The Extinct

CHAPTER

28





Jalani brought breakfast for him the next day: poached eggs and toast with orange juice. Eric ate on the floor of the living room as Jalani sat on the couch, her smooth legs neatly crossed, revealing muscular thighs.

“Do you speak English?” Eric asked, taking a bite of egg.

Jalani stared in silence, piercing Eric, looking through him rather than at him. Despite her cold behavior she had warm eyes.

“Are you married?” Eric asked. “Kids?” He guzzled some orange juice and wiped at his lips with the back of his bare arm. “I used to want kids. Lots of ‘em. Didn’t really work out that way though.”

“I do not have kids,” Jalani said, her voice metallic from disuse. “But I have brothers and sisters.”



Eric was surprised at an answer and didn’t respond immediately. He took another sip of juice and then said, “How many?”



“Twenty.”



“Really? Your mother must be a tiger.”



Jalani gave a quizzical look.



“No,” Eric said, “it’s an expression . . . just saying that she must be strong, like a tiger.”



“She was very strong. That is why my father traveled so much.”



Eric grinned. “Your English is good.”



“I studied in school. Thomas has taken me to London many times as well.”



He finished his breakfast and leaned back against the wall.



“The Bushman in my country believe,” Jalani said, “that when a lion kills a man, the lion takes the soul of the man and it corrupts him. The lion is pure until the soul of man enters him. He does not know of good and evil until he has eaten a man. When this happens, the lion becomes evil because it cannot tell the difference. It will always hunt men.”

“Are you talking about the animal that killed my father? Thomas said it’s killed thirty people.”



Jalani scoffed. “Is that what he said?”



“Why? It’s not true?”



“Thomas is a good hunter and a man of the world. But he only believes what his eyes tell him. He has no imagination so he cannot believe that an animal can become evil. He says thirty, but I have seen animals kill many more. A lion near my village killed nearly two hundred before it was shot.”

“Wow, that’s probably some sort of record.”



“Record?”



“Yeah, like the most any animal’s ever killed.”



“No, there have been others. But this one in India will soon surpass them. People that have seen it say that his eyes glow red in the night. They think it is the devil.”

“Do you think that?”



“No. Not the devil. But it is evil. And it needs to die.”



“Are you going with Thomas to kill it?”



“Yes, and so will you.”



“I haven’t made up my mind yet.”



“No,” Jalani said confidently, “you will go.” She rose and gave Eric a warm smile. “I knew your father. He was a good man. I see that goodness in you too.” She shut the door and Eric was left alone again in the ever shrinking room.

Thomas came later in the afternoon with a bag full of new clothes and some shoes. Eric was lying in bed watching television. Thomas walked to him and took a key out of his pocket, undoing the cuff chaining him to the bed.

Eric began rubbing the skin on his wrist. It was tender and moist and he could still feel the weight of the cuff clinging to him. “Thanks.”

Thomas nodded and laid the bag of clothing down on the bed. “Shower and dress, we’re leaving here today,” Thomas said as he walked off.

“The hotel?”

“No,” Thomas said from the front room, “Thailand. And I took the rest of your money and donated it to a nearby orphanage. I knew you wouldn’t mind.”

Eric looked over at the clothes. He could leave right now if he wanted, some of his strength had returned to him and he could probably make it away from Thomas if he protested. But the truth was this place had been hell. He’d seen things he could never have imagined seeing, and unwittingly become a part of them. That was the most sinister aspect of evil, he decided. That it could pose as necessity and disarm you. Before you even knew what was happening, you would be fully in its embrace.

Eric took the clothes, and walked into the bathroom.