Watcher and Warrior
an excerpt

“She’s still sleeping, you can wake her up,” Jodi heard her mother say from outside her door. Her clothing had gotten twisted around her as she slept; she sat up groggily and straightened the gray t-shirt and shorts that she’d worn on the plain. At least she’d been awake enough to take off her socks and shoes.
James entered, looking both disheveled and neat at the same time in jeans and a white button up shirt not tucked in. He was tall and skinny with a mop of black hair and thin wire-rim glasses that made him look like the intellectual type. Jodi thought he misrepresented himself because, though he was very intellectual, he was not the intellectual type. He was quiet, often in the background, and wasn’t opinionated or geeky, talking about irrelevant statistics that he’d memorized like most intellectual types she’d met. He smiled and stuck his hands into his pockets when he saw her sitting up in her bed.
“Turn around and close the door,” she commanded him walking over to her dresser to change into some jeans and a t-shirt. She put on some deodorant, brushed her hair shoulder length dark brown hair then examined herself in the mirror. On an afterthought she pulled her hair back into a ponytail, she’d had her hair cut to just below her ears and it was just now getting long enough for a ponytail again. She was presentable she decided.
“What’s up?” she asked him as she walked past him out the door.
“The grant, I think we can get it,” he said, “I sent a letter to that company in Chennai, the one that owns all those hotels.”
Downstairs in the kitchen Jodi poured a cup of coffee for herself and one for James then led them out onto the back porch and sat down on the steps that led into the backyard. The morning air was even colder than it had been last night, but the sharpness helped wake her up. It was only ten o’ clock. The fields across from them were still shiny with frost. She’d forgotten how short the days got in the winter. If it’d been summer she would have guessed it to be seven, not ten.
“What did you do last night?” James asked peering at her over his coffee.
“Went to Tavern,” she replied, “Met an old friend there and stayed kind of late.”
“Interesting,” he said simply.
“So how about this grant?” she asked.
“They’re offering free stay in any of the hotels they own in Chennai as well as money for food, clothes, and a little spending money. What they want is a book on India geared towards an American audience. Something that shows the real side of India, not just the Taj Mahal and other temples. To show what India is like on the streets, and the beauty in that.”
“We could definitively do that,” Jodi said drinking the rest of her coffee and starting to feel a little bit more awake. James took another sip of his then sat down it down on the porch step.
“They said they’d do our plane tickets too,” James said with a faint smile.
“Really? Excellent,” Jodi said feeling her heart pick up a bit. India, if they got this grant, she’d be there in less than a month!
Grinning she poked James in the ribs, “Drink your coffee.”
“I don’t need caffeine,” he complained wrapping his arms around himself, just managing not to squeak.
“I’ll get you some tea,” she said taking his cup and standing up.
“Nah, it’s fine,” he said, “I’ve been up for hours.”
“Sometimes I wonder about you James,” she told him. He said nothing and gave a faint shrug, the ghost of a smile on his lips and more in his eyes. She liked that about him, he always knew she was joking, but neither of them had to say anything.
“So who was this old friend?” James asked. The screen door swung open and both golden retrievers came trotting out. Julie bounded past them into the backyard while Shadow sat down and put his head against James.
“Sanne, the girl I met in India,” she explained.
“I don’t think you’ve ever told me about her,” James said.
“She was the cousin of those kids I did a little of home schooling with,” Jodi told him, “Five years younger than me, 19 now, in a band.”
James nodded so Jodi continued, “Her band was playing at Tavern, so she gave me a call to see if I wanted to stop by and say hi.”
“Sounds fun,” he said giving Shadow a rub behind his ears.
“It’ll be weird, I think,” Jodi said thoughtfully, “Being there without her, that is. We’ll have to stop by her cousin’s house if we get this grant.”
“Where do they live?” he asked curiously.
“In Bodinayakanur,” she said, and when he shrugged, explained, “It’s around a day’s drive from Chennai, way out in rural India.”
