After all, although she’d been told that a dowry was not necessary if you married an American; that seemed very unlikely to her. Through frugal living and her generous salary, she was saving money as fast as she could. Sometimes, she felt astonished by how much money she already had in her bank account. She could fund her own dowry now, a dowry much better than she had ever dreamed might be possible when she was younger. It now seemed conceivable that she might marry a nice young man from a good family back in India. However, the money she had saved would seem a pittance to Dr. Pace and his family. She could conceive that it might have some influence on Matt’s family, though she hadn’t met them. Perhaps they were wealthy enough to put him out of her reach as well.
Even if she gave up her silly dreams of Dr. Pace, and somehow became more attracted to Matt, and even found that Matt’s family was poor; she still would have no idea how to find a “go between” here in America to arrange her marriage and negotiate the dowry.
The door AI chimed. When Viveka went to the door she found Matt standing there in jeans, a long sleeve T shirt and a light jacket. She felt very overdressed in her nice skirt and blouse.
“Whoa,” he said, his eyes widening, “you look great!”
Though she had been considering asking him if she should change, this assessment of her appearance made her decide it wasn’t necessary. “Thank you,” she said, putting on her jacket, “shall we go?”
“Sure,” he said, stepping back and waiting for her to close her door.
As they walked down the little sidewalk leading away from her apartment he put his arm around her shoulders. Viveka was startled by this. Though she knew that American couples frequently walked with their arms around one another, she had thought that this meant they were in a committed relationship. Was she wrong? Or did he think they were in a committed relationship now that they were going out on a date? Did he expect her to put her arm around his waist? She decided she was glad to be wearing a jacket. It put something between his hand and herself.
Matt took her to a steakhouse. Though Viveka wasn’t of the Hindu religion, she felt surprise that he took a person from India to a restaurant that specialized in beef without asking about their beliefs first. To herself she thought, Dr. Pace wouldn’t have done that. She hadn’t actually ever eaten any beef, and despite having no actual religious objection, she found herself uncomfortable with the thought of doing so.
To her relief, it turned out that the restaurant had several different fish dishes. Viveka ate one of those. The dinner was nice and Viveka enjoyed talking to Matt, much like she had fun talking with him over the lunches they shared at work.
After their dinner, Matt drove her to another place that turned out to be a bar. Viveka had heard of bars, but had never been in one. She knew that they served alcohol, but had often wondered what else people did while they were in such establishments.
Matt found them two bar stools right at the long wooden bar and ordered them each Long Island iced teas without asking Viveka what she wanted to drink. “What kind of tea comes from Long Island?” she asked.
He winked at her, “Fun tea.”
When the drink came, Viveka was stunned by its taste. It tasted absolutely nothing like any tea she’d ever had before and smelled strongly of ethanol. “Uh,” she said, squinting at her drink, “I don’t think I can drink this!”
“Oh come on, don’t be a party pooper!” To Viveka’s surprise, Matt badgered her for a while, trying to get her to drink the tea despite her distaste, before he finally gave in and ordered her a Coke at her insistence. Then he drank both of the Long Island iced teas that he had purchased for them.
Although she saw that some people were playing pool towards the back of the bar it seemed that Matt had no intent to do anything other than drink their drinks and talk. Since they talked nearly every day at work Viveka found this somewhat boring but went gamely along.
As she had suspected from the smell, there must have been quite a bit of alcohol in the tea, because Matt soon evidenced significant drunkenness. Though Viveka had not recognized the drink, she had had plenty of experience with inebriated men back home in India.
When Matt ordered another Long Island iced tea from the bartender, Viveka put a hand on his arm, “I’m getting kind of tired. Is it OK if I go on home?”
“Well you’re no fun!” Matt said, “Are you sure you won’t stay and have another one with me? Maybe even a little glass of wine?” He lifted an eyebrow.
“No, thank you.”
“Well then, I’d better take you home,” Matt said in a slightly disgusted tone, getting up off of his barstool a little clumsily.
