Roachville

A silhouette in a grey suit stood very still. He had a head but there was something very wrong with his face. My heartbeat accelerated to a painful speed and I stared in shock, paralysed. The skin on his face looked as if it had been melted and remoulded into an almost smooth surface. There were two hollows covered by skin where his eyes should be and a slight inward line in place of his mouth.

A crow cawed. The harsh sound pinched my heart and reverberated cold melancholy through my ribcage. I opened my eyes and saw the bird sailing overhead. I lay in a foetal position around the naga; its outline was just visible in the dim grey light. My body was numb and cold from the rough sand I had slept on. I watched the sky. In slow motion, it brightened and I discovered that I was inside a perfect rectangle of empty space defined by four brick walls going up a couple of storeys. The only access, apart from the roofs, was the window I had climbed from last night. Why did this ‘courtyard’ exist? As far as I could tell, it had no purpose, no use. Maybe there were perfect useless rectangles of emptiness all over the city. Maybe some of them had human skeletons picked white by insects and time.

I forced myself to breathe in and out deeply ten times and tried to analyse my predicament. On the one hand, whoever had broken in last night must have followed Ely, leaving me and the naga alone. On the other hand, I was stuck here. However, Vi would turn up this morning – must turn up. So I needed to get her attention. I could throw pebbles at the window in the hope that she would hear. I estimated that she would be here at 7.45 am at the very earliest and 9.30 am at the latest. I didn’t have the time, so I would just have to guess. If she didn’t show up by the time the sun was directly above my head, I would have to think of plan B. I was sitting on millions of tiny pebbles, so I practised hitting the window. After a while, I hit my target almost every time. It could only be about 6 am now, so I lay back again and stared at my square prison. The thought of dying of starvation flitted across my mind, but mostly I recalled the night before. Every thirty seconds or so, I threw a couple of pebbles just in case Vi arrived early.

Thinking of Ely, I closed my eyes and buried my face in my hands. Please, let him be okay. I clenched my fist. Behind my eyelids, the bizarre image of the faceless man kept coming back, overpowering the memories of Ely and me kissing and touching each other just the other side of this wall. Against my will, the nightmarish figure appeared in the corner of my eyes. I lifted my head slowly and I grabbed the naga. I glanced quickly to my right, but there was nobody there. I twisted my neck left, but I was alone. Exhaustion must have been playing tricks on my mind.

I kept throwing pebbles, and to ward off bad thoughts I organised a contest with an imaginary opponent. By the time the first ray of light hit the top of the west wall, I was the winner of the world pebble-throwing championship. I wasn’t very fond of my mobile phone, but I wished I had it with me down here. Now I threw two or three pebbles at a time without stopping, hoping Vi would hear me. This went on for what seemed like a small eternity and my arm ached. I grabbed a handful of pebbles and stood up, trying to catch a glimpse of any movement behind the window. Waves of tiredness made my throat numb. I was thirsty and I needed to pee. I sat back down, leaning against the wall facing the window, thinking about my options. All I had with me were my clothes and the naga. I wanted to cry but I managed to keep it together.

The urge to pee became too strong. I found a spot opposite the naga. His round eyes were on me as I started unbuttoning my jeans. I cleared my throat and turned him towards the wall. Now I could pee.

I sat next to the naga again and put him in my lap. I rested my back against the wall and tried to distinguish sounds coming from the house, but all I could hear was the constant vibration of the city and a few birds chirping in the nearby park. Just like the night before, deathly silence was the only thing seeping through those walls. Out of boredom and desperation, I tried to climb up to the windows, but the surface was too smooth; my fingers kept slipping as soon as I tried to lift myself up.

I gave up, defeated for the time being. Where could Vi be? Despite the excesses of her civilian life, she was one hundred percent punctual. The sun covered two-thirds of the wall above my head and I leant against it waiting for the light to reach my face, hoping it would restore some vital energy to me. Trying to ignore my parched throat, I stood up, eyes closed, throwing pebbles that invariably hit their target with a dry depressing tap, like a refugee knocking at the door of a make-believe paradise. The sun tickled my hair and at the very same moment, there was the tiniest of click and the whoosh of the window going up. I opened my eyes, praying it was Ely.

A very serious face was framed in the window. A black guy, who glanced up and down at the four walls and spotted the naga by my feet.

‘I almost didn’t find you,’ he said with the same Australian twang as his brother. ‘Wait a second, I’ll get you out of here.’

He withdrew his head for a few seconds before reappearing.

‘So you and Mulalloo aren’t identical twins.’ I could be especially observant if it didn’t matter that much.

‘Nope, and as you may know, my name is Kalaroo. It’s nice meeting you.’

‘Terrific,’ I mumbled. ‘So how did you find me?’

‘I intercepted your friends, the tall girl and her chunky fellow. They told me what happened yesterday. I figured you’d want to ask me some stuff.’

Kalaroo threw a nylon rope, which landed at my feet.

‘Pass me the naga and I’ll help you climb out.’

I squinted at him and almost laughed.

‘Seriously? So you think that I’m gonna give you the naga and let you run away so I can rot down here?’

‘I’m not going to do that,’ replied Kalaroo with a big beaming smile, ‘but I can see your point.’ He paused for a few seconds, while I stood there wavering.

‘Here,’ He dropped a small rucksack. ‘Put the naga in there, then you can climb with the rucksack on.’

A few minutes later and even though I had very weak arms at the best of times, I was back inside the house. It didn’t look as bad as the night before: just a neglected room. My handbag was still on the floor but the white linen bag was gone.

‘So, he managed it,’ I said.

‘Who?’ asked Kalaroo.

‘Ely. He must have tricked them into thinking he had the naga and he led them off the track.’

‘He also locked you out.’

‘Yeah, but he didn’t want anyone to find me. He said he’d come back.’ I paused. ‘Anyway, you’re late!’ I raised my voice. ‘I sent messages to Mei two days ago.’

‘I know,’ he nodded.

‘Well, so you’re here now but I’m not giving you the naga,’ I said, taking the statue out and dropping the backpack on the floor. ‘At least not until you tell me where Ely is... And do you know what?’ I took a step towards the wall and lifted the naga above my head. ‘I’m not bad at tennis and I’ll smash this fucking thing to pieces if you don’t tell me what the hell is going on.’

Calling my bluff, Kalaroo untied the rope, knelt down and stuffed it neatly into his rucksack.

‘We both know you’re not going to do that,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry I’m late. How about I tell you everything I know.’

‘Okay, but not here.’ My stomach rumbled.

‘Sure, somewhere you can eat and drink.’

‘And somewhere busy.’

‘You got it!’ Kalaroo chipped in as if we were going for a picnic by the seaside on a bright sunny morning.