“Zoe Guire, I speak to you.”
Had I gone crazy? I was starting to feel uncomfortable. I knew I was tired, but still, I couldn’t be hearing things. Could I? I looked at the tree. It was normal looking. A gray trunk and a lot of leaves. But the voice had come from somewhere around it. Was the tree talking to me? No. That was nuts. Trees didn’t talk. But its trunk was moving ever so slightly. I could see it sway. Maybe there was an earthquake? I didn’t know if they had earthquakes in India. Of course, that wouldn’t account for the talking either.
“I’m pleased to see you here, Zoe.”
I jumped backward, the color draining from my face. To be clear, I didn’t actually see my face, but I’m sure it was pale because I was totally shocked. The leafy, green tree was talking to me. Then it started to move. Its big branches bent, green leaves falling to the floor, and bam! I ducked out of the way as something or someone fell out of the top of the tree, nearly landing on top of me. I couldn’t believe it.
“Zak!” I screamed.
My voice echoed through the lobby. My mom looked at me. The doorman looked at me. Even the bald monks in the orange robes looked at me. And Zak, who had somehow landed on his feet, bent over, literally rolling on the floor in laughter. I kid you not, he did two full barrel rolls on the floor.
“I got you, I totally got you,” he said laughing. “You thought I was ghost or something.”
“I did not.”
“You did. You should have seen the look on your face. It was hilarious.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“What do you mean, what am I doing here? What are you doing here?”
“My mother,” I said succinctly, “is attending the conference.”
“So is my dad,” Zak said.
“Oh.”
“Oh, is right,” Zak said. “Are we going to have fun or what?”
OK, time to fill you in. Zak Merril was a boy I knew from my school back home. In the interest of honesty, and since nobody else is reading this, except myself, and maybe you, I should rephrase that. Zak Merril was a super-mega majorly annoying boy I knew from my school back home. Zak was maybe an inch shorter than me with longish, scraggly blonde hair and blue eyes. He was lean and pretty athletic looking, or maybe he only seemed that way because he was always jumping around all over the place like some kind of hyperactive monkey. He was in the sixth grade, but he wasn’t in the same class as me because it was a fairly big school. I knew that Zak's dad sometimes worked with my mom. I had seen them talk together a couple of times before at school functions, but Zak and I had never spent that much time together ourselves. Sure we’d been at the same school for quite awhile now and each of us knew who the other one was, but that was about it.
There were reasons we didn’t know each other that well. For one thing, Zak was a boy and I had too many girlfriends to bother hanging out with boys. For another thing, as should be obvious, I thought Zak was a class-A jerk. He was always a bit of a troublemaker and I didn’t like to make trouble or get into trouble. All in all, we just weren’t two people who hung out. I realized in that moment, however, that this was all about to change in a big way. Zak was here and we were a long way from home, which meant that Zak was going to want to hang out with me whether I liked it or not. I could hope he wouldn’t, but if this incident with the tree was any indication, I doubted that he was going to leave me alone. So much for relaxing, I thought. Things were about to get complicated.
“When I saw you coming in the door, I couldn't believe it,” Zak said. “I ran and climbed this tree first thing.”
“Why did you do that?” I asked.
“Because I wanted to freak you out!”
“How did you know I’d be stopping under the tree?”
“I don’t know, people always stand under trees. I just got lucky I guess. You should have seen the look in your eyes. It was so worth it.”
Let me be clear here. I’m a nice person. Even though we weren’t exactly friends, I wanted to be happy to see Zak. I was, after all, a long way from home and it was normal to be happy to see people you knew when you were a long way from home. But I wasn’t happy. I was annoyed. Annoyed that Zak was making an idiot of himself hiding in a tree. Annoyed that he had scared me. Annoyed that I had let myself get scared. Mostly I was annoyed that here we were, in another country, and instead of being just a little bit mature, Zak was rolling around on the floor of this nice hotel. What was the guy’s problem? I was about to ask him as much when my mother stepped over. She walked alongside a man in a blue suit. He was about her age, but a little taller with dirty blonde hair and a strong chin. He was fairly broad in the shoulders, but a little gangly, kind of like a grown-up Zak. He wasn’t bad looking, I guess. I recognized him right away.
“Zoe, I have a surprise for you. You’ll never guess who — ” My mom turned and saw Zak. “Maybe you will guess. Mr. Merril, my colleague, brought his son Zak along at the last minute. You guys will be able to keep each other company.”
“Great,” I said with a big fake smile on my face.
“Nice to see you, Zoe,” Mr. Merril said.
“Now, let’s go to our room,” my mom said. “You guys can catch up in a little bit.”
I smiled at Zak and said, “Bye.” Then I pulled my roller bag after my mother to the big brass elevator. It was only when I saw the dorky forced smile on my face in the elevator’s shiny brass doors that I finally exhaled. It was going to be a long eight days.
2
THE POOL OF DREAMS
Our hotel room was huge and luxurious with a view of the dusty, dirty city beyond a row of towering palms. Normally I’d be all over the place, checking everything out, but I was preoccupied. I wasn’t looking in the little fridge, or examining the soaps and shampoos, or even trying out the giant bath tub. I was thinking about Zak. Why did he have to show up? Everything was going to be different now.
