SOAP 9

Salma had coffee and toast for breakfast, knew the place needed cleaning, dust bunnies all about, parrot poop, 6 maybe 7 loads of laundry. Lacking any energy, she napped til race time. Meltdown, of the $400 only $20 was left.
The phone rang, Fatima crying her nonsense again. Salma said she was too busy, would call back. She went to the convenience store, bought cigs with the $20. Came back, unplugged her phone and slept the sleep of the dead.

Even before climbing out of bed, she knew something was wrong. No street lights or traffic sounds. She saw a faint daylight breaking over a craggy moonscape.
A note lay on her bedside table, "you will not be harmed. Water, heat, electricity works; cable, phone, internet doesn't. Water is safe to drink. Groceries and utilities continue as long as needed. First, simply relax, slow down a bit. If you choose to live alone, fine. If you choose to return to Canada, simple, fill the attached form, give 7 days notice. Two miles away is a contingent educating Afghan refugees. They are unarmed, won't harm you. If you choose to meet them, fine; if not, fine."

Salma slept the first day. A little refreshed, she started daily walks in the air. Soon, she was bored, decided to visit the contingent. The MP cheerfully led her to the mess, said, "visitor for you, Charlie."
Her eyes were still accustomed to outside. A man of maybe 30, obvious professional soldier, stood in front of her. "Please, join us for tea, food. This is my lovely wife Sonali; this is Tasma and Nasreen, I'm Charlie."
"I'm Salma, just ate, but tea sounds good." At this point, her eyes were accustomed to inside, saw Charlie for real. She snapped to attention, clanked out the Party salute.
Automatically he returned the mil salute. "Ah yes, Sgt Becker, been awhile."
Right away Salma spotted Sonali, Nasreen, Zarmeena. They talked most of the day.
Seeing the light fade, they didn't want to send her home, could be injured on the rocks, so they put her up in BOQ. Next day, she went for a group picnic.
As she wandered back, she knew she wanted to stay with them. She'd help in some way, liked the comradeship. "So Charlie, what could I do for a job?"
He smiled, "we-ell, you did spend 10 years in the second toughest revenue department in the western world. Good math?"
"Oh yes, was in business audit."
"Right, we can make you a math teacher, it'd take HQ approval, but not hard to get."
And so it was she became a WO. Soon tired of going back and forth, moved in with 3 Kabul.
And then love, Kadija, an English teacher.

Indira stood waiting for the bus. She liked her job, had no problem with supervisor or co-workers. But what a fraud! She had sweated blood to win in the exam process, only 4 out of 100+ had been successful. At the time, she celebrated, breaking out of the pink-collar ghetto, clerical, and starting as PM1, entry-level officer.
The celebration soon turned sour. The big pay equity issue was settled, raising CR (clerical) salaries. Her previous job now got only $100 less per year than this. And now she had 10 times as much responsibility. So, in effect, she was doing an officer job on a clerical salary.
Still, she didn't complain, found the job enjoyable. But her life - whoa.
First, when you're in Revenue, you are automatically an outcast, hated by the rest of the population. She'd spent 20 of her 40 years there.
Second, orignally Guyanese, she was 1/2 white, 1/2 Indian. In Revenue, this made little difference, being an almost non-racial place. Outside work, it made a huge difference, her accepted by neither white nor Indian.
Third, only family she had was her howling young brother, part of the gay bathhouse scene. She had coffee with him maybe once every two months, other than that, never heard from him.
Fourth, Asperger Syndrome, first cousin to autism. Strikes 10 times as many men as women. So male sufferers get a lot more understanding from people than female ones.
Fifth, her eyes. Spend two seconds looking into them and you knew. This is a person who has spent a way too long standing at the very edge of Hades. The scarring is horrendous, you run for your life from the few who walk the planet with eyes like that.
The eyes didn't come from this lifetime, but last. See while the Colonel and his boys were Boy-Scouting around, she was a battalion commander in the holocaust. Her rap sheet (karmic) includes some 210,000 field executions and 400,000 deportations to concentration camps.
Only one thing you can say in mitigation. Hadn't volunteered, was downchecked from Paras after injuries sustained during the meat-grinder of Crete.
Her entire social life was the occasional coffee with Suresh (brother) or Savitri. She'd never been to bed with anyone, nor even been on a date.
She longed for even one good coffee friend. Not someone like Savitri who was obviously only being kind.
Well she mused as she turned the key to her bachelor apartment, it is sparkling clean, I do have lotsa free time for that.
She sat over tea, she knew - her sentence was to walk the planet so, for 4 lifetimes. Full ones. Suicide and it doesn't count.
Dreary, oh yeah. Well now, one load of laundry and everything is uptodate. Saturday, go to the university library, continue on with the Rohinton Mistry novel. Saturday evening, good hockey game Montreal vs Toronto. Sunday, long walk and relax.

Sunday morning, she sensed trouble. No traffic, no streetlight. She looked out at the crags. Her note said a lot less, "we won't harm you. Electricity, water, heat works; phone doesn't. Water is safe. Groceries and utilities continue as long as needed."
Already in good condition, she walked a lot. Eventually she decided to approach the contingent, opting to do so on a picnic day.
Over a dozen were at the coast. From a distance, she was the picture of innocence. A sweet little Indian girl of 4'11" in a floral print dress and a white sweater. She looked maybe 22, perfectly smooth face.
Once they saw the eyes, everyone knew different. Even those with no experience picked up the aura of evil. The ex-Battalion 54 crowd instantly spotted her as former SS.
Charlie rose from the blanket, "take your foul self back where you came. I catch you within one mile of my camp and it'll take days for you to die."
In a flash, Sonali, Zarmeena, Nasreen, Salma, Pamela were also standing next to him. Message was clear, we were all there, we all hate the Schutzstaffel.
Indira gave no sign of recognition toward Salma, simply turned and left without a word.
A moment later, she shrugged, well they coulda killed me on the spot.
As they watched the tiny girl fade into the distance, Salma spoke, "I know her, Revenue Canada."
Nasreen asked, "so what's she doing here?"
"Same as everyone I guess, the warp."
Zarmeena spat, "foul evil swine, I vote we kill her, now."
"Chill," Charlie said, "you have no idea what you're saying."
Pin drop silence.
Evil glint in his eye, "such people are condemned to walk the earth in that fashion for four lifetimes. Full ones. If she suicides, doesn't count. If you kill her, it does. You'd actually be doing her a huge favor."
Nasreen fixed a stare, "and just how do you know this?"
"Been there, done the four myself."
"And where did that originate?"
"Certain indiscretions during the Spanish Inquisition."

Indira arrived back at her apartment. Propped her tiny feet up and sobbed uncontrollably. Just her luck, people who knew the signs, no one at Revenue did. Except Salma I suppose.
She settled in to wait for she knew not what. Walked every day, stayed well away from camp. After 180 days of purgatory, she found herself back in Canada, only one hour after she'd disappeared.
Well, she shrugged as she hopped on the bus Monday. Least I know where Salma is. No else knows where she disappeared to.
As she hung her coat, Savitri asked, "Indira, you look wiped. Bad weekend?"
Near to tears, "no, just a bad dream."
"Let's coffee this morning."
"Thank you so much, you're a good friend."

After the picnic, Sonali asked Charlie, "the truth, you didn't just recognize SS. You know who."
Ashen, he whispered, "Major Hilz."
Sonali gasped, "that blood-drinker. Why that girl should be in a leprosy colony in Bangladesh."
"There was one extenuating circumstance, Hilz took serious injuries on Crete."