Chapter #23The Doll by: Seuzz   "Oh, it's beautiful!" you gasp, and put your hand to your collar bone and the string of pearls there. You smile and blink back the wetness as your eyes drift over the watercolor. "It has such soul!" You beam down at the grave little girl who painted it. "Oh, precious!" you sniffle. "If only I had the words to tell you how beautiful it is."
"Alas, the child doesn't speak English," Aparijita says.
"Lucky us, maybe it means Phyllis will shut up about it," Joe murmurs.
You smile tightly at him before turning back at Aparijita, to lay a slim hand on her forearm; the six rings on your fingers and the four bracelets on your wrist sparkle. "You will tell her how lovely it is!"
"As you wish," she says, and kneels next to the girl to speak gently to her in her native Telugu. The child simply stares back with dark eyes. When Aparijita finishes, the girl looks up at you and then at Joe. She is expressionless; and, seemingly bored, turns back to her little table, to dab wetly with a brush at a fresh sheet of paper.
"Do you really think the girl has talent?" Dr. Dhurvasula asks. A skeptical furrow disfigures his brow.
"Phyllis is our expert," Joe says. "I wouldn't argue with her."
But the school principal is not dissuaded. "Because it just looks to me like--"
"Her talent is sui generis," you gush. "How old is she? Seven? She cannot have had influences. The child wouldn't even know the word!"
"Not the English word, certainly," Aparijita mutters.
"You see it in the flow of her brush," you continue, your hand again at your collar. "The choice of colors, the delicate interplay of hue and line. She isn't so crude as to paint things, but the ding an sich! Oh!" You snatch up the crude watercolor again. "This isn't a picture of a sunrise, it is a picture of Sunrise Itself! She sees it with the eyes of the Goddess!" You fight back tears.
"Sunrise? She says it's an elephant."
Your eyes glint. "No one understands himself or herself," you say through gritted teeth. "Do you expect a child to-- Oh, but what is her name?"
"Punthali."
"Punthali," you sigh. The girl herself ignores you. "It sounds like-- Like-- Golden mists on the Himalayas!"
"Why don't you go recover yourself outside, Phyllis," Joe says, and tugs at your elbow. "Aparijitia and I will talk to her parents about the scholarship."
You blink and sniffle some more and smile--in a sad but joyful way--and with a shuddering sigh of astonishment at a world that contains so much beauty stride into the Indian afternoon. The sari you'd donned for the day's excursion billows as you go.
* * * * *
"Drop the act before I throttle you, Will," Aparijita says from the back seat.
"I thought you'd worked with Will before," Joe says as he nudges the car down the dusty street toward the inn where your trio is staying. "He never breaks character as long as he's got the face on."
"Give me a cigarette, Joe," you say, "and I'll show you the face Phyllis turns to asshole administrators back at the Institute."
"Is there really an Institute?" Aparijita asks.
"Of course not," Joe says. "But Will doesn't stint on the details." He hands you a pack of Camels and a lighter.
You flutter at them disdainfully before taking and lighting one. "Will her parents accept the scholarship?" you ask as you roll down the window and blow out a stream of smoke.
"A ten-year, overseas educational program, all expenses paid," Joe says. "They'd be crazy not to."
"But who gets her? The Stellae or the Akshardham?"
"Rosalie has offered to share custody. The girl will have to come back to India regularly anyway. No matter how generous our offer, her family will want to see her at least half the time, and Aparijita's group can manage her when she's back here." Joe glances into the rearview mirror. "Do you think Dr. Joshi will accept?"
"We've been subordinate to the Stellae since the days of the Raj," Aparijita says, perhaps a little stiffly.
"It's a partnership," Joe says.
"We know our place."
"It really is beautiful here," you interrupt, and it's not just Phyllis talking. An emerald haze hangs over the lush landscape. "The girl has Perelandra as an ousiarch, hasn't she?"
"I haven't done a chart on her," Joe says.
But Aparijita nods her head. "I read the signs. She walks with Saraswati."
Joe cocks a skeptical eyebrow, but you turn to grasp Aparijita's knee. "And you would know!"
She sighs. "I liked you better as a man, Will."
