Olivia
snapping pictures on her phone of every possible thing she thought Kate would want to see, barely pausing to take in the views herself before moving on to the next.
For some reason, despite it only being mid-morning, the heat felt stronger than it did yesterday.
The sun’s fiery gaze seemed to sap her of any ounce of energy her diet of cereal bars may have afforded her, so that by the time she had finished her whistle-stop tour, she felt exhausted.
‘Miss!’ a frenetic man called to her, as she walked down the street in search of an available tuk-tuk. ‘It’s too hot to walk around – come in the shade and have a nice, cool drink, huh? Maybe some food?’ He gestured vigorously towards the inside of his crowded-looking restaurant.
‘No, thank you, I’m just looking for a tuk-tuk.’
‘Where do you want to go?’ the man continued. ‘With this traffic, most places are quicker to walk to.’
Olivia eyed him with suspicion. Back home, it was rare you got a look of acknowledgement from people you passed in the street, let alone friendly help and support. Here, however, it seemed commonplace; it was a sentiment Olivia was still trying to get used to.
‘I was hoping to go to Chandni Chowk. Is it far?’
‘Maybe fifteen minutes that way.’ He pointed ahead into a mass of crowds and vehicles.
Anxiety licked the inside of Olivia’s stomach. How had her last attempt at navigating on foot gone? The cuts on her knees twinged in memory.
‘I don’t know … it looks a bit bus—’ Suddenly, Olivia felt the ground pull beneath her feet.
The world swam ominously in front of her, as flashes of light and streaks of colour danced across her field of vision.
Her blood ran cold, and her stomach rolled with nausea.
She closed her eyes and tried to steady herself.
For a second, it was as though she was back in the boardroom, with Phil and his putrid breath.
‘Miss?’ The man’s voice sounded like it was coming from deep underwater. ‘Are you OK? Is everything all right?’
A hand on her shoulder grounded her instantly, and she opened her eyes to see the face of the stranger peering into hers. Thankfully, she was still upright.
‘Yes, yes, I’m fine!’ She tried to laugh, taking a small step backwards to create some distance between them. ‘Just a bit too hot maybe.’
But the man was not convinced. ‘I think a tuk-tuk might be best. And not to the market … straight home!’
‘Yes’ – she tried to bat away his help – ‘good idea. Thank you.’
Olivia went to walk but the man stopped her, placing his fingers in his mouth and giving a piercing whistle. As if by magic, an empty rickshaw appeared at the kerbside.
‘Where do you want to go?’ the driver grunted.
‘Take this lady home, please, and pronto,’ the kind stranger instructed firmly, helping Olivia into the back and giving her arm a squeeze. ‘Take care, and remember, rest. The sun takes no prisoners on a day like today.’
‘Thank you so much.’ She smiled, gripping on for dear life as the small vehicle pulled away abruptly.
‘So, miss, what hotel am I going to?’
‘No hotel,’ she replied, trying to erase the concerned face of the generous stranger who had helped her. She felt fine now,
and besides, she had no time to rest. Her twenty-two-page itinerary hadn’t been created for nothing, after all. If there was a plan to complete, Olivia Jackson was going to complete it, come hell or high water. ‘I’m going to Chandni Chowk, please.’
*
Twenty minutes in and Olivia was regretting her decision enormously.
This wasn’t a market. This was the centre of hell.
People were everywhere, rushing this way and that, bags filled with treats and eyes scouting for more.
Market sellers were shouting over one another, louder and louder with each new price they offered.
Goods spilled out on to the street, the jewels and patterned fabrics sparkling in the sunlight.
Scarves, each a different colour and ornately patterned in golds and silvers, were piled so high the stacks created small skyscrapers around the stalls.
Barrels of spices stood like barricades, full to the brim with deep earth-coloured powders.
The smell alone was enough to make Olivia’s nose tickle.
Her eyes had not been able to settle for a second, darting back and forth trying to take in as much as possible.
The second she’d stepped inside the market, every single one of her senses had been kicked into overdrive.
She was overstimulated, overwhelmed and overtired.
And she needed to find a way out this very second.
‘Excuse me.’ She turned on the spot, trying her best to push against the tide of people dragging her in the opposite direction. ‘Excuse me, I’m trying to get through.’
But her flustered cries were inaudible over the din of the market. Feebly she tried again, the panic making her voice even harder to hear.
‘Please, can someone get me out of here?’
But Olivia, who in an act of self-protection had attempted
to make herself as small as possible, hunching her shoulders and folding her arms across her chest, seemed to be carried along with the crowd. A human pinball, she was shunted from side to side as the swell of people surged along the narrow lanes.
This was it, she thought. This was how she went.
Too tired to fight the tide, she would be swept away, never to be seen again.
Lost in the middle of Delhi without a clue how to find her way home.
A single tear rolled down her cheek as her legs began to buckle.
Her breath was growing shallower and her chest constricting, each rib folding in on itself, leaving no room for air.
The surrounding sounds all blended into one, and her vision began to blur as the now all too familiar feeling of light-headedness kicked in.
I can’t …
I don’t know how to make it stop …
She tried to take a step, but her legs were too heavy, too full of tingling pins and needles. Panic began to thrum in her chest, the anxiety multiplying rapidly until it felt fit to burst from her.
‘Help,’ she whimpered. ‘Somebody, help.’
But even her thoughts were getting lost, the endless roar of noise making it hard to distinguish what was coming from inside her and what belonged on the outside. Her name was being repeated over and over, louder and louder.