“It’s going to be fun for you with Zak here,” my mother said. “Now I’m not going to have to worry about you getting bored while I’m in the conference all day.”
I nodded to my mother. She was always a little worried about me, whether it was me getting bored, or me getting home safely on the bus. Overprotective I think they call it. That and she made me work really hard at school. But I guess I thought that, in the end, those were good things. Really, I loved my mom and wouldn’t change a thing about her, except maybe the fact that she worked too much.
As far as my dad went, I had never known him. I just knew that my mom had adopted me when I was a baby, and so far, these twelve or so years we’d had together had been great. There had been some stuff lately, stuff that I knew my mom wanted to discuss with me and that I wanted to discuss with her. Some important stuff about my adoption, but all in all, little bumps in the road aside, things had always been good between us. I worked hard at school and I tried not to bother my mom with too much kid stuff, like problems I was having with my friends and things like that. In return, as long as I was safe about it, my mom pretty well let me do the things I liked. In regard to Zak, however, I had to say something. Zak was here in India with us and that was what it was. But I didn’t think that meant that we had to be together the whole time. It was one thing not to be rude, but totally another to hang out constantly. On this particular point, I thought I had better set my mother straight.
“Look, Mom, I know you work with Zak's dad, and that’s cool and all, but just because Zak and I are in the same grade at the same school, doesn’t mean we’re friends.”
“Are you and Zak having a problem?” my mother asked.
“Well, no,” I said.
“Well, what’s wrong then?” my mom asked.
“I just, I don’t know, I thought this trip was going to be just you and me.”
My mother looked at me and smiled. Then she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me. I felt like an enormous doofus right then and there.
“We’re going to have time together, honey, I promise,”
she said. “But Zak's going through a rough patch right now. His mom and dad just split up. It would be great if you could spend some time with him. Who knows, you guys might even have fun.”
I knew right then that she was right like she almost always was. I might not have liked it, but I was thinking all about me and not about Zak at all.
“OK, Mom,” I said.
She kissed me on the forehead. “Now what’s it going to be? Explore the hotel or a nap before lunch? My first panel isn’t for another two hours.”
I smiled. Even though I felt a little tired, I knew I was too excited to sleep. “Explore,” I said. “Obviously.”
“OK then. Let’s explore.”
My mom grabbed me by the hand and we headed out the door.
Like I said before, the hotel was the fanciest place I had ever been to. Way fancier than anything I’d ever seen back home. There were lush carpets in the corridors and doormen with red turbans standing at every elevator to push the buttons for you. There were fresh-smelling, cut flowers in vases everywhere. And there really were two pools. One of the pools was rectangular with an elephant designed from shiny, brightly colored tiles on the bottom. It wasn’t a regular elephant though. It was a mosaic of the Hindu god, Ganesha. Ganesha was an elephant-headed god with a bunch of arms. He looked very wise, sitting there cross-legged in the blue water at the bottom of the pool. I remembered that he was supposed to be the bringer of good luck.
The other pool was giant and round with a mosaic of what looked like a monkey with five heads and ten arms on the bottom. I thought that the five-headed monkey might be Hanuman, another important Hindu god. I think he was a general who led an army and was super strong and loyal and things like that. I wasn’t totally up on this stuff because, just like the Greeks, the Hindus had a bunch of old gods and it was super hard to remember what each of them did. There was Bhrama the creator of stuff, Vishnu the preserver of stuff, Shiva the destroyer of stuff, and oh, about three hundred and thirty million others, including of course Ganesha and this Hanuman, both of whom were relaxing there at the bottom of the swimming pools. All the Hindu god stuff made my head spin, so I’d kind of skimmed that chapter in my reading. I’d told myself I’d look into it more if the issue became pressing.
Outside the pools there was a lush garden with brightly colored parrots in an outdoor aviary, and a badminton court, and even a giant trampoline. I was pretty sure I'd have fun out here while my mother was working in the conference rooms. There was just so much to do. I'd loaded my tablet with books to read, one of which was a guide to Delhi, the Indian city where we were. I figured if I planned everything out, we wouldn’t have to waste any time figuring out where to go once the conference was over.
My mom and I ate at one of the hotel’s two restaurants. I had a non-spicy red chicken curry with a cool smoothie sort of drink called a lassi. I had been a little worried that I wouldn’t like Indian food, but so far it had been pretty good. I was on the lookout, but we didn’t see Zak the whole time we were eating or wandering around. He was probably sleeping off his jet lag, I thought. After lunch, my mom changed her clothes for a panel she had to attend. I went with her into the huge conference room. There was a big sign that said World Economic Forum. I wasn’t sure exactly what the specifics of the conference were, but I knew a whole bunch of people from different countries were getting together to talk about money and jobs and how to make the world a better place and that kind of thing. I also knew that a lot of people would be talking because of the number of bottles of water and microphones at the long front table where the panelists sat. I was proud to see my mom’s seat there with her name tag on it: ‘Ms. Alexa Guire,’ and the subheading: ‘Policy.’
