Ain watched Suraiya finished off a slice of cucumber from her plate, the leftover mackerel bone picked clean piled on one side. Arriving way before the lunch hour rush, they chose a table furthest from the buffet, then thronging with customers.
Her morning session had gone without a hitch, the class attended by secondary schoolers learning to use Power Point for their projects. Ain showed them the basics and didn't even need to tap into her abilities to increase their comprehension on the many features of the software. Most were anxious to get off to an early lunch before their schooling sessions start.
Suraiya ushered her again to the same restaurant for their own luncheon and Ain had chosen a simple dish of eggs, curry and fried potatoes in chili paste with anchovies, her mind thinking of meeting Yani to see if she remembered her.
"Have you ever been to Kampung Permatang, Suraiya?"
The question surprised her friend slightly, her mind thinking about dessert, how an icy Lai Chee Kang would help wash away the spicy taste lacing her throat.
"I've heard of the place. Why? Do you know someone there, Ain?"
"Not really, Suraiya. The name seems familiar, but I can't quite place from where I got the name from."
"It is about half an hour's cab ride. If you want, we can go after the afternoon classes."
"That would be great, Suraiya."
"I hear it's a modern village, very clean. Relatively posh area. The residents there are mainly retired teachers and civil servants."
Do you really want to meet this woman?
"Hey, you want to get some dessert, Ain?"
"You go ahead. I want to enjoy my coffee," she said as the afternoon news caught her attention. The newscaster reporting on the aftermath of the roadside restaurant incident, with the police concluding the driver of the trailer which had ploughed through suffering from drug-induced hallucinations. While there were no fatalities, six people were injured and required hospitalization.
Ain waited with bated breath, but there was no news on the girl shot dead at the bank in Tanjung Malim.
Did reporters miss the story?
She thought of Arman, searched for his thoughts and found he was not in the vicinity of Aunt Maisara, finding him in an unfamiliar place, a building with glass for its outer walls, his thoughts somewhat saturated with a torrent of songs.
He believed me. Heh.
She slipped in a cheeky "Hi, Arman", attaching it to the tail end of the song currently playing, before pulling herself back to her immediate surrounding, Suraiya's bowl of Lai Chee Kang looking tempting in the hot, humid afternoon as the crowd grew bigger.
****
They left the center after the last afternoon class. When the two women reach the taxi corner of Jalan Feri Penambat, the row of cabs had thinned somewhat, the drivers left quoting a flat rate which they failed to reduce.
"The fare includes waiting time, young ladies," said one driver, looking the oldest of an elderly group, his thick moustache reminding Ain of the villain in the Hindi movie aired the night before. His thoughts not quite randy, but enough to make her wish she was less restraint in the use of her abilities. They took up the offer as his cab looked the cleanest. He entertained them with tales of bravery in ferrying people and an apparent ghost to their respective destinations.
"One time, I took a young woman, fair skin, long black hair, very sexy, didn't say a word, just pointed here and there. Tapped my shoulder to stop, paid the fare… Wasn't a place I was familiar with, so I stepped out as well, asked if she was okay walking all alone in the dark. I am a gentleman, see, and us gentlemen walk beautiful woman to their home, yes? Of course, she didn't answer me. Didn't expect one, anyway. Then I saw she wasn't even walking. Her feet were above ground and she sort of glided into the darkest part. First time ever I wet my pants in my driving life. I was knocked out cold the next two days."
His delightful tales helped pass the time to reach the village, the traffic heavy exacerbated by a half mile long roadworks which closed of one side of the road to vehicles.
Almost an hour passed before they came to a community hall with the words "Kampung Permatang, Kuala Selangor", emblazoned on a shiny signboard within its compound. A group of youth played sepak takraw inside and all but ignored the red and white taxi stopping at the hall's entrance with two young women in the back seat.
"Where to now, Miss?"
"Straight ahead, turn left at the third lane, fourth house along the road," said Ain, detecting in her mind Ashraf's rote navigation residual memories amidst thoughts of ripe, juicy rambutans, fiery red in thick clusters, and pondering an adventurous climb.
"Very nice roads, this village. Must be some rich folks staying here," said the driver maneuvering his taxi to avoid children on bicycles returning home from school.
They arrived at the house and Ain saw the rambutan tree rising towards the sky, its branches providing the cooling shades to a ceramic garden table underneath. The boy Ashraf fiddling with his phone on one of four stools. Fair skinned, hair cropped short, dark grey t-shirt and black jogging pants, red slippers that was a size too big.
Ain searched her mind immediately to see if there was anything in her memory of the boy and found nothing. She read Yani's thoughts, sitting inside the house thinking of how long more she should be staying there before returning to Cyberjaya.
"Is this the house, Ain?" asked Suraiya.
"I guess so," she answered, signaling the driver to stop, and adding a quick, "You said you could wait a bit, right?"
"Yeah. Sure. I'll be at that roadside cafe back there. Call me when you're both ready to leave," he answered, handing Ain a name card as the cab stopped aft of a small concrete bridge, a tarred lane leading into the compound.
Walking in, Ain smiled at the boy who stood up, his eyes wide open, looking at her and Suraiya, one hand slipping his phone quietly into the left pocket of his pants.
"Is your mom home?"
Ashraf grinned, ran to the house's front door, peered inside.
"Hey, Mom. One of dad's friend is here to see you."
Dad's friend? He recognized me!
She sensed a string of emotions appearing in succession within Yani on hearing those same words. Surprise and shock mingling with uncertainties and trepidation, wondering who it was and if her husband was not far behind. Ain too was unsure of what to expect. She felt Suraiya's elbow on her arms.
"You knew his dad? What's going on here, Ain?"
She didn't need to answer as the woman she wanted to meet was at the door, the expectant looks on her face suddenly turning sour as she saw Ain, her eyes looking away.
