BECOMING SUPRA

Chapter 19

RAË

I engage the clutch and shift the gear to 5th, I extend my leg and press down on the accelerator. Arms tight on the wheel, I am driving at 477 kilometres per hour. In my rear-view mirror I see a collection of cars chasing me in frenzied speeds, men dangling out from the windows with AK- 47's aimed directly at me.

Patt! Patt! Patt!

A round of bullets frisk the fender. I force a sharp turn, the car careens; before my eyes can adjust to what lays in front, I realize I've accelerated off a cliff. My vehicle coasts, then drops heavily. As I am plummeting I press a button, the top-hood of the car flaps open and I am ejected out, instantly. The force of the opening parachute lugs me up, I hover then start drifting down. The men on the cliff find me in the target-line of their AK-47's and fire a round of bullets.

Patt! Patt! Patt!

I bank left, manoeuvring away from them.

Below me, a Japanese mansion comes into view, in traditional style, it is made of wood and has a wide courtyard in the center of it. I manoeuvre down to the roof, the heels of my feet hitting the tiles. I skid to a screech. My parachute billowing behind me like a white jellyfish.

Startled, the guards point the nose of their machine guns at me. I am surrounded by nozzles from all directions.

I rapidly rid myself of the gear and start to run.

Patt! Patt! Patt!

A blizzard of bullets whizz past. My hair gets flicked. I can feel the heat of the gunshots zipping past my flesh.

I withdraw my senses, like an ebbing tide into the center of my mind. I shape-shift into a feather. With each gust I circle up. The guards track the floating feather through the eye of their target and let out another round.

Patt! Bang! Bang!

Startled, I drop heavily into my body.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

All vanishes, the guards, the mansion, the whizzing bullets and the pixelated images of the chase. I feel the hard frame of my chair beneath me. I take in my surroundings, I am sitting in my dorm room, adrenaline still pumping inside me.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Someone is at the window. I look at the computer screen. The cursor blinking, expectantly.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Who is it!" I say through gritted teeth.

"It's me! Open the window, I want to see what you're wearing."

I unlatch the window. Neel regards my clothes, "You forgot the Senior Ball!"

"Of course, not," I say nonchalantly. "I remember ...."

"You aren't even ready!"

"Give me a few."

"Hurry-up! We can't miss the crowning of the Beau and Belle in our senior year!"

I put on the last touches and meet Neel at the dorm's entrance.

In anticipation of a compliment, Neel twirls once, then once again, the vents of his perfectly tailored suit flap up. I smile and take in the length of his frame.

"Très elegant!"

"It's a Tom Ford rental. From his 2003 collection. You like?" he asks, smiling.

I whistle in response.

Neel bows, one hand in a paralytic flare above him. Then he turns his focus on me. Starting at my crown, in wide-eyed appreciation he scans the ceremonial mohawk fitted with long maroon and yellow feathers. He narrows his eyes and takes in the details of the downy green and white feathery barbs at the hairline. Then down towards my jeans which I've paired with a diaphanous powder-blue top, a waterfall of diamantes like a soft shield at the face of it. When he reaches my feet his smile drops. He balks at the sight of my black flats – at the nose of the shoe, rhino horns are sticking out.

"What on earth are you wearing on your feet?"

"Rhino-horn flats. Hiranur engineered them especially for me."

"You're wearing a high school project to the senior ball!"

"What's wrong with these?"

"What's wrong! For one, the horns aren't even attached properly and what ... what's that?" he said, scrutinizing, "streaks of dried glue on black plastic!"

"I had a limited budget. Besides, she's still a student."

"Who asked you to commission a student!" He raised his hands over his head. "No! No! No! This can't be happening to me! It's my last high school ball and you're wearing what on your feet? This is not how I imagined it to be!"

I clicked the tips of the rhino horns, admiring their simplicity.

"Let me remind you, this is not a fancy-dress party. It's a ball. Le Bal, as they say in French! What are you dressed as, anyway?"

"A goddess."

"A goddess. Oh yeah, which one? Which goddess pairs a mohawk with a high school experiment on her feet?"

"A goddess yet to be discovered."

"Appropriate all the goddesses known to mankind, Raë, but for heaven's sake don't wear plastic flats to senior-ball. I can't have my date wearing glued triangles on her shoes. That's just not fair. Not after I all the effort I've made. What about those stilettoes ... the ones I told you to flick from your mother's closet? The canary-yellow ones."

I rolled my eyes. "Do you have to be such a ..."

"Don't say anything you can't take back! Don't! Otherwise, it'll become a senior-prom regret. The last thing we want to do today is break into a fight. We want to dance ... with some sexy shoes on."

I turned on my heel, zipped into my room and returned wearing the canary-yellow stilettos that once belonged to my mother. That's all it took to make Neel smile ear to ear. With pride, he linked his arm with mine – I stood at seven feet tall with my head gear and stilettoes on. I started walking when Neel did a 180 and pulled me in the opposite direction.

"We're making a pit stop."

"At whose?"

"Gnome's house."

"What for?"

"Himalayan hash."

"I'm not smoking hash."

"It's Himalayan hash."

"I'm not smoking any hash."

"Stop being so pricey. Out of the 89 seniors graduating this year he extended the invitation only to the two of us."

"Chaperones are going to be there. Everyone is going to be watching. I don't want to get expelled for something I don't care for."

"Are you planning on leaving India without having tried the hash? That's like ... like denying yourself poutine on a cold night out in Toronto when you know you're never coming back. I mean seriously Raë, do you have to be such a bore?"

"I'm in the middle of these brainwave experiments. I don't want drugs ruining it. Not worth the risk. Not today. Too many chaperones."

"You say drug, I say delicacy. Knowing you, you'll regret it once you've graduated. All firsts happen in school. Not when you're fat and married with children. Make it happen in school, make it today."

"I'm not getting pressured into this."

"Pressured! Oh, if anybody could pressure you, Raë. Fine, you try convincing Gnome. He's been excited about his 'coming-out' ceremony all semester."

"Coming-out ceremony?"

"That's what he said."

"As?"

"Homosexual. I mean, why else do you think he's invited me?"

"What am I, the witness?"

"Not even. You're an afterthought." Neel started walking backwards, his eyes on me. "Tag along. Or don't bother." Then he turned and walked away.

I saw him leaving in his perfectly tailored suit and couldn't help myself from following him.