Chapter 2 No.2

Ria's phone was in Chinese but she had taught me everything I needed to be able to operate it. It was also password protected and I was the only one who knew it apart from her. I unlocked it and went through her pictures first, but all the folders were empty. She had about twenty contacts, all of them written in Chinese, even my number was stored under Chinese characters as an extra layer of protection for her personal data. There was nothing I could do with.

I used the room's phone to call Terra, she was the only person I knew in Pakistan besides Ria. So it's not like I had any other options. She would probably know what to do. I looked at the phone knowing what I should do but couldn't bring myself to pick it up. I looked at the goats, then at the gun, then at the picture of the chicken still lying on the bed. It was a regular chicken, nothing special about it.

I picked up the phone but it was too white, heavy and full of germs so I had to put it back down. I opened the window and took a deep breath letting my lungs fill up with the thousands of dangerous chemical particles of air pollution coming out of the hundreds of cars driving down the road.

In eighty years from now, I will be dead. I need to put this into perspective. I need to be strong and focus on the bigger picture. It's just a phone call. Children are begging and people are starving in the streets below me, they have real problems. I have it easier. I just need to make a simple phone call. I can do this, but not without a drink. I downed a full glass of whiskey, picked up the phone again and dialed Terra's number.

After five rings she picked up. To me, the phone felt scarier and colder than the gun.

"Good morning, Terra speaking." Her voice felt distant and formal.

"It's me, Gwen." I served myself another glass.

"Oh, hey, what's up?" she greeted me, changing her tone from formal to informal.

"I'm at the Marriot hotel. Room 304. Can you come over and bring me twenty-five beers?" I went straight to the point.

"Now? Are you OK?"

"Yes, I'm OK. I just need to talk to you."

"Alright. Give me half an hour."

"Good." I sighed, relieved, and hung up the phone, glad it was all finally over. I took a deep breath and took a sip of whiskey, covering the phone with a towel so I wouldn't need to see it anymore.

???

121 - Ria

It sounded as if there was someone making the bed, or hitting the bed with a baseball bat. I decided to check out the room. The master bedroom, which was in front of the room I woke up on, seemed to be empty. I could hear the sound getting louder, and as I approached the smaller bedroom at the end of the hallway, it sounded like they were having a pillow fight inside.

With the door ajar, I peeked into the room and saw the bed covers on the bed being violently shaken up and down by something underneath them which was trying to get out. I took the corner of the cover and slowly pulled it with one hand while holding onto the door frame just in case.

A black and white baby goat jumped up, excited, as I released her from under the duvet cover. This goat, as I remembered well, was with Gwen before. The goat jumped down from the bed, ran through the hallway and into the living room where it peed and roamed around the room looking for food and water.

I gave her tap water in a bowl from the kitchen and some fruits I found in the fridge. She ate two bananas, the peel and all, an apple and a pear. After she finished eating, she continued roaming around the house while I looked for a way to get out of this situation.

I could probably pick the lock on the door or open a window to get out of the house, but is outside really better than inside? I felt like an intruder, like when I was in Pakistan watching a girl sleep.

I heard several voices from behind the door. I grabbed the goat and stayed put on the couch while I heard a key being inserted into the keyhole and the doorknob slowly turning.

Two girls walked into the house chatting. One of them was the one from the pictures in my room, she seemed to be around my age. The other one was probably her little sister who slept in the goat's room, who must have been around seven or eight years old.

When they saw me, they both froze on the spot. The older girl dropped her school bag she was holding and the younger one gasped. I said "hi" and put the goat down. When the goat approached them, the young girl panicked and screamed, causing the baby goat to faint, collapsing on its side in front of them.

I have seen goats fainting on the Internet before but didn't know this one could do that as well. We all looked at it to see if it was dead. After a few seconds, it stood up as if nothing had happened. Seeing the goat seemingly resurrecting, the younger girl got even more freaked out, hiding behind her sister and clinging on to her trousers.

Gwen was used to this kind of situations. If she was here she would know exactly what to say to them. Or maybe she wouldn't say anything, she would act normally and hope for the best. And that may not be such a terrible idea, I mean, what other options do I have? There was really nothing I could say to them that explained the situation, I couldn't even understand myself why I was in someone else's house. I wasn't going to tell them I woke up in their room out of nowhere.