“You don’t have to, I can get myself home.”
“Yes I do,” he said as if quite irritated. The bartender arrived with his third long island iced tea. “Just let me finish this,” he said guzzling the big drink. As soon as he finished it he took her hand and led her out of the bar.
Matt’s car had found a parking place just down the street from the bar. They had actually stayed in the car until it parked and then walked to the bar from that location. Now Matt started off down the street in the wrong direction so Viveka reminded him where his car was parked. He didn’t admit to being wrong however, instead, he told his AI to bring the car to his current location, then turned to look in a store window. He said, “I just wanted to have something to look at while I was waiting for the car to get here.”
Viveka was grateful that all of the American cars were controlled by AIs. Back home in India many cheaper cars were still available that had to be driven manually. Manual cars, when combined with drinking, still managed to kill many people back in her home country.
To her dismay, Matt switched the car and began to drive it manually. However, after only a block, its AI determined that he was driving erratically and took control back from him. Unfortunately, this left Matt with nothing to do. He turned drunkenly to Viveka and reached out to put an arm around her shoulders. At first it was little different than the way he had rested an arm on her shoulders when they were walking away from her apartment. After a moment though, he pulled her to him and turned his face towards hers.
As opposed to when Dr. Pace had leaned towards her, there was no doubt that Matt wanted to kiss her. He pulled her close despite her resistance and forced his lips against hers. She found his boozy breath distasteful and turned her face away, using both hands to peel his fingers off of her neck. Are all American men like this? she wondered as she fended him off.
Then she corrected herself, Dr. Pace was nothing like this. He didn’t drink and he didn’t put his hands on me. I think I would have liked it if he’d kissed me— if only I hadn’t panicked and pulled away. Of course, maybe he wasn’t even trying to kiss me, in which case I should feel even more foolish.
When Matt’s car arrived back at her apartment complex, Viveka jumped out of the passenger door, “Good night, and thank you for a nice dinner,” she said as she hurried away up the sidewalk towards her apartment. When she had her door open, she glanced back. Matt was standing unsteadily about 15 feet up the sidewalk towards the apartment building from his car. Viveka waved to him, stepped inside, and locked her door. Then, somewhat nervously, she asked her door AI to give her a video feed of the outside.
Her fear that he might be trying to follow her to her apartment was unfounded. To her disgust, he had turned to the side and was urinating on one of the other buildings.
He always seemed like a nice enough fellow! Viveka thought to herself. Is this normal behavior on a date in America? Or is there something about me? Do most American women think this kind of behavior is OK and I’m the weird one, or does something about me make American men behave badly?
Viveka watched until Matt returned to his car and it drove away. However, after she went to bed the same questions kept cycling through her mind.
At work that Monday Viveka ate her lunch in her office, hoping to avoid Matt. It didn’t work. He showed up in her office at about 1:30,
looking sheepish and scratching his head. “I’m embarrassed to say I don’t remember most of our date. I think I had too much to drink, unless you slipped me a roofie?”
She stared at him in unhappy puzzlement, having no idea what a roofie was.
He laughed uncomfortably, and waved his hands as if fending off her ire, “Sorry, that was a stupid thing to say. My hangover told me I had too much to drink. Since you skipped our lunch today I suspect you’re mad at me. I hope I didn’t do something really horrible?”
Viveka shook her head, “No, you just got drunk. You didn’t do anything terrible.” To herself she thought, bad enough, though.
“Oh, good maybe we can start over?”
“Sure,” Viveka said, while thinking, but it’ll never go anywhere from this start.
Chapter Six
Shan pulled open the door, and knocked on the door just behind it. The two doors, back to back within the wall, joined the two condos.
He was looking forward to this.
