Chapter 17: A Beginning
Oh no, seventeen chapters in and now the story is beginning? About time, I guess.
(That was a bad joke making fun of the fact that chapter 17, at just over halfway into the story, is called "a beginning," which normally happens at the start of a story. I am very funny.)
Well, Mr. Kadam is back, and Kelsey and Ren are back on speaking terms (well, more accurately, they're at exactly where they were before the last couple of chapters at the waterfall, since there's no mention of them fighting again, to my knowledge). The only thing that's different is now we have an additional love interest, and Kelsey's immortal now, I guess?
So, like, will she be 18 forever now? Mr. Kadam hasn't aged since he got his Matt Damon Amulet from Ren, so he's been stuck in his mid-forties for over three hundred years. I think it's for as long as she wears the amulet, but that hasn't been confirmed. Seriously, every time I have an actual question about worldbuilding or how Houck's original ideas actually work, I never get an answer.
Chapter Seventeen: A Beginning
Mr. Kadam has also been roughing it in the jungle for Reasons, and has a workstation set up while he's translating and interpreting the prophecy. Kelsey bugs him with questions instead of helping him pack up his camp. Mr. Kadam confirms that they're going to Hampi, and that he has a slightly better idea of what to expect while they're there, because mystery and drama are boring.
"Mr. Kadam, [oh boy, we're repeating everyone's names again!] Kishan gave me his piece of the amulet, hoping it will protect me. Does yours protect you? Can you still be hurt?"
He walked over and stowed the wrapped tent in the Jeep. He leaned on the bumper, and said, " The amulet helps protect me from serious injury, but I can still cut myself or fall and sprain my ankle."
Mr. Kadam rubbed his short beard thoughtfully. "I have become ill, but I have not experienced disease. My cuts and bruises have healed quickly, albeit not as quickly as Ren's or Kishan's would."
Why is there a paragraph break there? Mr. Kadam is still speaking, and he's literally still answering the same question. It makes no sense.
And yes, I abuse paragraph breaks here, but I'm also not trying to write dialogue. This is all stream of consciousness, baby.
He finishes by saying that they don't really understand how they work at all, and he hopes to figure it out someday. It's really just an excuse to not explain how they work, because that's hard. He does tell her not to take risks and to run away from things that are chasing her, though. But I guess all fear of mortal danger don't really matter anymore, because who cares about stakes, right?
See, this is why I wasn't a huge fan of Man of Steel. The big climactic fight was between two people who just kept punching each other through buildings with no actual physical danger. Sure, I guess Zod was endangering the city (uh, also Superman was too) but that's a very abstract sense of danger that doesn't really translate super well into a physical fight.
Kelsey's basically safe from any form of danger that isn't self-inflicted, I guess.
Oh no, she's doomed.
It turns out that the whole reason Ren wanted to come out here in the first place wasn't to get Kishan involved in the plot! The reason they were there for so long is because Ren wouldn't leave until Kishan agreed to give it to her.
Wow. Okay, so not only did Ren lie to Kelsey (by omission) about why they were there, he also endangered her by making her hang out in the jungle for days on end (not that it's THAT dangerous, but Ren is extremely concerned about her safety). AND some positive character interaction between Kelsey and Kishan is tainted now, too, since he was basically bullied into it by Ren.
Mr. Kadam says that trying to convince Kishan to come with them wasn't one of their priorities because Kishan's been isolating himself in the wild for so long.
I nodded. "He blames himself for Yesubai's death."
Mr. Kadam looked at me, surprised. "Did he speak of this to you?"
"Yes. He told me what happened when Yesubai died. He still blames himself. And not just for her death, but also for what happened to him and Ren. I feel very sad for him."
Mr. Kadam sagely considered, "For such a young person, you're very compassionate and perceptive, Miss Kelsey. I'm glad Kishan was able to confide in you. There is hope for him yet."
Oof. Mr. Kadam just announcing Kelsey's character traits, which aren't substantiated in any way. The fact that Kelsey was able to break through to Kishan in a few days when Mr. Kadam, who's known him for hundreds of years, is barely able to talk to him. The fact that saying you feel bad for someone who blames himself for his love's death being so amazing that it's specifically called out as being compassionate. I hate Mr. Kadam's dialogue.
Now that Kelsey isn't talking anymore, her brain is free to perform actions again and she helps Mr. Kadam finish packing up. Seriously, she can't talk and do stuff at the same time. It's kind of funny.
