Part 18 (1/2)

”We are alive,” says Obaid. I turn round and look at his head covered in yellow paste. He is not in a state where I would want to start a discussion about what it means to be alive.

”So is General Zia,” I say.

But Secretary General is dead.

”That man who asked about your father, who was he? Did you know him?” Obaid's curiosity is casual. He's asking me if I had an OK time in the jail, if the food was decent, if I had interesting people to talk to.

”Have you heard of the All Pakistan Sweepers Union?”

Obaid stares at me as if I have learned to speak Greek during my short time in the prison. ”He was the Secretary General. We were neighbours. And he probably died thinking I killed him. He probably died thinking I was a b.l.o.o.d.y spy put in the dungeon by the army.”

”Why didn't he recognise you then? If you were his neighbour, I mean.”

”It's a long story. It doesn't matter now.” I reach across the seat and take his hand in mine.

”Good,” says Obaid, his lips giving the first hint of a smile. ”Don't go all sensitive on me. That's not the s.h.i.+gri I know. Or did they manage to change you in a few days?”

I don't want to narrate my life-changing experience when I still don't know how and why has he come back from the dead.

”How far did you get?”

”Never took off.”

”b.a.s.t.a.r.ds,” I say.

”They were there. Before I could even get onto the runway.”

”Major Kiyani?” I ask and immediately feel stupid. ”Has to be him. How do you think he found out?”

”I thought about it. I knew you would think it was Bannon who told them, but why would he? He was the one who gave me the idea. And he is only a drill instructor.”

”He is quite an ideas man, isn't he? Specially for a drill instructor.”

Baby O believes life is a series of sweet coincidences. Like the poetry he reads, where random sentiments and metaphors walk hand in hand into the sunset while cause and consequence die a slow death on the pavement, like newborn b.a.s.t.a.r.d twins. I wish I could show him the world with Colonel s.h.i.+gri's dead bulging eyes.

”Look, Ali.” When Obaid uses my first name, he is usually about to give me a lecture on the meaning of life, but there is none of the intensity that used to make his lectures such a joy to ignore. His voice comes out of an empty sh.e.l.l. ”I tried to do it because I didn't want to see you sticking your sword into him and then getting gunned down by his bodyguards in front of my eyes. I was scared. I wanted to do something.”

”You did it to save my a.s.s? You just thought you would take off in a stolen plane, head for the Army House and they would all simply sit and monitor your progress? Do you even have any idea how many ack-ack guns there are around that b.l.o.o.d.y place? They probably shoot down stray crows over there.” I squeeze his hand to emphasise my point.

Obaid shudders. A whimper escapes his lips and I realise he is in pain. The b.u.g.g.e.rs obviously didn't keep him in a VIP cell.

”You are still not listening to me, s.h.i.+gri. I am not a kamikaze. You have all these expectations of your friends. You think I was going to do it for you? Sorry, I was just providing a diversion. I used your call sign, so that you couldn't carry out your silly plan. A sword, for G.o.d's sake. A sword?”

I squeeze his hand again. He whimpers loudly. The bandage slips. His thumb is covered in dried blood and the nail is gone.

Obaid wants to continue his explanation even though I have lost all my appet.i.te for facts.

”I wasn't going anywhere. I was only interested in saving your life and so was Bannon.”

”I should have warned you about that double-dealing Yankee. I can't believe you trusted that dopehead instead of me.”

”It was a decent enough plan. Take off in an unauthorised plane, cause a security alert and the President's inspection is called off. And then at least I could talk to you. I would at least have the time to drill sense into your head.”

Thanks a b.l.o.o.d.y lot. Somebody's simple plan ruins your life's work and you are supposed to show grat.i.tude.

”There is another way of looking at it, Baby O. You snitched on a friend, you almost got killed and you did it all to save General Zia's life.”

”No. Yours.” He closes his eyes. I think of telling him about Uncle Starchy's nectar, about the poetic patterns in my plan; maybe I should spell out the meaning of sentiment du fer sentiment du fer for him, but one look at him and I know I shouldn't. for him, but one look at him and I know I shouldn't.

I take out the envelope that the blind woman gave me and start fanning his head. I don't know how it feels but if your skin has been burnt off with a Philips iron, it must hurt.

”Thank you for saving my life.”

”Do you think my hair will grow back?” asks Obaid.

The other fat Indian sister starts singing a new song. Something about a conversation going on for so long rhat it has become a rumour in the night. The envelope is addressed to the All Pakistan Mango Farmers Cooperative. Probably Secretary General's last sermon to his lapsed fellow travellers.

”So what did you write in your state...?” We both blurt out the same question at the same time, in the same words. Our questions collide in mid-air and the answer lies wriggling on the jeep floor like an insect trying to take off after breaking a wing.

What do you do when your only mission in life has failed?

You go back to where it all began.

”Have you ever been to s.h.i.+gri Hill?” I tap the driver's shoulder. ”No? Take the next exit. I'll give you the directions. Stop if you see a post office. I need to mail a letter.” I turn towards Obaid. ”Asha or Lata?”

”Lata,” he says. ”The older one, the sad one.”

Let's take you home, Baby O.

TWENTY-EIGHT.

s.h.i.+gri Hill is cloaked in mist. We s.h.i.+ver as the jeep deposits us at the beginning of the narrow pathway that leads up to the house. It's July and the plains have turned into G.o.d's frying pan but the air on the hill is thin and chilly. As Colonel s.h.i.+gri used to say, it still carries an occasional message from Siberia. s.h.i.+gri Hill might be a part of Pakistan but its climate has always been renegade; it's never shared the meteorological destiny of the plains. The Himalyan peaks surrounding the hill are covered in snow. Kz lords it over the mountains like a sullen white-haired matriarch. Grey transparent clouds float below in the valley. Overgrown almond trees rub shoulders with us as we make our way up to the house. Obaid is huffing with the effort of walking the steep climb to the house. ”Why didn't you people build a road here?” he asks, leaning against the slender trunk of an almond tree to catch his breath. ”Never had the time,” I say, holding his hand and moving on.

We take a sharp turn out of the almond tree grove and there it is, a wooden cottage with the pretensions of a summer palace, a house that n.o.body lives in. Sloping roofs perched on wooden arches, a long wooden balcony running along the side facing the valley. The lime-green paint has peeled itself over again and again during decades of neglect and now has settled into ghostly patches of turquoise. The house sits on the top of the mountain and from a distance it looks as if somebody stuck a doll's house on a ridge and forgot to play with it. Look at it up close and it seems sad and majestic at the same time, poised there in seclusion as if looking down on the world with contempt.

Obaid, who has never been to a hill station in his life, punches a pa.s.sing cloud and breaks into a grin when his hand turns slightly moist.

The Burnol on his head has dried up and the burnt side of his scalp appears cobalt blue through the cracks. I wonder if it's the healing process or the beginning of an infection. Inside, the house is a glorious mess as if kids have had a non-stop party. Carpets are rolled up and thrown about, floorboards have been lifted and put back clumsily. We walk through heaps of clothes pulled out of cupboards and dumped in the corridors.

Those b.u.g.g.e.rs didn't leave this place alone even after its occupants did. The only thing I am sure about is that they didn't find what they were looking for.

The main living room has a wall-to-wall gla.s.s window covered in drapes. I open the curtains and I can feel Obaid catching his breath at what he sees beyond the gla.s.s. The window opens on the ridge and the mountain falls away steeply. We are standing on the edge of the deep bowl of a lush green valley through which runs a silver snake of a river.

”Who built this place?”

”I don't know, my grandfather's father perhaps. It has always been here.”