Tikkipala (26 page)

Khan could have wept. He should have guessed. ‘But all is ready,' he pleaded.

‘We will go next week,' said Devi. ‘There is something I have to do here first.'

When Khan understood what the thing she had to do was he nearly handed in his notice on the spot.

‘The boy wants to be taken up to the high jungle,' said Devi.

Khan smiled at first. ‘This is only guessing, Madam, for the fellow is unable to speak.'

‘He can say things. He has learnt,' said Devi.

‘Now, Madam, please listen to me. Your good father has put your safety into my hands.' He was feeling worried. Had Madam's brain become affected by the high altitude?

‘If you listen carefully it is possible to understand what he is saying,' Devi insisted doggedly. ‘And he wants to go up into high jungle.'

‘Well, this is quite impossible Madam, because how is he going to be got there?' Khan was starting to feel safe again.

‘In our car. You will have to drive him.'

Khan laughed now. ‘Madam, there is no road. This thing is impossible.'

‘There is a sort of road now. I met one of the engineers who was involved with making it when I was at the club.'

The engineer had been very excited. ‘Mr Dar, of Sita Timbers, has managed what no one else has. It has cost him ten crores of rupees and five thousand men have been working on it to get in ready before the monsoon. Now it is possible to get a four wheel drive vehicle almost all the way up, and it is only necessary to walk for the last twelve kilometres.' It had needed several feats of complicated engineering to construct the swinging cable bridges and to blast two solid rock tunnels but at last, after many
months, problems, accidents and even a few deaths, there existed a crude dirt track which at least in the dry weather was passable.

Khan stared at her, aghast, unable to believe what he heard. ‘Madam you are asking me to travel with one mad fellow and one murderous beast for the whole of several days in my car which is designed for human roads. I will not do it. No, no no.'

‘I am ordering you,' commanded Devi.

‘I will not take my car and I will not take this crazy fellow in it,' Khan exploded. ‘Even your good father would not ask such a thing of me. I will not do it.'

‘But you will, Khan, and me and Animal also,' said Devi firmly. ‘I am coming too. I will look after you. This is the chance of a life time. Don't you see? This boy will show me where the stones round his waist came from before the land is entirely ruined by those tree cutting vandals.'

‘No, Madam.'

‘Yes, Khan.'

‘But we shall leave the Animal behind. Definitely we shall not take that.'

‘He will not go without it,' said Devi.

‘How can you know such a thing?' Khan's anxiety was making him speak almost rudely.

‘If you won't drive us then I will find a driver in the village,' said Devi cheerfully.

Khan gazed at her, his expression desperate, his eyes pleading. Devi smiled relentlessly.

‘I will take you madam,' Khan said at last, miserably and the vision of his wife's little weeping face arose before his eyes. But dreadful though the prospect of driving the madman and the Animal was, the thought of one of those bandits in the driving seat of his beloved car was even worse.

For the rest of his life, thought Khan, he would be haunted by that terrible journey. At night he had crouched, chilled and huddled behind the wheel, with Madam apparently perfectly comfortable sleeping in the back while outside the two dreadful wild creatures dangled from a tree branch. It took them a week to reach the highest jungle, and several times Khan felt sure they would not survive. There was the moment when a chunk of mountain fell away moments after the wheel passed over it. Then there had been the chunk of rock, almost as big as the car, which had missed them by inches as they went through one of the awful, black-dark, water-dripping tunnels. And then there had been the swinging cable bridge. Khan did not even want to think of that dreadful experience again. Even the memory of it made him feel dizzy and shaky all over. He could hardly believe it when they arrived at last.

The madman and the Animal leapt from the car, and went rushing away. They were lost to sight in a moment.