James nodded his head thoughtfully. Jodi could see the gears turning in his head and she grinned, recognizing that he was looking forward to India. He hadn’t come with her on every trip she’d taken, and he’d gone on a few she hadn’t been on, but both them enjoyed seeing new places.
The day she’d met Sanne was at Dulles airport in Washington DC. She’d been shy and very quiet, a stark contrast to last night. Once she’d become comfortable around Jodi though, she’d opened up, and they stayed up late into the night talking about the most random things. She was a little rebellious, but in the stereotypical ‘rebellious’ way. She preferred black clothing, had a couple piercing, wore a bunch of bracelets, and frequently argued with her mother. Despite their age difference they’d gotten along fine, and seeing as there weren’t really any other kids their age way out in the middle of nowhere in rural India, they spent most of their free time together.
Within a few weeks they’d become close to best friends. Sanne was a lot younger, and didn’t know as much, but she was smart and quick to catch on to anything, as well as having a large store of random knowledge that made her fascinating to talk to. One morning when they’d both gotten up rather early they’d walked for hours, just talking and looking at the countryside around them. Rows of coconut palms went off into the distance one side, eventually giving way to tall grass while the other field was filled with a tall green crop that neither Jodi nor Sanne recognized. In the distance the mountains loomed up, sharp and tall, despite their distance. Behind them bright white cumulous clouds were building up, foretelling the storm that would arrive that afternoon. The air was filled with the smell of grass, sweat, cow manure, and spices from the spice factory beyond the compound. Whenever Jodi managed to get a whiff of human sweat and exhaust in America memories of India would reemerge.
Done with her coffee she stood up and asked, “To your house?”
“Yeah, I brought some of the papers there, but I left my lap top at the apartment,” he said, “You going to bring some stuff?”
“Yeah,” she said putting the cup in the sink in the kitchen then going down the hallway back into her bedroom. There she shoved some clothes and toiletries into a book bag. Most of her stuff was already at her and James’ apartment, her room here mainly consisted of high school relics. Her father was already at work but her mother was in the office.
“I’m going to Minneapolis,” she said, “I’ll be back this weekend.”
“Give me a hug then, I was hoping you’d stay a little longer,” her mother said standing up to embrace her daughter tightly.
“You know me, I like to be busy,” Jodi said, “Don’t worry though, we won’t be leaving for at least a few weeks.”
“Oh, I never know with you, for all I know you might find a cheap plane ticket and hop on a plane tomorrow,” she said studying Jodi’s face. Jodi smiled and hugged her mom again before slipping on her down jacket and following James outside to his car. James had already put on his coat, an old leather jacket with a fuzzy sheep skin interior. It was his uncle’s, and looked rather old fashioned, but in a good way on him.
As she was getting into the teal piece of junk she reflected that she hadn’t gotten her film developed. She sighed and wrote it down on her mental list of things to do. She could always use the school’s lab, they never checked to see if you were enrolled in a photography class or not. As long as you looked like you knew what you were doing the lab monitors would leave you alone. And her ID card still worked for all the student buildings.
If you’re going to be serious about photography you need to develop your film and start getting your photography out there girl! She thought to herself as James got the car started and rolled backwards out onto the road.
“I can’t believe you still have this car,” she said with a smile kicking the plastic above her feet.
“Hey, I don’t have rich parents,” he said, “Two thousand was all I could afford.”
“My parents aren’t rich,” she protested. They bought the truck for her, but she had to pay for gas and she’d only bring it with her to campus every once in a while.
As the cornfields started blurring past Jodi leaned back and put her feet up on the dashboard, settling down for the two hour drive.
“So how’s everyone doing back at school?” she asked. James was still at their college, spending almost the same amount of time for his internship as he had when he had been taking classes.
“The same,” he said with a smile, “Kelsey and Justin have their own apartment now, Lisa changed her major to Psychobiology, Jake is still undecided, and you’ve inspired Helena to do a study abroad program next semester.”