They start driving back out and talk more in the car (yippee).
Mr. Kadam encouraged, "Tell me about your week with two tigers."
1. This is a weird dialogue tag.
2. The dialogue tag would sound way better at the end of the sentence.
3. How do you encourage this sentence?
Kelsey repeats everything that's happened (summarized, thank God) except she skips over the kissing conversation. It's supposed to look like she's still sorting out what her own feelings are, but it looks more like she doesn't want Ren to hear about it. Mr. Kadam is interested in the fact that Kishan even showed up at all. Silly Mr. Kadam, Kelsey is Special! She's the main character, so of course she's Good and Kind enough to get Kishan to interact with her.
He said that Kishan hadn't seemed to care about anything or anyone since his parents had died.
Except we just established that he felt guilty about Yesubai dying, not his parents. Like, it sucks that his parents died, but that hasn't even been brought up until now, and it's only mentioned in passing.
And then, oh boy! More exposition about Ren and Kishan's backstory! It's very boring!
Kelsey asks Mr. Kadam what they were like when they were kids. He says that they were rascally little scamps as children. And we finally learn their mother's name! Maybe we can use it to figure out where she's actually from, since "Asia" isn't helpful at all!
...Well, her name is Deschen, which isn't helpful because it doesn't exist (according to a quick Google search). It also sounds extremely German, at least to someone who knows almost no German (me). The closest thing I could find is Dechen ("great happiness"), which is Tibetan/Bhutanese in origin, which at least puts us in the right ballpark geographically. It's also categorized as "Bhutanese royal family" on my good friend Behind the Name dot com, so I can only assume that this is what Houck was trying to write, filtered through the same lens that got Damon from Dawon.
Apparently, Deschen let Ren and Kishan play with poor children (yeah, right, this is at the height of the Indian caste system, and this would not be okay even if the queen was a foreigner) and the princes learned about everything from warfare to politics and agriculture.
"Did they do other things? Like normal teenager stuff?"
"What types of things are you curious about?"
I twitched nervously. "Did they . . . date?"
Because everything has to relate back to romance!
Mr. Kadam quirked an eyebrow curiously. "No. Definitely not. The story you told me about," he winked, "you-know-what is the only time I have ever heard of them having a romantic escapade. Frankly they had no time for that, and both boys were to have arranged marriages anyway."
You can't wink a sentence! Bad dialogue tag!
And, uh, who said anything about "dating" as a prerequisite to an, ahem, romantic escapade?
I'm just kidding. I don't need to read about Ren and Kishan boinking concubines or something.
For the third or fourth time this book, Kelsey falls asleep in the middle of her conversation with Mr. Kadam. Which is both very rude and completely understandable.
Mr. Kadam arranged a stay at a hotel that's near a jungle that Ren can sleep in so he doesn't get caught. Uh, when did he do this? He's been in the middle of a jungle for a week with no way to guess when they'd be back. I guess it's possible that he has a satellite phone or something but Kelsey's been with him since they got back and there hasn't been any mention of this.
There's a convenience store down in the lobby and Mr. Kadam gets Kelsey an ice cream bar. Just if you were curious what Kelsey's eating. It's white, and Kelsey expects it to be gross (because...Indian food is weird, I guess?) because it's white, but is surprised that it's coconut flavored. Um, Kelsey knows that they sell these in America, right? I literally saw them at CVS earlier today.
Mr. Kadam says that it's in a fortress protected by a number of immortal servants, and there are likely going to be traps. But since Kelsey is Durga's chosen one (ugh) they can likely count on her protection.
They go back to the hotel and Kelsey gets ready for bed. I have no idea what time it is, since all they did apparently was get lunch or dinner, and now Kelsey is going to bed. But someone knocks on her door at about midnight. I wonder who it could be!!!
I unlocked the door and peeked out. Ren was standing there dressed in his white clothes, barefoot, with a triumphant grin on his face.
Who could have guessed???
Kelsey scolds him for showing up because he could have been seen. But he says "I missed you" and it's all okay. She does tell him to leave early so he doesn't get caught.
He looked down at our entwined hands. "When I'm with you, I feel like a man again. When I'm out there all alone, I feel like a beast, an animal." His eyes darted up to mine.
Normally, I'd think that this is a nice subtle way of dealing with their interaction with Kishan. But then he immediately says that it's fine because he was able to track them because they walked back from dinner, which is kind of creepy.
