06. The Competition

The globe flies through the air before it bumps against the bookshelf, ricochets like a soccer ball and lands on the floor and rolls until it stops in front of the huge rosewood desk.

Ahmed is mad. “Nothing …! It’s Thursday already and you incompetent idiots don’t have anything! You are like aimless beheaded chickens. Idiots! Idiots!”

An uncomfortable silence hangs in the office while Ahmed glares at his microphone on the desk as if it is the culprit. Then he hears the anxious voice of Aryan: “It’s not possible to be at all places at the same time, sir, we are only three and it will take some time, but we will capture him. I promise, sir.”

Ahmed shakes his head and looks like a lost little boy as he looks up to his guru for help.

“The boy hasn’t gone to the police. That could mean that he discarded the book already and is trying to forget his ordeal and that he doesn’t take what the professor scribbled seriously. That’s all conclusion I can come to now.”

Vipracitti comes forward, leans over and talks into the microphone: "Mohammed, what is your room number in the Holiday Inn in Port Elizabeth?"

Mohammed answers with a trembling and scared voice: "Room 66, master ..."

Vipracitti smiles grimly and put his blue hands on the desk and stares Ahmed full in the face. “Look in my eyes, my child …”

Ahmed looks in the eyes of his guru that changes into dark, black pools and everything around Vipracitti become vague and vanishes as if into nothing. Ahmed feels how he lifts up into the air out of his chair and the voice of his guru is like thunder that echoes in a giant, deep cave: “Follow me, my child.”

He feels as light as a feather and floats behind Vipracitti and they shoot up through the roof into the sky above, up and up. The guru shows him the moon and like rockets, they shoot up to the moon and look back to earth. They shoot back and move to the southern part of Africa. They fly over South Africa and then to a point more or less halfway down the east coast. They go through a few clouds and Ahmed now recognizes the city lights. Like eagles they glide over the coastline and see two hotels and they fly over them and then Ahmed sees the sign of the Holiday Inn in a bushy area near the shore.

They fly to the inn and go through the entrance and then down a corridor to room 66. They go through the door and Ahmed stops in front of Aryan and Mohammed that sit on their beds opposite each other. They are watching their smartphone anxiously.

Vipracitti stops right in front of Mohammed that suddenly gets a fright when he appears. The next moment Aryan hears Vipracitti over the smartphone but Mohammed and Ahmed hear him from right in front of them and his voice echoes like thunder in a dark, deep cave.

"You can’t escape from me because I’m always with you. You will have success shortly and don’t have to be afraid. That boy is fascinated by that book for which you assaulted the old man. His curiosity gets the better of him and he doesn’t want to involve the police. He wants to try and solve the riddle himself. The book is safe as long as its contents is a riddle for him.

“No one will be allowed to block the path of our Shiva, the Annihilator. Our mother Durga Maya has suffered long enough at the hand of the devilish conduct of the people of Kali Yuga. It is high time that this civilization annihilates itself and ends before it destroys Mother Earth completely. You are Shiva’s soldiers and will be honored as the leaders of the new world. Fauna and flora will flourish in full glory and Mother Earth will abound with life.”

Then Ahmed is back in his chair and looks up to the guru in wonder. Then he rises and walks around the desk and kneels in front of the guru.

Vipracitti lifts him. "You don’t have to kneel before me, my child, because soon you will be the leader of our 144 000 followers that will bring about our new world order.”

Back in his hotel room, Mohammed wakes up from the trance and Aryan asks him with wide open eyes. “What has happened just now?”

Mohammed shivers like someone with cold fever: “The guru was here …”

~*~*~

Tony and his wife insisted that Billy en Kadin ride with them to the Crusaders squash club. Kadin jumped in at the back and is now sitting next to a smiling Billy. She is impressed with his Crusaders sports outfit. His white t-shirt has a large Crusaders emblem of a red cross in the centre of a shield. The outlines of the cross, look impressive against the white background. He looks so proud as if he’s just won a trophy and is showing it clearly.

Tony smiles at Kadin: “This is a nice surprise that you join us this evening, Kadin. I hope Billy will be able to concentrate on his game while you are watching. Meet Jacky, my wife, and I am Tony, Billy’s squash friend. I hope we will convince you to start playing squash with us at Saders. We are always on the lookout for young, new members.”

Jacky smiles a hello towards her and Kadin smiles back at the two friendly people that let her feel welcome and comfortable.

“It seems Billy wants me to do everything: first swimming, then the next day jogging and it seems as if he will never stop burning energy.”

Jacky looks at her wide-eyed: “You should see these two mad hatters on a squash court. You haven’t seen anything yet!”

Kadin supports her: “Oh my goodness, I can just imagine!”

She looks at Billy: "I’m mad about your Crusaders t-shirt. It’s really impressive!”