* * * * *
Two days later news comes that Punthali's family has accepted the offer from the (utterly fictitious) Journeyman Institute for the Gifted; word comes too that the Akshardham--the Indian counterpart to the Stellae Errantes--will share custody of the newest adept. In two weeks, little Punthali will fly to Los Angeles, ostensibly to begin studying English and art with Kali, but in reality to begin her training in the ways of the planets.
It's early evening, and you and Joe are strolling along the bank of the small river that winds by Punthali's village. At his insistence you have dropped Phyllis, and are walking alongside him as Marta. "Frank's lucky," he says.
"Are you flirting with me, Joe?"
"Rosalie would snip my nuts off if I were. I was going to add that you're lucky too." He sighs and shades his eyes from the glare off the water.
"So's Rosalie."
"Will you get your mind off sex? I'm talking about-- How many bozos did you thrash in Tokyo last month? Meanwhile, the only field work I get anymore comes on these scouting trips."
"Price of being with Rosalie, Joe. She loves you too much to put your ass in the line of fire." You look over at him. "Have you told her you're feeling stifled? She's still new in the job, but you're supposed to be happy."
"And I am. It's only when I'm outside the archives that-- Remember Brasilia?"
"Brasilia is why Rosalie took you off that kind of work." Your eye goes down to his open shirt, and the still-livid scar over his heart.
"It was fun, wasn't it?" He smiles wistfully.
But you've raised your eyes again, to stare far off over his shoulder. He follows your gaze. "That's the girl," he says.
It is. As you watch, Punthali crosses the main road and clambers up a short slope to disappear into the trees beyond. "You stay here," you say, and gently push Joe down into the tall grass where he won't be seen. "But go with me while I check on her. There won't be any wild animals, but--"
"Fucker," he sighs. But his astral twin materializes at your elbow, and with it for company you walk quickly after Punthali.
Once under the leaves, Joe darts quickly about for signs of her while you more slowly follow her light track. After a quarter hour you find a cave in a hillside. You let Joe scout inside; a minute later he returns. "You gotta see this," he says.
It's a shallow cave, but narrow crevices lead deeper into the hill. One of them opens into a small chamber. It is lit by two candles. Punthali sits on the floor, her face buried in her knees. Softly, she sobs.
But your eyes on are on the immense figure behind her. It's a statue of a tall, solid man with blue skin and red eyes and a fierce expression. You take a deep, quiet breath.
Yama. The girl's second ousiarch. It has to be. What astonishes is that she has sensed it herself without any training.
"Punthali," you call softly to her.
She raises her head, fear on her face, and scrambles back toward Yama.
You can't help swallowing as the statue clasps its arms protectively around her, and glares at you.
"You're one of the Americans!" the girl says. Tears of fear and anger spring out of her eyes. "I hate you! Go away! I won't go with you!"
"Did you make this thing," you ask her, replying in her native tongue. You're glad you're looking like Marta and not Phyllis. However useful that disguise was with the school authorities, Punthali herself clearly didn't like it. "You are very gifted."
"I didn't-- I don't--" she sobs.
"You don't know how you did it, but you did it. You love Yama, don't you? And you love Saraswati?" She nods. "They love you. We love them, and we love you. That is why we looked for you, Punthali. So you can learn more about them." She stares back at you, disbelieving. "Joe can explain it to you," you say, and gesture him in. "You remember Joe?" He'll be better at talking to her, and you withdraw from the cave to wait.
You rejoin Joe by the river, and he relates what he's telling the girl. When Punthali emerges with his twin, she looks peaceful and happy.
* * * * *
"She animated it, Kali," you say. The little blue doll walks stiffly over the table, peering this way and that. "I didn't think there was any harm in it--"
"You're too sentimental about golems, Will," she says. "But I doubt there is any harm here. It is only a prodigy of hers. A Perelandran prodigy." If you didn't know better, you'd think Kali's expression showed a trace of envy. "Very impressive."
"It was seven feet tall, Kali. I think you can use a bigger word than 'impressive'."
She does look startled, and then looks between you and it. "Then how did it come to be this size?"
"I couldn't smuggle a seven-foot Hindu god out in my luggage." You open your palm to show the sigil you'd unlocked--the one that, for a purpose you do not understand, shrinks golems. "But I knew she wouldn't want to leave it behind. Little girls do like their dollies. Especially the ones they make themselves."   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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