He sees her journal sitting open and picks it up. Rude. She's been drawing stuff in it, and the most recent is a picture of Ren as a tiger.
He traced the tiger with his finger and whispered, "Some day I'll get you a portrait of the real me."
So, her art isn't good enough for his taste because it's not the "real" him. Also, what a lousy gift! Hey, Kelsey, here's a picture of me!
He says that he doesn't like that she thinks of a tiger when she thinks about him.
Reaching out, he almost touched my cheek but stopped and withdrew his hand. "I've worn the tiger's face for far too many years. He's stolen my humanity."
I nodded while he squeezed my hands and whispered quietly, "Kells, I don't want to be him anymore. I want to be me. I want to have a life."
The way those paragraphs are split up, it looks like Kelsey is saying that last sentence.
Kelsey is overcome with emotions that she first describes as "too complicated to define" but then literally a sentence later defines them as " . . . love", ellipses and all.
I'd built a dam around my heart after my family died. I hadn't really let myself love anyone because I was afraid they'd be taken from me again. I purposefully avoided close ties. I liked people and had friendly relationships, but I didn't risk loving. Not like this.
Nothing like having a character literally spell out what their character arc is. Reading about people changing over time is boring! You can get all of your character development out of the way in just a few short sentences!
Also, I don't think Kelsey has ever mentioned having friends back in Oregon. It's just Sarah and Mike, their kids, and the people she met at the circus.
There's actually kind of a nice moment where Kelsey remembers watching movies with her mom and they would shout at the characters to just kiss and get it over with whenever there was romantic tension on-screen, and she can hear her mom shouting at her to shut up and kiss Ren already. That's a nice little scene! More of that please.
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So I got a grip on myself, and before I changed my mind, I leaned over and kissed him.
He froze. He didn't kiss me back. He didn't push me away. He just stopped . . . moving.
Oh my God, she killed him.
Nah, he's just surprised that she actually is into him after their argument. She stops because she thinks he isn't into it, but then he tells her to look at him, and he's just so hot that she starts kissing him again.
It's not supposed to look like Ren is pointing out how hot he is, but immediately after saying "look at me" there's an entire paragraph about how hot his chest is, so. I'm not sure how else I'm supposed to interpret it.
They kiss for like the next two pages. It's ridiculous how long it goes on for.
He had a very self-satisfied, smug grin on his face, which, for some reason, got my ire up.
"You seem very happy with yourself."
He raised an eyebrow. "I am."
Whomp whomp, what a scamp!
They kiss again and it lasts another page. It's boring.
Then he leaves because he's about to turn back into a tiger. Kelsey gets back into bed.
Mae West, a famous vaudeville actress, once said, "A man's kiss is his signature." I grinned to myself. If that was true, then Ren's signature was the John Hancock of signatures.
lolwat
There's another scene at the end of the chapter that could have just as easily been added to the beginning of the next chapter. The John Hancock...weirdness...was supposed to be an end-of-chapter zinger, I think, but then there's just a tepid little scene where Kelsey eats breakfast with Mr. Kadam and they leave the hotel.
But anyway. They're heading off to visit a temple to Durga before going to Hampi, and in the span of a sentence they get out of the jeep and they're already there, because the sense of time passing in this book is completely bonkers.
Closing Thoughts
Well, I got to research some Hindu mythology this chapter! That was kind of fun.
I'm still questioning their entire plan, though--it's hard to tell if this book is painting Hanuman as a good guy or a bad guy, and while it's true that he's keeping the fruit that will feed India locked up, it's apparently the fact that it's locked up and protected that makes it work in the first place.
Also none of that is true in actual mythology, but it's absolutely painted as something that's true to life, which is incredibly disingenuous. Again, Hinduism is one of the largest modern religions, and these are aspects of a living religion. It's a bit less icky to mess around with Greek and Roman or Norse mythology because those aren't a widely-practiced modern religion.
What was the "beginning" the chapter was talking about? The beginning of Ren and Kelsey's relationship? Because it seemed like that was already almost a thing, so it's more like...the middle.
Next time, fittingly, Chapter 18: Durga's Temple! Durga actually shows up in this one.
(That was a bad joke making fun of the fact that chapter 17, at just over halfway into the story, is called "a beginning," which normally happens at the start of a story. I am very funny.)
