Talitha Koum

Chapter 21

TALITHA KOUM

CHAPTER 21

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The three were back in their own quarters. Mr. Fong was eating some dates.

Tom stared at him and shook his head. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“What it look like I’m doing?” He popped two more into his mouth.

Tom and Mr. Fong were sitting by the table where the food was. A guard stood just outside the doorway. Julie had tied the door back and was sitting near it, peeping out at the guard and the activity outside.

“Everyone have to eat.” Mr. Fong wiped his mouth with his sleeve. “Especially me. Old man like me needs lots of fruit. Fibre! You guys should eat more fruit too. It gives you good poo.”

“Right.” Tom scoffed. “Because that’s what I’m thinking about right now. Of course! My poo.”

Julie rotated around to face the men. “Will you guys just shut it for a minute?!”

Tom jumped to his feet. “Oh, like you should talk! If it wasn’t for you…”

Mr. Fong stood up. “Hey!” He held his hands up and the other two stopped. “We agreed! No more argue!”

Julie and Tom sat back down, settling once more into their truce. Just like Pang and Abda.

As it turned out, Pang’s settlement had not been under attack after all. While Abda had indeed come in force with his men in tow, he had only demanded to speak with Pang in peace. No fighting. For now. Pang complied and the two sides had been conferring since.

When the confusion first broke out, Tom, Julie and Mr. Fong tried to slip away in the crowd. But before they had tiptoed ten feet, Pang’s men had rounded them up, returned them to their tent and placed them under guard.

“Julie…”

Julie spun around to Tom.

Tom held his hands up. “I just want to talk.”

Julie turned back to the outside of the tent. The guard threw her a sidelong glance and then returned his gaze into the distance.

Tom strode over to where Julie was perched by the entrance. He pulled up a cushion.

“What do you want?” Julie kept her eyes to the outside. Abda’s forces were not visible from this side of the camp. Over here, only Pang’s fighting men could be seen marching back and forth, doing their chores, carrying supplies and weapons.

“You do have a plan, right?” asked Tom. “Like maybe we should make a run for it?”

Julie rolled her eyes. “And where would we go?”

“But…” Tom didn’t finish. He shook and then scratched his head.

Julie looked down and sighed. Getting up, she moved further into the enclosure, putting some distance between herself and the guard outside. She motioned to the other two and had them come and sit down beside her.

She glanced from one to the other of the two men. “I’ve been thinking.”

Tom and Mr. Fong nodded.

“I’ve been trying to think this through logically.” She cleared her throat. “Let’s assume that we can’t get home for the moment…”

“Good assumption.” Tom smirked.

Julie ignored him. “…so then we’re stuck here. In this time. For now, anyway.”

“Uh-huh,” said Mr. Fong.

“What is our immediate concern? Like right now?”

Mr. Fong spoke up. “Bad poo?”

The other two glared at him.

Mr. Fong swallowed. “Um…no poo?”

Julie looked back at Tom. “Our main concern is that Pang wants to kill us. I mean…when he gets a minute.”

Tom scoffed. “I think he just wants to kill you.”

“And you don’t think he wants to kill you?” she asked him back.

Tom shrugged. “I hate to say so, but I think with me, it’s more like a case of…he doesn’t really…” He gestured with his hand. “…care to let me live. But with you!” Tom widened his eyes. “He really wants to kill you.”

Julie gave way. “Okay, fine. But that’s what makes the plan obvious.” She leaned in closer. “We have to give him a good reason not to kill us. We have to make ourselves useful to him somehow…”

Tom nodded. “Like valuable…”

“…volleyball…” Mr. Fong mumbled. He nodded.

Tom turned to him. “What?”

Mr. Fong waved him off.

“Yes.” Julie nodded. “Valuable. Right. That’s what I thought too. So it all comes down to whatever makes us valuable. In order for us to survive, we need to make ourselves, somehow, valuable to Pang.” She turned to Mr. Fong. “The answer for you then, Mr. Fong, would seem to be the easiest. You are already valuable to Pang, as a cook, as a fellow countryman. You need to remind him of that when the opportunity presents itself.”

Tom frowned. “And for us two?”

Julie sighed. “That’s more troublesome.” She coughed and cleared her throat. She sat up and let her eyes wander over to the door.

Turning away from them, she spoke and the words were barely a whisper. “And for what it’s worth, in the future…I will…do my best…to keep my mouth…shut.”

Tom and Mr. Fong turned to each other. Tom began to smile. “Wow. I can’t believe it…”

Julie turned back. She punched Tom on the arm. “What?”

Tom drew back, rubbed his arm but kept smiling. “…you know, Mr. Fong? In some countries, that might even qualify as the beginnings of an apology…”

“Now, wait a minute…”

Mr. Fong smiled.

“Tom! That was not an apology! I just meant…”

One of the guards entered and spoke to Mr. Fong in Chinese.

Mr. Fong got to his feet. “Come. Pang wants to see us.”

Julie stood. She tipped her head at Tom. “All right, Tom. You stay close behind me and be alert. If it turns out that we can’t convince him somehow, I’ll look for an opening and make a break for it.”

“I thought you said we have nowhere to go.”

“We’ll have to figure that out when we get there.”

Tom nodded.

“And Mr. Fong? You just stay out of the way. If you see us running, I don’t want you coming with us.”

“But…”

“No, Mr. Fong! I mean it.” She reached out and squeezed his arm.

Mr. Fong looked from one to the other of them. Bending his head, he nodded. He followed the guard out of the tent.

Julie turned to Tom. “Oh yes and one last thing…”

“Yeah?”

“When you fight, don’t just lay on the ground and hold onto people’s legs. It doesn’t tend to do anything…”

“I never did that!”

“You did at the lab.”

“What?! Just that one time! I…”

They followed the guard out.