Roachville

I opened my eyes and felt a real ache in my shoulder where the soldier had hit me on the dream beach. That does it, I thought. Like a newly activated robot, I got up and placed the naga in Ely’s white linen bag. I stepped outside and, without looking back, I closed the door and marched in the direction of Vi and Bek’s house.

In the back lanes, tiny insects buzzed at head height and I pictured the long-gone countryside. Five minutes later, I let myself in through the back garden via the narrow path by the side of the house. It was cluttered with dead TVs and other electronic junk.

I found them still wearing their office attire. Bek was sparking what I presumed would be a mind-blowing joint and Vi was picking newborn weeds from pretty flowerbeds. A perfect picture of suburban happiness. The small garden surrounded by a tall wooden fence was all vivid green and multi-coloured.

‘Hiya, your garden’s looking beautiful.’

‘Hiya, mate!’ they chimed back in unison.

‘You two are getting to be so synchronised it’s scary. Maybe you should get married.’

‘I thought you didn’t believe in marriage,’ Vi said.

‘I don’t, but you could be an exception to the rule. I’d even happily go to your wedding if you could get it together to organise one.’

‘Great, I’m really fucking touched,’ muttered Bek. ‘Anyway I need entertainment, so have some of this.’ He passed me the joint. ‘And update us on the dragon thingy and your rat boy from St-Werburghs.’

‘What do you mean, rat boy? And how do you know about him!’ I spat back.

‘Yeah, Vi told me all about him. And isn’t he a skinny rake of a man?’

I held the joint and squinted, trying to control the edgy feeling forming in the back of my throat. ‘Well, if you really wanna know, he is skinny, but not that skinny, he’s just right. Are you jealous or something?’

‘All right, all right, children!’ interjected Vi like a perfect mother figure floating above the lawn. ‘We’re all a bit tired. Some because of the pressure of modern office work, other because of… well, other bizarre things, but there’s no need to squabble,’ she carried on virtuously. I strained my eyes, speculating that she needed to have children. Bek also peered at her dubiously. Maybe he was having the same thoughts.

Sitting down on a green plastic chair, I took a long drag of Bek’s joint and gave him a dirty look through the twirling smoke. I stood up again, took the naga out of its bag and placed it in the middle of the garden table, equidistant between Bek and me.

‘So, good day at the office then?’ I said, and a few flies dropped dead around me. ‘Here’s the fucking dragon thingy.’

Nobody said anything. Children’s voices and vague engine sounds drifted in the distance.

‘Wow...’ Bek said after a while. ‘It really is something.’

‘And so beautiful,’ added Vi. ‘Even more amazing than the first time I saw it in St-Werburghs.’

‘Yep, and now I know what I have to do,’ I continued. ‘And apart from taking me on the best visual trip I’ve ever experienced, this thing, this naga, has told me things that are, well…’ I sat down, the words almost escaping me. ‘Incredible.’

So they wanted to know, of course, why wouldn’t they? But telling them wasn’t easy. I needed more time to reflect on my encounter and there were things I liked to keep to myself, that even my good friends weren’t supposed to know.

I recounted what had happened the day before, the meeting with Kenneth Tann, what I had learnt from Mei and Mulaloo and the fact that Ely had come by and given me the naga.

As the sun went down and the air grew cooler, they listened in silence, just making animal noises at appropriate moments. When I got to falling asleep a few hours ago and the naga’s revelations, describing what I had learnt became even more difficult.

‘I am the naga’s keeper now. It’s just temporary but that’s what it is. Don’t scoff, Bek, I can see the look on your face. You can mock all you want, I don’t even care,’ I stated. And that was true: saying this out loud did not make me feel ridiculous, but finding the right words was tricky. Like a telepathic godmother, Vi conjured up a glass of crisp white wine between my fingers. I downed half of it. They waited. I replayed what had happened with the naga, but I was reluctant to share. I hesitated as if trying to express myself in a foreign language I had all but forgotten.

‘It was like a conscious dream, but it wasn’t really a dream. My best guess is that I was in a different reality, where the naga talked to me.’

