I rose before the sun did the next day, and immediately showered. When I returned to my room, dressed in clean clothing, I wrapped myself in a dupatta and went to work.
I pulled the small shrine from my back pack and set it down beneath the window, placing my idol inside. Then, I withdrew a deep brass dish, which I set aside, and a metal tray, upon which, I arranged my deep*, my ghanta*, some incense, and three brass bowls, one of rice, one of kumkum*, and one of water. I placed a small standing lamp next to the shrine and struck a match, lighting the candle and the deep. As the sun rose, I worked through my rituals.
Towards the end of my prayer, I heard the door open. Whoever it was approached as I rang the bell and circled the tray in front of the deity.
"… What are you doing?" A familiar, monotonous voice came. I finished the circles and fanned the incense over the idol, then turned to L. As he crouched next to me, I circled the tray before him, fanning incense over him as well. He stared blankly at me as I set the tray down.
"My puja." I answered simply, blowing out the deep. "Why'd you come in here?"
"I heard a bell." His cryptic tone did not go over my head, but before I could inquire, he continued. "Come with me."
"Why?"
"Just do it."
We ended up in some sort of library, the walls of which were lined with countless leather books. A hook ladder leaned up against every side, and in the middle there stood more grand bookshelves, stretching from the floor to the ceiling. He led me down an aisle and plucked a book from the shelf to our left, then held it between his thumb and index finger and showed me the cover.
"Do you know who this is?" He asked.
"Freud?" I asked, squinting in the dim light. "Yeah, who doesn't?"
"Do you know how much scientific proof went into his theories?"
"None at all, really."
"So you could say his theories were just educated guesses, right?"
"Absolutely." I answered, watching as he replaced the book. "What are you getting at?"
"I consider Freud an exceptional practitioner of deductive reasoning," he continued. "He took the information in front of him and gave it a logical explanation. I see no reason why you can't learn how to do that, too."
I raised an eyebrow at him. "Freud's theories might not have had a lot of back up, but he wasa neurologist, so he did know some things about the brain. And his ideas must've stemmed from some sort of repetition that he witnessed in his patients. How am I supposed to come to a conclusion based off of a single occurrence?"
"Logic."
"I'm terrible at logic."
"Then how are you able to read people so easily?" I shrugged honestly, screwing up my face.
"I don't know! People are easy to understand-"
"So what's stopping you from understanding their actions as well?"
I stopped then, thinking about what he had said. I didn't really know why I was bad at logic; I thought that it might have something to do with my lack of drive in that area and my short attention span, but I wasn't sure. Maybe if I applied it to something I was good at, I'd be able to gain a new skill.
"Well, I'll try it," I said, adjusting my dupatta. "But I'm not making any promises. I don't think I'm the genius you're mistaking me for."
"My intuition is very strong, Lucky."
"So is my self-awareness." He gave me a small smile, pleasant with a little bit of creepy. I again pushed the delusion of pride from my mind.
"Well, that's all. You'll have a few days to settle in before getting to work. I probably won't be here when you do."
"Okay." I made to leave, but stopped after a few steps. "L?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you." I turned back and returned to him, crouching down in front of him and touching his feet. As I stood, I brought my right hand to my heart, taking his blessing. He awkwardly patted my head again, a 'you're welcome' gesture, and I left the room.
I felt his grin on my back.
As I passed my room in search of the stairs, I heard a thump from behind the door and rushed inside. I was furious to see Near before my shrine, patting out a small fire on the rug with one hand and clutching my idol with the other.
"What are you doing?!" I barked, stomping over and ripping the idol away from him. He looked up at me.
"Playing," he said innocently, reaching up to twirl a lock of his hair.
"These aren't toys!" I shouted. His face didn't move an inch. I took a deep breath so as not to pollute the sanctity of my prayer area and continued. "This is a shrine, Near. This is where I pray. Please don't touch it again!"
My voice rose angrily at the end and I bit my lip, dropping down to clean up the mess he had made. The standing lamp had been knocked over, spilling some of the ghee* onto the carpet, which had no doubt helped spread the fire and there was a large black mark where the flames had been. The holy water with which I'd bathed the deity had been used to put it out and I felt tears prick at the corner of my eyes at the sight of my kumkum scattered across the charred ground.
"You're distraught," he pointed out as I replaced the deity and bowed to it.
"Yes, Near, these things are important to me and you ruined them." I knew that I was being unnecessarily cruel, but I couldn't help it; I wanted him to feel how badly I was hurt.
"Watari can get you new things, you know." He said. I scowled.
"I could have guessed that. But these are things from my home. I-"
"This is your home now. You should get used to it."
"I know that! I-" I paused, realizing that no matter what I said, he would counter with something to belittle me. "Just forget it Near. Leave."
I saw him stand from the corner of my eye, noticing the splatter of red on his pants as he left the room. I let a tear drip off of my cheek when he was gone, sweeping the rice into my hand.
