The Amazon Academy

Chapter Four

Amazon.

The memory of a grey sloth, hanging piteously from a high branch appeared in Duniya's mind.

Amazon. It was a rain forest somewhere in South America. The sloth, it died, eaten by a jaguar. Discovery Channel.

"She is no such thing!"

Duniya noticed her brother's bony shoulders shake as he snapped at the woman.

It did make sense, she was Sri Lankan, not a... diginus indian from Brazil.

The woman, La Fayette raised an eyebrow. "I see..." she murmured to herself quietly.

Duniya was halfway through wondering what this woman could 'see' when Dinusha grabbed her arm and yanked her along with him, past the woman. "I'm sorry," he said not even stopping to look at La Fayette. "You've got the wrong people. We're sorry we can't help you. Please don't bother us again."

He had put a good distance between them and the woman by the time he finished his sentence that Duniya doubted if she even heard it. She looked back to see the woman stand erect, watching the brother and sister walk away. She made no attempt to follow them, but Duniya could've sworn the woman was smiling.

In a couple of minutes Dinusha and Duniya walked over the once-garden in front of their apartment block.

Duniya tried to stem the steady flow of rainwater by holding her fingers up to her nose before following her brother up the rickety stairway to the moldy, old front door of their apartment.

She kept looking back down at the street, as if she expected the woman, La Fayette to have followed them to Gimhani Uyana. She looked up as she heard voices coming from inside their apartment.

Oh no! Not...

The door swung open just as Dinusha arrived in front of it and his girlfriend Vini pouted pathetically at him. 'Where have you been?' She whined, tugging him in by his tee shirt. Then she spotted Duniya, sidling in and her botched eyes narrowed. 'What did you do now, you complete pest?' She snapped venomously.

Duniya threw her a dirty look and sloshed her way to the fridge leaving little puddles behind. She pulled the door open and shivered as the cold blasted her wet body.

Why am I even doing this? There's nothing but freakin' beer in here!

She shrugged it shut and turned around to find the TV was on maximum and Dinusha's good-for-nothing friends lay sprawled around it.

'Hey Freakgirl! What did you do this time?' asked the ugly, fat young man on the sofa. He raised himself up on his elbows to grin at her.

Duniya didn't know his real name. He was the oldest in her brother's gang and everyone called him 'Ma Main Man.' His shirt was open and his hairy belly spilled over his belt. There were crumbs on his beard and soda stains on his jeans.

He was the reason Dinusha got into drugs.

Duniya absolutely loathed him.

'Dinu had to rush all the way there. They said you set fire to his school!' He laughed, pointing at the TV.

Duniya looked at it from the corner of her eyes. It showed live footage of the guttered Saint Bernard's school. The images came rushing back to her; the scorched, blood-brown bodies of Raga and his mates and the sickly smell of cooked flesh. A wave of nausea hit her head on and she groaned and bent forward trying to quell it.

'Oh look,' cackled the fat guy. 'The freak's going into a trance. She's calling the devil!'

Duniya managed to suck in enough air for a retort. 'Eat dung Main Man!'