‘Olivia?’
There it was again. But from where?
‘Olivia!’
Was it her own consciousness calling for her? Or was there someone out there reaching for her?
But no, it couldn’t be.
There was nobody here for her. She had nobody here for her.
Then, all at once, everything went black.
‘Olivia? Olivia
, can you hear me?’
The sweet, cooling darkness was being interrupted by a vigorous shaking. Why couldn’t she just stay here?
‘Olivia!’
But the shaking was getting rougher and the voice louder. It was harder and harder to ignore.
‘OLIVIA!’
Reluctantly she opened her eyes.
Her insides froze and her heart plummeted.
No.
She blinked, praying that this time when she looked, her eyes would not be staring directly into pools of liquid liquorice.
No. No. Absolutely not.
‘Aha, there you are! Thought we’d lost you for a moment.’ The beetle-black eyes crinkled, and Jacob’s face broke into a smile.
She turned her head to find that for some reason she was horizontal and … oh God, she was lying in his arms!
Immediately she tried to get up, but his firm, warm hands held her still.
‘Woah there, easy does it.’ Gently, he guided her upright.
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ she spluttered, noticing that a little ring of space had been cleared around them.
If only her brain would stop being so goddam foggy, maybe then she could think straight.
It didn’t help that Jacob was looking at her with those abnormally dark eyes, and a cocky grin.
Her skin was flushed, and her mouth was exceptionally dry.
‘If you must know, I was stopping you from faceplanting the ground for the second time in two days.’
‘But I don’t understand.’ Embarrassment and anger were
doing their familiar dance inside her, each one fighting to take the lead. ‘Why are you even here?’
‘I decided to take a walk through the market, and there I was minding my own business when I spotted you looking …’ He hesitated, his brow furrowing.
‘Well, not looking 100 per cent OK. So I called out for you, and when you didn’t answer I came closer.
I caught you just as you fainted. It was quite a save, if I say so myself. ’
Olivia’s cheeks blazed with shame.
‘I see.’
‘Yeah, you were as white as a sheet and stumbling all over the place. Lucky I was here, wasn’t it?’
The horror seemed to penetrate new depths, robbing her of speech. Instead, she gave a feeble nod of her head.
‘Anyway.’ Jacob ran a hand through his mop of golden hair. ‘How are you feeling? Are you still dizzy?’
‘No. Just tired,’ she mumbled, becoming aware of the leaden feeling in her bones. ‘And thirsty. I’m really
thirsty.’
‘Hmm.’ Jacob reached into his bag and pulled out a water bottle. ‘I thought so. The classic case of not enough food, not enough water and way too much heat. Here, drink as much as you want.’
Olivia took the bottle and gulped the cool, fresh water, her body crying out in relief at the taste. Each sip brought her back to life a little more. How could she have got it so wrong? Again?
This guy must think she was a total idiot.
‘Now, when you’re done drinking that, you should probably get something to eat. Anything you fancy?’
She could feel his eyes on her face, but she didn’t dare meet them. Her humiliation was already too much to bear without his pity layered on top.
‘Don’t worry, you don’t have to stay any longer.’ She
straightened up, snapping her armour of invincibility back into place. ‘I feel fine now.’
‘I’m just asking if you want to get some food.’
‘Look, you don’t have to do this.’ She sighed. Why couldn’t he just take his hero moment and go?
‘Do what?’
‘Babysit me because you feel bad.’
‘Jesus Christ!’ He laughed.
‘What?’
‘Are you always this hard to make friends with?’
‘No,’ she bit back, hearing the true answer ring out loudly in her head.
‘OK then, so how about some food?’
Olivia was about to find another way to dismiss the idea when her stomach lurched violently. Her cereal bar breakfast seemed like a distant dream. She was ravenous, and it didn’t seem like Jacob was one to give up very easily. Was it worth the fight?
‘Fine, but …’ She grasped for some point to make, a show that she wasn’t totally surrendering to his whims. ‘I don’t want to go too far from here.’
‘As you wish.’ He gave a little salute. ‘Luckily, I know just the place, and it’s only round the corner.’
‘Is it clean?’
‘Excuse me?’
‘The place we’re going, is it clean?’
The fact she sounded like an overly anxious mother didn’t bother her; after all, how much lower could his perception of her get at this point?
‘I would hope so – why?’
‘Because, you know … all the awful stories you hear about India. I don’t want to get sick.’
‘I don’t think anyone does.’ He replied more seriously than she’d heard him before. ‘But don’t worry, this place is super clean. I’ve only ever seen one cockroach in there.’
‘Jacob!’ Olivia swiped him hard across the arm.
‘I’m kidding.’ He cocked his head to the side and raised an eyebrow. ‘It’s good, trust me.’
‘How can I trust you? I don’t even know you.’
‘And yet … I’ve already saved your life today.
’ He gave a cheeky shrug, his charcoal eyes sparkling.
‘Come on!’ He turned and began to stride off into the densely packed crowd.
‘The sooner we get going, the sooner we can eat. And the sooner we eat, the sooner you can find an excuse to ditch me! That is what you’re planning on doing, right? ’
‘No!’ Olivia baulked. ‘Of course I’m not.’
Jacob grinned; a smile so wide it seemed to take up the whole of his face.
‘I think you’re many things, Olivia, but a good liar is not one of them. Now hurry, stuffed paratha await us!’