“Really? Where?” Jodi asked sitting up straighter. Helena was the same age as Jodi, majoring in Creative Writing, she was her only friend from high school that she was still contact with. Kelsey and Justin had gotten married almost a year ago and had been talking about their own apartment for nearly as long. It was strange, to have friends that were married, but only because it was normal. Normal to be living mostly on her own, investigating job opportunities, driving around downtown Minneapolis, drinking alcohol. Sometimes she almost felt as if she were just pretending to be an adult.
“In London,” he told her.
“Oh, that’s neat,” Jodi said. That was one place she’d never been. Europe had never drawn her the way it seemed to do to most college students. Jodi had only ever wanted to go to Asia and Africa; she wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was because that’s where most students went, and where a majority of the programs were. Jodi had always been drawn to things that were, above all, different.
The apartment was, as usual, a mess. She tossed her bag onto the sofa and followed James’ into his room. An area was cleared around his computer, though various papers piled up around it, and completely swamped the desk next to the computer.
“What are all these papers for?” she asked raising an eyebrow.
James shrugged and said, “Print-ups, notes, things that I don’t need on my computer, stuff that’s more easy to have right here. That pile is mainly junk mail and stuff though.”
“I should get you a recycling bin,” she said with a laugh shoving some papers off a chair and pulled it up to the computer where he’d sat down.
“I have one,” he told her with a lopsided grin, “but it’s full.”
Jodi followed his gaze to an overflowing blue bin with the recycling symbol on it.
“Right,” she said, then coughed out the word, “Slob.”
James ignored her and instead pulled up a website, “This is the company we’d be working for. They own a hotel chain, well not a chain really, they’re all different, but I guess they own a bunch of hotels. All of them are in Chennai, so we’d be able to move around the city pretty easily and get excellent coverage of all aspects.”
“You’ve really investigated this,” Jodi said with a smile as she scanned the website, “They want this book to promote their hotels specifically?”
“Not really, just one of the chapters has to be on places to stay, which will list their hotels obviously,” he explained.
They spent the rest of the afternoon typing up their resume and organizing a packet of information promoting themselves with examples of James’ writing and Jodi’s photography. The paused for five minutes to order a pizza around lunch time, before continuing on. She and James worked well together, they both were flexible in nature, and respected each other’s decisions and opinions.
Around six o’ clock there was a knock on the door but before Jodi reached it, it opened at Jake came strolling in. He’d put his hair in a fohawk as usual though this time the top half was dyed pink.
“Hey, how’s it going?” he asked giving Jodi a brief hug, “Have fun in Chile?”
“I had an awesome time,” she told him with a grin.
“I hear you and James are going to abandon us again in a week or two,” he said giving Jodi an accusing look.
“Hey now, we’re not abandoning you,” Jodi protested, “We’re just…”
“Abandoning us,” Jake interrupted with a wave of his hand.
“I’m sorry,” Jodi said with a smile, “I’m glad that you’ve missed me.”
“Oh you’re our wild child Jodi,” he said, moving her back pack to the floor and sitting down on the sofa. James stuck his head into the living room, saw Jake, smiled, then went back into his room.
Jodi went into the kitchen and grabbed two cans of soda before sitting down on the sofa next to him.
“I have something to tell you,” he said seriously.
“You’ve declared a major?” Jodi guessed.
“I’m gay,” he declared.
Jodi coughed on her coke and sputtered, “Is this a new revelation?”
“It’s gradually come to my attention over this past year,” he admitted. Jodi looked at him, he didn’t seem gay. But then again neither had Sanne.
“Jeez, everyone I know is going gay,” she said.
“You’re upset?” he asked.
“No, you’re fine,” she said, “Just don’t tell my parents.”
“I’m not an idiot,” he said, “I know how to act around your parents. We all know you would have come out years ago if not for them.”
