The Karma Club

Read the Prologue to The Karma Club…..

Prologue

The village lay still and peaceful in the darkness that shrouded its streets and alleyways. A serene quietness caressed the flat roofed homes as families lay in their beds snug and safe. The slight chill in the air had kept the villagers huddled up in their homes away from the roof tops that would become their bedrooms in the sweltering summer heat. Even the stray dogs had settled down for the night after a tiring day of scavenging. They lay together in groups under the banyan trees close by to the dozing cows that occasionally opened their drooping eyes to swish a fly with their tails.

The market stalls all stood crooked, resting after a long day of being hustled and trampled on by the haggling villagers. The main street, which during the day was friendly and popular, now lay lonely with only rubbish and scraps of food for company. Even the police station, with its empty cell had given up trying to find a tenant for the night.

With no street lights, the darkness swallowed the North Indian village within its belly and awaited first light. Nothing stirred, even the serpent lay silent and still in the tall grass of the sugarcane field. It rested in the shadow of a tractor, enjoying the quietness and cool breeze until her senses caught a smell of movement in the air. She emerged from her hiding place and slithered through the tall grass and headed towards the sleeping village. She passed the homes on the outskirts and then moved deeper, searching for the disturbance that so rudely awoke her. She moved softly into the market square, passed the bakery, through the iron mongers alley and headed towards the school playground.

It was here that she found the reason for her broken sleep. Three boys were huddled together in the corner of the playground. They were sitting under a wooden bike hut whispering conversations that the serpent misunderstood for hissing. She crept closer until she could see the whites of one of the boy’s eyes. The serpent brushed against the foot of the boy who sat with his back to her and then slithered to a position where they could all see her.

Raj was fumbling in the pocket of his hooded fleece top looking for the pack of cigarettes he had concealed there when he looked up and met the round yellow eyes of the snake. He stopped fumbling and froze. The night suddenly felt darker and colder, he wanted to run but he knew from the stories his father had told him that running would be the worst thing to do. After a few seconds he regained his composure and sent a warning to his friends.

‘Manoj, Vijay don’t move a muscle, there is a snake sitting behind you,’

The two boys also froze, uncertain whether to believe their friend or not. To not believe was too high a risk and Raj wouldn’t lie to them, so they both sat still. They sat in silence for a few heartbeats.

‘What shall we do?’ whispered Manoj.

‘My father says that snakes don’t like loud noises,’ whispered Vijay.

‘Why are we whispering then,’ commented Manoj.

Vijay thought about the question and shrugged his shoulders.

‘I don’t know anything about snakes so let’s try to scare it like Vijay said. On the count of three we should all stamp our feet and clap as loud as possible,’ suggested Raj.

‘Are you sure Raj? We don’t want to annoy it,’ replied Manoj, sweat dripping from his forehead.

‘We don’t have a choice,’ Raj replied.

Raj started counting down and as soon as he reached one, all three boys stomped their feet and clapped their hands as loud as they could. The snake hissed but quickly decided that the terrible noise was not worth the effort, so she slithered away to find another cool shadow to sleep in.

The three boys sat frozen for a few more moments until they were sure the snake was gone and then with a huge sigh of relief burst into laughter and patted each other on the back. Raj once again started his search for the pack of cigarettes and this time found them. He pulled them from his pocket and put them on the hard mud floor between the three of them. Vijay looked around sheepishly making sure no one was around and placed a box of matches next to the pack. The three boys looked at each other, their eyes daring one another to be the first to pick up the pack of cigarettes. They sat in silence for over a minute until Manoj snatched up the packet and removed the only cigarette within it. He rolled it around his fingers, feeling the texture and placed it into his mouth. He then removed it from his mouth, enjoying the grown up feeling it was giving him. Raj lifted the match box; removing a match, he set it alight and held it up as an offering to the cigarette. The soft glow of the match covered the three boys in an ethereal light pushing back the oppressive darkness in the hut.

Raj moved the match slowly towards the cigarette in Manoj’s hand, all the while holding his breath for fear of blowing it out. There was only one more match in the box. The young boy held the flame to the tobacco until a faint red glow appeared and the tobacco caught light. All three boys looked in wonder as the smoke danced upwards and disappeared into the night. Manoj lifted the cigarette into his mouth and took a long drag; he erupted into a coughing fit and immediately shoved it towards Raj.

Raj took hold of the cigarette and without hesitation also took a long drag; he blew out smoke like an eighty a day smoker. He lifted the cigarette and prepared to take another puff but stopped when he heard raised voices coming from somewhere in the village. He looked at the other boys with concern written over his face. Had they discovered that they were not in their beds?

‘We need to get back home, quickly!’ said Raj urgently. Jumping up, he threw the cigarette to the floor and put it out with his sandal.

‘If we can get back without anyone seeing us, we can sneak back into our homes.’

The other two boys nodded and also jumped up and turned towards home. That’s when they noticed the huge plume of smoke that was floating into the night sky like the shadow of a demon rising from a furnace of red flames. The boys stood staring into the vision of hell for what seemed like forever and then slowly, as the paralysis freed them, they started to run franticly toward the blaze. As they ran through the alleyways and streets, the shouts and screams of the villagers grew louder. Approaching the village square, they saw a line of men forming a human chain carrying buckets of water from the village well. The boys ran past them and onwards towards the fire. The oppressive heat from the flames started to wrap its warm arms around the boys. Sweat dripped from their foreheads and their lungs burned but they ran on as panic filled their hearts.

Whose house was burning?

As the boys turned the corner of Parijan Road, they came to a sudden stop and looked upon the inferno that was engulfing the home directly in front of them. Men and women were running back and forth with buckets of water that were being swallowed up greedily by the angry fire. A large crowd stood staring in disbelief a safe distance away. Raj looked into the crowd and spotted his neighbour and ran to him in dread. He reached the man and pulled on his white tunic.

‘Where is my family!’ he shouted, looking at the burning house with tears already filling his eyes.

The elderly man looked down at the boy in disbelief and grabbed hold of his shoulders.

‘Raj, what are you doing here?’ he shouted.

‘I was in the school yard with Manoj and Vijay,’ Raj shouted, ‘they all got out right?’ Raj asked in hope.

The man fell silent and pulled him close in a tight hug.

Floods of tears swelled up in Raj’s eyes and his body started to shake uncontrollably. He looked towards his burning home and thoughts of his mother, father, two brothers and sister engulfed in flames overcame him. His body went limp as he slipped into an unconsciousness filled with terror and deep sadness, a sadness that would stay with him and torture him for the rest of his life.