When people started to file into the conference room to take seats, I kissed my mom goodbye and headed out. I thought I'd shoot some pictures of the parrots in the garden first. Another thing I loved about photography was that you never knew which picture you took was going to be that golden shot — the one that really turned out great. I didn’t think that I was ready for a nap, so I thought that after the pictures maybe I’d go for a swim. Of course, right outside the conference room I met Zak.
“Hey, Zoe.”
Zak leaned against the wall outside the big gleaming conference room doors where everybody was going in. He was going to be hard to shake. The hotel was big, but Zak had already found me. Then of course I remembered what I had said to my mom about being be nice to him.
“Hey, Zak,” I said.
“Going swimming?”
“Yeah. How did you know?”
“Bathing suit,” Zak said, pointing to the suit I forgot I was holding in my hand.
“Oh,” I said. “Yeah, I’m going to check out the pool.” I thought about it, remembering my promise. “Wanna come?”
“Last one there buys the ice cream!” Zak called out as he took off through the lobby.
The pool was totally refreshing. We chose the rectangular one with Ganesha at the bottom of it, closest to the aviary. Exotic birds chirped and squawked as we swam.
“Cannonball!” Zak screamed as he ran off the pool deck and splashed down.
I preferred a more subtle approach as I lay there floating quietly on my back in the warm water, taking in the sun. The air was fragrant with the smells of tropical fruit out here and the outside world seemed to float by like I was in a dream. I guess Zak got out of the pool because the next thing I saw was what looked like his bouncing head. It went up and then down, up and then down, his blonde scraggly hair lifting in the breeze. What was he doing? I turned and swam to the side of the pool. There it was: the answer to the bouncing. Zak had somehow pushed the trampoline onto the pool deck. He bounced up, higher than I had seen him go the last time, and then flew right off the trampoline into the pool.
There was a huge splash and he came up for air, a giant smile on his face.
“You can’t do that,” I said.
“Why not?” Zak asked.
“Because. I don’t know,” I thought about it and I really didn’t know. It wasn’t like there was anybody else at the pool. We weren’t bothering anyone.
“ So what’s the big deal?”
“Nothing I guess.” I didn’t see the point in arguing. I was feeling pretty relaxed.
“You want to try it? You can get some wicked air.”
“Nah, I’m just chilling.”
“You can chill later.”
“Or I can relax now.”
“Relaxing is for sissies.”
I could see I wasn’t going to be able to shut him up. Jumping in now would be easier than listening to Zak prattle on about what a chicken I was for four days.
“Why not?” I finally said.
I pulled myself out of the pool. If you put a trampoline beside a swimming pool, it’s a no-brainer that eventually somebody is going to pull it onto the pool deck. What harm was there in jumping off of it, I asked myself? I thought I’d do one swan dive into the pool to satisfy Zak and take a nap. The jet lag was starting to creep up on me.
I walked over to the trampoline, the hot sun already drying my back.
“Double flip, double flip, double flip,” Zak chanted.
He sure was annoying. Obviously this whole trip wasn’t even going to be close to relaxing. I lifted myself up onto the round trampoline and began to bounce. The black mesh was hot on my feet, I didn’t know how many bounces I’d be able to last. The good thing was that Zak had pulled the trampoline within a foot of the pool. One good forward bounce and I’d be in the deep end. But that wasn’t all I wanted to do. I kind of felt like Zak was testing me, trying to show me who was boss. Not in a mean way, but in an I-don’t-know-how-cool-you-are kind of way. Now, normally, this isn’t something I would let bother me. Especially with a kid who wasn’t even my actual friend, like Zak. But in this case, I saw some value to showing him what I could do. If only so that he would lay off me for a while.
So I decided to go big. I jumped up once on the trampoline feeli
ng the taut bounce beneath my feet. I hadn’t been on one since about six months ago in gym, but I still remembered how to more or less stay centered on the thing. I twirled my arms and landed right in the center of it, sinking way down into the black mesh before I popped up again. This time I got a little higher and was actually able to see over the walls of the hotel garden. Mostly I saw the dusty city around us, some birds circling in the air. They looked like vultures or buzzards, but I wasn’t sure, and before I could take a closer look I was falling back down again.
This was it, my third bounce was coming up. Zak chanted from the pool. “Go, Go, Go.”
There was no one else around, so I wasn’t worried about getting into trouble for jumping on the trampoline so near the pool, but I was a little nervous. I’d have to push off at an angle this time if I wanted to be going in the right direction for my dive. My feet landed on the hot black mesh and I pushed off with my toes. I felt myself going up, up, up, but instead of looking around this time, I concentrated on the pool below me. Zak had a big goofy grin on. I could tell that he was impressed. I was practically flying through the air like a speeding missile. There was no way I was going to land back on the trampoline so I started to concentrate on my dive. I tucked my head down and put my arms out in front of me. I didn’t want to dive too deeply and end up hitting my head on the elephant at the bottom of the pool.
Ghost Leopard (A Zoe & Zak Adventure #1) Page 2
