The Narrator
In La Paz, the rain had ceased, and the classmates of Shifaly were enjoying themselves by the rooftop swimming pool, from which they could see the beautiful mountains around La Paz. The song 'Something Just Like This' by Coldplay was playing on the speakers.
After swimming for a while, Shifaly changed back to her usual clothing and walked with Avanthi Bandaranaike to her room. They had enough of swimming.
In Shifaly's room, Avanthi, being a girl, occupied herself with exploring Shifaly's cosmetics and possessions. As she was doing this, suddenly, her hand came across an Irish Passport. "Whose is this, Shifaly?" asked Avanthi.
"I don't know," Shifaly responded, "the night before last night, when we arrived, I discovered this being dragged along with my necklace when I tried to recover it after it slid under the bed. I've been looking at it, but I couldn't find out its owner. For sure, I know that the owner of this passport is an Irishman. It's obvious. It belongs to an Irishman who visited the United States frequently or stayed there. It belongs to a Mr. Ó Gallchobhair."
"My aunt lives in the United States. Let me check if I can learn something about the owner from this passport", said Avanthi as she lifted the passport from the table and began flipping through its pages.
Before she could properly look into one of the pages, Basura barged into the room. "How dare you! Idiot," yelled a wet, angry Basura.
"Dude, get out of my room," yelled Shifaly.
Basura lifted his index figure and warned, with a thick Singhalese accent, "You rascal, better be careful. You'll pay for pushing me into the pool; you'll pay you [explicit], [explicit],[explicit],[explicit]." Basura continued to curse Shifaly until every word in his extensive vocabulary of English and Singhalese cuss-words was exhausted.
His companion, Agash Swarnasinghe, warned him, "Someone is coming, let's leave, or we will be in trouble."
"Ayyy shut up, man," snapped Basura. "Let me show you what happens to those who dare to push me into the pool, " told Shifaly. Basura took out a bag of dog poo that he found in the trash can. Just as Shifaly opened her mouth, a bag of feces flew in the direction of her face.
Splash! Feces covered her face.
"Run!" screamed Basura as the boys made their escape to the lower lobby.
Shifaly tasted something sweet, then bitter, and then something ugly. She began vomiting because of the taste and smell of that enormous chunk of semi-solid and watery dog poo, which Basura threw onto her face.
Shifaly rushed to the bathroom and washed off the feces from her face and mouth with soap. She brushed her teeth numerous times to get those disgusting, scraps of dog poo, which were stuck between her teeth. Her brush's bristles began to turn brownish-gray. Avanthi helped her wash the poo from her clothes and face.
After five hours of cleaning, Avanthi and Shifaly managed to get rid of the dog poo and change into new clothes. As for the floor, the girls asked the cleaning staff to clean up the traces of dog poo.
Shifaly went to Mr. Seneviratne's room to complain against Basura. He was startled as soon as the duo entered his room. Just when he saw them, he began yelling, "Stupid girls? Can't leave me alone? Get out! get out!" Mr. Seneviratne banged the door closed before Shifaly could start complaining against Basura Samarasinghe.
"Too bad, Shifaly… Too bad," said Agash, shaking his head in mockery. "B-b-but si- sir," mocked Malindu D'Souza, trying to imitate Shifaly's voice. That was when Basura appeared in the corridor.
"AyyyMachan!" yelled D'Souza as Basura flourished the plastic bag he brought with him.
"Shifaly no!" yelled Avanthi noticing Shifaly fly into a rage immediately. Shifaly walked up to Basura. He laughed. That's when she punched him right in the face.
"Oh!!!!" exclaimed Agash and Malindu.
That hurt him. He never anticipated being struck by Avanthi's fists. Wiping off the blood from his face, he slapped Shifaly right across her face. She fell on the ground after hitting a glass table. Shifaly got up, and before Basura could grab her, she kneed his crotch. Basura writhed in pain as he slammed into the wall.
"Enough Shifaly!" said Avanthi as she tried to pull Shifaly back from the scene. Shifaly was very angry, and tears of fury were streaming down her cheeks. Avanthi, with all her might, dragged Shifaly back to her room.
Avanthi looked back and saw Basura being helped up. He stared at Shifaly. "Why did you hit him, Shifaly? Do you know—?"
Before Avanthi could say another word, Shifaly turned back, hearing the sound of loud footsteps behind her. Basura ran very fast and jumped like how he used to jump over hurdles during Sports Day in Doha. He jumped (biting his lower lip in anger) and gave one tight kick on Shifaly's legs, causing Shifaly to fall. Shifaly fell down and began crying with the pain. He kicked her really hard. Luckily she didn't get a sprain or fracture, but at the moment, she felt like her bone was about to crack. Basura slapped her tightly on her face twice, yelling thousands of cuss words in fury. He then began punching her mercilessly.
"Enough Basura!" a voice commanded, at the sound of which Basura stopped pummeling Shifaly.
It was Ms. Dayani, who was brought by Avanthi (who rushed to bring her when Basura began pummeling Shifaly). Some students came along to see why Ms. Dayani stormed towards the boys' corridor (the school booked rooms for boys along a hallway in the West Wing of the building, while the girls' rooms were booked in the East Wing).
