Backpacks and Bra Straps (28 page)

We made our way to Durbar Square, which is the centre of the old town and the site of the old royal palace and Pashiputinath – the most important Hindu temple in Nepal and one of the most significant temples in the world honouring Shiva, a popular Hindu deity considered to be one of the primary forms taken by God.

“Nepal itself is very Hindu and very Buddhist, depending on where you are. You’re in for some fascinating traditions and rituals,” Ammon explained. We saw examples all around us to support Ammon’s expectations.

Ancient, bearded holy men walked the streets of Durbar Square with painted faces and dreadlocks dragging on the road beside their twisted toes. They leaned on wooden staffs, wore bulky beads strung around their necks, and wrapped themselves in light, cotton fabrics.

Groups of school kids in smart uniforms manoeuvred effortlessly between sleeping cows that blocked traffic everywhere you looked.

One of the main charms of Durbar square is the Kumari Ghar, a three-story, brick building with beautiful wooden windows and archways adorned with carvings of gods and symbols. Residing within is the Royal Kumari, a young girl who is literally believed to be a living goddess. In the search for the next Kumari, only girls in perfect health and physical condition with very black eyes and hair and dainty hands and feet are selected. According to tradition, candidates must have: eyelashes like a cow; a chest like a lion; a body like a banyan tree; a neck like a conch shell; thighs like a deer; and a voice as soft and clear as a duck’s.

As the incarnation of the demon-slaying Hindu goddess Durga, fearlessness is a major quality expected from the Kumari. They identify this quality during the selection process by evaluating the reactions from a small group of three- to five-year-old potential goddesses, who are being tested in a dark room with men in demon masks dancing around freshly slaughtered buffalo heads.

One of the pre-pubescent girls is eventually selected, and they worship her as the living embodiment of the goddess until she menstruates. Even major blood loss from an accident is enough to make the goddess vacate the child’s body and end the current Kumari’s reign. She’s given a decent pension afterwards, but is left somewhat tainted by the belief that any man who marries an ex-Kumari will die young. I thought a lot about those young girls as I stood in the courtyard, looking up at the dark, silent window of her room.

She must be very pretty. What must it be like for her, not being allowed to have her own friends and to only have family members visit on special occasions? Is she lonely behind those walls? What will life be like when she tries to revert back to being a commoner after spending so many important years isolated like that? How will I readapt after so long away? Will either of us have anything left to return to?

Our neighbourhood was awash in souvenir, cashmere, jewellery, and clothing stalls, as well as tattoo and body piercing parlours, so while Ammon was busy on the Internet, we girls went off to get one of Mom’s ears pierced. The shop was a tiny, square room with fabrics hanging on the walls and a glass counter displaying all kinds of used earrings and piercing guns. The employees urged us to simply sit, but we insisted on getting a pen to mark the placement of Mom’s new earrings. Even though Bree was very careful and precise when she drew the spots, Mom was very nervous and particular.

Once the first two were done, Mom decided, “That didn’t hurt too much. What the heck! Let’s do a few more while we’re at it.” For about five percent of what it would have cost in Vancouver, Mom had four new piercings. She could now wear a total of eight earrings, three on each lobe, plus the single cartilage piercings on each ear that we’d had done in Beijing.

“Mom, why don’t you just let Savannah get her nose pierced,” Bree asked.

“Why? ‘Cause it’s not going to happen, that’s why.” She stood with her hands on her hips and a determined look on her face. I still don’t quite understand how I ended up, only minutes later, sitting in the rickety metal chair with a piercing gun stuffed up my nose. Crosseyed and baffled, I suddenly wondered what I’d gotten myself into. I’d never actually stopped to consider whether I really wanted my nose pierced and realized, at the proverbial last minute, that I’d only been nagging about it to annoy Mom.
Did she just call my bluff?

From a past experience trying to pierce a friend’s nose at home using a needle and stuffing a cork up her nose, I expected my nose and eyes to water, but when the Nepalese man pressed the trigger, the sharp golden earring went in quickly and painlessly.

“Wow, that was so easy,” I said surprised, but poor Mom looked like she was about to faint.

“Ohhh, I think I need to sit down,” she said, her knees wobbling. The man rushed to get her seated, and she put her head between her knees to prevent herself from falling over.

“I don’t know what’s happening to me,” Mom said. “I think it’s just watching you go through that pain,”

“But Mom, it didn’t hurt – at all. I still hardly feel anything,” I said, wiggling my nose to prove it.