This time Jodi nearly choked on her soda and felt her face going red. That was even more unexpected than Jake being gay.
“I’m not gay,” she retorted feeling uncomfortable and a little pissed.
“Oh we know,” Jake said with a smile.
“I’m not,” she repeated more forcefully, annoyed that he was still teasing her about this. She stood up and went into the kitchen, putting her coke into the fridge and grabbing a cup of water.
“Joking, just joking,” he said from the doorway of the kitchen.
“How’s everyone else taking this?” she asked changing the subject back to Jake. He really didn’t seem gay to her, he still sounded like his regular old self with his moderately low slightly sarcastic voice. He dressed a little on the punk side, but definitely not in a gay way. Perhaps she was holding him too strongly to gay stereotypes, but Jodi didn’t really know that much about gay people. She sincerely hoped that he’d been randomly joking about her being gay, for some reason, she didn’t really want that kind of label floating around her. And Jake was right about her parents, they wouldn’t take it well. They just barely tolerated her traveling tendencies.
“Hey Jodi! Where’s your file on your trip to Madagascar?” James shouted from his bedroom.
“Fine, they’re cool,” he said, “Justin is a little uncomfortable about it.”
“I’m a little uncomfortable about it,” she admitted walking over to James’ bedroom.
“It should be on the network in my shared documents,” she told him glancing at his computer screen.
“I should get back to work,” she told Jake turning back towards the living room.
“Okay,” Jake said, “I’ll talk to you guys later. You should come out with us this week after final exams are over.”
“Definitely,” Jodi said with a smile worrying that she’d hurt his feelings.
“Great, see you then,” he said and let himself out.
“You don’t seem particularly happy today,” James commented still staring at the screen.
“I’m fine,” she snapped then blinked when James glanced back at her.
“Sorry, just, I don’t know,” Jodi said feeling confused, “Sanne is gay too. Or bi, or something. I don’t know, I just don’t feel like thinking about people and all their relationship shit right now.”
James raised an eyebrow, “Okay, that’s fine. You want to go take a nap or go for a walk or something?”
“No, I’m good,” she said taking a deep breath before asking, “You find that document.”
“Yes I did,” he replied turning back to the computer screen. Jodi sat down next to him and they continued on in creating their portfolio.
They shipped off the portfolio the next day and the rest of the week Jodi rode to campus with James and either wandered around, sitting in on friend’s classes, or went to the darkroom to develop her Chile photos. All her rolls turned out fine except for the role she’d taken the week it had been very drizzling, all the photos on that one were very dark and low in contrast. It wasn’t until she’d gone home to visit her parents over the weekend and come back to campus on Monday that she’d got the phone call from Sanne.
“Jodi?” Sanne’s voice had croaked when James’ handed her the phone.
“Yeah, it’s me, are you okay?” Jodi asked concerned.
“Uh, well, I dunno, ah, I can walk,” she said, her voice a little shaky.
“What happened?” Jodi asked her fear mounting.
“Um, that’s the problem,” Sanne admitted, “I, uh, don’t really remember this past week. At all.”
“Do you know where you are?” Jodi inquired.
“I think I’m still in Eau Claire,” she said, “It looks familiar, like some place near Tavern, I’m at a pay phone in front of the mall.”
“Downtown Eau Claire?” Jodi asked. There definitely wasn’t a mall near Tavern. Tavern was in the countryside.
“Yeah,” Sanne said.
“I’ll come get you,” Jodi told her, “Just wait there.”
“Like I could go anywhere,” Sanne said, the sarcasm not very effective with her wavering voice. They exchanged farewells before Jodi hung up.
“I’m taking the junk heap, okay James?” Jodi asked poking her head into the kitchen, “I’ll be back later tonight. Sanne’s gotten into some trouble.”
“Really? Want me to come?” he asked.
“No, I’ll be okay,” Jodi said shrugging into a coat, grabbing the keys, and heading out the door.