Chapter 2

“When we get to the harbor, will there be someone waiting there for me?”

“If we make it on time.” The tall young British man did not leave the captain at this unsatisfactory answer.

“Will we make it on time or not?” The captain of the small ship groaned out loud.

“We’re on schedule right now, so we should make it.”

“That’s all I wanted to know.” The British man finally fell silent, but did not leave the captain’s side, and the captain seemed quite unnerved by the fact. He glanced over his shoulder back at his young passenger and attempted to make non-forced sounding small talk.

“So why are you traveling to India? Business?” The passenger diverted his eyes from the old man’s stare and let them gaze idly over the water of the vast Arabian Sea.

“Sort of. I’m a writer.”

“A writer, huh? Come looking for a bit of domestic style exotic fun?” He let out a throaty chuckle and coughed.

“I guess. I just wanted to see something that I had never seen before. Maybe write some more poetry. I’ve kind of had a writer’s block for the past couple of months, and I thought this might cure it for me.” His eyes were still focused on the wide ocean, and the old captain grunted again.

“Well then I guess Panaji is the place for you.”

“Yeah, I guess.” The two stood silent, listening to the quiet song of the ocean for the rest of their trek to the harbor at Panaji on the western coast of India. When they got there the young British man started on his way down to the pier, when the captain called back to him from the hull of the small ship.

“What’s your name?”

“Why do you want to know my name?” The captain shrugged.

“I like to remember people. Everyone.” The young man also shrugged and shouted out his first name into the wind before departing.

“It’s Joshua!”

Joshua turned away from the captain as he stepped off of the steep ramp onto the damp wood of Panaji Pier 3. He breathed in the thick salt air and turned to see a young Indian boy looking straight at the back of his head.

“Sir?”

“Yes, son?”

“Bags, I take to room?” Joshua thought over the broken English for a second before agreeing.

“Oh! Of course, lad, I’m so sorry. Yes, you will take my bags to my new apartment.” The boy smiled, revealing yellowed and uneven teeth, but sparkling chocolate eyes none the less. He excitably dragged the two large bags up from the ground, anticipating the few coins that he was sure to get from such a wealthy looking white man, no doubt, and started on his way down the cobblestone road.

Joshua pointed down one direction, as he caught site of the name on the street sign, and followed the young boy into the whirring crowd of daytime Panaji.

“So lad, is there anything interesting to do here in Panaji after sundown?” The boy gave him a more than slightly confused glance, and Joshua waved the question off, as he understood that it was simply too much English for the boy to understand all at once. He then glanced up and down the sides of the street, taking silent notice of addresses and shop fronts.

281…

283…

He was almost to the hotel he would be staying at for the next month or two. Two if the city inspired him; one if its exotic charms had no affect on him at all.

And, 297. Here they were. Joshua patted the young boy with his bags on the shoulder, and then nodded toward the building beside them, watching as the boy went to the door and opened it wide, but right before Joshua stepped up to the door, he looked behind himself, at the bar across the street. It was plain looking, just like all the others; not the ones in London of course, but the others he had seen in Panaji so far. It wasn’t amazing in any respect, or even very exotic to tell the truth, but Joshua decided that he would probably make his way into it that evening anyway.

“Oh boy, this is it. This is my room,” and Joshua got out the key that he had been sent and opened the door to a small apartment, as he stopped the boy. The boy came into the room first, dropping the two bags beside the bed, and looking up toward Joshua with an expectant grin on his face. Joshua grinned back, dropping two coins into his palm, and grinned wider at the look of surprise that the boy had at the TWO coins in his hand.

“Thank, sir.”

“Your welcome, son. Now why don’t you go down to the pier? Get yourself a couple more shillings or rubles or something? Yeah?” The boy nodded his head up and down once before running out of the room, leaving Joshua to chuckle to himself.

Joshua sighed and shut the door, inspecting his new home immediately. The bed was a dirty cot, with a comparably clean sheet and pillow atop it. The paint was peeling indefinitely, and it only had one, small, dirty window, but he smiled anyway. This would due just fine. Just fine.

Two hours later, Joshua had made his way to the cot, and was bored out of his mind. Apparently his first observations of the room had actually been the most interesting ones, and now all there was to do was to wait until nightfall when he could go out and experience the Indian nightlife that he had so craved while in the London pubs. And that’s when his next observation came into view. It was dark outside.

He immediately ran from the room, slamming the rust stained door behind him, and made his way down into the cobblestone street that he had seen earlier upon his arrival in India. He stopped in his tracks in front of the tiny bar, before walking up to the bar and one bored looking bouncer, whom apparently understood no English. Discouraged, Joshua dropped what he was sure would be more than enough money into the large man’s open hands, and then entered into the smoky darkness of the bar.

He then went to the bar, sitting daintily on a stool, and dropping a few more coins onto the bar.

“Gin,” and a glass slid toward his hand.

“Two?” Joshua shot the bartender a confused expression.

“Two?”

“Hey,” a voice came from farther down the bar, and shot out a mouth full of some language at the bartender. The bartender put down another glass in front of Joshua and left.

Joshua glanced to where the bartended had gone to.

“Do you only speak English?” Joshua jumped and turned in time to see a young blond man down the second drink.

“What?”

“I asked if you only knew English. English won’t get you very far in Panaji.” The young man turned and began walking out the door, before calling out to Joshua one last time.

“Thanks for the gin.”

Chapter 3