"Hey, Luck- what the hell happened in here?" I glanced up at the voice, seeing a shocked Matt move further into the room. I returned to my cleaning.
"Near happened," I said, sniffing.
"Hey, don't cry, let me help-"
"No," I snapped, grabbing his wrist as he made to pick up some stray grains of rice. He looked at me, stunned, and I guiltily pulled back my hand. "I'm sorry, I'm just really upset."
"I can tell," he said. He stepped back and sat down, keeping me company as I cleaned. "Did you want to talk about it?"
"There's not much to talk about," I replied. "He touched my stuff when he didn't even have permission to be in my room and destroyed it."
"What's so special about this stuff?"
"This is my shrine," I said. "It's got everything that I need to do my puja, my prayer, every morning. Everything here is sacred and shouldn't be contaminated, not even by bad feelings, which I'm having right now."
"How can I help?" I stopped cleaning to look at him, not believing a thirteen-year-old boy would actually be this kind. He looked completely serious.
"… That was just the help I needed. Thanks." I said, giving him a small smile. He shot back a bright one.
"In that case, how would you feel about hanging out?" He said. "I've got a GameCube and a couple new multiplayer games."
"… What's a GameCube?" His face filled with mock-horror and I almost laughed.
"Only the greatest gaming console ever invented! Do you not have video games in Am-ah-bed?"
"Okay, first of all, it's Ahmedabad, and second of all, the last video game I played was Pokemon Stadium at my cousin's house in Udaipur; I never owned any consoles myself."
"You have much to learn, little girl." I rolled my eyes but smiled.
"Then you better start teaching, old man."
"I don't like this game."
"Why not?"
"It's scary."
"Oh come on, it's not-" as if to prove my point, something popped up, causing me to yelp and throw the controller away. I covered my eyes. "-okay, maybe it's a little much for you."
"You think?" I jabbed. He started to reply, but my stomach growled, interrupting him. He laughed and I felt my cheeks warm up slightly.
"Hungry?"
"A little." He got off of his bed and turned off the console, then grabbed my elbow and pulled me off the floor.
"Come on, we'll get lunch."
Matt led me downstairs and into the huge dining room, where it appeared that lunch was going on. Kids dotted tables all over the room, shoveling food into their mouths. We loaded up our plates and started towards a table. As we walked, my eyes landed on Near, who sat alone in the corner and picked at his food. With a sigh, I made my way over to him.
"Where are you going?" Matt asked, following me.
"To make peace," I answered. "I was pretty mean to him before. He's upset."
"He looks like a piece of plywood," he replied incredulously. "He's not upset."
"Trust me, Matt, he's upset. If you don't want to sit with him, sit by yourself." He made a sour face and fell silent, continuing to trail behind me. Near didn't look up when we sat across from him, continuing to push rice around his plate.
"Near," I said, getting his attention. "It's okay. I'm sorry I was so harsh. You couldn't have known better."
He looked blankly at me, his free hand reaching up to twirl a lock of his white hair. He appeared to be contemplating something, and I could feel the "I told you so" building up in the brunet beside me as we sat in silence for what seemed to be quite a while.
"… And I'm sorry I played with your shrine." He said finally, stunning Matt. I smiled at the white-haired boy, diving into my food.
"What are you doing?" Matt asked as I lifted rice to my mouth. I froze, a few grains falling from between my fingers, and looked at him.
"Eating."
"With your hands?" I felt a pang in my heart, a sudden awareness of how far away from my home I was, and of how strange I must have appeared in this foreign place, full of all these foreign people. I dropped the rice back onto my plate and looked down at it, wishing I would disappear. My appetite waned.
From the perimeter of my vision, I saw Near put down his fork and clumsily dip his hand into his food, mashing it between his fingers before bringing them to his lips and licking off whatever was there. When I looked straight at him, I could've sworn I saw a grin pass over his lips.
"Who says rice can't be finger food," he quipped, continuing to eat that way. From beside me, Matt put down his fork and did the same.
I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat, shyly beginning to eat. I didn't think that Matt understood the acceptance he had just shown me, but I knew that Near did. I glanced at him as I chewed, flashing a small, grateful smile. He gave me a tiny nod.
Maybe Wammy's House would be okay after all.
I'm iffy about this chapter. There are parts I really liked and parts that I just couldn't tease out, but I'm going to forgive myself because overall I think it's not bad! Just to warn you guys, the next chapter might also be a little weak in spots, but bear with me! After that we have a time skip that gets us to the meat of the story and I think that things will get much better! Again, reviews are much appreciated, and I hope that you enjoy this chapter!
Love,
Marie
notes:
deep: an oil lamp, usually made from clay, with a cotton wick; its light is a symbol of knowledge, and it is used during prayer to see the god more clearly.
ghanta: a small bell, usually made of brass, used to ward off evil forces and summon the gods during prayer.
kumkum: a powder used for social and religious markings.
ghee: clarified butter typically made from cows milk; it is used as the oil in the deep and the standing lamp during prayer.