by Iram Dana
Destiny was limping along on a wooden crutch.
“I made her the crutches while you were away, because without them, she had to be carried everywhere and she hated that. What do you think?” said Heart.
There was no reply from Rain.
“Brother Rain?” said Heart, waving a hand in front of his face. “Are you all right?”
Still no response from Rain. Heart began to laugh.
“Brother Rain, you look like Subodh just got you on the head with his stick! What is the matter with you?!”
“Dang! …” was all Rain managed to say.
Earth was walking beside Destiny, laughing at some shared joke. She was wearing a summery yellow dress and her long, white blonde hair was tied up high behind her head in a pony-tail with the short, brown locks of her bangs loosely framing the front of her face.
Rain couldn’t believe his eyes.
Was this the same girl he had rescued last night? She had been soaking wet and covered in dirt then, and nothing like the heavenly vision walking towards him right now.
She had smooth, fair skin like porcelain: unblemished and with a soft, rosy tint to her cheeks.
How had he not noticed?
And slightly droopy, sleepy eyes with long lashes that Rain found simply irresistible.
How had he not noticed?
And red, red lips that positively begged to be kissed.
How had he not noticed?
And … were those dimples appearing on her cheeks as she giggled mischievously?
How had he NOT NOTICED?!!!
What was it? Was it the darkness of the time when he had landed back at the forest? The play of the firelight? Or simply the dimness of his obviously faulty eyesight that had prevented him from clearly seeing the lovely girl walking towards him now?
Rain pulled his gaze away from her and turned to Heart. Heart’s lips were moving, but no sound seemed to be coming out of them. Rain gave his head a sharp tap, and sound returned.
“ … I’ll be here when you return from your inter-galactic journey …” Heart was saying with a huge grin. Rain held up his hand to silence him.
“Heart! Wait! … That girl there … is that really Earth?”
“Yes, you are on planet Earth. Earth to Rain, Earth to Rain … Please come in.” teased Heart.
“Stop it! You know what I mean!”
“Yes, brother Rain. That is the girl you rescued. That … is Earth.”
“She’s … she’s gorgeous! How come I didn’t see that last night?” said Rain, speculating to no one in particular.
Heart made a great show of being in deep thought.
“Hmm, now why would that be?” he mused aloud. “Do you think maybe because … you weren’t really looking at her face then?”
Rain scowled at Heart. He didn’t want, or need, to be reminded of that.
He turned back to look at Earth. She looked up then and smiled at him. Her brown eyes met his, and gongs began to sound in Rain’s head. He blinked once. There was a crack of thunder overhead and then it began to rain.
Rain saw the droplets begin to fall on her nice new dress; saw the smile fade away from her face. Saw her look heavenward in dismay, and he hastened to stop the unintended showers. Did she know he was responsible for it? Earth looked at him with eyes narrowed suspiciously. Rain gulped.
She did now.
Destiny and Earth had reached Heart and Rain and immediately, Heart began fussing over Destiny. Earth returned Rain’s stare silently, and Rain felt compelled to break it the awkwardness in the air.
“So, taking up from where we left off, yesterday…” began Rain, combing a hand self consciously through his sleep-mussed hair, “weren’t you telling me how grateful you were for being rescued from the witches?”
“And?” she said, keeping her tone carefully neutral.
“Why don’t you show me how grateful you are?” said Rain with a naughty, suggestive grin.
Earth let out a heavy sigh.
“Are you trying to be a jerk, or does it come naturally to you?” she said sweetly, and then turned on her heel and disappeared inside Destiny’s tent.
“What? What did I say to her?” said Rain, bewildered by her strong negative reaction.
“You blew it brother.” said Heart, with a shake of his head.
“I was only joking! Can’t girls take a joke?”
Destiny stood there, glaring daggers at him.
“Estúpido!” she hissed, and then followed Earth inside the tent.
Rain frowned and stalked off towards the stream, convinced girls were nothing but trouble.
He turned once to glare at the tent and caught a glimpse of Earth as she stepped out of the tent for something. She was like a bright spot of sunny warmth dispelling the dullness of their campsite. She saw him looking and quickly went back inside.
Then again … there was no harm courting trouble when it looked that good, decided Rain, scratching his chin thoughtfully and smiling slyly to himself.
*****
That night, after they had all had their dinner, Subodh announced that since their little group had grown rather large, they should all divide the chores to be done among themselves.
Everyone agreed, suggesting that it would be best if they each volunteered themselves for the jobs to be done, in order to avoid any disputes. And so, Angel, Heart and Rain agreed to take on the chore of hunting for food, and then gutting the kill and chopping the meat.
Earth volunteered to do the cooking, which delighted Rain no end, while Destiny volunteered to take on the job of washing everybody’s clothes and the cooking vessels, if any.
Seeing her handicap, Earth offered to share her duties with her and Destiny gratefully accepted Earth’s offer. Subodh was very happy with the outcome of it all. He only had one demand for himself; he still needed someone to assist him with his healing work. Rain and Heart both volunteered to take turns helping him and thus, all was settled.
