Dana was beginning to panic. More than a week had passed since the meeting in the woods. The Lady had told her to wait for a sign, but time was running out. The airplane tickets were booked. In less than a month, she would be leaving for Canada.
There were moments when Dana wondered if it had really happened, if such a thing were possible. The leaf she was given in the cave had already dried and crumbled to dust. Was it just make-believe? Her own wishful daydream? And what if it wasn't? A trace of fear always mingled with her hope. She knew these matters were beyond the ordinary. She recognized their nature from the stories she had grown up with; all those tales of a half-glimpsed world beyond the veil of the visible. A world that was both beautiful and perilous. Didn't the Lady herself speak of danger?
Dana knew she would go regardless. Having caught hold of a long-lost dream, she wasn't about to give it up. She had begun to think of her mother again. Early memories were trickling in. That time she found the box of clothes in her father's wardrobe. Was she four or five? The dresses and skirts were mostly light cottons with flowered patterns. Crushing the fabric against her face, she had inhaled the lingering scent of apples, as she sobbed her heart out. Then there were the times she had lain in bed at night, listening to the sound of a sweet voice in her head. Hush, dear heart, no need to cry. Hush, dear heart, no need for tears. Her pillow was always damp when she woke in the morning.
And there was something else. Behind the snippets of memory, Dana sensed the shadow of some terrible moment; an event both monstrous and hidden. Too amorphous to recall, it only left her baffled.
She wished she had someone to talk to, but her best friend was in Spain on holiday and her soccer gang were useless. They would only make fun of her. No one believed in magic at their age. Gabriel did, of course, or so he always said, but he was the last person she could turn to. Hey, Da, I've got to go off into the mountains on a dangerous quest!
Things were already tense at home. Since her father held a Canadian passport, he had to prove his right to take Dana from her birthplace. Officially the mother's consent was required. Notices had to be posted in newspapers and public places to allow her the chance to come forward to claim her child. It was harrowing for him. Though he didn't involve Dana, she knew what was happening and she could see the haunted look in his eyes. Under normal circumstances, she would have been tormenting him about the move, but she wasn't able to. He looked too miserable.
It was Sunday when she found him sitting alone in the kitchen staring at the wall. His eyes were red and she knew he had been crying.
"Let's go out for dinner," she suggested. "Take my pocket money for the month. We should celebrate your new job!"
She had to turn away quickly. It was obvious he was about to cry again.
The Hanuman House was their favorite place in Bray, not only because it served delicious food, but because they knew its owners, Aradhana and Suresh, who had arrived from India only a year before. Two flights of stairs led upward to an airy dining room overlooking the stone bridge that crossed the River Dargle. The walls and even the ceiling of the restaurant were painted with scenes from the Hindu epic the Ramayana. Dana loved looking at the pictures that told the story of the hero, Rama, who saved his beautiful wife, Sita, from the evil demon, Ravanna. In the evening, when candles were lit at the tables, the murals seemed to come alive. The flickering light made the figures breathe and move, while the music of tambours and sitars swept softly through the room.
Aradhana was on duty that night, not her plump and jocular older brother. Slender and graceful, with great dark eyes, she mirrored the mythical beauty of Sita. The silk of her red sari, threaded with gold, rustled as she walked. Her long dark braid was plaited with jasmine. This was how she dressed for work. When they met her on the streets or in the shops, she was usually in jeans and a T-shirt, with her hair in a ponytail.
Dana and her father were also dressed up. Gabriel wore beige linen trousers and a faded blue shirt. Both his head and his silver earring gleamed in the candlelight. Dana sported her best clothes, bought for her Confirmation: a denim skirt that fell to her ankles, a yellow blouse with embroidered sleeves, and high-heeled sandals. She caught the critical look of a girl her own age who sat at another table, and shrugged it off. Fashion was not something she understood or cared about.
"How is my Irish Barbie this evening?" Aradhana asked as she brought them to their seats.
Dana would have hated to be called this by anyone else, especially since she had never owned a doll, but it somehow seemed less objectionable coming from Aradhana. And Dana wasn't the only one the young woman charmed. Gabriel always acted oddly around her. When Dana once teased him about being too cowardly to ask for a date, he had answered seriously, "My girlfriends don't last. You know that. Radhi's special. I wouldn't want to wreck our friendship."
Now Dana watched wryly as her father puzzled over the menu to keep Aradhana beside him. Enquiring after various dishes, he requested her opinion on this one and that, knowing full well what he meant to order. He and Dana always ate the same meal: white basmati rice with vegetables cooked in a balti sauce, peshwari bread stuffed with nuts and raisins, and two frothing glasses of mango lassi.
