The Tomb (Repairman Jack)

'Don't move, don't say another word.'

'But—'

'For both our sakes. Please.'

Jack neither moved nor spoke. He stared at Kolabati's face, trying to read it. She was afraid, but anything beyond that was closed off to him. Why hadn’t she balked at the idea of eyes watching them through a third-story window with no fire escape?

He glanced over her shoulder again. The eyes were still there, still searching for something. What? They appeared confused, and even when they looked directly at him, they did not seem to see him. Their gaze slid off him, slithered around him, passed through him.

This is crazy! Why am I sitting here?

He was angry with himself for yielding so easily to fear of the unknown. Some sort of animal was out there— two of them. Nothing he couldn't deal with.

As Jack started to lift Kolabati off him, she gave a little cry. She wrapped her arms around his neck in a stranglehold and dug her knees into his hips.

'Don't move!' Her voice was hushed and frantic.

'Let me up.'

He tried to slide out from under but she twisted around and pulled him down on top of her. It might have been comical but for her very genuine terror.

'Don't leave me!'

'I'm going to see what's out there.'

'No! If you value your life you'll stay right where you are!'

This was beginning to sound like a bad movie.

'Come on! What could be out there?'

'Better you never find out.'

That did it. He gently but firmly tried to disengage himself from Kolabati. She protested all the way and would not let go of his neck. Had she gone crazy? What was wrong with her?

He finally managed to gain his feet with Kolabati still clinging to him, and had to drag her with him to the TV room door.

The eyes were gone.

Jack stumbled to the window. Nothing there. And nothing visible in the darkness of the alley below. He turned within the circle of Kolabati's arms.

'What was out there?'

Her expression was charmingly innocent. 'You saw for yourself: nothing.'

She released him and walked back into the front room, completely unselfconscious in her nakedness. Jack watched the swaying flare of her hips silhouetted in the light as she moved away. Something had happened here tonight and Kolabati knew what it was. But Jack was at a loss as to how to make her tell him. He’d failed to learn anything about Grace's tonic—and now this.

'Why were you so afraid?' he said, following her.

'I wasn't afraid.' She began to slip into her underwear. He mimicked her:

''If you value your life' and whatever else you said. You were scared! Of what?'

'Jack, I love you dearly,' she said in a voice that did not quite carry all the carefree lightness she no doubt intended it to, 'but you can be so silly at times. It was just a game.'

Jack could see the pointlessness of pursuing this any further. She had no intention of telling him anything. He watched her finish dressing—it didn't take long; she hadn't been wearing much—with a sense of deja vu. Hadn't they played this scene last night?

'You're leaving?'

'Yes. I have to—'

'—See your brother?'

She looked at him. 'How did you know?'

'Lucky guess.'

Kolabati stepped up to him and put her arms around his neck. 'I'm sorry to run off like this again.' She kissed him. 'Can we meet tomorrow?'

'I'll be out of town.'

'Monday, then?'

He held back from saying yes.

'I don't know. I'm not too crazy about our routine: We come here, we make love, a stink comes into the room, you get uptight and cling to me like a second skin, the stink goes away, you take off.'

Kolabati kissed him again and Jack felt himself begin to respond. She had her ways, this Indian woman.