John held the wrapped gift in shaking fingers until Anu nudged him with an elbow. "Mrs. Hughes isn't someone to fear unless you've insulted Scotland or someone she loves."
"And then what?"
"Then you run like bloody mad is what you do."
"Don't pay him any mind." Anna chided, shooting Anu a scowl, "She's the sweetest woman I've ever met and Mr. Carson, for all his feigned prickle, has a heart of gold."
"A perfect match then?"
"Exactly." She raised her knuckles to the door, turning to them both, "Unless there are any objections I'm knocking now."
Both men nodded at her to proceed and Anna rapped her knuckles against the door. It opened almost immediately and John jumped a bit at the presence of the shorter woman. He recognized her from the street when he first tried buying a vase and instinctively gripped the gift in his hand tighter. Anna looked back, resting her hand on his arm before nodding toward the door.
"My goodness you've brought someone new." She extended her hand toward John. "I'm Elsie Hughes and it's so nice to meet someone new."
"I'm John Bates," He quickly shook her hand, holding the gift tightly to his chest so it did not fall, and handed it over to her as soon as his first hand was free. "This is for you, I hope you don't mind it's hastily wrapped."
"Oh," She unwrapped it and cooed at it, "I haven't seen anything this lovely in a long time."
"It's my family tartan." John explained, "My mother's family were Keiths and I had this as something my mother gave me before she passed."
"Then I can't possibly take this from you." She tried to hand it back but John shook his head.
"For as Scottish as my mother's family was, I'm Irish and I'm probably not going to wear a kilt again."
"It's not my family tartan, I'll be honest, but at least it's something I can appreciate from home." Mrs. Hughes tucked it under her arm, "Though it's a bit warm for that kind of dress here."
"It's far warmer than I believe I anticipated." John waited as Anna and Anu preceded him inside the house and Mrs. Hughes kept her place by the door to close it after they were all inside. "I thought I was ready for it, having been in Australia, but this is completely different."
"What was it like in Australia?"
"Where I was, beautiful, but I took a few surveys to some of the desert regions and… I'd like never to be that dry again." John turned and found himself face to face with Mr. Carson. "Mr. Carson, it's a pleasure to see you again."
"I hope so." He shook John's hand, "It's our pleasure to bring you into our home."
"I almost feel as if I'm intruding on a family dinner by being here."
"Nonsense," Mrs. Hughes waved a hand, guiding them all to the table as the shutters opened wide to allow the fans to work air through the humid room. "We're all a bit starved for company I'm afraid and we latch onto any and all opportunities to meet and be met I think."
"We all need a taste of home." Anu agreed, taking his seat and motioning John next to him. "Sometimes I wish I could get more of my family to come here."
"Would they enjoy it?" Mrs. Hughes brought a bowl to the middle of the table as Mr. Carson and Anna worked a few other dishes between them. "I know that I wasn't too pleased when I first came. I thought it was too far from home."
"Everywhere, for my mother, would be too far from home." Anu stood and helped Anna with a larger platter as John only flailed helplessly in his seat until they all sat with him. "But I think my brother would love it here."
"The heat, the oppressive humidity, and the quiet?" Anna teased, "Who could argue with that?"
"I've found it all to be much more relaxing than I originally anticipated." John shrugged, "I won't assume anything about the politics or the hoops that the Crawley family has to hurdle for their success but I find it all worlds above where I was."
"Did your work in Australia do you in?" Mrs. Hughes edged her chair closer to the table and ladled a orange colored mash onto plates as Mr. Carson selected large cuts of chicken to pile on heaps of rice.
"It wasn't the kind of work or the environment that lends to a healthy mind and soul." John shot a look toward Anna but she did not say anything. "There were also other factors involved."
"I'll assume, based on your age, you served your country in the Great War." Mrs. Hughes passed him a plate and John accepted it gratefully with two hands.
"I did. I served with Robert Crawley."
