You See Me

Chapter 8: Lilith

“Don’t trust anyone?” I whisper to myself when I hear Karen’s snoring to know that she’s asleep.

Is Max part of some Asian mafia? The only one that I know of is the Japanese yakuza. But he’s not Japanese now is he? But maybe Asia is a bit like Africa where the cultures of each tribe are very similar and. The yakuza are identified by tattoos that are all over their body. They are responsible for s*x trafficking, drugs and other crimes in the usually low-crime Japan, but simultaneously they have been known to do community work. Like during the flood that hit Japan they helped find missing people and rebuild fallen structures. Is he here to escape a crime that he committed back in Thailand?

“Does Max have any tattoos?” I ask Karen the next morning as we fold our blankets together. Karen laughs.

“You interested in his body now?” She asks me.

“I’m just curious,” I tell her. “You the one that has claims over his body and probably knows it better than anyone else here,”

“We only slept together once,” she tells me, but from her voice she is probably blushing. That girl should stop lying to herself. She wants him. The fact that she’s always around me now that Max is basically my caretaker is also proof of that. But does she know what she is really getting into? Lovestruck girls are easy bait for gangsters. They’re the ones that get caught at airports smuggling goods that they didn’t know were drugs at airports and shot at unexpectedly at clubs.

“That’s one more time than any other girl in the country unless he got some action in the plan he boarded,” I tease. Karen blushes and tells me to shut up.

“He does have a tattoo of a cherry blossom on this hip that I noticed,” she tells me. “It was really cute. Like when you see his chiseled, muscular body then something so feminine it’s kinda hot,”

“Just f*****g ask him to marry you already,” I tell her. Karen is quiet which probably means that she’s blushing right now. I go out of the room and find that Max is already at the breakfast nook and he had gotten a plate for me.

“Here you go,” he tells me. He doesn’t sound like he normally does. That call that he received last night from god-knows-who has really got him out of spirits. The food is eggs and sausage and tomatoes. I wonder how much money Max’s family must have donated to make the food improve this much.

“Thanks,” I tell him. He doesn’t mention last night and I don’t venture to ask him. I hear him chewing his food and drinking his tea. I hate tea with food and for the first time there’s this juice that you need to dilute with water called Mazoe. Max pours me some when he notices that I’m not drinking tea.

“What type of tea are you drinking?” I ask him when the silence between us has extended for a very long period. I’m usually the one that starts long and uncomfortable silences, this is making me feel uncomfortable.

“I think it’s called Roobons or something,” he tells me. I scoff.

“It’s called Rooibos tea, get the prononciation right,” I tell him.

“Okay,” he tells me and I hear him take a sip. He doesn’t try to say something snarky back. I sigh. Whatever happened last night was probably very bad news. Perhaps I’m jumping to conclusions thinking that he’s a part of something big and scummy. Perhaps he needed to escape something terrible that happened to him back in his homeland for real or maybe his life is in danger and he’s under a protection program. Zimbabwe is still largely a paper country and it would be hard to track him down here. I mean rich people’s kids are always in danger somehow. Like in America how they always get kidnapped for ransom money.

“You know Zimbabwe is a pretty safe country except a few incidences that happen here and there,” I tell him. He grunts a response. I guess that he’s really not in the mood for speaking. He takes our plates when we’re done eating and I help the ladies wash the dishes.

“What is wrong with Mr. Max?” One of the ladies asks as we wash. “He usually say good morning and smile at us and talk to us a bit but today he is very sad,” I guess whatever is going one with him is showing on his face as well. So I tell them that I will find out and they give me a bag of chocolate biscuits that they snuck out from the storage area to give to him. I use my cane to find his hut and knock.

“Come in,” I hear Max say.

“Tell me that Munya is not there first,” I answer.

“He’s chopping wood as usual,” he answers.

I enter his hut and use my cane to feel around, It hits the edge of a bed. Wow, he even gets a bed while the rest of us sleep on the floor. I wonder if Munya sleeps on the floor besides him.

“Do you guys share a bed or does Munya sleep on the floor?” I ask him.

“We share the bed no homo,” he tells me. He still sounds depressed. “Please sit,” I sit at the edge of his bed. I hand him the packet of biscuits.

“Look here. Whatever is going with you is depressing you and s**t get over it. There are women here that have been r***d by their uncles and even their fathers and given birth to their children. This is not a place where you can mope in your feelings and honestly everybody is noticing that you’re down so perk up. They stole this biscuits for you. They say chocolate helps to boost the happy hormone so eat up,”

I hear him sigh and open the biscuits. He bites into the slowly.

“Whatever happened to want to talk about it?”

“I’m not very compassionate and sweet if you haven’t noticed,” he actually laughs at that.

“Well I think I need a bit of time to feel sad today so give me some space and I’ll try to be cheerful tomorrow’ he tells me. I sit there while he slowly eats. At the end of it he lies back in his bed and is just quiet. Eventually I get up and decide to leave.

“Hey Lilith,” he says when I reach the door.

“Mmm?”

“Thanks,” he tells me.

“Whatever,” I tell him and exit and I can’t help but wonder if he’s thanking me for the biscuits or for not prying into whatever business has his mind preoccupied.