Unplugged II: Unplugged, #2 Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright © Sigal Ehrlich

  Also by Sigal Ehrlich

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Epilogue - Tyler

  Epilogue - Jeremy

  Epilogue - Ivi

  Acknowledgments

  Note from the Author

  About the Author

  Copyright © Sigal Ehrlich

  ISBN: 978 0 9970114 2 5

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Unplugged II

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you’re reading this eBook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

  Copyright © 2019 by Sigal Ehrlich. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical without the express written permission of the author. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

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  Version 08262019

  Layers, Stark #1

  Inner Core, Stark #2

  Outer Core, Stark #3

  Retrace

  Leaving Me Behind

  Unplugged Vol. I

  For Haven, I don’t know you yet, but I already love you

  “Volunteering – our imbursement for living in this beautiful universe.”

  A tattered plaque hanging in the volunteer camp kitchen.

  I roll down the window and lean forward. Closing my eyes, I let the wind whip my cheeks and deeply inhale the icy chill. Riding up the mountain in the rusty, rickety truck sends my stomach to churn on every turn and twist as it crushes over the muddy, rough dirt road. I stare out the window, a wealth of heavy thoughts seizing my mind.

  “Ivi, you’re coming to the bonfire tonight?” Pedro, a Brazilian volunteer and my instant buddy, asks from the backseat, cutting off my contemplation.

  I turn to give him a confirming nod followed by a thin smile. I met Pedro and his sister, Renata, the first day I got to the camp. They took it upon themselves to be my personal guides, what with their three days of seniority. Showing me around the village, they introduced me to the rest of the team – twenty awesome people from all corners of the globe. A delightfully diverse group of like-minded people who immediately make you feel welcome, happy, and most importantly, useful. All joined together, here in this small village which is both uniquely beautiful with its untamed nature and heartbreakingly damaged with its poverty and the destruction caused by the earthquake that recently hit. We have come together with one singular goal in mind: help make it better. It’s not my first mission. I’ve been exposed numerous times to disasters and calamities that were both natural and manmade, yet, each time anew, my heart breaks all over again when I get to meet the people that essentially get to live the aftermath.

  My nausea mollifies when the truck finally rolls to a stop at the site, near where we are lodged. A shabby, ragged stone house with a kitchen, if you can call an open cooking fire that, and more than a few small rooms for joined sleeping. It belongs to one of the village’s teachers, miss Shristi. A diminutive older lady which funnily enough everyone calls Big Mom, who’s always in colorful saris, with jingling bungles, a nose ring, a red bindi dot marking her forehead and an ever-present motherly smile. Renata, Pedro and I share a room on the second floor.

  The driver, with a few missing teeth and a rolled cigarette held between his lips, walks over to the back of the car and drops down the tailgate. Pedro calls out for a couple of bulky guys to help him unload the truck and I join the rest of the group. I pull my work gloves out of my back pocket and take a few more steps, dodging downed trees’ limbs, to reach Renata.

  “Who’s the new guy?” She tips her head at where her brother and the other guys unload log piles into a cart.

  “There are two new guys, Re.” I roll my eyes fondly at my gloves, shrugging them on. Every fresh day since we got here she’s been interested in a different guy. Pedro once said that Renata believes she’s in The Bachelorette rather than on a mission trip.

  “The one with the incredible pecks and the wild blond curls.”

  I give surfer dude a glance and turn back to my friend. “Kenny. He’s from England. You fancy?”

  “Muito,” she confirms in Portuguese, giving Kenny’s rear too long of a stare to be considered innocent as he bends to drop yet another log to the cart.

  Shaking my head, I link my arm in hers and tug her after me, toward the debris that once used to be a home of a lovely family of four. “Let’s start this day, shall we? There’ll be enough time to molest the poor boy at the bonfire.”

  Thus begins day eight of my mission trip.

  Inhaling, I bend down to lift a large rock, my breath held with the exertion. By the eighth time I lift a heavy rock and walk over to set it in a cart, the process becomes almost robotic. Focusing on the music playing from my earbuds and the fresh, chilly air caressing my face, I ignore the smarting in my muscles and overall physical strain.

