“My…my burial?” he whispered.
“Your burial?” I echoed. The veins on his neck and arms bulged as he gripped my arm. Understanding filled me. “Yes,” I said softly. “I’ll stay with you until it’s over.” The plane circled again and I frowned. “Did you create a runway?” I asked, then glanced down at the time portion of the amulet hanging around his neck. No. He couldn’t. I answered my own question. “Wait here,” I said. “I’ll only be gone a moment.”
With that, I froze time and headed over to the part of the jungle where I remembered us landing. Channeling the earth portion, much as Ana did in Shangri-La, I moved trees, leveled bushes, shifted dirt, and caused hard minerals to rise to the surface to make a strong enough runway for Murphy to land the plane. When I was done, I moved back to Kadam’s hiding place and shifted us both in time so he no longer had to hide.
“They won’t be able to see us,” I said as I beckoned him out. “We’re safe enough.”
His voice was faint. “Are you certain?”
“I am.” I tried to give him a reassuring smile. “I’ve done this before.”
He nodded and followed me hesitantly. We hiked up an acclivity that overlooked the new runway and watched as the plane set down. We stood together, watching silently, as Ren and my old self carefully removed a shrouded form from the plane and headed down the path. I jerked my head toward Kells and Nilima and he trailed along behind. We arrived in time to hear Murphy ask, “Why in the world would he want to be buried in the middle of nowhere? I just don’t understand it.”
Murphy then launched into his memories of meeting Kadam back in World War Two. Kadam sat down and listened while I checked in on Ren and my former self. Tears ran down Ren’s face as he struggled with a shovel. My former self was pounding the ground violently with a pickaxe. It was surreal watching that moment again and seeing it from a new perspective. I remembered how hard that day was for all of us.
Touching the amulet, I softened the dirt and melted away a good portion of it so there wouldn’t be as much of a struggle. I tried to make it easy without making it obvious that someone was helping, but Ren still noticed and remarked upon it.
Remembering how the casket had been ready and not seeing one, I headed into the old home and created long pieces of wood that would easily fit together. Instead of using a hammer and nails, I used the power of the earth piece to shape the corners to lock together tightly naturally. When the lid was ready, I connected it as well so that it opened and closed easily with natural wood hinges. Then I put the casket where it would be easily found.
Satisfied, I headed back to where I left Kadam by Kelsey, Nilima, and Murphy and sat down beside him to listen to the others reminisce. Many tears were shed. Kadam’s included. As for me, I just felt the heaviness of the pressing memory.
By the time Ren and my other self returned, Kadam seemed ready. How strange it must be for him to watch his own funeral. He never told me he’d done this. He’d said he’d seen things no man should see. Perhaps he was talking about this.
Monkeys chattered overhead as we made our way down the path. I didn’t bother hiding either of our scents since both of us were there anyway, though one of us was no longer among the living. Kadam reached out and clutched my shoulder as they took his body and placed it into the casket. I caught the scent of death and twirled my fingers, creating a breeze to carry it away. It was the least I could do under the circumstances.
My old self touched his fingers to my father’s marker.
“What does it say?” Kelsey asked.
My old self answered, “It says ‘Rajaram, beloved husband and father, forgotten king of the Mujulaain Empire. He ruled with wisdom, vigilance, bravery, and compassion.’”
“Just like your seal,” Kelsey said.
I thought of the seal then. The one I had yet to carve. I’d left it back home with Ana.
“The marker is actually a replica if you look closely,” Ren said, then he knelt by our mother’s grave and read her inscription. “Deschen, dearly loved wife and mother.”
As I thought of our mother, my heart swelled. I remembered how she and Father loved Ana. She wasn’t like Yesubai or Kelsey at all and yet she’d gained their trust immediately. They would have approved of her as a match if I had asked. Maybe not for my adolescent self, but surely as a match now. I smiled, thinking how my mother would have asked her to spar. Not even my mother, as good as she had been, could beat Ana.
My mind turned back to the scene at hand when Ren mentioned the tiger bones. I frowned and glanced at Kadam, but he was no longer at my side. I inhaled, trying to catch his scent, but couldn’t find it other than his remains in the casket. Had he gone home without telling me? There were no tracks either.
As the group began the funeral, I dashed back to the house and then checked his hiding place in the trees, looking for him. I heard my own voice echoing through the garden. “It has been our privilege to fight by your side…”
I was becoming frantic. Had he left? Where was he? Why would he leave now?
Kelsey began her poem and the words followed me as I searched the entire area. Finally, I came back to the coffin and stood on the opposite side. As Ren spoke of Kadam, I looked down at the body. Ren said, “Close the door; the shutters close; Or through the windows we shall see, the nakedness and vacancy of the dark deserted house…”
There was a flash of something, a tiny bit of movement inside the coffin. I thought perhaps it was a trick of the light but then the eyelids fluttered. No one else noticed except me. Ren finished his eulogy and then Kelsey approached with her white rose. She placed it inside the coffin and I blinked. Time phased around me and Ren and my old self lifted the lid in almost slow motion. As they did, my vision blurred and beneath the sallow, dead flesh, I saw a man hidden within. One very much alive.
And he was screaming.
The others closed the lid.
I froze time and flicked my fingers. The lid flew off and crashed into a tree, splintering into fragments. I couldn’t worry about that. At that moment, I needed to figure out how this had happened. Bending over the casket, I shouted, “Kadam! Kadam, can you hear me?”
His frightened eyes slid toward me and away as he writhed inside his fleshy trap. It was like what happened to Ana when she came into contact with her younger self, but this time there was no spirit inside to merge with hers. Instead, Kadam was imprisoned inside a vessel that could barely hold him. As I watched, he lifted his arm, but the flesh enveloping it was no longer animated by the soul inside. As a result, the arm flopped about in the casket, as awkwardly as a fish on a riverbank.
His mouth yawned widely, and as he gasped, I realized the lungs of the body were no longer taking in air. I had to get him out of there. Quickly. “Hold on!” I shouted, though I still had no idea what to do. I figured the first object was to get him oxygen. Using the air portion of the amulet, I filled the lungs of his body with air. Luckily for both of us, it worked.
No longer worried about his suffocation, I considered my next move.