Chapter 6: Day 3
Waking quietly Lily looked through the photos on her new camera. There was a photo of them at dinner, one with a monkey on each shoulder, of James proudly showing his tiny fish. She giggled at his face as he looked like he had won the noble peace prize. The last photo Lily didn't remember taking. Instead it turned out to be a small movie clip of a temple. Before she could register what it was her father came into the picture. Wearing his Hawaiian green shirt and holding the camera at an angle to catch both half of him and half of the temple he began to talk.
"Have fun Grommit. This is your next clue!" He blew her a kiss and the image stopped moving. She played it a few more times just staring at her dad's face before ringing the concierge and describing the temple to them.
The clue she received from the camera led her to the Snake Temple just 30 minutes outside of Georgetown. Sneaking away once again early in the morning Lily and James coaxed the cooks to give them another early breakfast. Sitting in the uniquely yellow and blue taxis they ate their muffins and orange juice drink boxes feeling like little children once again. The cabbie driver, who could speak a little English laughed at their snacks and dropped them at the bottom of the steps to the temple.
No crowds had yet arrived and the snakes were unusually active. Lily had read the night before in the brochures she had procured that the incense the snake handlers lit calmed the snakes and made them tired. Mostly during the day when it got hot and the incense was strong the snake almost seemed dead or better yet simply stuffed versions. Since it was only 8am the snakes hadn't had time for the incense to take effect and were still alive and awake enough to move around and hiss when Lily or James got too close. One of the handlers stayed with them during their visit due to their activity. James noticed that Lily held his hand in a vice grip in the temple and just bared the pain and smiled for the camera.
Lily got the honour of being able to handle a venomous green viper since there were very little amount of people in the temple at 8am. Some of the other visitors praised the snake and some prayed and worshiped them. In Chor Soo Kong shrine people bowed and offered gifts in gratitude. They watched the few people around them before they got in line for their own pictures to be taken. James pulled out some of the Malaysian currency before Lily could pull out her card and paid the 30 Rupees for the snake photos. They had their pictures with some of the snakes wrapped around their hands and another long snake named Tiger hanging from Lily's left shoulder to James's right shoulder.
When leaving the temple Lily was looking a little green and admitted to James that she had a small phobia of snakes. He steered her away to a table of one of the stalls and quickly brought her a pineapple slice that she had enjoyed from the day before. Biting into the sweet fruit she seemed to regain a bit of her tan. He laughed at her silliness and told her about his own fears instead to make her laugh. James was afraid of heights. They sat for an hour just people watching and bantering about the simplest of things such as what was sweeter: pineapple or watermelon. Before leaving both brought a piece of watermelon and pineapple to prove their argument. Lily won as always. The pineapple was sweeter than the watermelon. Smiling in triumph they walked back to the taxi bay each with a piece of fruit.
Catching another taxi back to the hotel they passed stalls of the market opening. Before James knew what was happening Lily was tapping the cabbie on the shoulder and asking to be let out near the colourful stalls. She paid the driver and danced her way between the sea of people that crowded the markets. There was seafood, DVDs, toys, knock-off clothes, knock-off shoes, knock-off bags. Food stalls, drink stalls, smoke stalls and pipe stalls. Lily flittered over to the pipe stall and brought a majestic black pipe of a simple design. She took a few experimental puffs before handing over the money. James teased her that he didn't peg her for a smoker before she rebuked him that it was for her grandfather.
The air smelled of body odour, mixed with the sweet smell of spices and the humid smell of water saturating the air. All over James was bombarded with the noise of the stall workers trying to sell their goods. Seeing as Lily and James were a white couple they were pulled in all directions to see different things and coax into buying a lot of useless things that at the time seemed necessary to their survival. Both James and Lily admitted that the stall workers were some of the best sales people they had either met.
They spent the rest of the day shopping in the stalls and spent dinner at a small food market. The roof was corrugated iron and there were no walls. In the corner was a bar open to the public and two small TVs one showing European football and the other American grid-iron. All around them, where the walls should have been, were stall carts with sizzling and bubbling of the food they were cooking. The smell of the small food court was marvellous and made the pair ravenous as they waited for their numbers to be called.
Lily ordered a chicken soup from one shop and James beef in a black bean sauce from another. Pulling out the plastic chair for Lily James considered what he thought about the girl. She had received another clue today from a man at the snake temple with sign for Evans and Potter. On a piece of cardboard was a picture of a railway cart going through a forest it seemed. However instead of the carriage travelling on level ground it was climbing a hill. There was some writing on the tram but neither of them could make it out before they got into the watermelon/pineapple argument, picture completely forgotten.
Today, not unlike the day before and the day before that Lily had surprised him again. He never knew what to make of her alias personality and often wondered if this was the real her or was this the fake fun her. Whichever way he really didn't care. He wanted her to stay carefree and continue to banter with him during dinner. He enjoyed the friendship, the easy talk and the way that he knew he could stir her up when he wanted.
Lily was similarly thinking of the ease of the day with James. He hadn't been too annoying in the taxi to the temple and even brought her a pineapple to calm her down after the snakes. She still laughed at his face when taking the photo with the snake. Before the photographer had managed to take the photo the snake pooed on his sleeve. The photo still showed the stain if she strained her eyes.
She wasn't sure what she was feeling around him but he wasn't inducing the same amount of loathing that he once did. Maybe it was the truce or maybe it was the familiarity she was forced to endure with his constant presence.
She was convinced that her holidays were ruined but he hadn't done much to make them bad. He had mad her laughed on occasion and didn't complain when she wanted to see historic monuments or when she babbled about their history and importance in the world. In fact during one of her speeches about what the statue of Chor Soo Kong was a symbol for he told her why he had a black face. There were two reasons he explained. The first one being that demons had unsuccessfully tried to cook him and left him with a black face. And the other being that he took some dangerous herbs that changed his face to the colour black.
That night back at the hotel, before eating dinner, or even contemplating the thought of more food, they fell asleep on the lounge with the TV still on. It stayed on til the early hours in the morning when James woke up to find a sore back and a sleeping Lily. Switching off the TV he picked her up bridal style and tucked her into bed before climbing in himself.
