Here to There and In Between - PART 2

“Jyoti! Jyoti!” shouted a tired looking Anya, “Where are the others?” She had swum up to the two little ones I had thrown out and helped them up onto the bank of the river. All three of them were sitting and shuddering on the bank as I drifted further away from them. I took one look at the girl that had jumped out with me. Within that one look we both silently decided to swim our way back up to them.

As soon as we had arrived, Anya was hugging and fussing all over me and the other girl so that our clothes could dry out as quickly as possible. We had a debrief between the three of us in which I found out that the girl that pulled me out was named Sunita and the two little ones were Alina and Ema whereas they found out about what had happened to the other girls. After a good bout of crying, we all sat on the bank and rested. The two little girls and Anya had fallen asleep in the sun and Sunita was glaring at something opposite the river.

“What are you looking at?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s just there’s a sign over there,” she replied as she pointed her finger to a wooden board with incomprehensible scribbling on it. “I have no idea what it means.”

“Neither do I. What is that scribbling?”

“Oh, I understand the words but not what they mean.”

“You can read?”

“Yes, my mama taught me. I come from Kathmandu.”

“Really? What does it say?”

“It says Mymensingh Tea Tree Fields, Bangladesh. I don’t know what they mean.”

“Did someone say Bangladesh?” Anya asked with a yawn as she sat up.

“Yes, Sunita said it.”

“But that’s a whole other country to Nepal.”

“You mean we’re not in Nepal?” a horror struck Sunita asked.

“Yep we are a long way from home.”

****

That afternoon, we decided that we would follow the river south in the hope of finding another person to talk to. Taking care not to walk on the box path, we walked until sunset dipping our feet in the water to cool them down along the way. Within the later hours of the day, Anya and I carried poor Alina and Ema on our backs as we trudged along. It wasn’t until the first star came out that we came upon a boy. He was about 15 years old and had dark hair to match his deeply tanned skin. He did not come along by foot but rather by water, he glided along within a canvas weaved boat singing a song to himself and did not see us as he glided along past.

“Hello! H-hello?” I called as he went past. The others joined in with me as we collectively tried to get his attention. After about half a minute of calling, he snapped back around to face us within his boat.

“Oh! Hi, I didn’t see ya there! What are you ladies doing here? My name is Ashmi by the way.”

“You speak Nepalese? Oh thank goodness!” sighed an exhausted Sunita.

“Well yes and no. I used to live in Nepal when I was younger but now I just roam where I want to.”

“Oh, well can you help us? We were stolen from our home and escaped earlier today. My name is Jyoti and this is Sunita, Anya, Ema and Alina.” I explained as I struggled to keep my tears at bay.

“Tik aache! Oh wait, in Bangladesh that means no worries. What can I do for you?” he asked with a glint in his eye.

“We want to get back to Nepal.” Anya blurted out.

“Back to Nepal? That’s crazy! You know they have strict borders. You can’t even get out easily these days.”

“But we want to go home! Where are you going anyway?” I asked with exasperation evident in my voice.

“Well I want to get out of Asia. I want to be free and live somewhere different. You can come if you want.”

With no other option than continue walking or go with Ashmi, we all decided to go with him. We thought that if we got to a village we could find another way back to Nepal. So as soon as we got into the boat with him, we all collapsed into a deep slumber that he could not wake us from. We just trusted him to guide us along the river.

****

As the weeks went by, we stayed with Ashmi in his boat and glided lazily along the river. We had long since given up on returning to Nepal as every village we went through said that it was impossible. No matter how hard I pushed, no one would take us back. Ashmi provided us Ilish Macher Paturi (steamed fish inside banana leaves) as we glided past villages, tea tree fields and banana plantations. We were sad to say goodbye Sunita when she decided to start up a business in one of the villages we stopped in with her new-found love who she knew as a child. She did teach us all to read and write though before she left so as we did not need to worry about illiteracy.

Soon enough weeks had passed by and we had all gotten to know each other. Anya had two older brothers which worked with her father in Kathmandu selling maps of various assortments. She had learnt the geography of the nearby land back-to-front and could remember every country within the Asia and Oceania region. Ema and Alina were best friends and were sleeping over at Ema’s house when they were stolen. They lived in a small village at the base of Everest and their fathers were Sherpa’s who led foreigners up and down the treacherous mountain. Ashmi was another story, he was abandoned by his parents in Nepal and was found and brought up by an elderly woman who, on his 14^th birthday passed away from starvation. It turned out she was giving him all of her food so that he could develop properly and in doing so, she had neglected her own health.

Ashmi was a rather mysterious boy who showed me new things. He told me about the places he had seen and all about the constellations above us. Together the 5 of us had developed a family. Ema, Alina and Anya were the sisters I had never had and Ashmi, well he was the brother I always wished for. But every night like a dark foreboding cloud, the faces of those other girls haunted me. Where were they now? How are they now? I thought to myself every night as I fell asleep.

(To Be Continued... )