"I've heard that many a person has seen terrible things in those trenches." John frowned as Mrs. Hughes punctuated her statement with a sign he did not recognize but that Anna and Anu repeated. "Those sorts of things cast dark shadows on the soul."
"Thanks to the efforts of Doctor Smith here I was cured of those shadows."
"Lending to your overall positive view of this place." Mr. Carson nodded at him, "People always make the situation better."
"Not always." Anna argued and then waited, the plates distributed over the table. "But we hope to be the ones who teach people to love and not to loathe don't we?"
"Exactly right." Mr. Carson extended a hand toward Mrs. Hughes on his right and Anu on his left. Anu nodded at John to take his hand while Anna took Mrs. Hughes before extending her arm to him over the table. "I'll say grace."
John closed his eyes, listening to the simple words of the mealtime observance and opened them at the resounding 'Amen' from those seated around him. Anu and Anna immediately picked up their utensils to dig into the food as John looked it over. He swallowed but before he could speak Mrs. Hughes smiled at him.
"It's not too spicy, just a basic sauce for the chicken based on a yam."
"Thank you." John followed suit, "I'm not as educated in the fare as I think I should be."
"Were you experienced with the native food of Australia?" Anu turned toward him, fork already working through the last two-thirds of the plate.
"It's an unfortunate fact of life there that there's not much native cuisine left to enjoy since it's being systematically stamped out." John worked some of the rice and lumpy sauce onto his fork. "They've developed a system there for taking the half-white children of natives and sending them to schools to try and 'breed' the white out of them."
"That's barbaric." Anna dropped her fork and John watched Mrs. Hughes reach a hand over to cover Anna's with her own. "To take children from their mothers when those children were forced on them in the first place."
"It's the ugly reality of the conqueror and the conquered." Anu wiped at his mouth with a napkin. "The superior species, as Darwin would put it."
"There's no such thing as a superior species and anyone who thinks that bought the title at the point of a gun." Anna shook her head, "It's disgusting."
"It's the dark reality of the world in which we live." John went back to his food, "The hardest part about it is there seems to be no good answer."
"The answer is to leave and never come back." Anna aimed her glowering eyes at her plate, stabbing ferociously at a piece of chicken there. "To let people live their lives the way they want and not trouble them with shows of friendship only to steal what they have and leave them destitute."
"What an interesting perspective from a conqueror." Anu met Anna's eyes, "Or the child of one."
"I'm a native, Anu."
"Yes," Mrs. Hughes cut in, "We're all immigrants here except for Anna."
"As the child of a conquered people, perhaps the perspective of the location of our birth not being synonymous with the situation of our birth should be something to put in question."
"Why? Because you were born of the people native to your land that makes you more of those people than my being born of European parents in this land makes me one with the Congolese?"
"There's an argument to be made about it." Anu shrugged, "As a native of the city you call 'Bombay' and someone sharing the cultural heritage of that area it would make me more Indian than you are Congolese. Despite you being raised here your education and birth put you away from the situation of life here."
"Making my experience irrelevant?"
"I never said that."
"Then what are you saying Anu?" Anna put down her fork, "That if I'd been born with black skin in a hut it would make me more Congolese than I am now?"
"That it would make you Congolese at all." Anu sat back, "There are a great many gross problems with colonization. Terrible things have been done to the people who European nations, like the homelands of your parents, to make people like me 'civilized' but you're forgetting the good that comes of it as well."
"And what good comes of slaughter and enslavement?"
"The train, for instance, in India allows faster travel and progress. English as a common language unites otherwise disparate peoples." Anu took a breath, "I refuse to believe that all things are either bad or good. There's good to be found in all things. Just as I believe there are negative side effects of our best intentions. Side effects we may never see or realize."
"No one can be a prophet, Anu." Anna ground out and John finally cut in.
"I'm sorry but I feel there's another conversation here that I don't understand."