While Gabriel dragged out the process as long as he could, Dana left the table and wandered over to gaze at the murals. There was Rama with his great bow, shooting arrows that never missed their target. His skin was sky-blue, a sign of his otherworldly nature as he was the son of a god. At his side stood Sita, the daughter of a king, who fell in love with Rama the moment she saw him. It was when the couple were exiled in the forest that the ten-headed Ravanna, half demon, half human, abducted Sita. In his fiery chariot, he carried her away to the island kingdom of Lanka. Only after many adventures and the help of the monkey-god Hanuman did Rama defeat the demon and rescue his wife.
As Dana gazed at her favorite scene, the reunion of Rama and Sita, an old woman hobbled up beside her. Leaning on a blackthorn stick, she wore a long crimson skirt and a black shawl with a green fringe. Wisps of smoky gray hair framed a narrow face that was wrinkled and whiskery. Her eyes were like two black beads.
"Is breá an tráthnóna é," she said to Dana. "A fine evening indeed."
"'Sea," agreed Dana politely. Educated in a Gaelscoil, she was fluent in Irish. "Conas atá tú, a mháthair?"
The old lady didn't answer the question but clutched Dana's hands.
"You must come, my child! You must come to the mountains! I will meet you there."
Then she scurried away with surprising speed out of the restaurant.
Flushed with excitement, Dana returned to her table. The sign she had been waiting for!
"Gabe, I need you to take me hiking in the mountains."
"Since I've nothing else to do."
She knew that face. It wasn't open to negotiation. But by the time Aradhana brought their dinner, Dana had a plan.
"When's your next day off?" she asked the young woman.
"Dana—" Gabriel started, but she was too quick for him.
"Didn't you say you've never been to Powerscourt?"
Aradhana nodded. "There are many places I would like to visit, but first must come the business. No time for holidays just yet."
"But you get a day off," Dana pointed out, and she turned to her father. "Let's take her on a picnic, Gabe! To the waterfall. Give you a break from the packing. A little farewell party."
"Packing? Farewell?" Aradhana's voice quavered. She avoided looking at Gabriel. "Are you going away, my Irish Barbie?"
"Not that I want to," Dana said, appreciating the unexpected support. "He's dragging me off to Canada!"
Aradhana's face brightened.
"Ah, Canada. It is a wonderful place. Many Indian people live there. I have cousins in Toronto."
"That's where we're going!" Gabriel said, surprised and delighted.
Dana frowned. The two were staring at each other as if they had been rescued.
"Are you emigrating so?" Aradhana asked softly.
Gabriel shook his head. "I'm going home. My parents are Irish, but I was born in Canada and grew up there."
"You are like me, then. In two places also."
Dana heard the wistfulness in her voice. It was the same tone Aradhana had used when she spoke of the Indian community in Canada. There wasn't much of one in Ireland. Was she lonely? Was she homesick? Who else did she have besides her brother and the few men on staff, all older and married? Dana felt a pang of guilt for using the young woman as bait to get into the mountains. But the plan had succeeded. Gabriel was already enthusing about the picnic. As soon as Aradhana named her day off, the date was confirmed.
It was later, when they were eating their dessert of deep-fried bananas drizzled with cream, that Dana spotted the young couple waiting near the takeaway counter. At first glance they looked like any teenaged pair, entangled in each other's arms. The girl was dressed in the briefest of skirts with a skimpy pink top. Her blond hair was piled on top of her head. She kept laughing as her boyfriend nuzzled her ear. He was tall and lanky, in tight jeans and a black T-shirt. The leaf-brimmed hat was nowhere to be seen, and his red-gold hair fell over his shoulders.
They began to kiss each other languidly, oblivious to everyone around.
"Hey, look at the fairies!" Gabriel exclaimed.
"What?" gasped Dana.
He pointed to the mural behind her. She spun around. It was one of the early scenes in the Ramayana, before Sita was kidnapped. Rama walked with his wife in the forest. And there to the left of them, in the leafy undergrowth, were figures Dana had never noticed before. Dark-eyed and blue-skinned, with the faint hint of wings, they watched the two lovers from the shadows.
Gabriel called Aradhana over to ask her about them.
"Oh yes," she said. "We have fairies in India, with many different names. Some call them devas. The artist must have known this. I cannot remember her name, but I think she lives somewhere up in the mountains."
"I bet she does," Dana muttered.
She looked over at the counter. The couple were gone.