Chapter 5: I'm A What, Now?

A loud boom echoed in my ears.

Rain was falling, I could smell it. That and...something smelled bad... like horse manure...?

My eyes were met with a different ceiling, a very high ceiling. And what’s this prickly stuff on my back? Was it...hay? What the Hell happened??!

I felt around my shirt until my fingers found a hole that wasn’t there before. A hole where my heart would be. I instinctively sat up.

“EEEIIIKKK!” Ramla shrieked. “Isuko! Isuko!”

Why was she screaming???

“A--Aiden!?” Isuko shouted, his face as flabbergasted as Ramla’s. What’s he doing with that shovel? “You...you’re alive??!”

“Um... Was I dead?”

“Yes!” gasped Ramla. “Bara...she..!”

“She attacked you,” Isuko finished. “She thought you were some kind of evil spirit.”

She did, did she? I eyed the shovel. “Is that for me?”

Isuko dropped the tool and chuckled, nervously. “Like we said, you were dead. I... was going to bury you once the storm let up.”

“I’m so relieved you’re alive,” Ramla exhaled. “I couldn’t bear living with Bara otherwise. Oh, should I go get her, Isuko?”

“Go ahead,” he replied.

“Ok. I’ll be right back!” Ramla threw a piece of tarp over her head and ran into the rain.

She was out of sight when her boyfriend joined me on the haystack. “Don’t worry. We explained who you are to Bara and why we’re here. There shouldn’t be any more hostilities.”

“Yeah well, had I known Bara was a crazy woman, I wouldn’t have been as relaxed around here.”

“She’s not crazy. She’s just..”

“Crazy,” I interrupted. “Stop defending crazy.”

“Haha, okay. So, has that happened to you before? Coming back to life after death?”

“A few times.”

“Ah! I don’t know if I could stand that.”

“It has its advantages.”

“Maybe for you, but the thought of coming back again and again sounds unfulfilling to me.”

“You think so?”

“If I lived to be an old man, with a slew of great grandchildren to be proud of, then my life would feel complete. But if I died of old age and came back again as the same frail, old guy ( no good to anyone anymore ), what else would there be for me to live for? I don’t know. I think I’d go insane.”

“Well, I can see your point...” Note to self: make sure not to deteriorate into someone as worthless as old man Isuko.

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Isuko stood up. “Here comes Bara.’

Seconds after Isuko’s pronouncement, a very short, heavy footed, gray haired old fool marched into the room. She kept her fingers tightly wrapped around a weird looking dagger, her pair of suspicious baggy eyes on me and asked, “What else can he be if he sprung back to life?!”

“Bara, please!” Ramla said, rushing in behind the old woman and holding a rolled up scroll. “We’ve been over this!”

“Aiden’s a friend to Nihon and you owe him an apology!” Isuko said.

Like that was going to happen. Look at her; shoulders tensed, wrinkles all wrapped around an accusatory frown. We’d be here forever waiting for her to apologize. And with the way I feel right now the sooner I’m away from her, the less likely I’m going to shove my fist in her face.

“Nevermind that, Isuko. I don’t need an apology from her. Have you asked her about Yamato?”

“Kind of..”

“Sounds like he got too close to one of your kind,” Bara claimed, trying her best to burn a hole through me with an intense glare.

“My kind?” Keep calm, Aiden. ♫Oh no she didn’t.♪

“Don’t act surprised! Only an evil Sanskrit could transform a man into a monster.”

“Ah, I remember you telling me stories about Sanskrit before,” said Ramla. “I never believed anything like that could exist, though.”

“Of course not! If you did, you wouldn’t have brought one to my house!”

“Why don’t you just tell us what a Sanskrit is?” Isuko insisted, impatiently.

“I gave Ramla what you need to know. Now get THAT off my property!”

With clenched fists, I resisted the urge to snatch Bara’s tongue from her mouth and feed it to her. No. Acting like that wouldn’t solve anything. ♫Lies♪

Seeing her eyes bulge after I turned invisible was almost as satisfying, though.

That’s right Bara. I could be anywhere, at any time, and you wouldn’t know it. ♫Until it was too late.♪

***

I followed Isuko and Ramla to a deteriorating tree stump a mile or so from Bara’s place. I didn’t even realize I was still invisible until Ramla asked where I was. Bara’s accusing ways must have weighed on my thoughts more than I realized. “I’m right here.”

Ramla gasped as I appeared before them. “Okay. Good!” she said, relieved.

Hmm. I wonder if she thought I was still hanging around Bara.

“Let’s see that scroll, Ramla,” Isuko said. It sounded like he was back in ‘save Yamato’ mode again.

Ramla unwrapped her waist sash, placed it on the damp stump, then carefully unfolded the scroll. Delicate and blemished, the lengthy piece of paper looked older than Bara. Alot of letters and symbols came together to form a familiar language to me.

“Ummm...So this might be a problem,” Isuko said, which was what I was thinking as well, but for different reasons.

“I can read it,” Ramla replied, leaning over the parchment for a closer look.

“You can?” a surprised Isuko asked.

“This is...a very old language,” she said, following the words with her finger tip. “One of the four original languages spoken on the island. No one uses it anymore.”

“How come you know how to read it?”

“Bara, she taught me how. Let’s see, what are we looking for again?”

“We think one of those things Bara mentioned before... um, what did she call them?”

“Sanskrit,” I replied. Like I could forget.

“Right. One of them may have cursed Yamato by turning him into a huge bug. Does it say anything about changing him back?”

“Give me a minute or three,” Ramla traded places with the scroll, narrowing her eyes as she read line by line. “There’s so much information here.”

“Try skimming,” Isuko urged.

“I don’t want to do that. So far it reads that sanskrit was a vicious race from a far away land that once invaded and occupied Nihon for a time. Uhm...they have unnatural abilities, including being capable of moving objects without touching them. That's probally why Bara may have confused you with one of them, Aiden.” Ramla continued. “They can also take over someone’s body and merge a person’s spirit with other living things. The possessed mortal must first...” she paused then gasped. “Oh no..!”

“What? What is it?”

“Isuko, if it’s true what you say about Mister Yamato then, according to this, he’s....gone forever.”