“It’s settled, then.” rasped Subodh. “Rain, Angel and Heart, you make up the hunting party. Earth and Destiny will share the load of washing the clothes and utensils and …” he turned to Earth.
“Since you are sharing Destiny’s duty, I will help you with the cooking. That is all. If anybody has any objections, raise your voices now.” rasped Subodh, peering intensely at all of the faces circling him. They nodded their collective agreement.
“Good. Then let us call it a night.” harrumphed Subodh, and then ambled off to set his bedding for the night.
*****
From the next day, Rain decided it was warm enough to start roaming shirtless once again. Destiny kept throwing him disapproving looks, but Rain couldn’t care less because Earth couldn’t seem to keep her eyes off him. Seeing the way Earth was reacting to Rain’s shirtlessness, Heart decided to take his off, too, for the benefit of Destiny. But one look at the dark scowl on her face and Heart put his T-shirt back on immediately.
“Brother, you should have felt the antagonism in her heart.” whispered Heart into Rain’s ear about Destiny’s reaction to seeing him without his t-shirt on.
“Was it that bad?” asked Rain.
Heart stole a glance at Destiny to make sure she wasn’t listening.
“Let’s just put it this way, thank goodness her leg is injured and she cannot run after me.”
Rain threw his head back and laughed. When he was done chopping the meat of the deer that had just been freshly hunted, he put the pieces in an earthen container and strutted over to Earth to hand the pieces to her. She took the container with the meat pieces in it without meeting his eyes, and then quickly set about making herself busy so that her treacherous eyes wouldn’t keep traveling back to his bare, chiseled body.
Rain, it seemed, was in no mood to make this any easier for her. Earth had a brief spell of respite when he left along with Heart and Angel, to take a bath in the stream. When he returned, all clean and fresh and looking even more irresistible with his hair all damp and sexy, h
e sat with his back against a tree such that he would be the first thing Earth saw each time she looked up. Earth resolutely avoided his eyes but his, it seemed, were determined to stay stuck to her.
Wherever she went, his gaze followed dutifully.
This annoyed Earth no end because she kept stealing glances at him and he kept catching her while she was at it. Earth stabbed at the meat cooking in the pot.
If this pot of stew fell on her legs and she burned herself today, then she would strangle Rain with her bare hands, even if she had to limp all over Quniverse to do it!
“Looks like we’re having sulfurous stew today.” Rain remarked dryly, observing the scowl on her face as she continued to attack the meat in the cooking pot.
Beside her, Subodh was fussing over the pot, putting in salt, herbs and spices as and when required. Earth stopped stirring the pot and glared at Rain.
“Don’t you have anything to do?” she snapped.
“But I am doing what I have to do …”
“Really? Like what?” demanded Earth.
“Admiring one of the miracles of creation.” said Rain, with a wink.
“Admire that creation then!” said Earth, pointing towards Destiny.
Heart, who was sitting right next to her looked straight at Rain and shook his head almost imperceptibly. The warning was clear. This was not the creation for Rain to admire unless he was willing to face dire consequences for it. Rain flashed Heart a peace sign. His interests firmly lay elsewhere. He then turned back to face his quarry.
“Do you find me irritating?” he asked Earth jovially.
“That would be an understatement!”
For some reason, this reply of her’s seemed to please Rain, and a lazy grin spread across his handsome face. Earth perched her hands on her hips and pinned him with her glower.
“All right! Why are you so happy about that?”
“Don’t you see any movies? This is how it’s supposed to happen! Girl meets boy, boy gets on girl’s nerves, girl realizes that the irritation is just a cover for deeper feelings and then …” Rain puckered his lips, “they fall in luurve!”
“I beg your pardon, but you seem to have it all wrong! First, the boy is supposed to be polite and chivalrous with the girl. Then, he is supposed to court her and try to win her affections. If things work out between them, great! But if they don’t, then he is supposed to leave the scene like a gentleman. Not sit there, trying to annoy the girl the way you are doing now!”
“Is that what a gentleman’s supposed to do?”
“That is exactly what he is supposed to do, but don’t bother trying to be one.” sniffed Earth.
“Why? Because you like me the way I am?” suggested Rain hopefully.
“No. Because you are a cad! And a cad can never be a gentleman!”
If she had expected that statement to anger him, she had been expecting too much, for Rain threw his head back and roared with laughter.
Deciding that he had gotten on her nerves enough for one day, Rain got up and headed out of the clearing to go look for Angel.
Earth saw Rain leave and was finally able to relax enough to get the job at hand done. Destiny, who had been waiting for some of the commotion in the camp to die down so she could talk to Subodh, now found her opportunity.
“Subodh, if it’s not too much of a bother, I would like to ask you something.” said Destiny, toying with the cast on her leg.
“Go on, girl.” urged Subodh.
Destiny took a while to reply. In the interim period, Heart looked like a man about to explode with worry. Earth saw the look on Heart’s face and felt some of his worry rub off on her. Why was Heart looking at Destiny this way? She knew that Heart could sense the emotions in a person’s heart, was that why? Was what Destiny was about to say that bad?
“How much longer do I have to keep this cast on my leg?” said Destiny, finally.
