Boats on Land: A Collection of Short Stories Read Online Free PDF Page A

girl against Sohra’s expansive sky and desolate hills. Perhaps this was a strange place for a girl like her to spend her time.
    ‘Your uncle told me you were…not yourself this afternoon.’
    She answered quietly, ‘It’s my migraines, they explode in my head.’
    ‘Where does it ache?’
    ‘Everywhere. It’s like a light—a bright, blinding light. As though I’m having a vision of another life, or the end of time…’
    She was much too young to speak of such things, the doctor thought, but didn’t say so.
    ‘Have you had them before?’
    ‘Sometimes. In London.’
    ‘Have you been sleeping well?’
    She shook her head and reached for a glass of water on the bedside table.
    ‘What keeps you awake?’
    ‘Nightmares.’ She laughed. ‘Or “juvenile blarney” as my aunt calls them.’
    Somehow, the doctor didn’t find that hard to believe.
    ‘She says it’s silly to pay any attention to dreams.’ Lucy turned, her eyes, bright and wary, met his. ‘But you, doctor, you don’t think so. Kyntang told me that here dreams are as important as waking life. Do you believe that too?’
    ‘Well, there are many things that Khasis believe—most of them born of centuries of stories and superstition.’ He spoke lightly, trying to calm her sudden restless excitement.
    ‘But is it true that people can be possessed? You’ve seen them… Is it true?’ A flush of colour rose on her cheeks. Her hair glinted in the lantern light.
    The doctor took off his stethoscope and placed it in his bag. ‘I have seen people who are deeply unhappy. And within this emptiness, many demons may reside. Like creatures in the hollow of a tree. I don’t know if the demons come from outside or within.’ He added gently, ‘But if you dream of loved ones who are no more, the Khasis say they come to visit you…’
    ‘I used to dream of golden eggs,’ she interrupted. ‘They fell all over like rain, whistling through the air, bursting when they touched the ground. And now, a fire bird.’ She turned to him. ‘What does it mean? If you dream of being inside a fire bird.’ The girl suddenly pushed the quilt away and climbed down from the bed. Standing barefoot in her white nightdress she looked like an angel who’d stepped out of a painting—like the ones he’d seen hanging in Father Bevan’s office. She moved to the window at the other end of the room and flung it open. A gusty wind tugged at the curtain and the edges of her clothing.
    ‘It’s what I dream of…floating around there,’ she gestured towards the sky. ‘A dazzling fire bird comes crashing down to earth, like a star that’s burst into a million flames. It drops fast, lower and lower, shrieking loud and clear…’ She placed her palms against her ears, shivering in the cold. ‘I’m dizzy…I’m dizzy,’ she murmured, and crumpled to the floor, knocking over the chair and table.
    Doctor Wallang lit a cigarette as he stepped out of the bungalow. It was a clear night, and far away a half-moon hung over the gentle rise of a mountain. He stood at the edge of the garden path, unsure whether he ought to have left. Yet there didn’t seem to be anything more he could do. Moments after Lucy had fainted, her aunt rushed in, followed closely by Jonah. From her dress pocket, Mrs Smithson whipped out a packet of smelling salts and, with practised ease, slipped it under her niece’s nose. When Lucy came round, the doctor carried her to the bed—she was light in his arms—laid her down, and covered her with the quilt. She was too exhausted to speak, and soon enough she fell asleep.
    ‘She’s alright,’ he’d reassured the family. ‘It was probably the cold from the window… We should let her rest.’ As they walked out, he’d glanced back to see Jonah pause by the bed. He’d never seen that expression on the boy’s face before—it was an odd and unusual tenderness.
    In the living room, Mr Smithson had asked the doctor what he suggested they should do. Doctor