6
Even the moon’s frightened of
me—frightened to death!
The whole world’s frightened
to death!
Jack was well into part three of the James
Whale Festival—Claude Raines was getting ready to start his reign
of terror as The Invisible Man.
The phone rang. Jack turned down the sound
and picked it up before his answerphone began its routine.
“Where are you?” said Kolabati’s voice.
“Home.”
“But this is not the number on your
phone.”
“So you peeked, did you?”
“I knew I’d want to call you.”
It was good to hear her say that. “I had the
number changed and never bothered to change the label.” Actually,
he purposely had left the old label in place.
“I have a favor to ask you,” she said.
“Anything.” Almost
anything.
“The U.K. Mission is holding a reception
tonight. Will you accompany me?”
Jack mulled that for a few seconds. His first
impulse was to refuse. He hated parties. He hated gatherings. And a
gathering of U.N. types, the most useless people in the world… it
was a grim prospect.
“I don’t know… “
“Please? As a personal favor? Otherwise I
shall have to go with Kusum.”
It was a choice then between seeing Kolabati
and not seeing her. That wasn’t a choice.
“Okay.” Besides, it would be fun to see
Burkes’ face when he showed up at the reception. He might even rent
a tux for the occasion. They set a time and a meeting place—for
some reason, Kolabati didn’t want to be picked up at Kusum’s
apartment—and then a question occurred to Jack.
“By the way, what’s durba grass used
for?”
He heard a sharp intake of breath on the
other end of the line. “Where did you find durba grass?”
“I didn’t find any. As far as I know, it only
grows in India. I just want to know if it’s used for
anything.”
“It has many uses in traditional Indian folk
medicine.” She was speaking very carefully. “But where did you even
hear about it?”
“Came up in conversation this morning.” Why
was she so concerned?
“Stay away from it, Jack. Whatever it is
you’ve found, stay away from it. At least until you see me
tonight!”
She hung up. Jack stared uneasily at his big
tv screen on which an empty pair of trousers was silently chasing a
terrified woman down an English country lane. There had been
something strange about Kolabati’s voice at the end there. It had
sounded almost as if she were afraid for him.