‘So, hold on. Are you saying this is just a dream?’ Vi’s green eyes had gone round.

‘Not exactly, Vi. It wasn’t my dream. The best way I can describe it is that the naga used my dream to talk to me.’ I shrugged.

‘And you believe this?’ Bek spat out. ‘This just sounds like bullshit!’

‘Look, Bek, I don’t know what your fucking problem is today. You’re super aggressive and I don’t need that from you. Maybe you’ve had enough of your job, but you know you’re too much of a lazy arse to do anything about it?’

‘Did you dream about that too?’ He raised his voice and my heart rate went up a notch.

‘No, I didn’t, but I’m trying to be open and honest and you’re making it difficult.’

‘Just ignore him,’ interjected Vi. ‘I think you’ve just hit a nerve.’

They glanced angrily at each other, and to break the tension I kept going.

‘I know it’s hard to believe and it sounds like I had too much to smoke, but this was no ordinary dream. This isn’t stuff that my mind randomly made up. So just hear me out. The naga has some powers. Vi, don’t you remember the first time you saw it and how you felt compelled to talk to me about it?’

‘True, that was super weird,’ she said.

I cleared my throat and drank more wine. ‘Now I know there’s a link between me and Kenneth Tann. Did I ever tell you about Alice, my grandmother?’

They shook their head in unison and I launched myself into relating what I had just found out. My two friends didn’t utter a word while I explained how I had always been fascinated by my grandmother and her dead eye, how she had always been in a small corner of my mind even after her death and that the naga’s explanation made a lot of sense in retrospect. I gulped the rest of the wine and slammed the glass on the table, as if it were a sturdy mug. Bek’s face had softened and he was the first one to speak.

‘The vision of genocide on the Malaysian island sounds horrific, but so far it’s just a vision.’

‘I know. But I believe it could happen.’

‘Also, there’s one almighty coincidence in this tale of yours,’ he said.

‘I’m listening,’ I said, reclining in the plastic chair.

‘Isn’t it strange that both your gardener and your grandmother have two differently coloured eyes? How many people with differently coloured eyes do you meet in a lifetime? And now there are two linked to you.’

‘I didn’t think of that,’ I replied, not knowing if this meant something. ‘But one thing is sure – I will not, I cannot, let Kenneth Tann get the naga. Even though part of me feels sorry for him, I couldn’t live with myself if the naga’s prediction became true. So I’ve made my decision.’

Vi narrowed her eyes and nodded at me, while in the centre of the table the naga shone in the rays of our dying sun. It seemed to absorb the light and glow from the inside, as if the reddish wood was almost translucent. I understood why Kenneth Tann wanted it so badly, and why Mei and Phuong wanted to protect it – and maybe even why Mei’s father had been pushed to murder an old man to save his family, too.

‘It’s gorgeous,’ Vi said, ‘but I find it hard to believe that people would go to those lengths for it.’

I was about to reply but Bek beat me to it.

‘Vi, have you not been paying attention? This thing is super precious, it’s like having found a Van Gogh in your attic, it’s that valuable. But if Tann gets it, he’ll turn the island he grew up on into a concentration camp! And for the other guys, not only is it magic but it’s their heritage, so they’re not going to bail out for money! Am I right, Annika?’

‘Yeah, exactly,’ I nodded.

‘Fine,’ Vi said, ‘but I’m not sure about this whole magic stuff, it’s hard to accept.’

I played with my empty glass, hoping she would get the message. ‘Let me put it this way: the naga will reveal precious information and knowledge to its keeper. This knowledge varies greatly from one keeper to the next. For example, I might want to know things about me or the meaning of the universe, but Kenneth Tann is more interested in power and revenge and if he gets the naga, he’ll exploit it for something bad.’ A shiver went through me like a flying saucer through a blue sky.

Silence fell back in the small garden; all eyes were riveted on the wooden statue. Bek turned to me.

‘Sorry I was such a jerk. You were right, I had a bad day at the office and maybe I should do something about it myself. Come here!’