“Why? Is it giving you any trouble? We could fix it if that is the case.”
“It’s not that. I just feel like I don’t need it anymore. I mean, there’s no pain in my leg. And the swelling seems to have gone down, too.”
“What are you trying to say?” asked Subodh cautiously.
“That I would like to have the cast removed.” replied Destiny, not really meeting Subodh’s eyes.
Subodh decided to grab the bull by the horns.
“That is not all you want. You want to leave, isn’t it? That is why you want the cast off?”
Heart held his breath for Destiny’s reply, all the while fighting with the urge to manipulate her decision.
Destiny looked up to meet Heart’s pained gaze and pulled her eyes away, unable to hold it. She took a deep breath, going over her reasons for leaving and the pro’s of staying here with this group of unlikely allies. She realized that despite having strong arguments against staying behind, she was now going to reverse her earlier decision. Something that she did rarely, because once Destiny had made a decision, she always stuck by it. But something here was different. Destiny looked up again at Heart’s face, which now reflected a twinge of hope, and she knew what her answer to Subodh’s question was going to be.
“No.” she said softly, looking down at the forest floor.
“Louder, girl! I am a deaf old man!” rasped Subodh.
Heart craned his neck to catch Destiny’s words, almost falling off his seat in the bargain.
Destiny looked up to meet Subodh’s gaze.
“I do not want to leave. I … I would like to stay.”
Heart lost his balance and toppled over.
A wide smile spread across Subodh’s features, but he turned his back so that Destiny would not be able to see it.
“In that case,” said Subodh, “you may take off the cast.”
“I can? Won’t it affect the healing of the fractured bone?”
“Yes, you can take off the cast, and no, it won’t affect the healing of the fracture because you never had one. It was just a bad sprain.”
Destiny stared in disbelief at the back of the little bald man puttering silently over the steaming pot.
Had she heard right? She had fractured no bones? Then why was her leg in a cast?
Destiny voiced out the last question.
“Why else? To make sure you stayed and healed properly. I knew that unless you were forced to, you wouldn’t stay.” replied Subodh, matter-of-factly.
Destiny stared at the cast on her foot. So this was all a sham to ensure that she stayed with them and did not leave? She didn’t know how she should feel about that.
Destiny turned to face Heart.
Did he know? Had he been in on Subodh’s scheme this all this while?
Heart knew she was searching for answers on his face, and he met her scrutinizing gaze steadily, allowing his face to show her the desperate honesty he felt. He shook his head slowly, denying his part in this. Destiny understood. She believed him.
Heart had not known, or he would have told her. He would have let her make a choice.
She knew that, just as surely as she knew that Heart was one of the main reasons she wanted to stay back. But she wouldn’t make the mistake of unleashing her emotions completely. Life had taught her to always exercise caution and it was a lesson she held on to dearly.
“Will you remove the cast for me, please?” said Destiny, looking solemnly at Heart.
As soon as Destiny spoke, the tension in the air disappeared, and Heart jumped to his feet, looking like he had died and gone to heaven.
The fact that she had asked him, and not Subodh, to remove the cast told him that she believed he had no part to play in this little act. And to him, her trust meant the world.
*****
The next morning, it was Rain and Heart’s turn to go hunting while Angel stayed behind. It would be his job to clean and chop the meat once Heart and Rain returned from their hunt.
Rain was still shirtless. He had no intentions of putting it back on in the near future, either.
&n
bsp; He was thoroughly enjoying this opportunity to flaunt his masculinity once again after a drought of so many years. Besides, it also brought back fond memories of the days he and Star had spent together back home.
“Where should we go to hunt today, brother Rain?” asked Heart.
“I was thinking, why don’t we head to the stream? Catch us some fish for today?”
“Sounds good, brother. Let’s go.”
On reaching the stream, Rain first removed his bow and arrow and kept them safely under a tree. Then, he removed his shoes, rolled his pants up to the knees and waded into the stream along with Heart.
The two of them got busy, darting their hands into the cold water at lightning speed and snatching the fish out with their bare hands throwing them to one side of the bank. Two hours later, they had a substantial haul of twelve fish.
“How are we going to carry all of these back? I forgot to bring some container along with me.” said Heart.
Rain pulled a fishing net out of his belt pocket.
“Voila! Le fishing nette!” said Rain, with a flourish.
Heart laughed.
“Spare me the warped French, brother Rain, but do tell me, where did you get that net?”
“I made it myself at Mt. Chimpu. We all did.” said Rain, spreading the net on the ground.
The two of them quickly loaded all of the fish into the net. Rain collected his bow and arrow from below the tree, and they set off back towards the camp.
*****
CHAPTER 24
As he neared the camp, Rain was on the lookout for only one person: Earth. He spotted her sitting with her back towards him, laughing gaily at some joke that Angel had just cracked. She had left her long hair loose today, and was wearing a pink orchid tucked behind one ear.
Earth’s laughter rang out again. Angel was now showing her in 3-D, a funny scene from a movie.
Rain watched the developments before him with narrowed eyes. Where was the old man, Subodh, now? And why wasn’t he chaperoning this?
