The Brother

Chapter Three

Jace felt something thin and blunt being pressed into his belly. The blue cotton T-shirt he wore gave him no protection. He slowly tried to open his eyes and felt them heavy. With a newly found determination he managed to sit while resting his head on his hands. The throbbing pain in the head slowly subsided and he finally managed to open his eyes completely.

He saw the length of the grass on which he sat and concluded that this was not somebody’s lawn and certainly not his brother’s room. He tried to recall what happened the last time he was conscious as he scorched under the blazing sun.

The incident of the previous night came to him in flashes. Heading into Jonathan’s room, hearing the beep, dismantling the tip of the bow, pressing a button and slowly watching his arm disappear into thin air, and then nothing. It was a blank.

He heard a giggle. Alarmed by the childlike giggle, he spun around and saw two boys, maybe around ten with black hair and olive skin looking at him, unable to hold their laughter. The similarity in their faces, the hook like noses and brown eyes, made him feel that these two were siblings.

“Where am I?” Jace asked and felt the dryness in his throat.

“See Rohit, I told you he’s a crazy guy. We should take him to Papa, he’ll give this guy some sense” said one of them to the other.

Rohit? So at least I’m in India. But this place doesn’t look anything like Mysore. Which part of this country am I in?  He thought as the kid who was addressed as Rohit glared at him for a moment and finally asked, “ What is your name?”

“Jace”

“Where are you from?”

“Mysore.” Almost everyone in India knew about Mysore as the city of palaces. But seeing the blank expression in the kid’s face, he added, “ It’s in Karnataka, in south India.”

The kid looked at Jace like it was the first time he had heard the name of Karnataka or even India. What’s wrong with this kid’s geography? thought Jace and said, ”Take me to your father. Maybe he can help me figure out what’s going on”

“Yes, yes. You’re right. Come on Rahul, let’s take him to papa.” Rohit said, “ Are you thirsty? There’s a lake on the way to our house.”

Jace nodded as he was too tired to speak. He could still feel the pain in the head as they marched forward. He looked around to take in the view. He could hear the sound of the crow cawing from one of the trees. The trees surrounding the muddy road they were walking on were tall, around 30 feet and were slender. The leaves looked like that of a mango tree, but he could find no fruits in any one of them.

He hadn’t seen a tree like that in his entire life. He tried to check out more of the surroundings without taking a detour but he could only see the same type of trees as far as his eyes could see. He could here the leaves rustling against the wind as they approached the lake.

Rahul said,”Here’s the…” and before he could finish his sentence, Jace was already drinking the water from the lake by cupping his hands.The water was surprisingly sweet. Feeling quenched, Jace washed his face with the cold water and headed back to where the two boys were standing with an amused look on their faces.

“How old are you two?” asked Jace.

“I’m ten and he is nine. We’re brothers” said Rahul. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

Jace felt a lump forming in the back of his throat as he said, “Yes.” He didn’t need to tell these kids about how horrible his life had been over the past few weeks. “Let’s go to your father.”

“It’s just a few more minutes from here.” said Rohit and started walking. Rohit could now see some houses in the distance. He felt that the settlements were another couple of kilometers away. But as he got closer to it, he noticed that all the houses were small. There were dozens of these houses, separated from each other by a few meters. The houses themselves were around 6 feet high with the length and width almost 15 feet.

That’s small. Jace thought and remembered reading about the slums of Mumbai, where people barely had space to walk around in the house. He had never seen such small houses before and felt sorry for the slum dwellers.

As they approached the first of the houses, he saw that there was a small square window, with each side being eight inches. He looked around and saw all of them were identical, in size, shape and even the placement of doors and windows. The door seemed to be a little less than 5 feet tall.

 Jace was wondering why everything was so small and identical, when Rohit said,”Papa had told us that these houses were built for us by the Council. He said that we used to live in the city’s streets before.”

Not knowing what to reply, Jace just nodded. And he followed the kids a few more yards into the bee hive of settlements until he stopped in front of a house that was like the rest of them, only this one had a small sign that said closed in bold red letters.

“What does your father do for a living?” asked Jace.

Rohit replied, “He’s a doctor. Helps treat the ones who cannot afford the city’s fees.”

A doctor lives in a place like this? Seems like he never gets paid by the patients. - Jace thought as one of the kids said,” Papa! Open the door!” and knocked on the wooden door.

The door creaked open and out came a man who was unmistakably the father of the kids mainly for two reasons. One. The kids hugged him around his waist which made Jace remember his father as he fought back the tears forming in his eyes. Two. With the kids on either side of him, it was easy to observe the similarities in their faces. The olive skin, the brown eyes, the hooked nose were all a dead giveaway that this man was their father.

The man in front of him had a black moustache, and a receding hairline. Jace felt bad for disturbing  this man as he appeared to have just gotten out of bed wearing a white vest and blue shorts.

“Hello. My name is Jayram.” he said and shook hands with Jace. It was very common in India for people to have just a single name with their surname hidden in an initial which was rarely used.

“Jace Cooper”

The look on the man’s face turned to that of amazement. His eyebrows forming a curious arch as he bent down to his kids, his eyes trained on Jace, and said, “Go play. I have to spend some time alone with our guest.”

The prospect of spending some time alone with a stranger would usually leave Jace a little uncomfortable but considering the duration of time he spent trying to figure out what this place was, he was more than inclined to have a one on one conversation.

The kids ran off, like they had mentally decided who had to chase whom and started running in the direction of the forest from which Jace had come.

“Come in, Jace.” Jayram said. “Would you like something to eat?”

His stomach growled as if to say yes and without thinking twice, Jace nodded.

“Please, make yourself comfortabe. I’ll be back in five minutes.” He said and turned to the only room in the house other than the one they had just entered. Jace sat on one corner of the room, as he couldn’t find even a single piece of furniture, his back resting on the wall as he observed the interior of the house.

The walls were filled with clothes hung loosely on a rope that was dangling between two nails, waiting for the right moment to fall. He could see a cotton bed rolled and placed behind the door. The window was the only source of light as the door was closed. The floor was brown and bare. There were no decorative items, a mirror was placed on the wall with a brown layer of dirt on it.

He could hear the sound of the utensils from the room next to the one he was in and shortly after, Jayram came from it, with a plate full of what looked like a semi solid yellow paste. It was steaming, and Jace, unable to hold his hunger smiled feebly as he took the plate and placed it on the floor in front of him and began to eat.

This tastes better than it looks. Jace thought and was delighted that for the first time in three week, he was eating something other than cornflakes. Jayram waited for him to finish eating and then asked, “Would you like something to drink?”

Jace declined the offer and surprised himself. After regaining his composure, he asked, “Where am I?”

“You’re in Carimen. This is the settlement built for the people who were homeless in the capital city Albik.”

Jace quickly went over his memory, trying to recall where Albik was. He recalled the capitals of all the states of India and even the capitals of all the countries he remembered at the moment and drew a blank. He had never heard of the city.

“Which country are we in?” asked Jace, trying to keep his thoughts together and focus.

“Well, we’re in south of the island Prayot”, said Jayram. “ Before you ask me any more questions, just answer my question.”

“Go on” said Jace , still trying to stop himself from screaming. Where the hell was he? How the hell did he get here? Will he ever get back home? The questions kept creeping into his mind as he prepared to answer the question his host was eager to ask. Eager enough to give him food.

“Do you, by any chance, happen to be related to Jonathan Cooper?”