Gregory Roberts - The Mountain Shadow

‘You don’t say,’ Karla said, leaning against me.

‘I do say,’ Concannon grinned. ‘I’ve learned a lot on this job. It’s been a real education. I usually walked away, you see, while they were still twitchin’, and never looked back.’

‘Concannon,’ Dennis said. ‘You’re killing my high, man.’

‘I’m only havin’ a conversation, Dennis. Just because we’re undertakers, doesn’t mean we can’t be sociable.’

‘True,’ Dennis said. ‘But how do you expect me to test-drive this new hearse, if I’m not high?’

‘I’m only sayin’, like,’ Concannon persisted. ‘They wriggle around, dead bodies, long after they’re gone, shakin’ about on the table all of a sudden like. One body we had, yesterday, danced better than I do. But I was never the one for dancin’, truth be told, when there was fightin’ or kissin’ to be had.’

‘Light the next chillum,’ Dennis said, putting the hearse into gear. ‘If you don’t care for my high, listen to the mannequin. He’s screaming for it.’

They pulled away, the slogan of their company streaming past us slowly on the long windows of the hearse: Peace In Rest .

‘Now, that’s an interesting team.’

‘A marriage made in Limbo,’ I said. ‘But the mannequin seemed like a nice guy.’

Diva Devnani called us to a meeting at her corporate office. It was on the Worli Seaface, a long slow smile of buildings beaming at the sea from a wide, curved boulevard. Diva’s building was like the upper deck of an ocean liner, with tall, rounded windows in full sail, and a continuous balcony serving as the rail.

When the elevator doors closed, I offered Karla my flask. She took a swig, and handed it back. The elevator operator glanced at me. I offered him the flask, and he took a swig, dripping the rum into his mouth without touching it to his lips. He passed it back, wagging his head.

‘God bless everyone,’ he said.

‘Speaking for everyone,’ Karla said, ‘God bless you back.’

The doors opened onto a marble and glass prairie, with several very pretty girls in very tight skirts grazing at desks of distraction.

While Karla spoke to the receptionist, I wandered among the glass and steel desks, glancing over shoulders. The girls were listening to music on their headphones, playing video games and reading magazines.

One of the girls looked up at me mid-flip in her magazine. She turned down the volume on her headset.

‘Can I help you?’ she threatened, her eyes fierce.

‘I’ll… you know… I’ll just be over there,’ I said, backing away.

The receptionist took us to an alcove with a view of the door to Diva’s office, where we sat in plush chairs. There was a side table, with business newspapers and magazines, soda water in a glass jug, and some peanuts, offered in a bronze cast of a human hand.

The palm of peanuts drew my eye as we sat down. I pointed at it, trying to figure out the message.

‘This is what we’re gonna pay you?’ I whispered to Karla. ‘Or maybe, this is what happened to the last guy who asked for a raise?’

‘ Beggars can’t be choosers ,’ Karla said.

‘Damn good,’ I smiled, my eyes applauding.

A tall, pretty girl appeared at our side.

‘Can I get you a cup of coffee?’ the girl asked.

‘Maybe later, with Diva,’ Karla said. ‘Thanks.’

The girl left, and I turned to Karla.

‘It’s pretty weird, out there in reception.’

‘It’s still a marble tile or two short of weird.’

‘No, I mean the girls. They’re not doing anything.’

‘What do you mean, they’re not doing anything?’

‘It’s a jive of inactivity.’

‘So? Maybe it’s a slow day.’

‘Karla, come on. There are seven very pretty girls out there, and not one of them is doing anything. It’s kinda weird.’

‘It’s kinda weird that you counted them,’ she smiled.

‘I -’

The door to Diva’s office opened. It was exactly one minute before our meeting. A grasp of businessmen filed out, wearing similar suits and identical stares of ambition, fed.

‘Punctuality is the time of thieves,’ Karla said, glancing at the clock, and standing.

Diva came to the door of the office, her hands on her hips.

‘Come in,’ she said, kissing Karla on both cheeks. ‘I’ve missed you both so much. Thanks for coming.’

She flopped into an immense chair, behind the curve of a black grand piano that she’d shortened, and converted into a desk.

A photograph of her father in a silver frame rested on the piano-desk. Flowers trailed over the picture, spilling yellow against lacquered black. Incense burned in a tray shaped like a peacock’s tail.

It was a big room, but there were only two chairs facing her desk. All those blank-eyed businessmen had stood, during the meeting with Diva. Tough girl , I thought, and who can blame her?

‘That was something,’ she said. ‘Can I get you guys a drink? God knows, I need one.’

She pressed a button on a console, and the door opened a second later. A very pretty girl walked across the large room, stalking the slippery floor on hysterical heels. She stopped at the desk with a flourish of her short skirt, long legs stiff.

‘Martini,’ Diva said, ‘I want you to meet Miss Karla and Mr Shantaram.’

Karla waved hello. I stood, put my right hand over my chest, and inclined my head. It’s the most polite way to greet any woman in India, because many women don’t like to shake hands. Martini inclined her head at me, and I sat down again.

‘I’ll have a Manhattan,’ Diva said. ‘What about you, Karla?’

‘Two jiggers of vodka over two cubes, please.’

‘A lime soda, for me.’

Martini spun on a fifty-calibre heel, and stalked away slowly, a giraffe in a glass zoo.

‘I suppose you’re wondering why I called you here,’ Diva said, giving me a different wondering, because I wasn’t.

‘I’m wondering,’ Karla said, ‘but not about that. You’ll get to the point when it’s sharp enough, right? How are you, Diva? It’s been weeks.’

‘I’m good,’ she smiled, straightening up in the chair that looked like half a bed for her small frame. ‘I’m tired, but I’ve been working on that. I sold everything today. Just about everything. That was the last, in a very long line of meetings I’ve had, yesterday and today.’

‘Sold everything how ?’ Karla asked.

‘All the men who actually run the companies, in my portfolios, have tranches of shares as bonuses. I told them that if I sold my portfolio in one hit, their shares would be worthless. But if they gave the shares back to me, they could take the companies and run them with their own boards, and give themselves sweaty-palm bonuses, without spending a dollar, and I would resign.’

‘Smart move,’ Karla said. ‘As principal shareholder, you have an annual general meeting to use against them. But you skip the day-to-day. It’s like getting drunk without the hangover.’

‘Precisely,’ Diva said, as Martini arrived with the drinks.

‘Have you got a joint?’ Diva asked.

‘Yes,’ Karla and Martini said at the same time, turning their heads instantly to look at one another.

It looked tense, to me. But silent struggles between beautiful women are feminal magician’s tricks, faster and subtler than male eyes and instincts can follow. I couldn’t be sure what was going on, so I smiled at everybody.

Karla took a slender joint from her case, and passed it to Diva. Martini glowered, all legs and no pockets, and whirled away, the frills of her skirt like a creature designed by a reef.