by Emily Branwell

Created on: November 11, 2008

It was October on a Himalayan mountainside in India and the night had begun to fall early. By 6:30 it was pitch black and cold. That year I was working at an international school and that evening my housemate and I were shivering our way home, laughing and talking about how absurd some of the situations in our lives were due to the international boarding school lifestyle.

A jeep went roaring past and we were momentarily blinded by the high beams; which incidentally throughout my years on the subcontinent seemed proven to be the only brand of beam available. We soon realized that the jeep had stopped, and heard the sound of two doors opening and closing while footsteps began to advance in our direction. We continued to walk, no longer laughing. This was an obscure road carved into the side of a mountain. People out after dark on the road were usually locals drunk on cheap homemade liquors bought and consumed at the bus stand below the hospital and not necessarily individuals two females wanted to meet up with. We quickened our pace toward home till we heard the deep, rumbly, utterly recognizable voice of our coworker Dan.

"Jenna, don't be afraid. It's just Mac and I." our sigh of relief was palpable until by the light of the beam we saw the seriousness on their faces.

"We don't want to alarm you" they began. That, of course, caused immediate panic on our parts.

He had called me specifically and not my housemate Joy and I began thinking of all the students I loved and had been working closely with for several years; wondering which one I was about to hear bad news about. So it came as somewhat of a relief when he said, "We just brought your neighbor home from the hospital. He seems stable now. They've pumped him with enough drugs so that he should be out for at least twenty four hours. I wouldn't worry too much. But if you hear any loud noises, banging, singing, talkinggo ahead and call one of us. We took him to the hospital this afternoon when he started showing some behavior which was entirely out of character for him."

So not knowing what behaviors had so alerted Jim and Frank that they would take our neighbor to the hospital where he would be pumped with sleep inducing drugs, we continued our walk home.

For the past few years I have had a succession of very interesting neighbors to say the least. I'd have to say it all began with Sunny. Calling him Sunny was like calling a tall man Shorty. He was an ex-truck driver who looked as if he'd been pickled and jerkied

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