Saved in Sri Lanka

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Colombo

Interesting how one hour of watching someone could tell you so much-or so little-about that person. 

Sepalika took her eyes off her group, and leaned back into the seat of the tour bus. Her job as a tour guide in Sri Lanka involved being in touch with people from all walks of life. While it had overwhelmed her at the beginning, she had come to love this part of the job after some time. Observing tourists from around the world and their reactions to her country, and trying to catch and analyze the vibe they radiated, was fun. It helped her overcome the boredom of routine. While she automatically recited historical facts or shared a colorful anecdote for the umpteenth time, she had the chance to take in her listeners and form an opinion about them. Long bus rides were also a good opportunity, as they completely forgot about her presence as soon as she shut her mouth. 

Each and every one of them had a story to tell, and she loved guessing about their background, using the little details to construe a picture in her mind, neatly labeled-and sometimes not so easily categorized. 

Sepalika half turned in her seat, her gaze inevitably drawn to the person of her group that had caught her eye an hour ago. 

Daniel Byrne from Ireland. 

Ginger-haired, intimidatingly tall. Polished cheekbones you could cut yourself on, a square jaw, eyes of an impossible color she couldn't put her finger on. Gray maybe? 

In the lobby during the introduction she had shaken his hand, hers momentarily engulfed in his long, strong fingers, and a jolt of awareness had penetrated her calm, nearly wiping the practiced smile off her face. 

Who was he? 

She let her eyes stray to his still figure at the back of the tour bus, too far away to be studied the way she craved it. He was sitting in a window seat with his arms folded across his chest, the pose perfectly highlighting his finely toned muscles. Since the time the ride had started and her introductory speech was over, he had been staring out of the window at the scenery flying by-grand hotels, shabby shacks, shop after shop encroaching on the road, startlingly blue glimpses of the ocean. He never lost his tense-jawed, solemn expression. Every few minutes, he'd cast his glance around the bus, flitting over each group member for a second. With a frown, he'd return to gazing out. 

What on earth was bothering this man? 

Something had to be on his mind, weighing him down. 

And yet, after some time she thought he didn't so much seem troubled but rather serious and lost in thought. The quiet air of confidence and self-contained loneliness about him drew her in. 

This was new. She hadn't had one of this kind among her sheep to shepherd before. That must be why her gaze unfailingly returned to him...and why she remembered how safe her hand had felt in his firm, dry grasp. 

She also remembered having smiled at him in her usual way, all friendly and open and toothy, and having met no smile-in-return. 

It had been the first time one of her tourists hadn't returned her welcoming expression that a colleague of hers had dubbed the 'million dollar smile'. Why hadn't he smiled back? 

She shook her head, and snapped her focus back to the here and now. No use getting so worked up about this man. He'd be gone in a week or two. Besides, he was off limits to her. There was a line to draw, and she knew better than to overstep it. 

It was much nicer to slip back into her usual behavior and enjoy guessing about people's lives. 

Take the elderly couple at the front of the bus, for example. Hans and Lisa Zimmermann from Germany had arrived here by cruise ship and booked the tour to make the most of their week-long stay on the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, as Sri Lanka was poetically called. She watched the small smiles they exchanged all the time, saw the husband hold the handbag for his wife, saw the wife urge the husband to drink some water. The palpable aura of love surrounding them like a happy bubble made her smile. They must have married some forty, fifty years ago and spent their life in wedded bliss, fighting together against whatever was thrown their way. Now, retired and in as good a health as one could wish for in their late seventies, they traveled the globe in search of golden memories to treasure until their time had come.