Harmony

The search for understanding

The board game parties were great fun too, especially the rapid board games. A few minutes playing one game, then a designated person yells "switch!" and everyone immediately moves to another table with a different board game, against a different opponent, resuming that game regardless of how badly or well the previous player was doing. There was chess, and Sorry!, and checkers, and Monopoly, and others. Lots of variations. So many laughs, so much teasing of each other for playing badly and so much chaos. She loved it.

Suria snapped out of her momentary reverie, taking her mind back to Neca's question. "We can make a start," she said. "Gimi's been great with this. His anthropology knowledge and my psychology knowledge are well suited to doing this, so I think we'll try it. Why not?"

"It's nice everyone is finding something to do. It will be useful to know this. Very useful." Neca reflected. She took out her water bottle, as did Tau. The conversation ceased at that point and the three of them went silent.

Later on, after they'd all taken a rest break, Suria found herself walking with Prina and Rivo. Throughout the past week she had been wanting to ask if they were a couple, but felt it wasn't the polite thing to do, so she didn't. Above all, they came across as really good friends. There were no public displays of affection. She therefore at this point assumed nothing more. Instead she asked Prina how her clothes-making was going.

"Oh, very good thank you! I am enjoying myself. Something stopped me before now. It must have. Maybe I had a lot of study at university. I want to make up for lost time."

"She is," Rivo continued. "Sometimes I wonder – where is Prina? Then I kick myself. I should know where she is." He laughed, and Prina laughed too.

"Are you making any specific clothing projects?" Suria vaguely remembered some days ago that Prina had said she wanted to start working on something.

"I am, but nothing is finished yet. I'm enjoying being in that artistic environment. I can't get enough right now."

"She likes being here with so much freedom." Rivo seemed pleased that Prina was so happy.

"How about you, Rivo? Are you enjoying the mountains? How is the garden going?" Suria hadn't talked as much with him as with some of the others. She felt privileged to be temporarily within this special friendship that, according to Le, had started almost the instant they awoke in the aircraft.

"The garden – yes, we have done some plantings. We try to grow some herbs and some vegetables. Do I like the mountains? Oh, Switzerland is bella. Italian mountains very nice too, but nothing like here. Best place in the world to walk. We are so lucky."

"We are," Prina continued, following Rivo. "We really are. I talked to Tau again yesterday and asked him again what he thought about us all being a family, sort of. He's more open to the idea than he was previously. I am not trying to convince him or anything, I just wanted to know. He is enjoying how we all feel together too."

This triggered a slightly different line of thinking from Suria. "He is older than most of us though. He and Rais are probably around thirty, maybe older. Gimi too. I have to wonder if they have wives or even children. It's entirely possible."

"You might be right Suria. We don't know." Prina looked downwards, as if thinking deeply on what Suria had suggested.

"You are okay to ask him again about your family idea, Prina. He was not unhappy you did, I think. I know Tau well enough now." Rivo's tone was reassuring, but with some doubt.

"Oh no, he wasn't. I got the impression he wasn't even trying to talk himself out of it. Even so, there was still something Tau wasn't saying and now I think I understand what it was. It's quite possible he might have children too, but he doesn't remember. I don't know what that must be like."