xp_logs | Kashmir Waltz: Those Kashmiri Girls

Nathan and Angelo pick up a young woman hitchhiking. Samie turns out to be the solution to their translation woes.

Angelo was sitting on the hood of the jeep, watching Nathan try to talk to some of the locals about DRMA. It wasn't going well - when Nathan had said his Kashmiri was limited, he'd meant it. Unfortunately, Angelo's was not so much limited as non-existent, so he couldn't help.

Oh, this was impossibly frustrating. Nathan made himself smile at the men he was talking to - didn't hurt to be polite, even if this whole communication thing wasn't going so well. This was the third village, and although there was the light of recognition in their eyes every time he mentioned DRMA, all he could get out of them were expressions of approval. Food was good. A few memories of the smiling faces of the aid workers, but not much else. Nothing concrete that could relate to any of his suspicions.

A few more pleasantries, and then Nathan was turning away, heading back to the Jeep. "Glad you came yet?" he asked wryly.

Angelo grinned crookedly, jumping down off the hood. "Ah, it's not so bad. Nice scenery, at least."

"This is not working precisely as planned," Nathan said with a sigh. "Bad luck, maybe, not being able to find anyone who speaks Hindi well enough to talk to me..."

"You want to move on? Try the next village? Maybe there'll be someone there..."

"I said I was frustrated, Angelo," Nathan said, getting into the driver's seat and starting the engine. "Not that I'm ready to give up." He waved at a little boy peering out the doorway of one of the houses. The child waved back, shyly, and Nathan smiled, despite his frustration.

Angelo grinned at the little boy, then turned back to Nathan. "Fine, so we try here some more. I was only askin'."

It wasn't much of a road, the one they took out of town, and Nathan was still more than a little worried about the Jeep. Even if he'd done his best to fix it with the parts they'd gotten in Yusmarg, he didn't trust the damned thing.

Angelo was eyeing the general direction of the engine with slight trepidation. He didn't really like the idea of camping out for another night, when it wasn't long since they'd got it fixed the first time.

"Two more villages between here and Sonamarg," Nathan said loudly, over the noise of the Jeep's wheels chewing up the muddy road. "Might as well try both, since we're heading in that direction anyway and they're on the list..."

Angelo nodded, trying to ignore the noise. "Sounds good to me."

There was someone standing on the side of the road as they crested the top of a hill, someone with their thumb very definitely stuck out. "Hitchking in Kashmir," Nathan said dubiously, slowing. "Not such a good idea..."

And it was a girl, too, he realized sharply. Something, some instinct, made him stop. "Where are you headed?" he asked her, and was startled by the very blue eyes that looked at him. Whoever she was, she wasn't fully Kashmiri. Something a little more Western was definitely in the mix.

"Sonamarg," she said, in shockingly good English, with a bright smile. "Give us a lift?"

Angelo grinned at her, then glanced sideways at Nathan. "You just said it was dangerous. I think we should."

Nathan raised an eyebrow, and then scanned the girl lightly, interested by what he sensed. She really was hitchhiking. "Hop in," he said. "That happens to be where we're headed, if you don't mind making a couple of short stops along the way."

"I'm in no rush," she said cheerfully, jumping into the back seat and eyeing their gear thoughtfully. Not acquisitively, either, which was a relief. "You're tourists?"

Angelo hesitated for a moment, then smiled. "Somethin' like that. Seein' the sights after we did some business in the capital."

Nathan smiled a little, pleased by Angelo's circumspect answer. He really was learning. "What's your name?" he asked the girl. "And does your father know you're hitching rides out here?"

"Samie," she said with a grin, leaning over between them. "And my father's in... Turkey, I think, the last I heard. So no, he doesn't know."

Angelo looked at her over his shoulder, smiling. "Good to meet you. I'm Angelo, this is Nathan. You been backpackin'?"

Samie nodded. "I'm off to school in Britain in the New Year again," she said, sounding like she didn't really like the idea, "so I thought I'd do some sightseeing myself, while I had time. I wanted to go to Ladakh once more before I had to leave again."

Nathan couldn't help another smile. "I can sympathize with that," he murmured, almost inaudibly.

"Yeah?" Angelo asked Samie with interest. "Did you make it out there yet?"

"Headed in that direction," she said happily. "Hopefully I can find another ride at Sonamarg."

Nathan was eyeing her thoughtfully in the rear-view mirror. "Hey," he said, "you're from around here?" It wasn't really a necessary question; he'd gotten that much in the quick scan.

"Yes! Born and raised in Srinagar."

"So you speak Kashmiri."

Angelo was looking between them with a growing smile. He asked innocently, "Weren't we gonna go out to Ladakh at some point, Nathan?"

Nathan gave him a sideways look. "No, actually, much as I'd love to myself," he said dryly. "But Samie... if you're interested in doing a little translating work between here and Sonamarg, I think it would probably be easier to buy your way onto an organized trek than to hitchhike, don't you?"

She was a smart girl and took his meaning almost immediately, those bright blue eyes lighting up. "You would do that? Just for translating?"

"It's rather important," Nathan temporized.

"We've been havin' some communication difficulties," Angelo added helpfully.

"You have a deal!" Samie said happily, looking enthused.

"We have a translator," Nathan murmured to Angelo, smiling again. "I think the trip is looking up."

Stopping at one of the more remote villages, they finally find out just what DRMA may indeed be up to, and Nathan meets another young Kashmiri woman - one who happens to share a mutant ability with him.