Well, Mr. Kadam is back, and Kelsey and Ren are back on speaking terms (well, more accurately, they're at exactly where they were before the last couple of chapters at the waterfall, since there's no mention of them fighting again, to my knowledge). The only thing that's different is now we have an additional love interest, and Kelsey's immortal now, I guess?
So, like, will she be 18 forever now? Mr. Kadam hasn't aged since he got his Matt Damon Amulet from Ren, so he's been stuck in his mid-forties for over three hundred years. I think it's for as long as she wears the amulet, but that hasn't been confirmed. Seriously, every time I have an actual question about worldbuilding or how Houck's original ideas actually work, I never get an answer.
Chapter Seventeen: A Beginning
Mr. Kadam has also been roughing it in the jungle for Reasons, and has a workstation set up while he's translating and interpreting the prophecy. Kelsey bugs him with questions instead of helping him pack up his camp. Mr. Kadam confirms that they're going to Hampi, and that he has a slightly better idea of what to expect while they're there, because mystery and drama are boring.
"Mr. Kadam, [oh boy, we're repeating everyone's names again!] Kishan gave me his piece of the amulet, hoping it will protect me. Does yours protect you? Can you still be hurt?"
He walked over and stowed the wrapped tent in the Jeep. He leaned on the bumper, and said, " The amulet helps protect me from serious injury, but I can still cut myself or fall and sprain my ankle."
Mr. Kadam rubbed his short beard thoughtfully. "I have become ill, but I have not experienced disease. My cuts and bruises have healed quickly, albeit not as quickly as Ren's or Kishan's would."
Why is there a paragraph break there? Mr. Kadam is still speaking, and he's literally still answering the same question. It makes no sense.
And yes, I abuse paragraph breaks here, but I'm also not trying to write dialogue. This is all stream of consciousness, baby.
He finishes by saying that they don't really understand how they work at all, and he hopes to figure it out someday. It's really just an excuse to not explain how they work, because that's hard. He does tell her not to take risks and to run away from things that are chasing her, though. But I guess all fear of mortal danger don't really matter anymore, because who cares about stakes, right?
See, this is why I wasn't a huge fan of Man of Steel. The big climactic fight was between two people who just kept punching each other through buildings with no actual physical danger. Sure, I guess Zod was endangering the city (uh, also Superman was too) but that's a very abstract sense of danger that doesn't really translate super well into a physical fight.
Kelsey's basically safe from any form of danger that isn't self-inflicted, I guess.
Oh no, she's doomed.
It turns out that the whole reason Ren wanted to come out here in the first place wasn't to get Kishan involved in the plot! The reason they were there for so long is because Ren wouldn't leave until Kishan agreed to give it to her.
Wow. Okay, so not only did Ren lie to Kelsey (by omission) about why they were there, he also endangered her by making her hang out in the jungle for days on end (not that it's THAT dangerous, but Ren is extremely concerned about her safety). AND some positive character interaction between Kelsey and Kishan is tainted now, too, since he was basically bullied into it by Ren.
Mr. Kadam says that trying to convince Kishan to come with them wasn't one of their priorities because Kishan's been isolating himself in the wild for so long.
I nodded. "He blames himself for Yesubai's death."
Mr. Kadam looked at me, surprised. "Did he speak of this to you?"
"Yes. He told me what happened when Yesubai died. He still blames himself. And not just for her death, but also for what happened to him and Ren. I feel very sad for him."
I could probably get a lot more milage out of this quote if I looked for it.
Mr. Kadam sagely considered, "For such a young person, you're very compassionate and perceptive, Miss Kelsey. I'm glad Kishan was able to confide in you. There is hope for him yet."
Oof. Mr. Kadam just announcing Kelsey's character traits, which aren't substantiated in any way. The fact that Kelsey was able to break through to Kishan in a few days when Mr. Kadam, who's known him for hundreds of years, is barely able to talk to him. The fact that saying you feel bad for someone who blames himself for his love's death being so amazing that it's specifically called out as being compassionate. I hate Mr. Kadam's dialogue.
Now that Kelsey isn't talking anymore, her brain is free to perform actions again and she helps Mr. Kadam finish packing up. Seriously, she can't talk and do stuff at the same time. It's kind of funny.
They start driving back out and talk more in the car (yippee).
Mr. Kadam encouraged, "Tell me about your week with two tigers."
