‘What did the politician say?’
‘The politician said that if he did that, he’d be murdered.
‘I love that guy,’ she said. ‘He should do stand-up.’
‘And half a dozen Shiva sadhus came and stayed. They preferred their oxygen smoked, argued with Idriss day and night, and started waving their Shiva tridents over their heads, threatening to kill everybody. In the end, Silvano and I had to handle it.’
‘With Silvano’s rifle?’
‘Of course not. You can’t shoot holy men. We paid them to leave.’
‘Smart move. How’s it been, with Silvano?’
‘Great. He’s a good guy.’
‘I knew you’d like him, because he’s a lot like you.’
‘Like me?’
‘Oh, yeah.’
I thought about it, but not for long.
‘I like him. I’d like him on our team.’
‘Our team? We’ve got a team?’
‘I’ve been giving it some thought. I’ve been thinking we could –’
‘Let’s talk about that later,’ she said. ‘How’s it going with Idriss?’
I wanted to talk about us, and what we were going to do together in the Island City, or away from it. I wanted to talk about us, and I wanted to kiss her.
‘I’d rather talk about us,’ I smiled.
‘How’s it going with Idriss?’ she repeated.
‘Idriss . . . is pretty cool, I gotta admit.’
‘Has he opened any doors for you?’
A big question, and a funny one at that: I spent most of my life closing doors, and doing everything I could to keep them closed. There was too much of the past that I didn’t want to remember.
‘Doors in the mind, certainly,’ I said. ‘But if you mean, am I a transformed man? No, it’s still me.’
She looked out at the view: the valley and the spired village, shimmering in the distance.
‘Did you find Madame Zhou?’ I asked.
‘She’s gone to ground,’ Karla replied, looking at the point where earth strains to kiss the sky.
‘Nothing at all?’
‘No-one’s seen her or heard from her since Didier and Naveen started asking around. She’s probably still here. She’s cunning. If she doesn’t want to be found, she’s invisible.’
‘Nobody’s invisible. If she’s still around, we’ll find her. Naveen gave me a message from Abdullah. He –’
‘Told you to wait here at least another week. Abdullah called, and told me. That’s why I pulled Naveen up here with me.’
‘And Diva?’
‘That’s something else. I wanted her to meet Idriss. I have plans for Diva, and something tells me that Idriss is a cosmic connection.’
‘Speaking of cosmic connections,’ I said, pulling her on top of me to kiss her.
Earth-smell through her hair. The sun touching us with warm light breaking through leaves, and winds rushing trees on the cliff with hot breath. Karla.
‘Can we sleep here tonight, Shantaram?’
‘We can sleep here now.’
‘Good. Then let’s go back to the kids, and play nice.’
‘Well . . . I . . . ’
We played nice with Naveen and the students. Idriss kept Diva in conversation for two hours, and then insisted that the poor little rich girl stay the night, in a poor little poor girl cave, with the other girls on the mountain.
Diva surprised me by agreeing immediately, and then unsurprised me by sending Naveen back to the car to fetch her essential supplies.
When we’d eaten dinner, and cleaned the dishes, some students left for the night, and others retired to the caves, to study or sleep. The night owls, my friends, sat around the fire, and sipped too-sweet black tea, laced with rum.
I stood to say goodnight to Idriss and Silvano, sitting with me, on the other side of the fire.
Naveen, Diva, and Karla talked and laughed together, firelight painting mysterious beauty.
‘That Diva is a remarkable young woman,’ Idriss said softly, as she laughed at something Karla said.
In her private conversation with Idriss, Diva had made the sage laugh so hard that he got the giggles, and couldn’t stop. Watching her laughing by the fire, the holy man chuckled again.
‘Don’t you think she’s remarkable?’
I looked at her, sitting next to Karla. I couldn’t see it.
‘I see a very spoilt girl,’ I said. ‘Smart, pretty, and spoilt.’
‘You might be right, now,’ Idriss laughed. ‘But think of what she will become, and what she could achieve.’
He retired for the night, Silvano at his side.
As I joined the others, Diva dragged Karla by the elbow, and they walked off together to sit in the canvas chairs that faced the eastern forest.
I could just see their profiles, dipping past the edges of the chairs as they talked. I sat down with Naveen.
‘Good to see you smiling, man,’ he observed.
‘Was I smiling?’
‘You were smiling. Well, before Karla left you were.’
He prodded at the fire with a stick, throwing up brittle sparks.
‘What’s on your mind, kid?’
‘It can wait till morning,’ he said, pestering the fire.
‘No time like the present. What’s up?’
‘I’m worried about her,’ he said, glancing up at the girls sitting in the canvas chairs, just out of hearing, except for their laughter.
‘Karla?’
‘No,’ he frowned. ‘Diva.’
‘What’s the problem?’
‘Her father got mixed up with some very bad guys. I’m talking
