Olivia
‘Woah, you can see everything from up here.’ Jacob gasped, moving closer to the edge of the cliff. ‘Cool, huh?’
‘Please don’t do that.’
He shuffled an inch further forward. ‘Do what?’
‘That!
’ she shouted, sounding scarily like her mother. ‘You’re too close to the edge, it’s making me nervous.’
‘Sorry, but it just looks so awesome. You’re missing out.’ He peered over.
‘I can see perfectly fine from here, thank you very much.’
And she wasn’t lying. The palace was set atop an enormous hill, with unbroken views of the city. Thousands of buildings
and countless trees shrunk to tiny dots, clustered together in a patchwork quilt of green and grey; mountains rose and fell like the tide, undulating in waves across the landscape.
It was truly breathtaking, and with the sun tucked neatly behind a blanket of clouds and a cool breeze on her face, Olivia felt that, if she had all the time in the world, she could sit here for hours, simply watching the world unfold around her.
It was something she and Leah would often do together, whether in their local coffee shop or lying out in the park: they would simply sit and let the world pass them by.
Leah often made up the stories of passing strangers’ lives, weaving intricate and often dramatic details together to form complex and impressively realistic fantasies.
The thought of her sister made her breath catch in her throat.
Everything had been so full-on in the past few days that, although Leah was never far from her mind, the anguish and longing for her sister had lessened.
The volume had been turned down on her grief, so that instead of being a cymbal crashing inside her skull twenty-four hours a day, it played like a soft snare in the background; present and continuous, but not so overwhelming.
‘Are you sure
you don’t want to have a little look?’ Jacob teased, beckoning her over to join him.
‘I couldn’t be surer.’
‘Fine
.’ He hurried over to sit next to her, lifting his face to the sky and letting out a long, slow sigh. ‘I have to say, this was a great idea. Sometimes it can get a bit seen-one-palace-seen-them-all, you know?’
‘Maybe, but then again, it’s all still relatively new for me. I’m not a worn and weary old-timer like you are.’
‘Oi!’ He elbowed her gently. ‘Worn and weary? I don’t look a day over twenty-three.’
‘Well, your delusional personality isn’t a day over twelve.’
This time Jacob stood up, affronted.
‘Excuse me, Miss Jackson, I will not be insulted in such a manner.’
‘I’m sorry. Of course, you are mature and wise, yet incredibly youthful and handsome.’ She smirked. ‘Better?’
‘Yes.’ He pouted, coming to sit back down once more. ‘A bit.’
‘Good. Now, are you done here? Because we should probably be heading to the next place.’
‘Lead on, fair lady, I am ready for the next adventure.’ He gave a little salute. ‘Where to?’
‘Well, we were supposed to take a walk around the Badi Lake, which isn’t too far from here, but …’ She checked the time and felt a stab of panic. How had it got so late?
‘But what?’
‘I don’t think there’s enough time to do it all. We still have to see the temples and head back to the city in time for the sunset on the lake.’
‘How behind are we? Surely it can’t be by that much.’
‘You say that, but somehow we are.’
‘This is my fault, isn’t it? All because I wanted a stupid dosa.’ He kicked the ground hard, sending clouds of dust flying.
‘I won’t say it helped things, no.’
‘I’m sorry.’ His face became solemn. ‘And you’re sure there’s no way to get us back on track? Surely you can come up with something. If anyone can do it, it’s you.’
Olivia brought the agenda for the day to her mind, locating each place on the map she’d imprinted to memory. Unfortunately, this was going to be one problem not even her finest logic could solve.
‘I can’t. But it’s OK, we can prioritize.
Like you said, seen one temple, seen them all.
Now, the best way to do this is to group things by proximity, therefore reducing the travel time and ticking more off the list. So, it makes the most sense to stay up here and do the lake and the temples.
We’ll have to skip the boat ride and sunset. ’
A pang of sadness struck her. The boat ride was the thing she had been looking forward to most. The one thing she had specifically saved for her last night.
Jacob shot her a look of intrigue.
‘Or
you could prioritize based on what you want to see most? Surely there are some things you’d like to do more than others?’
‘Yes.’ Was her disappointment that obvious? Olivia needed to get her poker face back, and fast.
‘Right then!’
‘Except, emotion doesn’t have a part to play when it comes to efficiency.’
The statement, although very simple and obvious to Olivia, looked as though it had physically assaulted Jacob, whose jaw was nearly on the floor.
‘Jesus Christ! You are brutal.’
‘I’m thoroughly organized; there’s a difference.’
He ran his hand through his mess of hair and let out a slow, long whistle. ‘I don’t know. I think deep down you’d rather sack everything off and just go and do the boat ride.’
‘Do you now?’
‘I do.’
They were in a standoff, but the intensity of his gaze threatened to disarm her resolve at any moment.
‘I vote the boat ride,’ he shouted.
‘I vote the temples,’ she replied, a little less convincingly.
‘Alas, we find ourselves at an impasse, then, don’t we?’ He took a purposeful step towards her.
‘Yes.’ She tried not to let his sudden closeness unnerve her. ‘I suppose we do.’
‘You know the only way I think we’re going to solve it?’
Another step.
‘How?’ Olivia cursed the quiver in her voice.
One more step.
They were practically toe to toe.
‘With these.’ He reached into his pocket and produced the same pair of dice that she’d seen all those weeks ago in Delhi.
‘Oh, come on.’ She snorted, breaking the tension of the moment instantly.
‘It’s simple. If it’s odds we do the temples, and if it’s evens we do the lake.’
‘Or
’ – even as she prepared to say it, her heart sank a little – ‘we could go our separate ways and do what we both want to do by ourselves.’
‘I’m not going anywhere without you, so that’s not an option.’
His words sent her heart soaring right back up from where it had fallen.
‘Fine, but make it quick; we need to get going.’
‘No problem.’ He began to shake the dice, his victorious expression painful for Olivia to watch. ‘Come on, Universe, where should we go next? Lakes or temples … lakes or temples …’
His hand opened.
The dice fell.
Both pairs of eyes, blue and black, stared in anticipation.
‘Yes!’ Jacob punched the air. ‘Two fours. Lucky number eight.’
Olivia knew she had to pretend to be disappointed, to arrange her face into some sort of put-out expression, but deep down, she was relieved. More than that, she was excited.
‘Fine. You win. Let’s grab a tuk-tuk and head back to the city,’ she announced. ‘There’s at least one temple we can squeeze in en route, and I can find somewhere to eat too.’
‘Sounds like a plan to me,’ Jacob replied.