"Oh, it's you."
And then, a sudden realization.
"How did you find me? When did you…. Syafa, where's Saari? Where the hell is he?!"
Syafa? That's my name? Am I the reason for her husband's absence?
She saw Yani quivering, her mind exploding with a deluge of feelings long suppressed. The woman she wanted to meet was overcome by the torrent of emotions and slid down the length of the door's panel to the floor as an elderly man joined them.
Ain quickly stooped down, propping Yani from falling onto the ground. Unsure if she should stay or leave, only for the decision to be taken out of her hand as a commanding voice ordered: "Please help me bring her inside."
She and Suraiya helped Yani inside the house and onto a sofa, then stood aside as the man took over the situation and began massaging his hands across her face, his voice low in reciting prayers to calm Yani. He motioned both Ain and Suraiya to take a seat. His wife had arrived at their side, questioning looks on her face at the two young women's presence.
Ain calmed herself down and began to send calming thoughts into Yani's mind, braving herself into confronting a mind bleak and filled with the dark clouds of anxieties.
Minutes later, eyes red and teary, a calmer Yani stared at her.
"Well?"
Ain bit her lips. Glancing at Suraiya and then Yani.
"I don't know who I am. All the names you mentioned are total strangers to me and I'm sorry if I had done anything to you."
The disgust and animosity stayed on Yani's face. The elderly man, however, was all ears.
"You say that you do not who you are and yet, you're here," he said.
"I chanced upon your, umm, daughter at the wet market yesterday…," said Ain.
"Niece…" he interjected.
"Sorry. Niece, and… there was a sense of familiarity which I could not place. I swear to you I didn't realize my being here would cause her such anguish. I was surprised at the boy's words. I thought I was a colleague."
"Well, you're not," said Yani.
Ain kept her silence to the piercing stare by the woman who had recovered her steely self.
"Radian took my husband and his whole team to a place they kept secret from us."
"Radian?"
"The company you're working with. Radiation contamination. Ring any bells?"
Ain shook her head.
"I woke up at a hospital in Tanjung Rambutan not knowing who I was and how I ended up there."
"Tanjung Rambutan?"
"That's right. A friend who helped me said I came in together with others. Three men and another woman. Perhaps your husband was one of them."
Yani exchanged looks with her uncle, the dark clouds in her mind dissipating.
"Waking up? What do you mean?" asked her uncle.
"Apparently, all of us were in a coma when we were brought there."
"I remember reading about the death of a patient at the Bahagia Hospital a few days back. Suspected murder and mentions of a patient gone missing," he said.
Ain nodded but did not say anything. The whole living room went silent and Yani's auntie rose from her seat to lead Ashraf into the kitchen. Away from a conversation verging on the being morbid.
"You don't remember a thing about your working together with Saari?" asked Yani.
"I don't even know I had been working. I'm sorry… Was I…."
Yani shrugged her shoulders, heaving a huge sigh.
"Were you what, Syafa?"
Ain silently prayed her suspicions were proven to be wrong. Even if everything pointed to one inevitable conclusion. That she had been a third wheel in the woman's marriage.
"How did you know my name?"
Yani stared at her, not answering, in her mind question marks appearing on whether the young woman before her was faking it. She sighed, massaged her palms across her face and shook her head. Ain read her acceptance, but only just.
"You really don't remember, do you? Wow… I've dreamt nights of confronting you, and here we are…"
Yani looked pensive, her mind reaching inwards to memories long shuttered as her auntie come out from the kitchen with a tray; a teapot, cups and biscuits, placing them on the table before them.
"You came to our house with the rest of Saari's team during Ashraf…my son's birthday party. Call it a woman's intuition, but I saw the change in Saari's behavior when you arrived with Bernice. Do you remember her?"
Ain shook her head, taking Yani's words and at the same reading bit and pieces of information from her archived memories, images of people, some blurry, others clearer.
"Well, I initially suspected it was Bernice. She had the model looks, the poise…"
"Your husband introduced me to you?"
"Not at all. You introduced yourself to me. My god you were so cheeky… In fact, we got along quite well. Much better than Saari's other colleagues who were more formal."
"Do you what happened to us? On having to be quarantined?"
"I don't really know. Just that something had happened at the office. I heard from others you were together with Bernice inside a lift, while Saari and the rest were at their workplace. Samuel didn't really tell us anything."
"Samuel?"
"Saari's boss. Radian's CEO. I think he didn't know either. I'm guessing that either you're a damn good liar, or you too have no inkling as to what did happen…"
Ain shook her head. She understood Yani's hostility.
Ain noticed Yani's eyes had narrowed. A jumble of facts being string together in her mind. Of deaths which happened before and after her husband went incommunicado.
"His friend died while being quarantined. His wife was beyond distraught. Radian compensated her, but still they gave nothing away. No information at all."
Yani sipped a little of the tea her auntie had brought out.
"Our marriage was on the rocks before that. We were growing apart and hardly met each other. I had my career and Ari… Well, he had distractions at work. I suspected it, but damn if I could do anything. The next thing I know, he didn't return home and Radian invited me and a few others to the office to inform us of the indefinite quarantine."
"Did... Was there anyone who came for me? Do you know?"
Yani's face clouded slightly as Ain detected a feeling of pity diluting some of the anger in her mind, her memory of the briefing clear. She knew exactly whom came for who and recalled how taken aback no one had turned up for Syafa.
"I am so sorry, Syafa. It was too chaotic then to notice anything."
Ain was touched and ashamed by the warmth she felt at Yani's concern for someone she suspected of having stolen her husband's love and attention. Distraught with the facts now out in the open, Ain ignored the soft slither of a telepathic incursion into the proceedings.