Colin Cotterill - Thirty-Three Teeth

He pulled away and took as deep a breath as he could. He knew what he’d found. But this was no time to become squeamish. He continued to sweep his palms back and forth until he made contact with the flashlight. He grabbed it, located the switch and, with his heart in his mouth, clicked it on.

Nothing happened.

“Please, Buddha, don’t say the bulb’s gone.”

He tapped the flashlight and shook it and tried the switch again.

Still nothing.

From a little way ahead of him, no more than a yard, there came a breath. He rattled the battery frantically, shook the flashlight again, smacked it harder against his palm.

Another breath came from the dark.

He took one breath of his own, concentrated, screwed the head of the flashlight tight, and tried the switch one more time.

The tunnel lit up like a theater and, looking around him upon its stage, he saw the most impossible, the most extraordinary scene.

Dtui awoke face-down. The scent of Breeze laundry detergent filled her nostrils. Her other senses were slower to come around. A fluffy white kitten lay some two feet from her head. It had no visible legs or face.

She couldn’t feel her own tongue in her mouth, so she knew the medication was strong. She didn’t want to begin to imagine what pain it was covering or what parts she might be missing. She just basked for a minute or two in the state of being alive.

The side of her face felt flat against the pillow, as if it had been there for an eternity. But no amount of willpower would convince her head to change its position. So she looked sideways at the familiar room through eyes gummy with the emissions of sleep.

There was nothing to distinguish one of Mahosot’s private rooms from another. They all had the same Wattay blue walls, one traditional Lao print of an elephant, a year-old Thai plowing calendar, and a window too high up to see out of. She’d spent many hours in these rooms before her morgue career, but never in a bed. She felt a little like royalty-very sore, immobile royalty.

The kitten stirred. Growing out of its bottom were a small nose, a mouth, and two very green eyes that seemed to take some time to realize Dtui was staring back.

“Dtui?”

“Hello.”

She sounded like a crocodile.

Siri was truly delighted. His neck was stiff from falling asleep during his watch again, but he clapped his hands and touched her numb cheek with the tips of his fingers. His smile made her feel important.

“Well, it’s about time,” he said. “How do you feel?”

“I don’t.”

Siri reached down below the sheet.

“Hey. What are you doing down there?”

She tried to smile but dribbled instead. Siri retrieved her arm and took her pulse.

“You have no more secrets from me, I’m afraid, Nurse Dtui.”

Pleased with the pulse count, he took a tissue from the roll and wiped her mouth and eyes.

“Why am I face-down?”

“Most of your wounds are on your back. Do you remember what happened?”

In fact she did. Most of it remained clear in her mind, although she would have preferred otherwise.

“I was dragged, and …”

“And beaten.”

“Dr. Siri?”

“Yes?”

“Did he … mess with me?”

“No. Not at all.”

“That’s good.”

She may have managed a smile. Siri may still have been talking. But she was soon unconscious again.

She swooned back into the room several more times that day. On one occasion, a big grinning Mr. Geung was leaning over her, encouraging her to stay awake, saying something about disinfectant prices.

On another, she may have been entertaining a flock of white-uniformed nursing students.

One more time, Civilai sat reading a report, making pencil notes in the margins.

The last time, it was dark but for a covered lamp on the table beside her. Siri slept in the corner of the room on an unlikely hospital reclining deck chair. She’d used up all her sleep, so had nothing to occupy her time other than reliving her demon. Now was the moment when she could either box him away in a dusty corner of her psyche and let him rattle from time to time, or exorcise him and let herself get on with life.

The night ticked on painfully slowly. The doctor slept with a crafty smile on his lips. She wondered what moment he was reliving in his dream, what happy time was revisiting him from the past. But she needed him awake.

“Dr. Siri. Dr. Siri.”

The poor man was disoriented. He’d had a full day at the morgue: an accidental double shooting at the army training ground. Half-awake, he remembered where he was, hurried over to Dtui and took her wrist.

“You’re doing very well,” he said, swaying slightly.

“Will I live?”

“A lot longer than me. You really are an amazingly resilient young thing.”

“Siri, what’s happened to my mom?”

He blushed. “Ah, yes. That.”

“Doc?”

“Well, she’s moved in with me.”

“You don’t waste any time, do you? Is she okay?”

“She’s fine now. She’s very relieved that you pulled through.”

“How bad was I?”

“The first three days, we weren’t sure you’d make it.”

“Damn.”

“You’d lost a lot of blood.”

“I’ve been here longer than three days?”

“Dtui, it’s April 10th. You’ve been here well over three weeks. It’s almost Lao New Year.”

“God, how am I ever going to afford …? I can’t pay for all this and ma, and …”

He smiled and shook his head.

“No. Don’t worry about it. You wouldn’t believe how well things have worked out on that front. I’ll tell you all about it later. The bills are taken care of.”

Siri spent some time looking at Dtui’s wounds and doing a few basic tests.

“Doc, I’m sorry I woke you up. I wanted to talk about it.”

“We will.”

“No, I mean now. I need to verbalize it. I really think the sooner I get it all out of my system, the better.”

“It could be quite draining. Are you sure you’re strong enough?”

“I’m wide awake and pumping.”

“Then talk away. I can’t tell you how much I’ve been looking forward to solving this last little mystery. It’s been driving me nutty.”

He pulled over the straight-back chair from the desk and sat beside her with his hand on hers.

“Uncle Civilai told me about the tunnels.”

“What made you think of looking underground?”

“There’s this old lady at the slum. People call her a witch ‘cause she knows all about these old traditions and uses herbal potions. I went to ask her about the weretiger. She told me about the caves and the holes down into the other world. As no witnesses had come forward to say they’d seen the creature, it seemed logical that it was in hiding. But there aren’t that many places above ground you can hide in a city like Vientiane.

“I didn’t plan to go down there and be some Wonder Woman character, honestly I didn’t. I hate confined spaces. Even our room at the shanty gives me the willies. I just went down to take a look, really. I didn’t have any evidence, you see? I had nothing to prove he was down there. So I went to see if it was likely, or even possible. I opened the slab and went down to the bottom of the ladder and flashed my light down the tunnel. I called out, ‘Anyone down here?’

“There was no answer. I didn’t hear any sounds. There was no way in Hades I was about to go down that tunnel. So I was just climbing back up the ladder when this big shadow comes over me and bang, something smashes me over the head.

“I came to and he’s got my flashlight and he’s dragging me through the tunnel by the wrist just like I don’t weigh anything. I was dizzy, but I struggled and screamed and he gave me another thump with the butt of the flashlight. He was incredibly strong. It was a sort of superhuman strength.”