"I think Mr. Singh is referencing the anniversary that today is." Anna's face was blank and drawn but John noticed the twitch in her jaw.
"Anna, don't." Mrs. Hughes shot a glare at Anu, "Why'd you have to bring it up?"
"He's mentioned it because of something I used to help Mr. Bates recently." Anna turned to John, "Something that I don't regret doing."
"What's going on here?" Mr. Carson's bushy eyebrows almost joined over his nose, "I fail to understand what any of this has to do with the anniversary of Anna's mother's death."
"I'm…" John dropped his fork and studied all the faces, "I'm possibly more confused than Mr. Carson."
"Anu disapproved of what I used to help you overcome your… sleep trouble, Mr. Bates." Anna scowled at Anu, "And he wants to make a point of it by mentioning it at any opportunity."
"I already-" Anu tried to argue but Anna cut him off.
"Then why make a show of discussing how I'm not what I think I am?" Anna waited but Anu's mouth just closed. "Why make a point of saying that I'm not the person I think I am."
"Because as much as you like to believe you're above the rest of us, that you disdain the cultures that gave you advantage, you are those things. You are English, you are Belgian, and raised here or not you'll never be from here." Anu gathered his breath, "You can't act like you're above everyone because you're not like the rest of us, Anna. The troubles of this world belong to all of us and we're all responsible for them."
"As responsible as you were for my mother?"
"Anna, that's harsh." Mrs. Hughes cut in, "I was there and I know that Anu did everything he could to save your mother."
"That's what he tells himself." Anna stood up from the table. "Sorry to've spoiled dinner Mrs. Hughes."
"Anna-" Everyone stood as Anna left and John gaped at the other occupants of the table.
"I'm sorry but I truly don't understand what's going on."
"Without going into too many details Mr. Bates," Mrs. Hughes exchanged a look with Anu, "Anna's mother died rather tragically seventeen years ago today."
"I knew her mother passed but I didn't know that Anu was there." John turned to him, "You've aged rather well."
"It's part of my charm, Mr. Bates." Anu moved his chair, "I'd best go after her."
"Might I-" John put a hand up, "Might I do it? I think she's liable to bite your head off so much as look at you at the moment."
"Be my guest then Mr. Bates but I've got to face her sooner or later."
"Then let it be later."
"He's right Anu," Mrs. Hughes put a hand on Anu's shoulder. "Let him try to talk her down or let the forest do the work. We don't need either of you coming back missing limbs and the like."
Shaking his head to dispel the confusion of the comment, John nodded to Mrs. Hughes and Mr. Carson, "Thank you for the food and I do apologize that our first meeting didn't quite go as planned."
"It's the way of the jungle, Mr. Bates." Mrs. Hughes smiled at him, "And, again, thank you for the kilt. It reminds me of home."
"My pleasure Mrs. Hughes." John shook hands with Mr. Carson. "And I'll see you tomorrow Mr. Carson."
"Tomorrow Mr. Bates."
With that John hurried out the door to find Anna.
She turned, a crash through the underbrush warning her of someone coming. Anna raised her hand and then dropped it as John came into view, his trousers streaked with mud and a ring around his collar from sweat. "You've looked worse for wear Mr. Bates but this isn't exactly impressive."
"I thought the impressive part would just be my presence in general." John brushed at himself and walked toward her. "I wanted to make sure you were alright after dinner."
"You mean the fiasco?" Anna waved her hand in the direction of town. "It's nothing a walk in the jungle won't cure."
"Not to question your knowledge of this area but is it safe?"
"Nowhere in the jungle is safe, Mr. Bates. You accidently fall asleep in the wrong place and you're bound to be gnawed on by something." Anna motioned him toward her. "Best to stay close to me then if you're going to be out here."
"Do you really find it relaxing?" John worked over a large tree to meet her. "I find it all puts my rather uncomfortably on my toes."
"Was your time in Australia any different?"
"Deadly for all the same and different reasons, yes." He eyed his trousers. "I'll have to replace these I think."
