‘No. I live at another city to the eastern part of India, Calcutta. Have you heard it?’
‘No.’
‘It’s in Bengal’ the hubby now interrupted, ‘last year a tourist from your place had hired my motor boat.’
‘Do you also in boating business’
‘Yes, he actually works in the boat, when it is hired, and otherwise he helps me and my daughter in this stall’
‘Can I have a sea boating this evening?’
‘Would you?’ the man said enthusiastically.
‘Only if it’s not costly.’
The man laughed affably, ‘Not at all sir. Your hotel?’
I told him to pick me up at 4 P.M.
I paid the lady and she said with mocked seriousness, where’s my commission, I’ve arranged for your boat trip.’ ‘How much?’ I asked seriously. ‘Nothing’ both of them bust into laughter and a third voice almost from nowhere made me look up and spark ran through my spine as the girl in school uniform looked exactly like that girl.
‘My daughter, just returned from school.’ The lady introduced her.
I took a tri-cycle and hastened for the hotel. I had to be ready soon for the boat trip. Some joyous thought had now taken possession of me. I was looking for her at the wrong place. Now I know where to search and I felt confident to find her some of these days. Is there any mystery associated with this young daughter of the coffee vendor? My sixth sense alerted me that I would soon come upon her.
Part-IV
For the first two days I accompanied my professor while was examined the apes at the sanctuary. From the third day the professor got busy in the lab and I with the newly acquainted friends, students of an English medium school, got busy playing various games. Most thrilling was speedboat race in the Sulu Sea and within a few hours I learnt how to operate the machines. The next day I participated in the race and it was very fascinating. Soon I had a command over the boat and could defeat everyone except a lanky boy. In a resolve to defeat him I started racing at very high speed and it was a great pleasure to get ahead of him. I did not look back and sped up so that he could not catch me up. In the craze to win the race I could hardly realize that I had gone into the deep sea. I looked back and could not see anyone behind and the sea shore from where we had started was now a hazy line. I turned back and started toward the shore. It was evening and in the darkness I could not make out anything and I realized I had lost my way in the deep sea. I raced in many directions but could not find the shore. It was now dark and stars were showing like light dots in the clear sky. I lost all hopes of returning, stopped the engine and lying flat on the board tried to guess my condition. The starry sky looked mysterious and I remembered my parents to whom I would never be able to return. I burst into tears. The moon now suddenly sprang out of the sea and everything turned uncanny. Hunger and thirst started assailing me mercilessly. In utter hopelessness and exhaustion I fell asleep and the boat went on drifting across the endless sea.
My sleep broke and I could recall everything that had happened since last evening and I got panicked. I looked around and could guess in semi darkness that my boat was stuck up at the hilly corner of a narrow water course that cut into some hilly land. The other bank of the creak was not far off and silhouettes of tress and bushes indicated that it was not much high above the water level. I could not move my boat as it was damaged and affixed in the narrow opening of the stony wall. The only way to reach the other side was to swim across, which would not be safe unless the day breaks. So I decided to wait till the daybreak and in hunger, thirst and exhaustion got a bit delirious with incoherent dreams.
My dose broke at noises of human voices above. It appeared that some females were hollering above the hilly side. Reflections of sun rays were scintillating on the leaves of the trees of the other lowly bank which was now distinctly visible. I started shouting at the highest pitch of my voice, ‘save me, save me’.
I heard hefty footsteps above and soon curious faces of some girls peeped through the foliage of the trees of the other side of the water course. The girls started hollering in some unknown language and then one of the girls spoke in clear English, ‘can you move your boat to this side?’
‘No, it’s damaged.’
‘Can you swim? The water is safe.’
I dived into the water and started swimming desperately toward the other bank. Two of the girls helped me at midway and all the girls gave their hands in dragging me out on the sandy beach and I fainted.
When my senses returned I found myself lying on a straw bed in a shanty. As soon as I opened my eyes the English speaking girls asked, ‘Are you o.k. now?’