Tony smiles at her through the back mirror: “His captain won’t be happy because he is supposed to wear the t-shirt of the sponsor of the summer league team, but he wants to impress you in his winter league outfit.”

Billy frowns. "I don’t like that, ugly neon-green colour of my team. Couldn’t they have made a better t-shirt?”

Tony laughs heartily: "Yes, I must admit it looks like baby pee.”

They drive through the main entrance of the cricket stadium to the backside of the main stand. The place is crowded and Tony has difficulty in finding a parking space. The rugby players are on the field opposite the entrance to the squash club practicing and even the cricket nets are fully occupied. It’s truly a hubbub of activities. The place is like a beehive. But then Kadin hears the sounds of squash balls as they smash into the walls and their echoes greet them as they make their way to the entrance.

Kadin is impressed with the luxurious entrance and the bar with a marble top as they enter. Above the bar counter is a wide TV screen. Opposite the bar counter is a braai area where you can watch down on the main circuit through a wide glass window. There is a two-stadium mini stand in front of the main circuit beneath the window. The place swarms with players with their sports bags and they all look fit, lean and full of energy. Kadin also sees the four glass squash courts and on all of the matches are being played with spectators looking on.

She looks at Billy. "How many courts are here?”

"We’ve got six. There are two at the end there around the corner down a narrow corridor. They were the first two original courts. We call them the dungeon. They don’t have glass and there is little space for spectators on a small platform above the line of the back wall. I hope I don’t have to play on one of them tonight.”

"Billy!"

Kadin searches for the human being behind the shout and sees the beautiful, slim girl of around her age running towards them. She grabs him and hugs him tightly and kisses him passionately on his cheek.

"Good luck, Billy, I trust you completely. Tonight you are going to beat Francois.”

Embarrassed Billy smiles. “I’m going to try. Thus far I haven’t succeeded. He has been playing for a long time, and face it, he’s bloody good.”

"You are going to win, Billy, just believe it and you will …”

Billy looks at Kadin. "Chantal, meet Kadin Bosch."

The surprise on Chantal’s face tells a story. She is stunned to see a girl with him. Who is this Chantal? She is over friendly and Kadin begins to wonder if she is not more than a friend to Billy. Are they in a closer relationship? Maybe Billy brought Kadin to meet Chantal so she can realize that he already is in a relationship and that she and Billy’s relationship will be platonic in future. She gets the feeling that Billy is a little shy. What is going on?

Chantal shakes Kadin’s hand with a question on her face that spells: ‘Who the hell are you?’

"Kadin, I’ve never seen you before. How do you know each other?”

Billy jumps in. "We met in the library on Monday …”

Chantal gives Billy a suspicious look: “Library? What did you do in the library? Billy, you are not a bookworm.”

Billy blushes and struggles to get the right answer and Kadin jumps in: “He lost a booklet in Settler’s park and I left him a note on that place to meet in the library as to return the booklet to him with the time and place.”

Billy looks quite relieved that Kadin jumped to his rescue. Chantal is far from satisfied.

“What type of book?” They don’t answer and she changes the subject. “Do you also play squash, Kadin?”

"I’ve never played squash in my whole life.”

Chantal finds the situation quite suspicious and looks at Billy as if she wants an explanation.

“She was curious and wanted to see me play because we have become good friends in the meantime”

Chantal doesn’t look happy with the answer: “Good friends…?” She looks Kadin up and down with clearly the following question in mind: ‘What does a handsome and active boy like Billy see in a field mouse like you?’

A feeling of aversion is brewing up in Kadin while she studies Chantal. She must admit that she is a stunning girl and clearly squash fit and that she has beautiful athletic formed legs. And Billy is quite active. This girl must be his kind of girl. She is feeling increasingly unsure of herself as time goes by in the presence of Chantal and she simply hates the feeling.

Then a siren sounds and Kadin sees two players exit a court, exhausted and drenched in sweat. Tony and Jacky disappeared and are now coming from a grey lady that is next to a table with a laptop. She looks like the organizer.

Tony touches Billy’s shoulder. "Billy, Lesley said you will be playing on Court 1. Francois is there already busy to warm up the ball.”

Billy looks at Kadin. "Go and sit on the grandstand and watch there with Jacky.”

Billy shows her to where Jacky is keeping a place open for her. She joins Jacky. Billy starts to stretch deeply while Tony earnestly talks to him and give advice about the tactics he should employ against Francois.

Kadin looks at Jacky. "They are looking so serious. You could swear it is a war!”

Jacky smiles at Kadin. "Something like it, yes, those two are fanatics when it comes to squash. My Tony is wretched when he can’t play after hurting himself.”

"Does he sometimes injure himself?”