Khan scrambled nauseous and shivering from the car and, throwing himself onto the ground, thanked Allah, on whom be peace, as loudly as he could for preserving his life till now. And then of course, he thought, as he rose, rubbing sawdust and dirt from his uniform, they would have to go down again. Quickly he added another heartfelt prayer. At last, when the shivering had subsided, he looked up and saw that Madam, apparently unconcerned by the dreadful experience, was racing after the madman calling, ‘Wait, take some food and water with you.' But the fellow was gone. Madam stood looking after him, her expression dejected. Khan wondered to himself, is this a woman or a super human being, for she seems to have so little care about her life.

At least the madman and the Animal were gone, thought Khan. The pair were now lost inside the, as yet, un-felled jungle. Perhaps, after all, the suffering and terror of
the last days had brought some small benefit. He would not have to endure the presence of that dreadful pair any longer.

Maw ran on and on, calling, calling for Pala. But no thought came back. As he leapt over burnt wood and felled trees he felt a great pain in his heart because of the things they had done to his tribal places. All was gone. There was not even a hammock or a walkway to show his people had ever been here and whichever direction he looked in it was the same. He called Pala in every voice he knew, but no one answered.

Devi climbed higher and higher, often finding something she had never seen before. She ran from rock to rock, letting out shouts of triumph. At first she could hear Khan calling her, ‘Madam, Madam, this is a bad place. Come back or you will get lost.' But gradually his voice became fainter, till he was out of earshot altogether. And at last she was so far away she could hardly hear the sounds of the wood cutters either.

She was bending down, easing a great star-like crystal from the ground, when she smelled something strange and repulsive. Then she thought she heard strange sounds coming from inside the rock she stood on. Crouching down, she put her face against the stone and heard a dull thudding accompanied by something that sounded like an animal moaning. The rock was very steep and slippery and she had to slither up on her stomach because there was no purchase but she pushed on upwards still listening. Thinking that some poor creature was trapped inside a cave below she she shoved herself on till she reached some thorny bushes and began pushing them aside. Now her nostrils suddenly became overwhelmed with the smell. It was so strong that it made her feel dizzy and a little sick and she had to put her hand over her nose to avoid it. She must be lying on some kind of hollow cave, she decided, and the stinking
thing was inside it. But how could she get the smell so strongly unless there was some entrance. She began to crawl all over the rock, feeling the smooth surface with her hands but it seemed seamless and solid. She could not even find a crack. The sound ceased after a while. In the end, though she could not imagine what the smell had been, she decided the sound must have been to do with echoes caused by the chain saws of the wood cutters. She gathered up her collection and started down again. It was a relief when she got far enough away from the rock to be unable to smell that stench any more.

That night Khan and Devi slept in comparative comfort in one of the lumberjacks' tents. Khan slept like a piece of lumber himself, not needing to keep constantly alert in case he was attacked by the Animal or the madman.

Throughout the night Devi listened for sounds of the boy and Animal returning, and when dawn came and there was still no sign of them she felt disappointed and hurt.

The lumberjacks gave them breakfast, thick sweet tea boiled in an old oil tin and a loaf of hard yellow bread. While they ate, the lumberjacks eagerly described the sight of the tribe falling out of the trees.

‘Absolutely not a stitch on,' they laughed. ‘Even the ladies had their twatties and their boobies showing. And to think that you, Madam, have had such a creature in your home as though it was a civilised person.'

‘But thanks to Allah he is gone into the jungle and will not be seen again,' said Khan with satisfaction, and gulped his tea.

Devi was silent. She supposed the boy must have found his own people and had already forgotten her. As though sensing her feelings Khan said, ‘These filthy wild persons have no feelings of gratefulness.'

Devi rose, wandered to the edge of the jungle, gazed into the thick dark and did not answer.