“I know. I’m being silly. I just need a minute.”

Bree must have some hidden hypnotist capabilities because, while Mom was already in position, sitting and clearly not thinking straight, she agreed to get her nose pierced, too. What!? Bree quickly chose the spot for her before she could change her mind, on her right nostril, opposite where I’d just had it done.

“I cannot believe what just happened,” I said.

“So silly that I felt so faint watching yours, but it didn’t bother me at all to get my own done. You’re right. It hardly hurt at all.”

When we barged into Ammon’s room, he stared at us and shook his head. “You guys have lost your minds once again. Seriously, you people are insane.”

“Ouch… Okay, now the sharp point at the end of this thing is stabbing into the inside of my nose,” I said. Instead of a nose ring, he’d left the sharp-ended ear piercing stud in which was far too long for the size of any nostril. “We’re going to have to take it out and change it. Yikes, this is going to hurt.”

“You think you have problems?” Ammon said. “Apparently I have a wife and two kids, not a mother and two sisters. And have I mentioned lately that you’re all downright nuts?”

“You’re right, Daddy. And Sky will probably kill us for this,” I said. I was still awed by the big golden nob hanging from Mom’s tiny nose and actively trying to figure it all out. Perhaps Mom knew she was sometimes unreasonable, and maybe this was her way of reconciling with me, calling it a draw in some unspoken way. And when she put aside her stubbornness and gave in to me on the nose-piercing issue, I became more inclined to see her point of view. It had been a roller coaster of a ride which had definitely seen its highs and lows, but this felt like a step in the right direction.

Her stories from the past echoed in my brain: ‘I never got to have long hair’, ‘I always had to have this stupid boy cut’, and ‘I never got to have pretty long hair like you’. Too often, we hang on to memories like that and they become something more significant than they really are over time. It was never about long or short hair; it was not being allowed to change it that made it seem so intensely important to me. But I could see how important it was to her. If, in some convoluted way, keeping my hair long somehow made her feel better about her childhood, then I guess it wasn’t the end of the world.

Through Her Eyes
34

“O
h my gosh, this is the airport?” I’d expected we’d feel some air conditioning, a nearly unimaginable luxury these days. I’d vainly hoped that Mom would splurge on a Starbucks, too, but no… Though this was the capital city and the airport handled international flights, neither cool air nor coffee were available.

“I can’t believe we can’t go inside the arrivals hall. That’s so crazy,” I said.

“Well, you can if you pay the entry fee, but we’re not going to waste money on that,” Ammon said.

Bree stared. “That’s ridiculous. You have to pay to wait in there?”

“I can kind of understand. Can you imagine all the touts who’d be inside if they let everyone in? The fee prevents that from happening,” Mom said. So we waited outside, watching the automatic doors of the tiny airport open and close like a giant mouth spitting out newcomers.

“Well, I do believe we should take advantage of this last chance to play a few rounds of cards,” Ammon suggested. Our Jerk game was ongoing, and it’s a four-player game. We couldn’t mess up the official records, and it wouldn’t be right to ignore our visitor while we played. Bree pulled off her headphones, reemerging from her self-induced la-la land to play.

“Steph is actually coming. I still can’t believe it.” The excitement was almost more than I could handle, and I was finding it hard to pay attention to the game. Bree and I had been unable to contain our enthusiasm since the night before, and it was now 4 p.m. I’d gotten pretty good at waiting, and this trip had taught me to be much more patient, but time was passing slower than on any of the long-haul bus rides we’d survived. When we’d received the news only a couple of weeks ago that Stephanie had purchased a ticket and was really coming, I was elated, even if she was technically Bree’s friend.

“Oh man. Steph is just going to want to party.” Bree laughed. “She’s going to be so surprised when she gets here and realizes what we’re
really
all about.”

“They’ll love me for my hair,” I said, quoting Steph’s latest email. She was certainly right about that, but she wasn’t going to love them for it. She had the most beautiful shade of natural strawberry-blonde hair I’d ever seen; its colouring was rare even at home. Here in Nepal, it would be completely fantastical, and she would stand out like a sore thumb.

“Okay, let’s wrap it up here. Only two more rounds to the bottom of the score page,” Ammon said, glancing at the watch clipped to his pants. “She should be coming out any minute now.”