The two villages on the road to Sonamarg had been unhelpful, and Nathan had taken Samie's suggestion to change their route a little and circle back to a couple of places off the main highway. He'd been uncertain as to whether he should risk the back roads with the Jeep - the main roads were bad enough - but he wanted to make at least some headway, damn it. "At least the weather's holding," he said with a glance over his shoulder. Angelo had moved back into the back seat with Samie after the last village, shifting some of their gear around to do it, and they were apparently carrying on quite the conversation.

Angelo pulled his attention away from Samie, nodding with a glance out at the road. "Yeah. Wouldn't want t'be drivin' on this road in the rain."

"You came at the best time of year!" was Samie's proclamation. "A couple of weeks from now this would be all mud."

"I've been in Kashmir in the winter, Samie," Nathan said good-humoredly. "I remember it well." It had been beautiful then too, of course. Am I romanticizing this place? he wondered to himself, remembering some of the troubles he'd seen here in years past. But threatened beauty was still beauty. More noticeably beautiful, sometimes.

Angelo pulled a face. "Good thing we didn't put off comin' out here, then." He was still a city boy at heart. He didn't get on with mud.

Nathan managed not to laugh at him. "Wimp," he accused.

Samie just giggled and slouched in the seat as the Jeep bounced over the rough road. "What do you think of the view?" she asked Angelo. "It's better up where we're going, obviously."

"It's pretty good down here," he answered honestly, peering forward to see. "Can't wait to see up ahead, if that's better."

The village was there, suddenly, appearing out of the trees and very clearly a smaller and more rundown-looking place than the ones out on the main road. Nathan pulled off to the side of the road. "All right," he said, seeing a few people appear out of their houses, looking curiously at the Jeep and the new arrivals. "Shall we?"

Samie immediately hopped down out of the Jeep, calling out in Kashmiri with a huge, beaming smile. Nathan raised an eyebrow, then glanced back over his shoulder at Angelo, smiling a bit himself. "She's quite something," he said as he got out.

Angelo was watching her talk to the villagers, then glanced at Nathan with a grin. "Yeah. Glad we picked her up?"

"I'm wondering if Dom's stowing away in the trunk or something, because that was indeed a piece of luck." Nathan went over to join Samie, smiling a bit more restrainedly at the villagers. "DRMA been through here this week?" he asked her.

Samie nodded, then said something in Kashmiri to an elderly man, who nodded immediately, then said something that had her eyebrows raising. "DRMA and the government," she said, sounding intrigued.

Nathan's eyebrows headed for his hairline. "The government?"

Angelo joined them just in time to catch this, and blinked. "Who from the government?" he asked Samie.

Samie had a quick exchange with the elderly man, then looked back at Nathan and Angelo, frowning now. "From a new department, they said. To offer training for-"

The old man suddenly turned and called out, and a young woman emerged from the house he had come from. She stepped forward rather shyly, looking up at the newcomers.

And Nathan stared, as she reached out telepathically to him in a hesitant 'hello'.

Angelo offered the young woman a friendly smile, then blinked at Nathan again as he stared at her. "What's wrong?"

#She's a telepath.# Nathan stepped forward, trying not to loom, and offered the girl a faint smile as he reached out to brush her thoughts in acknowledgement. Her eyes widened, and her smile grew, turned delighted.

Angelo smiled slightly at her obvious happiness, but let Nathan handle talking to her, not having much choice in the matter. Nathan was obviously deep in telepathic communication with the girl. He turned back to Samie. "So the government guys were here to train... mutants? Like her?"

Samie was watching Nathan and the girl, wide-eyed for a moment, but then shook herself and turned her attention back to the old man. Another quick exchange in Kashmiri, and then she was looking at Angelo. "Offering training," she said, looking puzzled. "This girl, Aisha, she is leaving for Delhi next week. They have promised her training and then a job in the capital."

"Does he know what she's goin' to do there?"

Samie shook her head. "Something for the government, that's all they were told. Something that pays well? They're very happy about this." She looked curiously at Aisha and Nathan, who were still absolutely silent, their eyes locked on each other. "You're mutants," she murmured to Angelo. "Aren't you?"

No point lying now, it was blatantly obvious. "Yeah. Nathan's a telepath, like Aisha there. I'm... a bit harder to categorise."

"Ah. Well," Samie said with a quick smile, "I had wondered about the gray skin." She turned back to the old man, and the two of them talked quietly for a few minutes more, until Aisha suddenly blinked and then shook her head, smiling a bit wistfully at Nathan as she said something to him in Kashmiri. Samie paused, looking at the two of them, and translated. "She says she's happy with the choice she's made," the older girl said. "But to thank you for your concern."

Nathan looked deeply unhappy. "Ask him," he said, glancing at the old man, "if the DRMA workers talked to Aisha while they were here." Samie translated, and the old man nodded. Nathan closed his eyes, sighing. "Yeah," he muttered. "I was suspecting that."

"What're you thinkin'?" Angelo asked grimly, knowing it couldn't be anything good.

#DRMA used to pass information to the Indian government on militant activity,# Nathan sent, instead of saying it aloud. #This makes me wonder if they're doing the same with information about mutants they find in the rural area.# He looked back at Aisha, who tilted her head at him, then nodded, saying something.

Samie translated. "She says she'll remember," she said, sounding puzzled, "and to thank you." Aisha, with one last thoughtful look at Nathan, turned and went back inside.

"I think we're done here," Nathan muttered.