‘I feel hungry and thirsty,’ I blubbered in utter desperation.
‘That’s right and you should also change your wet garments’. One of the girls brought dry garments for me. The English speaking girl said, ‘You are to do with this girl’s dress right now. We don’t have any boys’ ones.’ All the girls started giggling but it was pleasant to me. They went the other room while I changed garments. They started laughing to see my funny appearance in girls’ dress and gave me a few pieces of bread and bananas which I devoured in an instant.
I wanted to explain to them how I happened to be here, but the girl said, ‘Stop it now. First have some rest and then we shall here everything from you and also tell you where you are and who we are. We are leaving to collect herbs and would return in a few hours. Till then sleep and take rest and eat and drink from the basket and pitcher kept for you at the corner. But never go out of the room until we return. Better we are locking the door from outside.’
The girls left and after taking one more draught of water I fell asleep out of exhaustion. I wondered what place it was but could not make and decided to wait for the return of the girls.
My sleep broke after cumbersome dreams. The sun was now at the mid sky and visible through the crevices at the roof joint of the room built with twigs, ropes, plastic and large leaves of some unknown plant. The outdoor was still closed. I felt hungry and thirsty again. I took a few pieces of bread and a draught of water.
I looked around to guess where I had been and who these girls were. Entering the other room of the cottage through the open door made of twigs I found a small toilet and a kitchen with some utensils and earthen glasses on a wooden rack, a kerosene stove, two lanterns, a plastic can full of kerosene and a few match boxes. Both the rooms were locked from outside but the small windows two in each room could be opened. I looked out the window on one side and was marveled at the beautiful sight of the hilly landscape. There were scattered trees and bushes embracing the undulating ground that sloped to a stiffer incline. The other side as I observed with the other window sloped down toward the sea. I could not make out what the place was as there was no such landscape around Sandakan. That means I had been drifted to some far off island, but where? The puzzle could not be resolved until the girls returned. But would they return at all. They must. Their attitude was friendly toward me, especially the English speaking girl. She was my age and beautiful and to think of her a new kind of thrill, which I had never experienced before, coursed through me.
As the doors were locked from outside I could do nothing else but observe the undulating lands through the windows of the rooms which were four in number. Now my pant, shirt, underwear, hanged on a rope tied across the room, were dried I changed my dress and started loitering across the two rooms, occasionally taking glance of the outside land through the windows. Almost after an hour since I had woken, fragments of the bodies of the girls were visible through the foliages of the plants and bushes. They appeared and again lost behind the trees. I did not have to wait long to hear the click of the lock and the door was opened and Felita, who entered first, got elated to observe me and said in an ecstatic tone, ‘you’re o.k. then. The other girls giggled charmingly.
They dropped their bags full of herbs and sea weeds on the floor and then
a girl took a bag to the kitchen and emptied the contents on the kitchen floor. One of them handed me a packet containing clothes and toilet things for me. She had boated to the mother island to bring these things for me. The name of the English speaking girl was Felita Parades. The other girls recited their names one after another – Angeline, Bernadeth, Chuchu and Lharena. I had to make several attempts to utter the names and this raised roars of laughter. They took it as a funny game. The same happened while they tried to pronounce my name ‘Avishek’.
One of the girls lighted the stove and started piecing sea weeds and vegetables for cooking. Felita and the three other girls assembled around me on a straw mat laid on the floor. Felita now gave me an account of the place – it was a small island, called ‘Birds’ House’ close to the larger island of Pagadian where in a suburb all these girls reside. All these islands belonged to the Philippines and the Pagadian Island and city is only half an hour’s boat journey from this tiny island. These girls were all Cebuanos. Felita alone had completed school education from an English Medium School at Pagadian. The other four girls were still school students. All of them had to discontinue studies because of poverty and now they used to collect valuable herbs which were found in plenty in this island and the