Girl
"WEHAVETOgetto Kampung Kuala Gajah," Suraya said, as they
walked briskly back to the town center. "Somehow," she added.
"Okay, but how though?" Jingsaid, scurrying after her. "And how
quickly can we do it, considering our moms may appear, like, at any
second?"
"Your mom, maybe." Suraya was still fairly sure her mother had
yet to notice she was gone.
This is hyperbole,Pink said. It would take your mothers at least
four hours to arrive at this place, and that is if there were no traffic to
hinder them.
"Pink says you're overreacting."
Jing sighed noisily. "Has he ever heard of dramatic effect?"
Has she ever considered taking five minutes to just . . .not be
herself?
"Have you two ever thought about not arguing for once?" Suraya
didn't mean to snap, but she was hot and worried and very close to
locking the two of them in the cockroach-infested café to work out
their differences. "I hate to tell you this, but it is absolutely no fun to
be the only person hearing both sides of your bickering. We have too
much work to do for this nonsense."
"But how do we do it if we don't know what we're doing?" Jing
asked.
It wasn't an unreasonable question, which was what made it so
hard to hear.
"First things first." She stared at the phone in Jing's hand, now
locked and useless. "Ditch your phone."
"EXCUSE ME?" Jing clutched the phone to her chest, looking
appalled. "I can't do that! This is an iPhone!"
Suraya could feel the wavesof panic rising higher and higher in
her chest. "Youhave to leave it here, so our mothers don't know to
follow us to Perak!"
"So why can't I just SWITCH IT OFF?"
"Does that even work?" She was sweating now.
"Of course it does!" Jing threw her arms up in exasperation.
"Don't you know how cell phones work?"
A sudden lump lodged itself in Suraya's throat, and try as she
might, she couldn't seem to swallow it away. "You know I don't."
Jing's face was immediately contrite. "Sorry, Sooz. I didn't mean it
like that." She sighed and took her glasses off, wiping thesmudged
lenses on her top. "Look, I just don't think it's a good idea to get rid of
my phone. What if there's an emergency?"
Suraya.She felt Pink lay a spindly leg gently on her cheek.It will
be fine. The girl has a point. What if we need the device later on?
"Fine." Surayatook a deep, wavery breath. "But it staysoff the
whole time. Got it?"
"Got it."
Ten minutes later, they were walking back toward the center of town.
"Come on," Suraya said overher shoulder as she began to walk
toward the bus station. "Let's try and figure out how long it'll take and
how much it'll c—oof!" Before she could stop herself, she'd walked
straight into the shadowy figure who'd stepped intoher path
seemingly out of nowhere.
Suraya lookedup. It was, she realized, a startlingly familiar
shadowy figure.
The pawang.
Suraya's heart lodged itself into her throat.
"Hello, ladies," he said, smiling that too-pleasant smile. "Fancy
meeting you here. A little far from home, aren't you?"
The two girls said nothing.
"Do your parents know where you are?" He let his glance drift
from Suraya to Jing, then back again, slow, casual, and somehow
completely unsettling. He bent down, so close to Suraya's face she
could smell the sour staleness of his breath. "I bet you don't want
them to."
She stepped back involuntarily, and he smiled that strange, easy
smile. "Why don't you let me . . . take care of you?"
Just then, Suraya heard a soft voice whisper in her ear. A familiar
voice. Hussein's voice.
"Run," it said.
She didn't waitto be told twice; she just grabbed Jing's hand and
began to run, thinking of nothing but the roaring in her ears, the feel
of Jing's skin against hers, the way her feet felt as they thudded
rhythmically against the pavement, and the very, very important fact
that there were no answering thuds behind them.
"What if he . . ."
"Don't look back."
They scrambled into the back of an old red-and-white taxi idling
by the station, panting hard.The old man who'd been nodding off
behind the steering wheel sat up with a startled grunt. "Mau pergi
mana?" he asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with one hand.
"Uncle, can you take us to Kampung Kuala Gajah?" Suraya
asked.
"HAH??" The driver stared at them, open-mouthed. "Aiyo, that
one very far lah girl. More than one hour, you know? By the time I
come back my wife will be waiting to whack me with a slipper."
"It's an emergency lah uncle," Jing said, fixing her best imploring
look on him. "Please? We can pay you. Our . . . uh . . . our mother is
sick, and we have to get to her. We're supposed to meet our father
there."
"Mother? You don't look like her sister also." He sniffed.
"Please lah uncle. How will we get there without you?"
"Please, uncle," Suraya said.The sobs she'd been trying to keep
down caught at her voice and put cracks in it, so that her tears threatened to come pouring through.
The driver looked at them.
Then he looked down.
Then he flung his hands up in the air. "Fine! Fine! But you know
what happens when your wife tells you she is making mutton curry
for dinner and you better come home and then you DON'T COME
HOME?"
"What?" Jing asked.
"Pray you never find out," hemuttered darkly as he beganto pull
out. "May Lakshmi forgive me."
As the taxi began to move slowly away from the little village
outside Gua Musang, Suraya turned back and looked through her
marble . . .
. . . and saw the pawang struggling to move, his face contorted
in agrimace of anger and confusion, as Hussein hung onto his legs
for dear life.