1. This is a weird dialogue tag.
2. The dialogue tag would sound way better at the end of the sentence.
3. How do you encourage this sentence?
Kelsey repeats everything that's happened (summarized, thank God) except she skips over the kissing conversation. It's supposed to look like she's still sorting out what her own feelings are, but it looks more like she doesn't want Ren to hear about it. Mr. Kadam is interested in the fact that Kishan even showed up at all. Silly Mr. Kadam, Kelsey is Special! She's the main character, so of course she's Good and Kind enough to get Kishan to interact with her.
He said that Kishan hadn't seemed to care about anything or anyone since his parents had died.
Except we just established that he felt guilty about Yesubai dying, not his parents. Like, it sucks that his parents died, but that hasn't even been brought up until now, and it's only mentioned in passing.
And then, oh boy! More exposition about Ren and Kishan's backstory! It's very boring!
Kelsey asks Mr. Kadam what they were like when they were kids. He says that they were rascally little scamps as children. And we finally learn their mother's name! Maybe we can use it to figure out where she's actually from, since "Asia" isn't helpful at all!
...Well, her name is Deschen, which isn't helpful because it doesn't exist (according to a quick Google search). It also sounds extremely German, at least to someone who knows almost no German (me). The closest thing I could find is Dechen ("great happiness"), which is Tibetan/Bhutanese in origin, which at least puts us in the right ballpark geographically. It's also categorized as "Bhutanese royal family" on my good friend Behind the Name dot com, so I can only assume that this is what Houck was trying to write, filtered through the same lens that got Damon from Dawon.
Apparently, Deschen let Ren and Kishan play with poor children (yeah, right, this is at the height of the Indian caste system, and this would not be okay even if the queen was a foreigner) and the princes learned about everything from warfare to politics and agriculture.
"Did they do other things? Like normal teenager stuff?"
"What types of things are you curious about?"
I twitched nervously. "Did they . . . date?"
Because everything has to relate back to romance!
Mr. Kadam quirked an eyebrow curiously. "No. Definitely not. The story you told me about," he winked, "you-know-what is the only time I have ever heard of them having a romantic escapade. Frankly they had no time for that, and both boys were to have arranged marriages anyway."
You can't wink a sentence! Bad dialogue tag!
And, uh, who said anything about "dating" as a prerequisite to an, ahem, romantic escapade?
I'm just kidding. I don't need to read about Ren and Kishan boinking concubines or something.
For the third or fourth time this book, Kelsey falls asleep in the middle of her conversation with Mr. Kadam. Which is both very rude and completely understandable.
Mr. Kadam arranged a stay at a hotel that's near a jungle that Ren can sleep in so he doesn't get caught. Uh, when did he do this? He's been in the middle of a jungle for a week with no way to guess when they'd be back. I guess it's possible that he has a satellite phone or something but Kelsey's been with him since they got back and there hasn't been any mention of this.
There's a convenience store down in the lobby and Mr. Kadam gets Kelsey an ice cream bar. Just if you were curious what Kelsey's eating. It's white, and Kelsey expects it to be gross (because...Indian food is weird, I guess?) because it's white, but is surprised that it's coconut flavored. Um, Kelsey knows that they sell these in America, right? I literally saw them at CVS earlier today.
This exact brand, I think.
Not as good as Tillamook Mudslide, but not bad at all, I mused.
The constant brand-name dropping both amuses and puzzles me.
The hotel is decent, but not amazing, but Kelsey's just happy to not be sleeping outside anymore.
[Mr. Kadam] was barely out the door when a small Indian woman wearing a bright orange flowing shirt over a white skirt came to launder my dirty clothes.
My notes next to this (which are about a year old by this point. Oops.) say "Hmm...don't like this." I stand by this assessment.
Mr. Kadam takes her out to eat the next day. I was so worried that she was going to starve to death! But my fears are misplaced, and we get to hear about everything they order for lunch. Thank God.
Mr. Kadam says that he thinks he's figured out what the prophecy is talking about. "Forbidden fruit," if you recall. He says he thinks it's a reference to the Golden Fruit, which is conveniently "a very old legend forgotten by most modern scholars," which means that Houck can invent her own mythology whole-cloth instead of working with actual Hindu mythology, which, if you remember, is supposed to be the point of this series. I'm going to do my best to dissect this story, but there's just a lot that's wrong with it, so if it gets confusing, I apologize.