"I'm sure they'll wear alright for now." Anna guided them through the green growth, following the sound of trickling stream. "We're not far from a beaten path but far enough not to meet anyone on it."
"Not in the mood for company?"
"Not in the mood for Anu's company." Anna clarified, jumping a divot to land on the other side. "He's rather pressed me this time."
"If I can ask," John landed next to her, waiting a moment to settle before walking. "Why does he rile you up like that?"
"Anu thinks he's doing what's best for me because he's not of this world." Anna sighed, "He thinks he's doing the will of God."
"By making your angry?"
Anna stopped, "Because he's an angel, Mr. Bates."
"I wouldn't have described his actions as entirely angelic myself." John coughed and then stopped when he realized Anna had not moved. "I feel like I've missed something again."
"Anu's name, in Sanskrit, means 'the mercy of God is great' because that's what he represents, Mr. Bates."
John gaped at her, brow furrowed as his mouth moved to manipulate around what he struggled to say. "You're saying he's a literal angel?"
"That's how he knew my mother and knows me and yet appears equivalent in age to us. Or," Anna shrugged, "A little more you than I."
"Then what's his purpose?" John rubbed at the back of his head, "From what I remember of Sunday school angelic visitations weren't long-term assignments."
"I can't say I completely understand either but I'm not Sikh so I'm not sure of the particulars of their angelic visitations but it's what he is." Anna led the way back into the jungle, "He told me the truth about it when my mother died. Said he'd failed to save her and must now work to save me."
"It might be your tone but you don't seem to feel that was a blessing of any sort."
"It's not a blessing when you experience what I did at dinner on a regular basis." Anna stopped, tilting her head toward the sky and letting out an exasperated gasp. "It's like having a father who consistently hounds you about everything wrong in your life."
"I can't say I'd be overly appreciative of similar treatment." John walked next to her, "But I never met my father so I've no idea."
"Sometimes I wonder if we'd all do better to never know our parents at all."
"I wouldn't be who I am today without my mother," John reached out a hand but retracted it. "I think we're the sum of our experiences and while I can't claim yours have been anything worth praising they're still something that made you who you are now."
"True." Anna opened her mouth to say something else but stopped, holding up a hand to stop him. "Someone's following us."
"Anu?"
"He wouldn't be stupid enough to follow me into the jungle. He knows I hate that."
"Mrs. Hughes or Mr. Carson?"
"They'd never leave the main road." Anna ducked into the underbrush and motioned John to follow her. "If it's a friend they would've said something by now and if they're foe…"
"We've foes out here?"
"Mercenaries for rival companies… or men just looking for sport." Anna turned to John, "You wouldn't happen to be armed would you?"
"I've got a knife." John slid out a large Bowie knife. "My sergeant in the Army said to never go anywhere without one and I never forgot his advice."
"Wise man." Anna put a finger to her lips, "Follow me closely and try not to speak."
John nodded and they set off at a crouch into the trees. The voices around them shouted to one another in French and Dutch, Anna grinding her teeth at what they said, but stayed distant. Enough so she could wind their path around them until the voices faded.
When they seemed far enough away Anna went to stand but as she did so the hairs on her arms stood on end. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and scratched her nails downward. A small concussive force rippled through the growth about them and two men stumbled backward.
They blinked at her but Anna raised a hand toward them. "Leave us be and you won't regret your decision."
"We've got friends just over there." One of them pointed, leering at her as they approached. "They'll come when we call."
"I've got friends too and they tend to come when I call." Anna flicked her eyes upward, "You don't want to meet these friends."
"Then let us be your friends." The other man managed in broken English when he took a step closer.
But his next step ended in a howl as John jumped from the underbrush and wrapped an arm around his neck to hold the large knife to glint under the man's throat. "I think she asked you to pass her by."
"What, so you can take her for yourself?" The man wiggled in his grip but John held steady, eyeing the man next to him.