"Often, you see, he just doesn’t want to believe that he can’t do what he did when he was younger. Squash is strenuous for the body and you can pick up a nasty injury without knowing it. Later, when you cooled off or the next day you realize there is a great fault.”

"I don’t know the rules of the game”

Enthusiastically Jacky gestures with her hands while she explains the rules. Billy has entered the court in the meantime and is now warming up together with Francois. It looks as if they are trying different strokes. Sometimes they drive the little ball hard and low and picks him up artfully and send it travelling with a loop to the back corner and then it flops down as if it is dead. Then they cut it off in mid-air and then let it fall like dead in a front corner. In the meantime, Kadin learns the rules and tactics from Jacky.

She begins to understand what they are practicing. Jacky tells her that they must try to pull the opponent into the corners so as to dominate the centre of the court. If one of them can’t get out of the corner quickly enough, the other one can then kill the ball at the opposite side of the court. The ball must only hop once on the floor.

The siren goes off and the game begins. They get a warm-up time of five minutes and after that, they play for 25 minutes without a break until the siren goes off again. The one in front on points scored is the winner. That is how they play the summer league.

Kadin is amazed to see how quickly and supply they move and how accurately they handle the ball out of the most difficult situations. They scratch the ball out of the corners with ingenious shots. They have to stretch to the utmost and break hard to come back to the centre with utter effort to be ready for the next attack of the opponent.

Astonished she looks at Jacky: “They are incredibly supple and quick! I just can’t believe it! How do they do it? It must take incredible effort and concentration.”

Kadin now sees Chantal next to Tony yelling encouragements to Billy. Francois shows a lot of aggression and drives the little ball harder and harder. Tony looks worried as he yells to Jacky.

“Time is running out and they are even! The next one who scores a point will be the winner!”

Kadin looks at Jacky. "Why does Francois look so aggressive? It seems he is becoming all the more agitated and is hitting the ball out of frustration.”

Jacky winks: “Yes, it’s true. You see he dislikes Billy a lot for different reasons and thus far he always won against Billy. He’ll simply hate it if Billy wins tonight.”

“But why does Francois not like Billy?” Jacky turns her eyes towards Chantal.

“He simply adores Chantal, but she has only eyes for Billy. And, Francois has been playing from a young age and Billy only started two years ago. Billy advanced quickly under Tony’s coaching and is now really strong competition for him. And, he is a bad loser and his ego will take a giant knock if he loses to Billy in front of all and especially Chantal.”

The alarm goes off and Francois agitatedly throws his racket on the floor. He swears shamelessly before he reluctantly shakes Billy’s hand with a somber face. Tony smiles happily and shows a thumbs-up while Chantal jumps frantically up and down like a little, happy girl. When Billy comes out, she rushes up to him, hugs his body drenched in sweat tightly and kisses him passionately on his cheek. Billy shyly smiles at her and then comes to Kadin and in a bent position stand in front of her with his hands on his knees.

That’s the first time she has seen him so utterly exhausted. It looks as if he just exited a swimming pool. He is wet all over and blood red and the sweat runs down him like water. There is no dry spot on him.

He straightens slowly and looks at Jacky: “I did it …”

Jacky answers: “You have, Billy. Congratulations, you did well. This was marvellos squash. You had to fight every inch up to the end.”

Billy points with his thumb in the direction of Tony. “Without his advice, I don’t know. I did precisely as he had told me and that gave me that little advantage right at the end.”

Chantal is now going on court to warm up. Billy looks at Kadin.

“I must try to cool off before I shower or else I will sweat all over again and will smell horrible. I’m rather going to stand and watch Chantal playing to cool off before I take a shower and then join you. Okay, Kadin?”

Kadin nods but her heart is heavy. He is going to support Chantal and he leaves her alone here with Jacky. And Chantal has only eyes for him! She desperately wants to ask Jacky whether there is something going on between the two of them, but she doesn’t want to sound desperate.

The siren goes off and Chantal is in action. She plays very well and beats a gentleman about Tony’s age easily. Maybe they support one another because they are on the same team.

A happy and extremely relaxed Billy joins then later on in dry, clean clothes.

Kadin smiles at the fresh Billy: “Tonight is the first time I’ve seen you so tired.”

"Yes, that’s why I love squash so much. It is exhausting and intense. A fight like this tonight pumps so much adrenaline in me and afterwards, I’m in a state of euphoria and it feels as if nothing can bother me and I feel totally relaxed.”

Tony takes them back before sunset so that Rene doesn’t become worried. Kadin is happy that she can sneak in without having to explain who the boy is with her.

That night Kadin rolls around in her bed for sleep won’t come. Chantal spooks in her thoughts. How is she going to find out if they have a relationship? She’s not going to ask him. It will sound hopelessly desperate. She realizes that Billy has taken over her whole existence.

If their relationship is only platonic, she will walk around with a heavy heart and a dark secret.