At long last, the next wave of people started pouring through the gates. Over the sea of darker-featured Nepalese returning home and fairer-skinned travellers milling about between us, Steph waved her arm high and spotting me first she hollered, “Savannah!” She ran to me so fast she nearly knocked me over in a huge bear hug when we collided. I lost myself in the smell of her hair as I squeezed her, all the while thinking that, if soft has a smell, this would be it.

“Yay, someone from home,” Bree said, jumping up and down in her best friend’s arms. “I can’t freaking believe you pulled this off.”

“Why not? Of course I was going to come. I said I would, didn’t I?”

“And that’s what I love about you,” Bree said. And she meant it; people promising to do something and then not following through with it had been one of her biggest pet peeves for as long as I could remember.

Steph had always had a sexy aura about her; it emanated from every move she made, whether they were purposeful or instinctive. The way she moved her head and shoulders when she laughed made her boobs bounce just the right amount. She’d recently turned the ripe old age of eighteen, and she acted as though she had the whole world at her feet. Everything she did demonstrated that. Although she had this very feminine appeal about her, she was also always up for an adventure. She certainly wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty, but we were going to test her limits on this trip. She’d never been to Asia, and I was really glad we got to share this first with her.

“Savannah, you got your nose pierced?!” she gasped, then turned to Mom to see if she knew, unable to believe that she would allow such a thing. “Maggie? You got one, too?” This left her temporarily speechless as she gaped at Mom and leaned in close to make sure it wasn’t a practical joke.

“What can we say? Travelling does things to you,” Ammon said, but Mom simply smiled.

“I just figured if Savannah was brave enough to do it, then so was I,” Mom said. She was the last person Stephanie, or I, for that matter, would expect to do such a thing, especially after she’d ridiculed Steph for having a belly ring. Steph’s blatantly provocative ways and Mom’s conservatism had never mixed well, and the sentiment went both ways.

As a yawn escaped her, Steph said, “Oh, I’m so tired. I look terrible. I’ve been in transit for, like, twenty-four hours.”

I stared at her, shaking my head. “You smell like a sweet, fragrant bath.”

She let out a laugh. “You’re such a weirdo. I love you.”

We stuffed ourselves into a taxi and the four girls piled on top of each other in the back, making sure Stephanie had a window seat. Bree theatrically announced, “And then there were five. Dum-da-dum-dum.”

Ammon responded appropriately and predictably. “Yep, another female to threaten my sanity. Just what the doctor ordered. But I need to make one thing clear. There’s just one rule. You are going to keep your dirty rats and bra straps off my backpack. I will not tolerate any more of that kind of abuse – from anyone.”

Steph gave him an inquisitive look and Bree jibed, “You’re going to have to listen to us from now on, mister. We’ve got lots of ammunition, enough among all of us not only to decorate your backpack, but to stuff the entire thing, too.”

I leaned behind Bree and whispered an explanation to Steph, “He hates having our underwear anywhere near him. If you ever want to get back at him, that’s the quickest way to do it.”

“Oh, so it’s to be blackmail, is it?” Ammon said. “I’ve already nearly admitted myself to rehab how many times on your account?”

“Yeah, and just what are you planning to do about it?” Bree smirked.

“I’m going to hang you with them,” he said.

I couldn’t contain my laughter. “First you’ll have to work up the courage to touch them!”

“Poor Ammon,” Mom explained. “Not only has he had to put up with three women for months on end, he also has to deal with everyone thinking he’s my husband and they’re his twin daughters. I’m curious about where the locals are going to fit you into this picture.”

Steph laughed and patted his head from behind. “Been rough on you, has it?

“Yes. Especially with that one.” He tilted his head toward Bree.

“Hey. You started that last fight,” she said.

I closed my eyes in despair. “Was it even worth it? Do you guys even remember what you were fighting about?”

“Yeah, of course. She was being even more stupid than usual.”

“And he was pissing me off.”
Oh geez, here we go again,
I thought, but Steph’s infectious laugh highlighted their silly behaviour, and I heaved a sigh of relief. It was still a pretty fine line between those two these days.

“We can be such idiots,” Bree laughed.

“Poor girl, I would hate to be meeting up with these jokesters,” I said. “I’ve been trying to escape from them for months now, and you willingly join them? You have no idea what you’ve just signed up for.”

“Oh, she’s safe with us.” Ammon faced forward again and said, just loud enough for her to hear, “For now, anyway.”