Ms. Dayani lifted Basura by his collar and yelled, "Do you hit a girl? you coward!" Basura was silent, for he could not defy Ms. Dayani when she was furious. "What's this?" she asked angrily, pulling out the plastic bag from Malindu's grip before Malindu could sneak it in. She pulled out three bottles of beer and one of vodka out. "Come with me!" she commanded as she pulled him by his arm and took him to Mr. Seneviratne's room. "Take Shifaly to the infirmary downstairs," she instructed Avanthi, as Mr. Seneviratne came out of his room and pulled Basura by his ears.
Shifaly was treated by the nurse. The nurse said that there was no severe damage done and told her not to get into fights as she had seen cases in Bolivia where people succumb to injuries in even minor fistfights. Shifaly didn't give much detail in her description about her contention with Basura, and, for that reason, the nurse didn't know that it was Basura who wounded Shifaly. The nurse applied a spray for the bruise on Shifaly's leg. She also gave Shifaly some medicine to help her sleep.
For the next five days, Basura was grounded. Malindu and Agash were grounded for two. Shifaly couldn't leave the hotel too, because of her injuries. During those five days, the children went on a tour of La Paz and its surroundings. They had a lot of fun.
On the fifth day, Shifaly had recovered and was greeted by Avanthi when she walked up to the terrace. Basura was nowhere to be seen. He had to be in Mr. Seneviratne's room for the whole field trip, and should never come out.
That noon, Avanthi came into Shifaly's room."How are you feeling?" asked Avanthi as she sat by Shifaly's room.
"I'm fine Avi," said Shifaly as she lay on her bed.
"I hope you're glad that Basura's grounded. He won't be able to participate in any of the fun activities we have until we go back to Doha, I believe," said Avanthi.
There were some moments of silence.
"Let's look at the passport of Ó Gallchobhair (she mispronounced it the name as 'Gahl-khoh-bayr' with a mild Singhalese accent)!" suggested Avanthi, breaking the silence.
"Yeah," an excited Shifaly said, getting up.
Avanthi looked through the passport. After perusing through the pages of the passport, she stopped on one page and showed it to Shifaly: "This, Shifaly, is a stamp that indicates that the holder of this passport had a U.S Green Card. So we know this person is an Irishman living in the United States".
Avanthi continued her analysis of the passport for the rest of the afternoon until 4.30 p.m., when it was time for them to pack, according to Ms. Dayani's instructions.
That evening, they had to journey to their next spot in Bolivia.
Basura was sulky for the whole day. He feared that his parents would hear about what he did. Basura's parents are known to beat him. His father is known for disciplining Basura with a few licks of his waist belt. Basura feared his father the most.
After coming from a tour they had up a hill in the jungle, the Wolfgang kids returned to camp. "Thank you, Mr. Abrigo," thanked every child as they went back to the bus, tired from the exciting day they enjoyed. They went to their capsules and began to eat.
6.30 p.m. In La Paz, Shifaly's school group had already packed. A bus had arrived in the driveway of the hotel. The sky was dark. It was drizzling
"What did you do with the Passport?" asked Avanthi as she sat beside Shifaly, while the bus began to leave the driveway. Shifaly pulled out something from her pocket and showed it to Avanthi. It was the passport. "Shifaly? You shouldn't bring it here," she said.
Shifaly didn't have an answer.
"You know, he would be in trouble if he doesn't have the passport. The U.S Customs And Border Protection might detain him or deport him."
"umm. I"ll tell about this to Ms. Dayani later, and she will do something," said Shifaly.
"Do it as soon as possible," said Avanthi.
The hotel vanished out of sight. The bus went in the direction of the highway, taking many turns on the way.
The drizzle turned into heavy rain.
Basura was forced to sit beside Mr. Seneviratne (a suggestion of Ms. Dayani) so that he wouldn't be able to cause any harm to the girls: Shifaly and Avanthi. The bus rocked as it journeyed through La Paz's streets.
Shifaly enjoyed the smell of the rain.
At 7.30 p.m., Mr. Gallagher sat by a table in the cabin by the side of the bus, to fill out some forms. He had to fill one form for each student, and only he should fill out those forms. Those forms were to be submitted to the U.S Embassy before departure from Bolivia. Mr. Gallagher travailed in that cabin for four hours, filling out those forms. The last thing he needed was to fill in both the chaperons' Passport numbers in all those forms. Mr. Gallagher left that part for last. He thought that his passport must have been in his bag, which was in his capsule on the bus. He thought of filling that part out after he found his passport and after Ms. Seagale filled out her sections of those papers. After finishing the other portions of the forms, he handed over the papers to Ms. Seagale. After giving them to her, Mr. Gallagher went to the boys' deck and then to his capsule. Miss Seagale took those hem papers and placed them somewhere, hoping to finish what she had to do with them later.
Shifaly Udawatte
Midnight. Everyone was fast asleep while I was awake. I looked back and saw Basura thinking about something deeply. Basura and I were the only ones awake. I then looked at the views outside the window. I put my earphones on and listened to the radio. All the songs playing on the radio were English songs. The song 'Be your friend' by Vigiland was playing.
It had stopped raining for a brief amount of time. At 12:15 am, I looked back, and saw Basura mouth the words, "You [explicit] will pay, Shifaly" from his end of the bus. He made the gesture of slitting one's throat as a threat to me.