At first he’d been astonished when Ell had told him what she’d done. Under a few of her various and sundry identities she owned nine of the thirty ski condos in this particular building. That included these four in a row on the second floor, all of which had been connected into one large one with this type of paired adjoining doors. He, Ell and Zage had the first of the four. Amy had the next one. Mary and Barrett had the third one that he was standing in right now. Knowing that Shan’s family liked to go skiing each winter, Ell had managed to make them an excellent offer for the fourth condo through a vacation rental website, without their knowing who actually owned it.
Ell’s other security team members were in some of the ground floor units, so essentially the whole team was out here in Colorado for a working vacation.
Shan, Ell, and the team had all been here since Wednesday, but Shan’s parents and sisters had just arrived for a week’s vacation starting on a Saturday. He knocked again. This time someone started fiddling with the lock, and a moment later the door eased open a little to show him a frowning Lane peering through the gap.
“Hey, baby sister, ‘bout time you opened that door.”
“Shan!” she squeaked, jerking the door open wide and throwing her arms around him. “How did you…?”
Shan could practically hear the wheels turning in her head, then Morgan appeared behind her. Morgan’s eyes went wide, then she gave a sly grin, “Aren’t you the tricky one? How long have you been working on this little secret?”
Shan put his hands up, “Hey, you guys are always so suspicious! We just came out here to do a little skiing. Who would have guessed that you guys would go skiing the same week, at the same resort, and even rent a condo in the same building?”
Shan’s mother appeared behind his sisters, eyes wide at first, then narrowing. She shook a finger at her son. “You, you’re always so in love with practical jokes.” Then her eyebrows rose in anticipation, “Is my grandson here?”
“Wasn’t me!” Shan put his hands up in surrender, “Elsa thought this whole thing up.” He shrugged, “I’d take you right over, but you’ve arrived just as Elsa’s been putting said grandson down for a nap.”
“No! Here they come!”
Shan turned to see Ell coming their way through the intervening apartments, carrying Zage and smiling. She said, “I’ve been trying to get him to go to sleep, but no luck. I figured we’d just as well come over and say hello.”
Soon, they all were gathered around in the Kinrais’ apartment, cooing over Zage and exclaiming over Ell’s arranging for them to all be there together without the Kinrais even knowing about it.
“So,” Malcolm said, “I thought the Z-man and his puppy were inseparable? Where’s the dog?”
“Yeah,” Shan sighed, “we left the Tanner behind in a kennel and little Zage has been acting depressed.”
“Have you taken him out to play in the snow yet?”
Shan laughed, “I did. He seemed pretty interested for about 20 minutes, then got bored with it. His mom,” Shan winked at Ell, “may be interested in physics, but the Z-man likes biology.”
To Fay Kinrais’ astonishment, after a bit, Zage simply fell asleep in her arms. He didn’t get grumpy or cry for a while like most kids do when they get tired, he just dropped off to sleep! She turned to Ell, “Does he often just fall asleep like that?”
Ell shrugged, “Yeah, don’t other kids?”
Fay slowly shook her head, “Most of them get irritable and have a little meltdown when they’re tired out in public like this.”
Ell chewed her lip, “That’s what Amelia says too. Do you think there’s something wrong with him?”
Fay’s eyes widened, “Don’t say that! Most mothers would be delighted to have a baby that falls asleep when he gets tired instead of going ballistic.”
Ell sighed, “I guess. He just worries me. He doesn’t seem to be much like other kids.”
Shan gave a forced little laugh, “He’s different all right, but most of the differences are things that I think should make us happy!”
Fay looked at her son, seeing that he looked a little strained. She wasn’t sure whether he was upset that Zage was different, or concerned because Ell worried about him. “I’m sure he’s fine. We all worry about our babies. Most of the time, we fret beyond all reason.”
Malcolm narrowed his eyes, “Does he still spend a lot of his time watching videos?”
“Yeah,” Ell said, sounding depressed. “It’s better since he got the puppy. He loves playing with Tanner, and chasing him around gives Zage some physical exercise. But he still spends a lot of time watching videos.”
