Gregory Roberts - The Mountain Shadow

‘This floor,’ he puffed, as we reached the first floor, ‘has all of our main meditation and yoga halls.’

‘Do a lot of yoga, then?’ I asked, channelling the impish spirit of Gemini George for a moment.

‘No, no!’ Khaled replied seriously. ‘I’m much too fat and unfit for that. I was always a boxing and karate man, anyway. You remember that, Lin.’

I remembered. I remembered when Khaled could fight any man in the city but Abdullah into the ground, and still have energy to spare.

‘Uh-huh.’

‘But yoga is very popular, with my people. They’re at it all the time. They’d do it all night, if I let them. I practically have to hose them down to make them stop.’

Through the nearest door in the corridor, we could see a class of a dozen people, sitting on mats. Flute music came from speakers fixed to the walls.

Regaining his breath, Khaled led us to the second floor.

The corridor at that level showed many closed doors, running the length of the building.

‘Dormitories,’ Khaled wheezed. ‘And single rooms.’

He gently eased open the door to the nearest room. We saw several girls, sleeping on single beds under tent-pole mosquito nets. The girls were naked.

‘My most devoted students,’ Khaled said, in that same bewilderingly flat tone.

‘What the fuck, Khaled?’ I snapped, but he put his finger to his lips, silencing me.

‘Please, Lin, be quiet! We won’t get a minute’s peace, if you wake them up.’

‘Okay, bye, Khaled,’ I said, leaving.

‘What are you doing?’ Khaled asked, a puzzle stamped on his forehead.

‘Well, I’m gonna keep on walking until I’m not here. That’s what goodbye means.’

‘No, Lin, what’s the matter?’ he asked, pulling the door closed gently.

‘The matter?’ I said, stopping at the top of the stairs. ‘What’s that in there, a harem? Have you gone nuts, Khaled? Who do you think you are?’

‘Everyone here is free to leave, Lin,’ he said flatly, his frown darkening at the edges. ‘Including you.’

‘What a coincidence,’ I sighed, turning to go. ‘I was just leaving.’

‘No, no, I’m sorry,’ he said, rushing forward and putting a hand on my shoulder to stop me. ‘There’s something you have to see! Something I must show you! It’s a secret. A secret I want to share with you.’

‘I’ve had enough secrets for one day, Khaled. Call me, when you come down off the mountain.’

‘But Abdullah hasn’t seen the secret yet. You can’t deprive him , as well, can you? That would be cruel. Abdullah, wouldn’t you like to know the secret?’

‘I would , Khaled,’ Abdullah replied, all fascinated innocence.

‘Then, tell Lin. Convince him to stay. Whatever the case, I’m going up to see the secret, and you’re welcome to come along, if you want, my brothers.’

He released his grip on my shoulder, braced himself with a deep breath for the climb to the third floor, and then trudged up the stairs.

I held Abdullah back.

‘What are we doin’ here, Abdullah?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘A room full of naked girls? What’s the matter with him? There’s plenty of girls. The world’s full of girls. Having your own roomful of girls is what gives creepy a bad name. Come on, brother. Let’s go.’

‘But, Lin,’ Abdullah whispered. ‘What about the secret?’

‘Are you kidding?’

‘It is a secret. A real secret.’

‘I don’t like the secret I heard already, Abdullah.’

‘How can you not want to know?’

‘Let’s just say I’ve got psychic asthma, and right now, I need fresh air. It’s medicinal. Let’s go.’

‘Please stay with me, Lin, just until the secret is unveiled.’

I sighed.

‘Are you guys coming?’ Khaled called out from his resting place, halfway up the flight of stairs. ‘These stairs are killing me. I’m getting an elevator installed next week.’

Abdullah gave me his pleading frown.

‘Okay, okay,’ I called back, heading up the stairs.

Plodding wearily, Khaled followed the elbow turn of the stairs and finally came to a closed door. Fetching a key from the folds of his kaftan, he opened the door, and ushered us inside.

It was dark. The light from the stairwell revealed an attic room, with the folded arms of roof beams above our heads. Khaled closed the door, locked it, and clicked on a suspended light bulb.

It was a hoard of objects in gold and silver: jewelled necklaces and chains, spilling from little wooden chests, scattered across several tables.

There were candlesticks and mirrors, picture frames, hairbrushes, strings of pearls, jewelled bracelets, watches, necklaces, brooches, rings, earrings, nose-rings, toe rings and even several black and gold wedding necklaces.

And there was money. A lot of money.

‘No matter how I tried to explain this,’ Khaled said, breathing through his open mouth, ‘nothing could ever be clearer than seeing it for yourself, na ? This is the power of the bended knee. Do you see? Do you see ?’

There was a softly breathing silence. Pigeons brooded in a distant corner of the roofline, their warbled comments echoing in the long, closed room.

Finally, Khaled spoke again.

‘Tax free,’ he wheezed.

He looked from Abdullah, to me, and back again.

‘Well? What do you think?’

‘You need more security,’ Abdullah observed.

‘Ha!’ Khaled laughed, clapping the tall Iranian on the back. ‘Are you volunteering for the job, my old friend?’

‘I have a job,’ he replied, even more seriously.

‘Yes, yes, of course you do, but -’

‘Your students gave you all this stuff?’ I asked.

‘Actually, I call them students, but they refer to themselves as devotees,’ Khaled said, staring at the hoard. ‘There was even more than this.’

‘More than this ?’

‘Oh, yes. A lot of other gifts from my devotees in Varanasi. But I had to leave there rather quickly, and I lost everything.’

‘Lost it how?’

‘To the police, as a bribe,’ Khaled replied. ‘That’s why Lord Bob set me up here, in this house, just before he died.’

‘Why did you have to leave Varanasi so quickly?’

‘Why do you want to know, Lin, my old friend?’

The jewels from the treasure were glittering in his eyes.

‘You brought it up, man.’

He stared at me for a while, hesitating on the glacial edge of cold-hearted truth. He decided to trust me, I guess.

‘There was a girl,’ he said. ‘A devotee, a very sincere devotee, who came from a prominent Brahmin family. She was beautiful, and ultimately devoted to me, body and soul. I didn’t know she was below the age.’

‘Come on, Khaled.’

‘I couldn’t know. You live here, Lin, you know how precocious these young Indian girls can be. She looked eighteen, I swear. Her breasts were swollen like ripe mangoes. And the sex was fully mature. But, alas, she was only fourteen.’

‘Khaled, you just officially freaked me out.’

‘No, Lin, understand me -’

‘Understand sex with kids? You want me to see it your way ? Is that it, Khaled?’

‘But it won’t happen again.’

‘ Again? ’

‘It can’t happen again. I’ve taken measures.’

‘You’re making this worse every time you open your mouth, Khaled.’

‘Listen to me! I make every one of them show me a birth certificate now, especially the younger ones. I’m protected, now.’

‘ You’re protected?’

‘Let’s stop all this serious talk, yaar. We all have things in the past that we regret, no? We have a saying, in Arabic. Take counsel from he who makes you weep, not from he who makes you laugh. I haven’t made you laugh today, Lin, but that doesn’t mean my counsel is worthless.’