"So she can go wherever she's going in peace and you'll make your merry way wherever you're going." John pressed the point of the knife under the man's chin. "What do you say to the idea that you keep yourself intact and so do we and we all make our ways separately?"
"No," The man threw his elbow into John's side while the other one leapt for Anna.
John's knife cut under the man's chin as John stumbled back and the man in his grasp howled. Flipping the knife in the air, John caught it so the blade stayed lengthwise against his arm while cutting toward the man in practiced swipes. His opponent tried to fight back but John cut into the man's clothing and left his arms in stripes of red.
Anna dodged the other man's swing and hissed. From the trees above her a dark colored snake fell on top of the other man and the mamba immediately opened its jaws to bite into the man's neck. He flailed and tried to get the snake from around his neck but it tightened its grip and bit again before the man fell to the ground.
She hissed again and the mamba released its hold, slithering away into the growth as the man twitched before her. Crouching next to him Anna watched the man cover the bites on his neck but she could only shake her head. "You'll be dead in seven hours. You'll start to perspire, your muscles will seize, and your eyelids will droop. Your heart will start to beat wildly and the more you flail the faster the venom will move through your system."
"You're lying." He tried to sit up but his arm refused to hold him and he fell back as Anna stepped away.
"That metallic taste in your mouth and the excess saliva you're about to produce all say I'm right."
"You're a devil." He gasped at her, "Calling that thing on me."
"Not exactly."
Anna stepped over him, avoiding his grab for her and looked for John. But he and the man he was fighting were nowhere to be seen. She narrowed her eyes and heard a groaning from the underbrush. Digging through the leaves she saw the first man, eyes open and staring at nothing, with a smaller knife in his chest.
"Doctor?" Anna moved toward the sound and saw John, fingers gripping tightly into the bark of a tree that supported him while his face seated profusely, "I may need your medical expertise."
Anna looked down to see his knife buried in his right thigh. She knelt next to him, eyeing the wound before facing him. "It's missed anything crucial so if I pull it out you won't die."
"Lucky me." John worked off his belt and then ripped the sleeve off one shirt to stuff into his mouth. "Do it."
She worked the belt under his leg and strapped it as tightly as she could, ignoring John's groan of pain. "How'd your knife end up in your leg?"
"I-" John's voice muffled on the fabric and he howled when Anna used his distraction to jerk the knife free, pulling straight up.
"I'll ask later." Anna eyed the wound and then the knife before using it to cut his trouser leg open more. "I actually need to be honest about something."
"What?" John spit the wad of material into his hand, sucking gulps of air into his lungs while sweat rolled down his face.
"Medicine isn't the only thing I practice." Anna wiped the blood from the knife and examined the wound again. "It's why makes Anu so upset and why he keeps reminding me of my mother's death."
"How'd you mean?" John shook his head, biting back a groan when Anna covered his mouth with her hand.
"They're friends are coming back."
"Then hurry." John urged, stuffing the fabric back into his mouth and gripping his leg with both hands as Anna held the knife up for his view.
"I'm a practicing witch."
"What?"
The knife glowed, steaming and smoking as Anna applied it to the gash in his leg, muttering to herself while John squirmed and moaned in his attempts to remain silent. Anna wrinkled her nose at the scent of burning flesh, holding until she was sure, and then removing the knife to shake it cool. John rested his head back on the tree, eyes rolling under the lids.
"John?" Anna stabbed the knife to the side, patting his face to get him awake. "John, we need to move."
"What?" His eyes fluttered and Anna slapped him hard across the face to get his eyes to shoot wide.
"We need to move." She picked up the knife with one hand and dragged him to stand with the other. Moving his arm around her shoulders, Anna shuffled into the jungle, "We've got to get away from here and them when they find their friends."
"But you just said-"
"Yes I did." Anna maneuvered them into the underbrush, the voices closing in on their position, "And we'll discuss what that means later."
