Chapter 2
It had been a week since Dr. Bruce Banner had saved Mika's life, and no one had seen him since. Mika had woken up the morning after the Takeris had started treatment and had been growing stronger every day. She was going to be fine. But the doctor was gone. He hadn't been back to the house, or even come into the shop since the incident, but Alice couldn't stop looking for him. As she sat in the shop, chin in her hand, her eyes scanned the street outside, trying to catch a glimpse of him. Everywhere she went she was always looking, looking for the doctor that had saved a little girl and then vanished.
At first she tried to rationalize it. She told herself she was looking for the Takeris' sake. They were so grateful to the doctor that had saved their only child. They wanted to do something, anything to repay the debt. Now that a week had passed, she knew that wasn't entirely true, but she still used the rationale, because it was all the explanation she had.
The little bell above the shop door tinkled and Ambika Takeri glided into the shop. She looked much more like her old self now. The dark, tired circles under her eyes were fading and she looked radiant in her brightly colored sari and headscarf. Alice was so happy to see her looking well rested.
"Good afternoon, Alice," Ambi said, sweeping behind the counter and beginning the drawer count.
"Good afternoon, Ambi," Alice replied, "How is Mika?"
"Much better, but still tired, she sleeps so much." She glanced up from counting for a moment, "He still does not come?"
Alice looked out the window, scanning the crowd one more time out of habit.
"Nope, no sign of him."
She tried to sound nonchalant, but she wasn't sure if she succeeded. Ambi just nodded and went back to the count. Her long slender fingers were quick and precise, and in what felt like a blink, Alice was slinging her bag over her shoulder and heading out into the bright afternoon, the summer sun warm on her tanned shoulders under her dingy green tank.
No matter where she went, Alice had discovered that navigating city streets was essentially the same. Keep your head down, and try to stay out of everybody's way. But lately, Alice had been keeping her head up and her eyes peeled, flicking into the faces of strangers, looking for anything that might give her a clue to the doctor's whereabouts. What was a scruffy American doctor doing in the slums of Kolkata anyway? The only American doctors she'd seen were trim and sleek, and working with Greenpeace. Dr. Banner hadn't looked like he had ever worked for Greenpeace. He'd looked like a laborer, like a common man. Only he wasn't, and not just because of his profession. Alice couldn't place it, but there was something about him, in the way he spoke and the look in his eyes…
Alice bought a kebob of meat and veggies from a street vendor, then, just out of curiosity, she asked, "English?"
The small dirty man looked up and gave her a gap-toothed grin.
"Yes! Yes, English, American!"
She tried not to roll her eyes. Sometimes revealing that you were American to anyone felt like the the equivalent of announcing to a buzzard that you were dying. She had just labeled herself a tourist. The truth of that label was irrelevant.
"Have you seen a man go by here, about so high," She measured a few inches above her own head, "Curly brown hair, glasses, American?"
She didn't know how much of the description the man understood other than 'American', but he seemed to ponder the question for a moment. To help him along, Alice bought another of his skewers. They really were pretty good and she was hungry.
"American man used to go by here," he said finally, "Sometimes he stop, buy, sometimes not," He circled his eyes with his fingers, "Eye glass."
Alice felt her heart jump in her chest.
"Yes!" she said, "Yes, have you seen him?"
The man shook his head and tended to a few skewers he had just added to the grill, "No, not for many days."
Alice felt a little of her excitement sputter out, but she kept on.
"When you saw him, where did he go? Did you see where he went?"
The man considered her for a moment and Alice realized it was entirely possible that she sounded a little bit crazy. She tried to wipe all traces of stalker-like excitement from her face. She wasn't a crazy stalker… Was she?
The man shrugged, apparently deciding it didn't matter much to him either way.
"He would go that way," He pointed down a narrow side street, "Get on a bus. To work, I think, maybe to the river?"
"The river?"
The Hooghy River was a 45 minute trip from here. It seemed like an awful long way.
"Sure, the river. Easy to get work there."
Alice remembered the doctor's dirty clothes and considered. She supposed it was possible that he could work on the river front, maybe for one of the loading companies. She thanked the vendor and bought one more skewer from him for his trouble, giving it to a little boy as soon as she was out of sight. It was then that she realized what she'd done. She had essentially bribed a stranger for information about a man's whereabouts. She was a stalker! This was crazy! She couldn't go wandering all over God's green earth looking for a man she barely knew, and who clearly did not want to see her again.
She turned on her heel, marched straight back the way she had come, and just managed to catch the bus headed back to the hostel where she was staying. The sun was setting behind the buildings of the city, casting long shadows as she stared out the window. This was insane. she was insane. What had she been thinking?
She got off the bus and hurried inside the rundown building. The hostel was really just a step or two above the slums themselves, but it was cheap, and it had a bed and running water. After almost ten years of traveling, Alice had discovered that was really all she needed.