“Speaking of backpacks, you’re so lucky,” I said. “Your bag is so small. You hardly packed anything.”

“Yeah, and half of what’s in here is for you guys,” she said. “You scared me half to death, you know, saying I had to catch a taxi from the airport to the hotel on my own. I was seriously going to die if you’d left me there alone. You guys are so mean. And then you said I needed a sleeping bag. Do I really need one? ‘Cause I don’t even own one. But we’ll figure it out, I suppose. Right now, I want to know how you guys are doing. It feels like it’s been so long, but then when I see you, it’s the same as always. Except now you’re world travellers. And oh my God, I missed you so much, Bree.”

Wrapping her arms around Steph’s neck, Bree squeezed her till she squeaked. “I missed you the most.”

“Bree has spent as much time reading as the rest of us, which, if you know Bree, proves that we are on the other side of the world,” Ammon told her. “Though I suspect she has no idea where we are.”

“Hey! I do too. We’re in the car,” she said, pausing on purpose to irritate him, “in Kathmandu, Nepal, Asia, with my bestest friend in the whole wide world.”

“Yep, and now we’re on the same side of the – Oh my God! Was that a monkey?” Steph gasped and nearly knocked her head on the window. “On the roof. Look! Over there!” We’d left the somewhat calm airport and re-emerged into the real chaos of the city, where Steph quickly forgot her jet lag and came to life.

“Why is he honking? There’s no reason for him to be honking.” She pointed and screeched at every sight as questions poured out of her. “Is there a snake in that basket?” “Why are they hanging meat outside? Don’t they have fridges?” “Do they know what side of the road they’re supposed to drive on?”

Driving on the left side of the road enhanced her feeling that we were about to crash, especially when all the drivers here played chicken right up to the very last second as they competed for the centre of the road. Steph instinctively expected our driver to swerve to the right at the last moment to avoid collisions, so when we jolted to the left, she would scream, certain we were doomed. I was amused by her reactions, which reminded me of my own first experiences of travel. She pointed out a dozen things that we otherwise would have overlooked. We’d become so accustomed to monkeys on roofs, hanging carcasses being eaten by bees, and chaotic traffic that it was refreshing to be able to re-experience it all again vicariously through her eyes. Steph had also come just in time to break up the souring, negative feelings smouldering below the surface. Our group’s morale had been fading, especially since that night in Tibet when we’d gone for each other’s throats.

She’d arrived with a one-way ticket, and none of us knew where the road would take us. She had talked of staying anywhere from six weeks to six months. Though we didn’t think she would last that long on the road with us, we wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt that others hadn’t given us. She was fresh out of high school and could have done just about anything she wanted. She’d gotten a summer job and saved up enough money to come and travel with us. Luckily for her, she had Ammon, AKA the friendly, local budget police officer, to help make it last.

When we brought her home to our humble abode, Ammon swung open the crooked door and said, “Home sweet home. We’ve been spending $1.25 Canadian a night per person for our rooms. With you here, Steph, we’ll be down to a new record of a dollar per person per night. You gotta love that, eh?”

“What’s your personal record?” Steph asked him.

“Seventy-five cents a day in Laos,” he quickly replied, not needing a second to think about it.

“Awesome,” Bree said.

“And with food only costing two bucks for all of us to eat as much as we want, our money’s really going a long way.”

“Yeah, ha-ha.” Steph let out a nervous laugh. “That’s amazing. But…,” she was cautiously eying her new surroundings, “what could we get for, like, ten dollars?”

“Are you crazy? If you spend that kind of money every day, you’ll have none left in a month. And this place is fine,” he said, waving her tentative question off.

I whispered to Steph, “You could get a
really
nice place for ten bucks, with room service and everything.”

As soon as she dropped her backpack, we insisted on raiding it.

“Wow! You weren’t kidding when you said more than half of this is for us,” Bree said, as she reached in and found Charleston Chews, Smarties, Sour Patch Kids, Whoppers, and more. Our faces glowed as she pulled each treasure from her small red backpack. Sandra had sent a package of goodies with Steph for us, which was so exciting and also, literally, sweet of her. Sandra’d sent a special gift for me which I immediately unwrapped. I was elated to find my very first matching bra and panty set and clutched them to my chest in pure joy. I hoped she could feel my gratitude as I held them out, admiring the pink lacing. The smell of the scented beads in the bottom of the La Senza bag momentarily took me away to another time.