Page 12 of Tiger's Dream
Then I heard it, the soft rasping of Kelsey’s mother as she struggled to breathe once, twice, and then the horrible sound of nothing at all. She was gone.
When Kadam made his way back to me, I asked harshly, “Why?” Tears fell freely down my face. “Why save only her?”
Sighing deeply, he said, “The mermaid’s elixir must not be used to change destiny. Each person has their time allotted. Their time has passed.”
“Daddy?” Kelsey said drowsily, trying desperately to rouse herself.
I turned away from the accident, walking into the trees so she wouldn’t see the mangled, smoking wreck wrapped around the bodies of her parents.
I couldn’t bear to tell her what happened. “I’m here, Kells,” I said.
“Daddy, I had the best dream!” She smiled sweetly but then groaned and pressed a hand against her scalp. I quietly asked Kadam if she was going to be all right. He nodded and mouthed, “Concussion.”
My heart was breaking for her. “What did you dream about, love?” I asked, trying not to let my grief show in my voice. Wrapping the quilt around her, I sat on a log and smoothed her hair away from her face.
“I’m…I’m a little dizzy,” she said when she tried to open her eyes.
“Shh. Just keep your eyes closed and try to relax.” I warmed the air around us again while Kadam kept vigil at our side.
“I dreamt about a handsome prince. He saved me from a dragon!”
“He did, did he?” I smiled while pressing my lips to her hair, unable to resist the brief moment of closeness.
“I think he loves me, Daddy.”
“Iknowhe does,” I replied.
She fell quiet after that and drifted into a light sleep. When I lifted my head, I asked Kadam, “What’s next?”
“We wait for the authorities to arrive.”
“And then what?”
“We leave her.”
I shook my head. “No.No. I can’t leave her alone to face her parents’ deaths by herself.”
Kadam pressed a cloth to Kelsey’s bleeding scalp. “Wemust, Kishan. If she is to become the girl you know, the girl willing to come to India to help a stranger, the girl you fell in love with, then we must leave her to experience this sorrow on her own.”
“How is that the right thing to do?”
“The right thing often hurts. If anyone knows that, it’s you.”
After a moment, I asked, “Why me?”
“Pardon?”
“Why was I the one who needed to save her? Why wasn’t it you? Why not Ren?”
“It is you because it wasalwaysyou.”
I clutched Kelsey closer and remarked irritably, “Destiny. Destiny is your answer to everything, isn’t it? Well, I have no faith in destiny. In fact, I think destiny got my life wrong.”
“You’re not thinking of it in the right way. Destiny is no guardian angel influencing your choices. Destiny chooses nothing. It simply is. You are here saving Kelsey solely because youdidsave her. If you weren’t here, now, at this time, then she would have died with her parents.”
“So you’re saying I have no choice? No freedom? I am simply a pawn pushed back and forth in a cosmic game of chess?”
“Not at all.” Kadam sat on the log next to me. “You have always had the freedom to make your own choices. It’s just that your choices have been recorded in the annals of time. All of our choices have. Each person is accounted for. Each event chronicled. The only difference is that I have been able to glimpse the events that affect our lives and now know my place. The irony is that if I hadn’t seen my own timeline, I wouldn’t have the knowledge to assume my role as your guide.”