She flopped on the rickety bunk that she called home and stared determinedly at the bottom of the bunk above her. She would not go to the river. She would not go to the river. Besides, this late in the evening he wouldn't be there anyway. He would be making his way to… well she didn't know where. She didn't know where he was.
It was early still, so the dorm was quiet. Normally the quiet would have been comforting, but now she felt edgy, restless. She needed a distraction. She got up and started rifling through her locker. No one took any notice of her. Most of the people who stayed in these places were tourists or college kids on sabbatical, not exactly her kind of crowd. Over the years, Alice had developed an air about her, a distance that others could sense and didn't try to penetrate.
She pulled out a nice pair of jeans and a top she rarely wore, purple with sequins. She was going out tonight. Maybe she would even have a drink, just one. She didn't like to drink too much when she was alone, but it might take the edge off, get her mind working in a different direction. After all, tomorrow was her day off. She could have just one drink. No matter what she was not going to the river.
But of course, despite her best efforts, as the sun rose over the city the next morning Alice found herself on a bus, heading for the river.
She spent the morning wandering shipping docks, keeping her eyes and ears open for any sign of the doctor. She tried to ask some of the dock workers and street vendors about him, but her Hindi was spotty at best and the workers that knew enough English to understand what she was asking were few and far between. Many men gave her lingering looks that made her skin crawl, and muttered things that she didn't understand and was sure she didn't want to. She didn't let it bother her. She just kept walking, her head high.
By noon, her enthusiasm had waned considerably. The day was hot and muggy this close to the water. No one had heard of any Bruce, Banner or otherwise, and no Americans were working there that matched the description she gave. She was pushing her way through the lunch crowd, trying to breathe the heavy air, when she caught a flash of curly brown hair out of the corner of her eye. She jerked upright, her eyes alert, but it was gone. Maybe it had never been there to begin with. Maybe the heat was playing tricks on her mind. It didn't matter. The pounding of her heart and the adrenaline in her veins spurred her on.
She stopped at a store for a bottle of water and a granola bar, and then moved on to the next dock. Still no luck, and her enthusiasm waned once more. The next gate, however, made her pause. Even with her limited knowledge of the shipping industry, she could tell that this company was less than reputable. Once you got a taste for it, you could almost always tell the shady businesses, the ones that paid under the table and didn't ask pesky questions about work visas. They had a feeling about them, an atmosphere that no amount of paint or neon lighting could hide. Not that this company appeared to be taking the route of subtlety. The gate was padlocked and the rusted sign on the chain link boldly proclaimed, in both Hindi and English, "Property of ABC Shipping and Transport: No Trespassing."
It took only a moment for Alice to find a spot where the fence didn't quite meet the pole it was supposed attach to. With a quick glance around, she pushed it back and slipped inside.
The dock itself had an unsavory feel to it. Men in dirty clothes and scarred skin shuffled by with their heads down, giving barely a glance to the petite woman wandering through their midst. All of them looked as Dr. Banner had looked, like they had something to hide, something to run from. Alice imagined that if anyone ever bothered to look very closely, she would have a similar look to her.
There was a single ship docked at the yard and there were men working with outdated machinery and bare hands to unload the cargo. Alice was certain that she didn't want to know what was in those boxes. She didn't have time to ponder it very long, because suddenly someone grabbed her arm and yanked her backwards. She felt a jolt of surprise, regained her balance, and whirled to face her attacker.
It was Dr. Banner. And he looked like he was fighting to stay calm.
"What are you doing here?" he hissed.
For a fleeting second, Alice forgot what her excuse was for coming.
"I… I just…"
"You shouldn't be here."
He pushed Alice behind him and glanced around the platform nervously. They were behind a stack of empty crates, tucked away between two warehouses. He turned back to face her, shielding her from the view of anyone who might happen to walk by.
"What are you doing here?" he asked again, visibly calmer now, more in control, "Is it the girl? Is she alright?"
Alice nodded, finally able to get her thoughts back in order.
"Yes, yes Mika's fine, she's much better now, thanks to you. The Takeris are so grateful, they wanted to do something for you, to show their appreciation…"
Dr. Banner waved his hand at her, irritated.
"I don't want anything, okay? Just tell them I don't need anything."
"But it would mean a lot…"
"Look," His voice was low now, darker, and his eyes were narrow. His hands were on her shoulders, the grip tight, almost painful, "I don't need anything, I don't want anything. If they want to thank me, they can just forget that they ever saw me. You too, you understand? Forget you ever saw me."
Alice stuttered, "But I…"
"It's not safe, okay? It's not safe around me!"
He shoved her away hard, making her stumble down the alley, and then shoved a finger toward her.
"Now, get out! I don't want to see you here again, got it?"
Before she could answer, the doctor turned and disappeared into a crowd of men headed for the front gate. Alice stood for a moment, rubbing her shoulders where he had gripped her.
"It's not safe around me!"
