24 Hours with Gaspar by Sabda Armandio;

Author:Sabda Armandio;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicago Distribution Center (CDC Presses)
Published: 2023-10-03T06:55:34+00:00

05

Cortázar, Afif, Yadi and Tati are set to join the robbery. With a mere 16 hours to go, I tried to convince Kik and Njet to get in on the plan by revealing my motive for the crime.

I first heard about the black box through Babaji, my father’s driver. The one before him had been sacked after attempting to steal my dad’s beloved Mercy Tiger. Babaji was a man of South Asian origin, bald save for some hair running from his ears to the top of his neck. He kept his beard well groomed, moustache and sideburns neatly trimmed. If you stood close to him, you could catch a whiff of a powerful smell, something like cat poop, but in a good way. Babaji was discrete; without saying a word, he’d give rides to the woman my father was having an affair with, as well as the man my mother had started seeing. He was around for most of my childhood. Once, when my parents got into a big fight, I stood there, slack-jawed and staring at the words forming on my parents’ lips, and Babaji came over and put his arm around me. In a low voice he said, ‘If you’re ever in a tough situation, just click your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Time will feel like it’s moving faster, and eventually your problems will go away on their own.’

He demonstrated how I should shape my lips in order to make the sound and, as I focused on trying to produce a click, told me a story: ‘A long, long time ago, the people who lived in the village at the foot of Govardhan Hill made an offering to the god Indra, asking him to bring rain.’

Indra grew arrogant from power, and Krishna decided to teach him a lesson. He told the people of the village that instead of giving offerings to Indra, they should dedicate themselves to Govardhan, the hill that collected water when Indra didn’t bring the rain to nourish the grasses that their cattle would feed on.

Indra lost his temper and unleashed a torrential downpour lasting seven days and seven nights. Krishna protected the villagers by lifting Govardhan Hill with his pinky finger, which shielded the village for the duration of the storm. On the fifth day of rain, Achal, a farmer who had been hiding under the shadow of the hill, spotted a black box half-buried in the ground. At first, he assumed it was an unremarkable stone, but its unusual shape made him think twice. He had a lot of free time on his hands, waiting around for the rain to let up, so he decided to dig the object out of the earth. ‘The box was magical. You know why?’ Babaji said in a cadence that reminded me of a slow-moving stream. He spoke softly but his voice, deep and rich, commanded my full attention until the volume of my mom and dad’s argument was reduced to that of a mosquito buzzing around my ear.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.