He gently picked it up out of its cocoon. ‘Amazing!’ he exclaimed.
‘It’s a mango.’ With a smirk, I added, ‘It only makes sense. After all, mangoes are very important to Indian culture and trade.’
Ren huffed at me and rolled onto his side in the grass.
‘Indeed, it does make sense, Miss Kelsey.’ He admired the fruit for another moment, and then carefully rewrapped it in my quilt. Mr. Kadam clapped his hands together. ‘This is very exciting! Let’s break camp then and head home. Or perhaps it would be better to go to a hotel so you can rest, Miss Kelsey.’
‘Oh, it’s okay. I don’t mind getting back on the road. We can stay in a hotel tonight. How many days will it take for us to get home?’
‘We will need to stay over two more nights in a hotel on our trip home.’
Momentarily alarmed, I glanced at Ren. ‘Okay. Umm, I was thinking that maybe this time if you don’t mind, we could check out one of those bigger hotels. You know, something that has more people around. With elevators and rooms that lock. Or even better, a nice high-rise hotel in a big city. Far, far, far away from the jungle?’
Mr. Kadam chuckled. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’
I graced Mr. Kadam with a beatific smile. ‘Good! Could we please go now? I can’t wait to take a shower.’ I opened the door to the passenger side then turned and hissed in a whisper aimed at Ren, ‘In my nice, upper-floor, inaccessible-to-tigers hotel room.’
He just looked at me with his innocent, blue-eyed tiger face again. I smiled wickedly at him and hopped in the Jeep, slamming the door behind me. My tiger just calmly trotted over to the back where Mr. Kadam was loading the last of his supplies and leapt up into the back seat. He leaned in the front, and before I could push him away, he gave me a big, wet, slobbery tiger kiss right on my face.
I sputtered, ‘Ren! That is so disgusting!’
I used my T-shirt to swipe the tiger saliva from my nose and cheek and turned to yell at him some more. He was already lying down in the back seat with his mouth hanging open, as if he were laughing. Before I could really lay into him, Mr. Kadam, who was the happiest I’d ever seen him, got into the Jeep, and we started the bumpy journey back to a civilized road.
Mr. Kadam wanted to ask me questions. I knew he was itching for information, but I was still fuming at Ren, so I lied. I asked him if he could hold off for a while so I could sleep. I yawned big for dramatic effect, and he immediately agreed to let me have some peace, which made me feel guilty. I really liked Mr. Kadam, and I hated lying to people. I excused my actions by mentally blaming Ren for my unchar-acteristic behavior. Convincing myself that it was his fault was easy. I turned to the side and closed my eyes.
I slept for a while, and when I woke up, Mr. Kadam handed me a soda, a sandwich, and a banana. I raised my eyebrow at the banana and thought of several good monkey jokes I could annoy Ren with, but I kept quiet for Mr. Kadam’s sake. Instead, I immediately dug into my sandwich and drained my soda in one long drink.
Mr. Kadam laughed and handed me another one. ‘Are you ready to tell me about what happened, Miss Kelsey?’
‘Sure, I guess so.’
It took the better part of two hours to tell him about the tun-nel, the needle forest, the cave, the Kappa, and kishkindha. I spent a long time talking about the golden tree and the monkeys coming to life. I ended with the Kappa attack and Fanindra biting me.
I never mentioned that Ren was a man the whole time. In fact, I downplayed his presence in kishkindha altogether. Whenever Mr. Kadam asked me how this or that was accomplished, I answered vaguely, or said lucky we had Fanindra, or lucky we had the gada. That seemed to satisfy most of his questions.
When he asked for more details about the Kappa attack, I just shrugged my shoulders and repeated my mantra, ‘Lucky I had Fanindra.’ I didn’t want to answer any weird questions about Ren. I knew he’d probably tell his side of the story when he became a man again, but I didn’t care. I kept my version factual, unemotional, and, more impor-tantly, Renless.
Mr. Kadam said we’d be stopping at a hotel soon, but he wanted to find a good place to leave Ren first. I demurred, ‘Of course,’ and smiled a sickly sweet smile back at the attentive tiger.
Mr. Kadam worried, ‘I hope our hotel won’t be too far away for him.’
I patted Mr. Kadam’s arm and reassured him, ‘Oh, don’t worry about him. He’s very good at getting what he wants. I mean . . . taking care of his needs. I’m sure he’ll find his long night alone in the jungle extremely enlightening.’ Mr. Kadam shot me a puzzled glance, but he eventually nod-ded and pulled over near a forested area.
Ren got out of the Jeep, came around to my side of the car, and stared at me with icy blue eyes. I just turned my body away so I wouldn’t have to look at him. When Mr. Kadam got back in the Jeep, I peeked out my window again, but Ren was gone. I reminded myself that he deserved it and sat back against the seat with my arms folded over my chest and an intense expression on my face.
Mr. Kadam spoke softly, ‘Kelsey, are you alright? You seem very . . . tense, since I last saw you.’
I muttered under my breath, ‘You have no idea.’
‘What was that?’
I sighed and smiled at him weakly. ‘Nothing. I’m fine, just drained from the trip is all.’
‘There’s something else I’ve been meaning to ask you. Did you have any strange dreams while in kishkindha?’
‘What kind of dreams?’
He glanced at me, worried. ‘Perhaps a dream about your amulet?’
‘Oh! I totally forgot to tell you! When I plucked the fruit, I fainted and had a vision. It was of you, me, and some evil guy.’
Mr. Kadam grew visibly worried. He cleared his throat. ‘Then the vision was real – for all of us. I was afraid of that. The man you saw was Lokesh. He’s the same dark wizard who put the curse on Ren and Kishan.’
My mouth gaped open in shock. ‘He’s still alive?’
‘It seems he is. It also appears that he has at least one part of the amulet. I suspect, however, that he has all of the other pieces.’
‘How many pieces are there?’
‘There are rumored to be five altogether, but no one really knows for sure. Ren’s father had one piece, and his mother brought another piece into the family because she was the only offspring of a powerful warlord who also had one. That’s how Ren and Kishan both ended up with a segment.’
‘But what does it have to do with me?’
‘That’s just it, Kelsey. You are helping Ren break the curse. The amulet connects the three of us, and I’m worried that Lokesh knows about us. About you, in particular. I was hoping that something had happened to him, that he wasn’t alive anymore after all these years. I’ve been searching for him for centuries. Now that he’s seen us, I’m worried that he will come after you and the amulet.’
‘You really think he’s that ruthless?’
‘I know he is.’ Mr. Kadam paused, and then suggested softly, ‘Perhaps it is time for you to return home.’
‘What?’ I panicked.
Return home? Home to what? Home to whom? I had no life at home. I hadn’t even thought about what would happen after we broke the curse. I guess I’d just assumed that there was so much to do that I’d be stuck here for a couple of years.
Dismayed, I inquired, ‘You really want me to go home now?’