His words echoed in her head, but they didn't make sense. He was a doctor. Didn't they have to take some kind of oath, do no harm or something? And despite his insinuations and thinly veiled threats, the soft spoken doctor she'd seen a week ago didn't seem all that threatening.
But… his eyes… Not while he had been threatening her, but when he had first seen her, those first few moments, there had been a struggle, just a hint of something that she couldn't quite place, had never seen before, lurking in his eyes. For that brief moment, Alice might have been able to believe that Dr. Bruce Banner was dangerous. She didn't know how or why, but it took only a few seconds for her to realize she was going to find out. She needed to know.
She sprinted down the alley and slipped through the fence the same way she'd come in. The street outside was crowded with men getting off work and she thought for a moment that she might have missed him already. She spun in a circle on the sidewalk, searching the sea of strangers, for any trace…
There. A mop of brown hair and she was pushing through the crowd, anxious to keep him in sight. He kept his head down, moving quickly and fluidly through the throng of people all jostling together on the sidewalks, but Alice was small and agile enough to keep pace with him to the bus station. A bus pulled up and Dr. Banner got on it.
Alice slipped in the back door behind a group of men who all leered at her and made a few rude noises. Alice ignored them, her eyes scanning the crowded bus. He was there, standing in the aisle with his back to her, his head still down, like he was trying not to be seen. Hiding in plain sight. Alice smiled. She'd playing that game most of her life. He wasn't hiding from her. He was hiding from everyone and that was considerably harder.
The bus lurched forward and Alice grabbed a pole to keep her footing. One of the men she was standing near made another rude comment, something about the pole. She wanted to glare, or preferably kick him in the groin, but that would draw everyone's attention and she might lose sight of the doctor. She continued to ignore them.
The bus trundled along for a while, stopping frequently to drop off and pick up passengers. Every time the bus stopped Alice felt her heart race. Every time the passengers shifted and she lost sight of the doctor's curly head, even for an instant, her pulse jumped in her throat. But then everything settled and he was there, right where she'd left him. The men that had been working as her cover got off and were replaced by a mixed group of men and women that left her to herself. She was relieved. She really didn't have time to deal with that nonsense right now.
After what felt like an eternity (but was really about an hour), the bus stopped and Dr. Banner slipped out the doors. Alice rushed to follow, nearly tripping over herself to get out. They were on the very eastern edge of the city, not too terribly far from the Takeri's shop. It was an area that she could just barely recognize from her own bus trips through the city. They were just outside the slums.
The light was dim now. The sun had set during the bus trip and only a few lamp posts lit the street. Doctor Banner was already well ahead of her, taking long purposeful strides down the sidewalk, headed into the slums. Alice followed, but didn't hurry to catch him. There weren't very many people walking on the street, it was much easier to keep sight of him, and she didn't want him to turn around and immediately recognize her. She hoped the dim light would help to prevent that.
She followed him into the slums of Kolkata. She knew this area, had gotten lost here a few times, but she had never come with any real purpose. Dr. Banner moved like a man with a destination. Did he live here, in the slums? Why? Alice didn't have the brain capacity to ponder that, keep up with him, and also take in her surroundings. After all, she was going to need to find her way back out of here eventually.
They walked for several blocks. The open shacks all stuffed together, became fewer and more spread out. Alice was surprised when a tree popped up out of the dirt beside her. And another. There were trees growing out here!
The house Dr. Banner finally entered was little more than four walls and roof. There were holes cut into the walls for a door and couple of windows, but except for a few tattered pieces of cloth that might once have been curtains, nothing covered them. It was quiet and secluded. The nearest house was quite a few feet away (and it looked unoccupied), and the shack was surrounded by trees, keeping it well hidden from everything. If Alice hadn't seen Dr. Banner go in, she might have missed it. She wasn't even sure if they were still in the city.
A light flared to life and flickered through the windows and door. Alice quickly swung up into one of the trees as soundlessly as possible. The branches were sturdy and barely shuddered under her weight. She pulled herself up until she could see inside the house through the cover of leaves. There wasn't much to see. It was one room with a dirt floor. A rickety old bed covered with a worn green blanket stood against one wall. Pushed against another wall was a small table and a lit candle. Bruce sat on a three legged stool that looked like it might collapse under him at any moment. It looked like he was writing something.
Alice felt a sudden rush of guilt. She was a stalker. Officially. She had followed this man to his home, after clearly being told that she was not welcome and now she was sitting in a tree, watching him through a window. She was a bona fide stalker. For a minute, it creeped her out.
But then a breeze blew through the tree's branches, cooling the warm night air and her sweaty face. The wind was out of the east and it didn't smell like the city, dirty and tainted. It smelled green and fresh, and just for a single moment, Alice thought of home, the small farm in Oklahoma where she'd grown up, grown up faster than she should have, in one single afternoon. But the smell reminded her of a time, before the horrible afternoon, when she had been really happy there. And she wasn't ready to leave just yet.
So Alice settled back against the tree trunk and prepared to wait.