Chapter XIV
XIV
It was late. The okada man seemed perplexed by where she had asked him to drop her.
“It is not safe here at this time of the night o. Where are you going? I will not even charge you for the journey home, let me take you back.”
His kindness almost made her stay on the bike.
She could be home in thirty minutes, listening to the comforting sounds of the women of the house bickering, Sango leaning protectively against her legs.
Instead, she told him a friend was coming to pick her up in a moment.
She gave him more money than the trip required.
All the money she had on her. After all, it would all be soaked in a couple of minutes.
“Are you sure, ma?”
“I’m sure.”
He shook his head in disbelief, and then thanked her.
After he left, the place was enveloped in silence, and she could not hear anything, apart from the sound of the surf rolling against the shore.
Moonlight shimmered on the dark ocean. Terror struck her for a moment and then she laughed at herself.
What was she afraid of? Death? She had gone back and forth about whether to leave a note.
In the end, she had gone with writing that they should look after Sango and that she would see them all in another life. Death was not the end.
She took off her shoes and walked down the beach, the sand cold beneath her feet.
The water beckoned.