Chai on the Mountaintop

The Flower's Secret

When I came to, I was bound with rope, a predicament I had started to grow wary of. I was on solid ground and I noticed that the sun had gone down. 

"TARA?!" I yelled out into the distance. 

"I'm right here. Quit screaming.." She replied.

"Why did you tie me up?" I questioned.

"When I came down into the cave, you were yelling nonsense and flailing around. I tied you up so you wouldn't hurt yourself."

"The flower's pollen..." I mumbled, slowly recalling what happened before the blackout.

"Yes...it's hallucinogenic in small doses and a sedative if you inhale a mouthful. Figuring you don't remember anything about it, it also causes amnesia.."

From what Tara told me, I concluded that the pollen had the same effects as ruphilyn. Hallucinations followed by slumber followed by memory loss. This didn't make things easier or more interesting. I wouldn't have cared if the flower made gold dust. I would have however, loved to have my memory of the last four days erased. The flower suddenly started to look more enticing. 

"Still think about when you killed those two men ?" Tara questioned as she removed the rope.

"What?"

"You were mumbling...You called yourself a monster, then proceeded to try and kill yourself with my knife. That was when I took out the rope."

"I...still do. I thought it'd get easier as the days passed. It doesn't ever get easier, does it?"

"No. I used to work...well...for an agency. One mission, I was asked to take out a terrorist convoy. I went in and called for an airstrike to take them out. In the morning when I went to inspect what was left. The only things we found were wedding gowns and a car with a burnt bouquet of flowers. There was no terrorist convoy, just a wedding party returning late. I never saw them, I didn't know them. Hell, I don't even know how many were killed. Yet, it haunts me. There are times when I look at my hands and all I see is red..."

"I didn't know...I'm sorry. If it makes you feel any better, I don't think it was your fault."

She looked up at me. Her eyes were brimming with tears. I feared she might break down. She wiped the tears away and said "We are all human. The least gift we can give ourselves is the ability to forget and forgive. Sometimes forgiving ourselves is hardest."

Her face brightened after she said that. I started to think about how long it would take for me to accept it. To live without that anchor pulling me down. 

"Let's go, we'll get there in a few more hours" She said as she packed up our things and doused the fire. We moved slowly and carefully through the pitch black mountain road. The fact that Isaac's killer might be hiding in front of me at Tonga didn't make the return trip any easier. Tara led ahead, double checking the path we walked. At around 1 AM we reached the outskirts. The village center was lit up. 

As soon as it came into view, she stopped and warned me.

"Tell no one about the flower. For all we know, it's behind Isaac's death. It's safer if we just keep it down for now. I'll talk to Velu and fill him in. Oh...and here, I got you a little souvenir" she said tossing me a sealed glass jar with the flower in it. "you might wanna run some tests" she said. Her accent was strange to say the least. I could pick up traces of American, British and Jamaican, all blending in perfectly to form one mellifluous tone. I guess she'd grown up around the world, unlike her sister who spoke in perfect American, a side effect of working in the CIA.

I'll level with you. I'm not skilled in hand to hand combat, nor am I athletic. My last and only line of defense is my analytics. I can read people. I categorize them and talk, trust and use them accordingly. For the first time however, I didn't know where to put Tara in. I'd read Velu, but she was a complete blank. It made me rather uneasy, not being able to classify her. It made me afraid of what she might do and my disability to see it coming. Although, from what I'd seen so far, she was trustworthy. She had honour. I left the case at that for the night.