When Maw had walked all day, and had had no sound back from Pala, he started calling for his people. Where were they? What had happened to them all? Would they know what had happened to Pala? It was only when evening came and he had gone many miles, did he hear the faint returning sounds. His heart leapt up with hope then and brightness came back into the Animal's eyes. Suddenly all Maw's tiredness left him and he began to run, thrusting through undergrowth, scrambling over rocks, and moving forwards, on an on, towards the highest place, where there were still trees. Over rocks and up precipices Maw struggled, with the clumsy Animal scrabbling along behind him. Maw's hands and feet were bleeding now but he cared about nothing except finding his people again. His people knew every part of this jungle. For ten thousand years, perhaps, they had lived up here. Every tree and rock and steepness had belonged to them. They had sometimes looked down into the coarse world below and felt happy that they did not have to be in a place where people struggled, fought and hated. Sometimes brave ones would go down on the ligament and silently tiptoe round the villages, listening, smelling, seeing. They would return with tales of horror. Tell of foul food eaten and thirst quenched with terrible liquids that would burn the stomach if one of the tribe tried to drink it. They would describe the hitting of children, the weeping of women, the wounding of men, the misery of hunger. The tribe had never known such things because the Tikki protected them. Sadness and weeping belonged to her.

‘Pala, Pala, Pala,' called Maw with his heart, and he dashed on.

It was dark by the time the elders found him. They could hardly believe it. They almost wept in their joy and relief, for they had seen him carried away by the Coarseones and after what they had done to Pala, it had not seemed possible that Maw could still be alive. Not one among them could believe that Coarseones, who had broken everything they loved, owned and needed for survival, would also care for their Maw.

Maw wanted to tell them that he had found the Ama. He wanted to let them know where he had hidden it. But when he looked at them, they were so changed that he feared they would no longer know how to make use of the sacred stone. They were thin and ill. Their hair, that had been so thick and glossy, was now dank and dull. Their eyes were dark and set deep into the sockets. Their skin, that used to shine like the moon, had lost its sheen and was cracked and sore. They had apparently survived by nibbling at leaves and drinking water captured in the high tree leaves. Their only meat had been the frogs and fishes trapped in these tiny tree lakes. Because their walkways and their hammocks were all gone, several of them had fallen from great heights and broken legs and arms. Two grown men had died from falling. Because the tribe had grown weak with too little food, they were suffering from fevers and stomach infections. The tribe was dying, they told Maw, and unless he could persuade the Tikki to reach out her hand and save them, they were done for.

But Maw hardly heard them. ‘Where is Pala?' he gasped. ‘Why do I not see him with you?'

At these words the people of the tribe hung their heads and fell silent.

‘Tell me,' cried Maw and a terrible cold began to shake his heart because he knew, before they spoke, that he had come too late.

‘Tell me, tell me,' shouted Maw.

But the people were afraid to tell Maw, because he was their only hope and if he felt despair then they were finished too.

At last he forced them. They could no longer keep it from him.

‘When Pala thought that the Coarseones had killed you, he came at them and killed one.'

After that what had happened to Pala was so terrible they did not dare say the words to Maw. ‘He is dead now,' they whispered. ‘At least there is that. After all those weeks, now the suffering is over.'

A terrible silence fell then and something as black and empty as the night entered into Maw's soul. The tribe tried to comfort him, stroking and patting his body and running their fingers through his hair, but he stood and stared at nothing and planned the beginning of his revenge.

Devi gathered so many minerals that the lumber men began to laugh at her and tease saying that the load would be so heavy that her car would not be able to get it back.

‘You wait till the elephants come, Devi Ma,' they teased. ‘For only an elephant will be able to carry such a load.'

‘Let me drive you down again, Madam,' Khan said. ‘For if you carry any more stones the car's axle will break. If we leave today, while the weather is good, we will be back there, in some kind of civilisation, after only a day or two.' He was even looking forward to the journey for this time there would only be himself and Madam.

That night the tribe did not sleep but talked till the sun rose, discussing what sacrifice to offer to the Tikki. ‘So that she will save us,' said the elders.

But the only thoughts that came to Maw were that the Tikki had not saved her people and she had not even saved Pala. Though the Tikki must have heard the terrible suffering thoughts of the tortured hunter, she had done nothing. ‘What kind of god is this,' thought Maw, ‘that lets her people suffer and die?'

‘We have no tools anymore,' the elders were saying, ‘We have no nets to capture game.'