Roachville

Under a fresh and gentle sky, I walked to the bus stop, pretending to act normal. The same old scenery flashed past the dirty glass windows, and in between the wobbles of the bus, I took out my trusted notebook and made a list of essential items. Buying stuff seemed like a strange thing to do right now, but I had decided to follow Kalaroo’s advice. I would resume my life as if Ely didn’t mean a thing to me, and as if I didn’t strongly suspect that Kenneth Tann had destroyed my belongings in search of the naga. Of course this was only pretend, because I couldn’t just wait for Ely to come back or for Tann to find him.

What would happen when I found him or when he returned, I wasn’t sure, but I couldn’t sit around in my house waiting for the world to drift by anymore. So the first thing I bought was a brand new laptop. I had no contact number for the twins, Mei and Phuong, but there was an email address on Ely’s garden shop website. I stared at it as if it contained the key to my life’s meaning.

Was Kenneth Tann monitoring my email box? I reckoned his resources were too stretched.

Back home, I went online and typed.

‘Are you okay? I’m very worried about you. Please let me know somehow.’

I wiped the history on the laptop and wondered if Ely would get my message; then I lay down on the sleeping bag and rested my eyes for a few seconds. I tried to think of nothing, just counting my breathing, and little by little my heartbeats settled down. My body became one with the sleeping bag and I opened my eyes again.

‘At last. You’re back!’ I said to the naga which was gently bobbing up and down above me.

The creature observed me with impenetrable bulging eyes. Its body emitted a bluish light that went brighter, then fainter, following a slow rhythm. I bent one of my thumbs and the muscles under the skin flexed with great clarity.

‘Here are the choices that are open to you. You can give me to Kenneth Tann when he comes back here.’ Silence filled the space around us.

‘You can run away with me.’ Another pause.

‘Or you can stay and face Tann.’

I sat up, breaking my mental bond from the sleeping bag.

‘It’s not something you should think about for too long; in fact, you should already know what you must do. I’m just here to help you understand the situation. The choice you’re about to make will influence the rest of your life. If you give me to Tann, I cannot guarantee that he won’t kill you or hurt you somehow. I’m not in his possession, so my knowledge about him remains imprecise. What is for certain is that he will use me to get revenge on all the people he deems to have done him wrong, and of course I have given you a glimpse of his plans for Tioman Island.’

The vivid images of execution on the tropical beach came back to my mind.

‘Phuong has been running away for a long time,’ I managed to say. ‘But why… why didn’t she fight him back? She had you to help her.’

‘Phuong was always in an inferior position. She had to escape from her own country, she lost her family, she lived in poverty, then she lost her husband. And Tann was stronger than he is now; he had more energy. But you, what have you lost? What have you got to be morose about? And Kenneth Tann is older now, the chase for me has undermined him, although he has far from given up.’

I nodded.

‘I know what I have to do, but can you help me find Ely?’

‘He is protecting you, but I don’t know where he is.’

‘But you’re supposed to bear all knowledge.’

‘Well, not quite. I’m a purveyor of knowledge. I help people understand themselves and see situations with great clarity. So you should accept me and what I can do. Accepting is crucial.’

‘Accepting is believing?’

‘Absolutely. You should ask me something important instead.’

‘Finding Ely is important to me.’

‘Good, I’m glad you’ve established that.’

‘I want to know where you come from,’ I said.

‘The knowledge of my coming into existence has been lost down the ages. But there is only one thing you need to know about me.’

The naga paused, maybe searching for the right words.

‘All I can say is that I come from a different plane of existence and in dreams I come alive.’

‘Different planes of existence,’ I repeated.

‘Yes.’

I thought about for a while, staring at my dream hands, moving them around in the dark.

‘How do I beat Tann?’

‘Be ready,’ the naga concluded. He turned away from me, but as an afterthought added, ‘Be ready for another plane of existence.’