going to do?"
"What can we do? We'll need to wait it out, and hope—"
"We should take their truck. I haven't driven a stick-shift in years, but I think the rain will drown out the noise if I don't get it right away."
"Erin...that sounds more dangerous."
"No, it doesn't. Those two aren't like their boss. You saw how they were looking at us, you
felt
it, too. I know you did. They'll rape and murder us, chucking us down that same river. Did you tell anyone where we were going? Or what we were doing?"
I couldn't answer her. She didn't need me to.
They spent hours arguing with one another. We'd wanted to wait until they were clear of the stairs. Neither of us would be able to outrun them, and neither of us would leave the other one for anything in the world. Erin had tried to hear what they were saying, but with the rain and distance it just wasn't happening.
"We need to make a run for it. Maybe we can go down and see what's up, take stock of the situation. I know there's at least one pistol in their truck, maybe we can grab that quick."
