Outlaw in India Read Online Free

a hospital in Kochi. Or maybe there was one
     in Ernakulum. That was the newer city across the harbour. The boy would know.
     When the sun came up and we went outside, I would ask him.
    Finally, the sun squeezed in through dusty windows, with long golden fingers,
     and lit up the warehouse. It looked a lot friendlier in the morning. With wooden
     floor, walls and ceiling, and with iron strapping on the railings and balcony,
     it looked a bit like a giant sea trunk. The balcony made it look like a small
     theatre.
    I was excited to get outside and see India. I would take money and find a bank
     to change it into rupees, and thenfind a hospital. But I
     wanted to get into the sub without the boy seeing me. I didn’t know him or trust
     him yet, even though he seemed harmless enough. I turned towards him. He was
     just waking up. “Can you show me where you usually sleep?”
    He pointed to my mouth and frowned. Then he dropped his eyes. He was extremely
     shy, or nervous, or both.
    “Am I talking too loud?”
    He nodded with his eyes opened wide.
    “Oh. Okay. Is this better?”
    He nodded again, got up and started around the balcony. Hollie and I followed
     him. On the other side he pulled a board away from the wall and pointed inside.
     I stuck my head in and aimed the flashlight. There were pieces of cardboard, a
     blanket and pillow, a few cans of food and some clothes. I saw a teddy bear. He
     looked too old to be sleeping with a teddy bear. “How long have you lived
     here?”
    He put his finger to his mouth and frowned. Then he dropped his eyes again as
     if he were apologizing. He dropped his shoulders too. It reminded me of the way
     the smallest dog of a pack would cower to the bigger dogs, dropping its head and
     pulling its tail between its legs. He must have been afraid of me, I figured,
     though I had a sense that he was afraid of everyone. I tried to speak more
     softly.
    “How long have you lived here?”
    He shrugged. He didn’t know?
    “A year?”
    He shook his head and raised three fingers.
    “Three years?”
    He nodded. I couldn’t believe it. “Do you have any friends?”
    His mouth curled into a smile. When he smiled, his eyes sparkled.
    I convinced him to wait for me by saying I had to go pee. Hollie stayed with
     him as I went down the stairs and across the floor to where the door led to the
     boathouse. I closed it behind me, opened the hatch and climbed into the sub. I
     took my passport, two hundred dollars, and the tool bag for Hollie, for when he
     needed to be carried. I let just enough water into the tanks to lower the sub so
     that the top of the hatch would sit level with the surface, then climbed out and
     shut it. In the darkness of the boathouse you wouldn’t even know there was a
     submarine there unless you went looking for one.
    The boy smiled when I returned, and I asked if he would like to come outside
     with us. Nodding, he took my hand and led me downstairs. There was another set
     of stairs that led into a semi-basement. We entered a small tunnel that was
     probably a sewer. We had to crouch down. The tunnel went about thirty feet
     towards the channel. There was a grate sealing it, but the boy swung it open
     just enough for us to squeeze through. Then we climbed the bank and stood up in
     the brilliant early morning sunshine. I looked around in wonder. We were in
     India.

Chapter Four

    THE SUN WAS HOT ON my skin but not a burning heat. It felt like
     a heat you could get used to. The ground was warm, as if it were made for
     sitting on and lying down on and never feeling cold, at least not here in the
     extreme south of India, where it was always hot. Every country had its own
     feeling, it seemed to me. I liked the feeling of India already.
    I think that Hollie liked it too. He seemed calmer, more relaxed and more
     reflective than before. There was something in the air here—the heat maybe, or
     the sun, or the smell of the land—that fired my imagination. Everything