The Mountain Shadow

Arshan stopped the taxi before we reached his house, saying that he had to talk to me in private. The chai shop where I sat with Concannon after the fight with the Scorpions was nearby. We sat in a sheltered spot beneath a blue plastic awning tied between trees.

Arshan drank a few breathy gulps of his tea.

‘Tell me about Farzad.’

‘He was having these headaches. I was so angry I came up here once before, to challenge Dilip, but you brought me home. The headaches got worse. Finally, we convinced him to have it checked, and they discovered a massive blood clot. It happened, they say, when he was kicked in the head.’

‘That’s tough. I’m sorry, Arshan.’

‘While they were testing him, he collapsed. They took him upstairs to the intensive care, right away. He’s been there ever since. Seventy-two hours, now, unresponsive.’

‘Unresponsive?’

‘He’s in a coma, Lin.’

‘Where is he?’

‘Bhatia hospital.’

‘It’s a good hospital,’ I said. ‘He’ll be okay.’

‘He’ll die,’ Arshan said.

‘He won’t. You won’t let him. But he’ll have nothing to live for when he gets well, if Lightning kills you. Promise me you won’t do anything like that again.’

‘I . . . I can’t.’

‘You can. And you must. People are depending on you.’

‘You don’t understand,’ he said. ‘I found it.’

‘You found what?’

‘I found the treasure.’

Bells rang somewhere: people were praying at a local temple, and ringing small, hand-held bells.

‘The treasure?’

‘Yes.’

‘When?’

He was staring at his own feet in a daze, the empty chai glass slipping through his fingers. I caught it as it fell, and set it on the ground.

‘Two weeks ago.’

‘The families must be thrilled, even at a sad time like this.’

‘I haven’t told them.’

‘What? You’ve gotta tell them.’

‘At first,’ he said quietly, talking to himself, ‘I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want to lose what we had. The search was . . . so much fun, you see. We were all so happy. I know the treasure will change us. It has to. We won’t be able to stop it. So, I kept it a secret.’

He fell silent, dancing backwards through memories of a treasure unfound.

‘And now?’

‘When Farzad got sick and he was lying in that bed, not responding to a kiss, I knew that I’d kept the secret because I was greedy. In my heart of hearts, the secret was too wonderful to share, and it gave me pleasure, for a while, to know that it was mine, alone.’

‘It’s human,’ I said. ‘And now you can make up for it, like a mensch.’

‘Don’t you see? I didn’t make any protest, when that policeman kicked Farzad, because I didn’t want anything to jeopardise the search. I sacrificed my own son, for the treasure.’

‘You didn’t kick your son in the head, Arshan. And Lightning Dilip has kicked me in the head a few times, without a blood clot. It was bad luck, and bad timing, and that’s not your fault.’

‘I was . . . so selfish.’

‘Well, now you can be generous, and you can afford to bring the best doctors and specialists from the whole world to Farzad’s bed. You can make him well with the treasure, Arshan.’

‘Do you really think so?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t know anything. But I think you should try. Whatever you do, you’ve gotta tell the others that you found the treasure. Every day you wait breaks a strand in their trust. You gotta do it now, Arshan, tonight.’

‘You’re right,’ he said, straightening up. ‘You’re right.’

‘Let’s get one thing straight, before you do. I don’t want any part of the treasure. I don’t want to hear about it, ever again, if that’s okay with you.’

‘What are you saying?’

‘I’m saying that I don’t need it, and don’t want it, and don’t want to hear about it, ever again. You see that, right?’

‘You’re a strange man, Lin,’ he said. ‘But I like you.’

I walked him to the door of his house. We could hear Anahita, on the other side of it. She’d worked up a good pestering, and let him have it before she opened the door.

‘Seven loaves I baked for Farzad’s prayers,’ the closed door shouted at us, ‘and you couldn’t get home on time!’

When she opened mid-pester and saw his face, she cried out and pulled him into a cuddle.

‘What is it?’ she gasped. ‘What’s the matter, my darling love?’

‘I have something to tell you, sweetheart,’ Arshan said, leaning on her, as he walked through the red curtains leading to the excavated dome. ‘Call everyone together.’

‘Of course, my darling,’ she said, supporting him on her shoulder as they walked.

‘I’m sorry about the loaves, dearest,’ Arshan said absently.

‘Never you mind about that, my darling.’

I let myself out. Nobody noticed. I was glad.

As I stood outside, waving down a taxi to retrieve my bike, I heard shouts and screams and happy ululations, ringing from the three-family home.

I got my bike, and paid the kid who’d watched it for me. He gave the money back, and change, which wasn’t a good thing.