GANGA : The Arrow of Destiny

The Benefactor

After eighteen hours of being cramped in the rear of a very large plane, the non-stop flight from Newark landed safely in Delhi. Anit felt his head pounding—the noise from the voices in the terminal was deafening, like the boom of a thousand cannons. He shook his head slightly, and pinched the skin between his eyes lightly. If he could get the pressure off, he'd be fine, but as it was, his head felt like it would explode at any moment. He closed his eyes against the pain and carried forward to the luggage receiving area with his children, George Gottschalk his colleague and his son Nathan. Bright crimson blooms of pain—searing, stinging flowers—squeezed themselves under his eyelids, and he slowly tried to wipe them away with the heels of his hands.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people swarmed in and out of the airport like frenzied insects, scuttling in every direction at a dizzying pace. The restless mass looked frantic bee hive, and Anit couldn't wait to be out of it all.

They were all waiting for Nathan, whose bag had not yet spun past them on the baggage conveyor. Nathan was dressed in cargo shorts with a white linen shirt for comfort, his long face was soaked in sweat, his dirty blond hair looked matted and gritty in the humid air. His round spectacles were smudged with the constant fidgeting of his hand running across his forehead in an attempt to wipe off the constant stream of sweat. Nathan stood in front of the luggage conveyor and looked on entranced in a constant vigil for his last remaining bag. A half an hour had passed and no sign of his bag had appeared, he was beginning to look very concerned. The boy was not the only one who was flustered by the delay: both adults, Anit and George, were suffering from jet-lag, and the young people—Nathan, Ari, and surprisingly, Geeta—were all withering in the musty heat. Anit furrowed his brow, and looked at his children, who were bunched up like a couple of abandoned puppies on a bench, half-dozing against each other. At least they're getting along, for now, Anit thought, and exhaled loudly as George strolled up to him, his pale face flushed a glossy pink. George was a complete contrast to Anit in many ways. George was tall and husky, where Anit was a few inches shorter than his friend and was a medium build. Where George was pale and became red as a cherry in the sun, Anit was a golden bronze and only seemed to deepen his hue in the sun. Whatever the differences between the two men, they both looked and dressed the part of a college professor, and they both shared a bond of friendship longer then they could remember.

"Whew...I knew it'd be hot, but this is nuts!" George laughed, and for the first time since graduate school, his loud chortling caused Anit to wince in annoyance. Hoping his friend would take the hint, Anit lowered his own voice before responding, "Yeah, it's always hot like this in the summer. You're getting soft old man!" He chuckled dryly, and glanced to his left, where George was standing. Anit noticed that many tiny rivulets of sweat were rapidly rolling down George's glowing cheeks—it almost looked like the man was crying.

"Well, your kids are holding up pretty well, even if they are unconscious!" George cackled. His mirth sharply contradicted the false tears on his face.

Anit loosened up a bit and began to laugh, and joke with his friend: "Oh, don't let them fool you—the only reason they're even close to each other is because Ari's iPod battery died two hours ago, so he's being "tech-starved," as he called it.

Both men chuckled. "And Geeta, she's been reading her book non-stop since we took off from Newark, and that seems to be her medicine of choice for sleep. They just happened to shut down in close proximity of each other, that's all." He smiled in spite of himself and the rough start their Indian expedition had taken.

"Well, you guys hold tight, we'll be leaving for Nana's pretty soon..." Anit said, and he hoped that Nathan's luggage would hurry and arrive so they could leave. They were supposed to spend the night at his mother's house, but it was getting late, and she lived a few hours from the airport. If they were delayed much longer, then they'd have to stay the night in Delhi, and the thought of spending more money for hotel rooms almost made Anit sick.