Strange 4
Rowana Kay
The evening sun beated down on the couple walking through the busy streets of Kathmandu. They walked past vendors selling beaded jewellery, clothes and other accessories. Rowana weaved through the tight market places dragging Stephen along by the sleeve.
He looked around curiously at the new culture that surrounded him. Never had he seen this, sure he was wandering through some of the same markets, but he never had time to look around at the vibrancy this place held. Every now and then he would stop to look at things that seemed interesting but Rowana said eat first then look.
"It's to far away now, maybe another five to ten minutes." She said passing by a temple. Stephen groaned. It felt like they've been walking for hours and his feet felt like they were about to give out on him. "Oh hush. It'll just be a little longer."
"I feel like we've been walking for hours." He tried to slow down her fast pace but there was no stopping this woman.
Several minutes later, they arrived at a little open air restaurant. It wasn't to full and she grabbed a seat at the back. Not soon after, a waiter came to take their orders, but Stephen coming from an English country didn't know a single thing he was saying to them
"Namastē, kē ma timīlā'ī lāgi prāpta garna saknu huncha?" The waiter said to them. (Translation: Hi, what can I get for you?)
"Du'ī dal bhat tarkari Ra pānī." (Translation: Two dal bhat tarkari and water. Dal bhat tarkari is rice, lentil soup and curried vegetables.) She said smiling. The waiter scribbles down their orders and walked away. They sat in an awkward silence till Rowana sprung a question on him.
"So, I heard you were a neurosurgeon right?" She leaned forwards resting her elbow on the table.
"Yes I was. A neurosurgeon but I had to give it up after my accident." He raised him hands showing the shaking and scarred hands. She only nodded. "It was a car accident. I ended up off a cliff and the next thing I knew, I was in the hospital."
"I know."
"How did you know?" he cocked an eyebrow waiting her response.
"Well," She scooted her chair closer to the table. "I was in the New York Sanctum when the accident had happened. It was on the news so when I saw you in Kumar-Jai I was surprised you came here. I would have thought that a rich doctor could have been able to fix his hands."
"Yes. So did I. But no one would do the procedures I asked them to do on my hands." He stared. "Therapy wasn't helping as much as I expected and I was close to quitting it. But before I did, my therapist told me about one of his clients who was paralyzed from waist down walked again. I mean, how many people can do that? Our medicine isn't advanced as that. Anyways, I confronted him and he told me about Kumar-Jai. I gathered what little money I still had and bought a one way ticket and here I am."
The waiter came back with steaming hot plates of food. He set one down in front of Stephen and the other in front of Rowana The smell was mouth watering and he dug right into as soon as the plate hit the table.
"Oh my god, this is amazing!" he managed to say between bites. "What is this?" he gestured to the food.
"It's dal bhat tarkari, the national dish of Nepal. Good huh?" She took a scoop of rice.
"Not just good. This stuff is great!" he took another bite and she smiled at enthusiasm. "So, what about you? What were you before you came to Kumar-Jai?"
Her smile dropped and she looked down at her hands. He looked at her full of concern.
"It's okay if you don't want to tell me."
"No no no. It's fine." She set her spoon down and took a deep breath. "When I was younger, my mother didn't want me, she casted me out onto the streets of Nepal to fend for myself. I had to steal to get food and money every now and then. Till one day I was caught. I was beaten in an ally way and left for dead. That was when the Ancient One found me. She brought me back to Kumar-Jai and nursed me back to health. I was told I could stay and study the mystical arts so I accepted. I've been forever grateful for that day." She sighed and looked out over the buildings at the sun lost in thought.
"I'm so sorry." He looked at her face. The shades from the sun on her face made her look even more beautiful. If that's even possible. He thought to himself.
"It's alright. Besides, it's in the past." She gave him a sad smile.
The rest of their supper was eaten in a comfortable silence. The waiter came by to pick up their empty plates and they left. Lucky for them, majority of the small roadside shops had closed down for the day so it took them half the time to get back they spent getting there.
"Don't mind me asking, but what is your name?" Stephen asked holding the door open to Kumar-Jai. She didn't answer till they reached the doors of his room.
"It's Rowana." She smiled.
"Good night Rowana."
"Good night Stephen."
A/N: Okay, So we got a little snippet of Rowana's past. It took me a while to come up with that. Also, I'm sorry if my translations weren't good because sadly I don't speak Napoli so I had to put it through Google translate. Please let me know what ya'll think!