Mr. Kadam spins the story of the Golden Fruit being given to Hanuman to protect as a kind of creation myth. In the beginning, the earth was "a vast wasteland, completely uninhabitable." But not completely uninhabitable, because "[i]t was full of fiery serpents [and] fierce beasts." Which inhabit the earth. Consistency! Eventually the gods and goddesses show up from...somewhere, create humanity, and bestow a number of divine gifts, which include the Golden Fruit. The Golden Fruit, when planted, caused the land to grow food and become fertile. So, apparently the humans showed up before any of the food did? This doesn't make sense.
Real-life Hinduism doesn't seem to have a single canonical creation myth like other religions do, and has many different versions from different areas of India. The Rigveda (an early Hindu text) says that the divine cosmic being Purusha, as the sum total of everything that has and will exist, who both created and was created by Viraj, the egg that would eventually become the world. Purusha, after being worshipped by the other gods and goddesses, was divided into different parts of mind and body, which became the existing universe.
Another version of the story says that the egg, either created by or comprised of Purusha as the embryo (depending on the version of the myth), contained the god Brahman inside, who then created the world. In some versions, Brahman is the egg.
Another story tells how the Prajapati, another god, was born from a golden egg that evolves into the cosmos. The Prajapati then created the earth and the sky, the devas (divine beings, I think), and the asuras (power-seeking deities who are seen as sinful compared to their deva counterparts). This myth involves a flood, after which the only surviving human Manu offers a sacrifice, which creates a woman named Ida. From these two the human race is born.
Why do I mention these myths? Because they're infinitely more interesting than "Golden Fruit creates world tree," which is far too European of an origin story for something based in Hindu mythology.
Anyway. The Golden Fruit produced after the first fruit is planted was taken by Hanuman, the king of Kishkinda, which is the land of monkeys.
To reiterate, the Golden Fruit is not an actual thing.
Kishkinda should be spelled as Kishkindha.
Hanuman was never king of Kishkindha. The actual ruler of Kishkindha was Sugriva, the younger son of Surya, the deity of the sun. Hanuman, as Sugriva's friend, helped him to rule the kingdom.
Kishkindha is the land of the Varana. It's true that "varana" is translated in modern times as "monkey," but it's literally translated as "forest people." It's not clear exactly what the word is referring to, but it is true that modern depictions of Kishkindha depict the varana as monkey people.
Rama meets Sugreeva (1912)
"As long as the fruit is protected, India's people will be fed."
Okay, so sure, let's assume that Hanuman somehow usurped the throne of Kishkindha, renamed it, and is now protecting this piece of fruit to ensure that the people of India don't starve to death.
YOUR PLAN IS TO GO TAKE IT FROM HIM, MEANING THAT HE'S NO LONGER PROTECTING IT, THUS DIRECTLY CAUSING A FAMINE THAT CAUSES INDIA TO STARVE TO DEATH?
Like, I'm not going crazy, right? They are literally planning on taking it from him after explicitly saying that he's protecting it so that India has food. This is never brought up as a concern! Ever!!!
"So that's the fruit we have to find? What if Hanuman is still protecting it and we can't get to it?"
That's a GOOD THING! You don't want him to not have it anymore! It's keeping a famine from happening!
Oh, but it's to help out two hot guys, so it's okay, I guess.
This stupid mythology that's made up for the book doesn't even make any sense!!!!!
Seriously, if you want an example of how to treat existing mythology well, look no further than The Lightning Thief and the rest of the Percy Jackson books. New stuff happens as the stage is now in America instead of Greece, but all of it is rooted in actual mythology. There's plenty of stuff to work from in Hindu mythology! Hanuman has an entire story revolving around fruit already! There's no point to making up something new!
Mr. Kadam says that it's in a fortress protected by a number of immortal servants, and there are likely going to be traps. But since Kelsey is Durga's chosen one (ugh) they can likely count on her protection.
They go back to the hotel and Kelsey gets ready for bed. I have no idea what time it is, since all they did apparently was get lunch or dinner, and now Kelsey is going to bed. But someone knocks on her door at about midnight. I wonder who it could be!!!
I unlocked the door and peeked out. Ren was standing there dressed in his white clothes, barefoot, with a triumphant grin on his face.
Who could have guessed???
Kelsey scolds him for showing up because he could have been seen. But he says "I missed you" and it's all okay. She does tell him to leave early so he doesn't get caught.
He looked down at our entwined hands. "When I'm with you, I feel like a man again. When I'm out there all alone, I feel like a beast, an animal." His eyes darted up to mine.