He put his arm around my shoulders and gave me a hug. I hugged him back and Vi completed the hugging trinity. One of us giggled and we disconnected, at peace with the world for a few precious moments. But the peace didn’t last long; soon Vi, as if she had swallowed a furry insect, growled at me, ‘I can and I will accept what you have told us and your connection to the naga, but you should know you’ve upset me.’

‘Is this about the concert the other day?’ I mumbled. ‘You’re pissed off because of the way I left, without telling you…? I know that it was wrong and weak and lazy.’

‘Well, maybe you didn’t apologize earlier because you weren’t that sorry,’ Vi shot back, as if she had rehearsed this conversation in her head and it was going pretty much the way she thought it would. ‘In fact, I think you’re too wrapped up in your own little world to think of other people. This is bad for you and others around you. I know you’ve broken up with Mac, but get over it, will you? I saw how you left on Sunday night, you had that look on your face.’ She stopped abruptly, a veil of exhaustion darkening her features. As for Bek, whose face had been turned up towards the reddening sky, he raised his eyebrows and made funny gestures with his fingers.

‘Vi, you’ve got it down to a T. I couldn’t agree more. I don’t know what all this naga stuff means, but you’ve got to snap out of this… miasma, my friend.’

Bloody good word, I thought, examining the grass at my feet. I sure didn’t want these two people to disappear from my life.

‘You’re right. I do live in a bubble but it’s been a way to protect myself. And yeah, I admit it, I can be selfish. But I am honestly feeling bad about Sunday and also a bit stupid. I should have let you know that I was going home, but you know, time passed and I just retreated inside my… shell.’

‘Your own selfish shell?’ Bek suggested, looking pleased with himself.

‘Yeah, that’ll be the one. I admit it I’m a selfish shellfish.’ I twisted my tongue around the words.

Vi finished her wine and looked me in the eyes. ‘Well, don’t do it again, okay?’

‘I promise I will try to stop acting like a self-centred prick.’

She smoothed back her hair and smiled. ‘It’s good to share, isn’t it?’

‘Yes,’ I replied.

‘So, is something going on with that bloke from the garden centre in St-Werburghs?’

’Mm-hmm,’ I nodded.

‘Told you she’d fancy him,’ Vi said with a smug grin. ‘I knew she would be smitten with his weird eyes.’

‘Yep, she has got pretty strange taste in men, if you ask me,’ Bek remarked matter-of-factly. He lit the joint he had rolled and somehow his bulky body slid gracefully from the chair to the ground. Soon the three of us were lying in a triangle formation on the small lawn. Dark blue enveloped us and we tried to spot stars other than Venus. Volutes of warm air swirled around unseen and, lying under this gentle sky, I mulled over Vi’s comments about Mac.

‘Life has been super dull since Mac and I split up,’ I admitted. ‘I’m glad we’re apart, but I’ve missed some of the things we used to share and it’s been hard at times.’

‘But there wasn’t much good stuff towards the end with him, remember?’ Vi said.

‘Yeah, you’re right. But my point is, the months after he left have been quiet as anything, dead as a dodo, nothing going...’

‘Yo yo yo! We get you!’ Bek interrupted. ‘But what about now? Skip to the end, dude!’

‘Okay, chill out man!’ I shrieked. ‘Well, I guess I’m puzzled and curious. My sense of curiosity is back and I want to believe that there are some unexplained and unseen things in this world.’

‘And so what about the cute gardener?’ Vi said, rolling onto her front and looking down towards me. ‘Have you slept with him yet? What’s he like?’

’Hey!’I rolled away. ‘That is guarded information and you’ll have to get me very drunk before I tell you anything!’

Before Vi became more persistent, the mobile bug screeched.

‘Hi,’ I said in a nervous voice.

‘Annika…? Hi, is that you? You’re sounding strange.’

‘Ely… Hi! Yeah, it’s me. I just hate the phone,’ I replied, while Vi and Bek grinned at me. ‘What’s up? Where are you?’

‘Actually, I’m just outside your house.’

‘Great! Don’t go anywhere! I’ll be with you in five.’