“I’m gonna sound like a curmudgeon here,” Malcolm said, “but I think you should just take the videos away from him. Watching too many cartoons rots your brain!”
Shan said, “He doesn’t watch cartoons, Dad. And, we get that advice from everyone!”
Malcolm made a waving away motion with his hand, “Whatever junk he watches, doesn’t matter.”
“I think it does matter. He pretty much only watches science shows. That’s a lot better than watching cartoons or ‘junk’ in my mind.”
___
In his own condo, not too far away, Max had his AI pull up the feed from the tiny bead camera he’d glued to the banister across from the Kinrais’ apartment. He set his AI to record snippets of video whenever anyone entered or exited the apartment. If Donsaii or her husband came by to visit, it shouldn’t be too hard to find a record of it.
___
Over the next week of skiing, Shan and Ell were careful to come and go from the condo at different times from the rest of the Kinrais family. Though they often got together in one or the other of the two apartments by walking through the intervening ones, they never entered or exited through any door but their own. When they ran into Shan’s family out on the slopes they made it appear accidental. They might ski together for a while, but not for an extended length of time. While they did ride up the chair lift together on occasion, it wasn’t a regular thing, and when they did they were careful to make it appear that they had only accidentally gotten in line for the lift at the same time.
They spent a lot of time together, inside the condos where no one could see them meeting. Steve had arranged the installation of the doors that joined the four condos on the sly, so that no one else knew the four separate apartments could be combined into one. They couldn’t go out to dinner together as one big family, but they could eat together in the condos, either by ordering out, or several nights when someone took on the task of cooking a big meal.
Altogether, it was a very satisfying vacation for everyone, except for the frustration of Zage’s grandparents, who wanted to play outside with him, but couldn’t. However, without his puppy to play with, Zage spent most of his time sitting around doing nothing. Efforts made to get him to play were mostly frustrated. Though he good-naturedly watched the members of his family as they socialized and happily sat in their laps during their conversations, h
e still said nothing himself. Nearly a year and a half old, and he hadn’t said “Mama” yet. Or anything else for that matter.
If they left him alone, somehow he usually managed to turn on a video, though no one could figure out how he was doing it. He didn’t cry when they turned the videos off, but managed to look so sad that it was practically heartbreaking to do so. Besides, Shan would turn the videos back on for him. This left the rest of the family wondering if Shan was the one that somehow snuck in and turned them on for him when Zage was in a room by himself.
___
By the end of the week Max felt pretty frustrated. He’d gotten in some great skiing, but no one else had visited the Kinrais’ apartment. He’d followed them occasionally on the slope and though they sometimes skied with someone else, he hadn’t seen them with anyone that he could credibly imagine might have been Donsaii or her husband.
They didn’t go out as a family except to ski. A couple of nights, Lane Kinrais went out bar hopping with her sister. Max faithfully followed them, an enjoyable task in its own right.
Late one afternoon, as Max sat frustratedly in his car out in the parking lot near the condo the Kinrais were staying in, he was stunned to see a young man and woman who were about the right height for Kinrais and Donsaii leave the building. Just as he was about to leave his car and go check them out, he realized the woman was carrying a baby. He decided to watch long enough to make sure the baby wasn’t actually a doll, just being used as protective coloration. Soon they put the baby on a sled and started pulling it around an open area. He could see it moving. Besides, it seemed crazy to go out and pull someone else’s kid around just to hide your identity.
Then for a moment his eyes narrowed, could they have? He carefully went over the timeline since Donsaii had been in prison. Nope, there wasn’t a nine-month stretch in there for her to have had a baby. Well, he realized, there was a sufficient stretch after she’d appeared in Brazil about 16 months ago. But then the baby would only be about seven months old. He didn’t know much about kids, but this one looked awfully big for a seven-month-old. He sat wondering whether it might just look large because it was bundled up My sister’s kid is 14 months old and I think this kid’s bigger than he is, Max thought.
Rescue (an Ell Donsaii story #11) Page 12