Normally, I'd think that this is a nice subtle way of dealing with their interaction with Kishan. But then he immediately says that it's fine because he was able to track them because they walked back from dinner, which is kind of creepy.
He sees her journal sitting open and picks it up. Rude. She's been drawing stuff in it, and the most recent is a picture of Ren as a tiger.
He traced the tiger with his finger and whispered, "Some day I'll get you a portrait of the real me."
So, her art isn't good enough for his taste because it's not the "real" him. Also, what a lousy gift! Hey, Kelsey, here's a picture of me!
He says that he doesn't like that she thinks of a tiger when she thinks about him.
Reaching out, he almost touched my cheek but stopped and withdrew his hand. "I've worn the tiger's face for far too many years. He's stolen my humanity."
I nodded while he squeezed my hands and whispered quietly, "Kells, I don't want to be him anymore. I want to be me. I want to have a life."
The way those paragraphs are split up, it looks like Kelsey is saying that last sentence.
Kelsey is overcome with emotions that she first describes as "too complicated to define" but then literally a sentence later defines them as " . . . love", ellipses and all.
I'd built a dam around my heart after my family died. I hadn't really let myself love anyone because I was afraid they'd be taken from me again. I purposefully avoided close ties. I liked people and had friendly relationships, but I didn't risk loving. Not like this.
Nothing like having a character literally spell out what their character arc is. Reading about people changing over time is boring! You can get all of your character development out of the way in just a few short sentences!
Also, I don't think Kelsey has ever mentioned having friends back in Oregon. It's just Sarah and Mike, their kids, and the people she met at the circus.
There's actually kind of a nice moment where Kelsey remembers watching movies with her mom and they would shout at the characters to just kiss and get it over with whenever there was romantic tension on-screen, and she can hear her mom shouting at her to shut up and kiss Ren already. That's a nice little scene! More of that please.
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So I got a grip on myself, and before I changed my mind, I leaned over and kissed him.
He froze. He didn't kiss me back. He didn't push me away. He just stopped . . . moving.
Oh my God, she killed him.
Nah, he's just surprised that she actually is into him after their argument. She stops because she thinks he isn't into it, but then he tells her to look at him, and he's just so hot that she starts kissing him again.
It's not supposed to look like Ren is pointing out how hot he is, but immediately after saying "look at me" there's an entire paragraph about how hot his chest is, so. I'm not sure how else I'm supposed to interpret it.
They kiss for like the next two pages. It's ridiculous how long it goes on for.
He had a very self-satisfied, smug grin on his face, which, for some reason, got my ire up.
"You seem very happy with yourself."
He raised an eyebrow. "I am."
Whomp whomp, what a scamp!
They kiss again and it lasts another page. It's boring.
Then he leaves because he's about to turn back into a tiger. Kelsey gets back into bed.
Mae West, a famous vaudeville actress, once said, "A man's kiss is his signature." I grinned to myself. If that was true, then Ren's signature was the John Hancock of signatures.
lolwat
There's another scene at the end of the chapter that could have just as easily been added to the beginning of the next chapter. The John Hancock...weirdness...was supposed to be an end-of-chapter zinger, I think, but then there's just a tepid little scene where Kelsey eats breakfast with Mr. Kadam and they leave the hotel.
But anyway. They're heading off to visit a temple to Durga before going to Hampi, and in the span of a sentence they get out of the jeep and they're already there, because the sense of time passing in this book is completely bonkers.
Closing Thoughts
Well, I got to research some Hindu mythology this chapter! That was kind of fun.
I'm still questioning their entire plan, though--it's hard to tell if this book is painting Hanuman as a good guy or a bad guy, and while it's true that he's keeping the fruit that will feed India locked up, it's apparently the fact that it's locked up and protected that makes it work in the first place.
Also none of that is true in actual mythology, but it's absolutely painted as something that's true to life, which is incredibly disingenuous. Again, Hinduism is one of the largest modern religions, and these are aspects of a living religion. It's a bit less icky to mess around with Greek and Roman or Norse mythology because those aren't a widely-practiced modern religion.
What was the "beginning" the chapter was talking about? The beginning of Ren and Kelsey's relationship? Because it seemed like that was already almost a thing, so it's more like...the middle.
Next time, fittingly, Chapter 18: Durga's Temple! Durga actually shows up in this one.
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