  I halt with a block in my hands when I see Rajesh coming our way. Dropping the block back to the ground, I pull the earbuds out and smile at him. His big, dark eyes respond with amiability. His skinny arms flail as he hurries his steps toward me. “Hi Raj.” I rub his shorn head, greeting him. The little boy’s smile brightens, but his eyes with their perpetual glum don’t match that sweet smile. They never do. He gestures at the smaller rocks and branches, signaling he’s going to help us. Renata, who’s a few steps away, and I share an emotional stare.

  We’ve all temporarily adopted Rajesh. A sweet boy that’s sometimes afraid to go home at night to hi
s pimp daddy and house full of men he doesn’t know. The loss of innocence surrounding this area is heartbreaking and hard to bear.

  I watch Rajesh as he takes a candy bar from Renata with a shy smile and sigh with mild sadness. It’s hard to accept, alas though, I know that some things, we, the volunteers, can’t fix – perhaps this is the hardest part of being a volunteer – the exposure to things you just can’t fix. I wipe my face with the back of my sleeve and resume removing debris.

  Nine hours of clearing rubble from fallen houses and building the frame for two new ones. Some of us are already laying down concrete floors, and making the structure of wire, poles and bricks for the school they started working on a couple of weeks ago. An hour of break is all we take for food and drinks, otherwise it’s hard work. Fulfilling work.

  When four o’clock rolls in, there isn’t a part in my body that doesn’t protest. It’s smarting all over from the physical exertion. I’m dirty and tired and exhausted but couldn’t be more satisfied and content. Glancing at Big Mom’s house, I cringe and decide to take a walk through the village instead. The house is by no means inviting or well insulated. Chilly breeze, insects and spiders enjoy cruising around the rooms as they please. We all try to spend as little time in them as possible, given the conditions. What a glaring contrast to my lodging conditions at Tyler’s. Feels like I’ve been teleported to a completely different universe. Hard to believe these two realities coexist on the same globe.

  Adjusting the earbuds in my ears, I hit shuffle on my playlist and begin my stroll. Chautara, in the Sindhupalchowk region, is one of the most devastated areas from the quake that hit nearly six months ago. The village is mostly self-reliant, with every spare piece of land used for crops of corn, fields of beans and chilies, grazing goats, buffalo and chickens with the occasional orange or apple tree. The scenery around the village is depressing. There’s more than a lot of work to do to bring it back to an actual village condition. Just a few houses and a lone coffee shop made it through the devastation that rises up in piles upon piles of wreckage. But if you just lift your eyes a little higher, the glorious exquisiteness of the Himalayas subdues everything with its wild, powerful grace.

  Taking the path to the forest with a soft tune playing in my ears, it’s just me and my thoughts and immediately Tyler takes center stage. Every day that had passed since I’ve arrived in Nepal has empowered the assumption that the day Tyler brought me to the airport and told me he wanted to give us a try was a product of high emotions with little, if not zero thought behind them.

  I can’t deny the promise in his words, but it’s one I’m having a hard time holding on to. It’s hard to keep the hope alive when right up until this very moment, we haven’t communicated. We never even agreed on the pragmatics of making anything between us work. We never agreed on anything to shift me coming back into motion. It was all up in the air. Nothing concrete to work with. Just like I ominously anticipated, when we parted ways over a week ago, it was a final good-bye rather than a promise for a reunion.

  My musing make my heart feel a bit heavier as I walk through the peaceful, stunning nature.

  Even though more than a week has passed, I still carry the weight of our good-bye. The thought of Tyler is still a constant flame in my head. This place has helped to lessen it into a low burning ember though. Breathtaking sunsets, spectacular nature and a wealth of misfortune and poverty is bound to do that to you. It knocked sense and reality into me in less than twenty hours after my arrival in Nepal.

  My fountain of self-pity has been reduced to a drip. Real life and hardship have a tendency to minimalize, if not completely diminish, one’s “little problems.” If not put them to shame. It, if you will, smacks you upside the head, hard. Pummels some sense of perspective into you. Because really, what does a bruised heart in need of nursing have on a child begging to simply live?

  Coming back, I find the team setting up the camp for dinner. Eva and Jana, two mid-fifties ladies from eastern Europe, help Big Mom with making the staple Nepali dishes, daal bhat and daal roti. Day in day out it’s rice or flatbread with lentils, with the occasional twist on these meals with a few different styles of roti or rice pudding. If we’re lucky, some potato and bean curry is served with the dish. It hasn’t been that long since I set foot in this place and already the physical changes in my body are hard to miss. I’m more toned and my clothes feel a bit looser now.

  I smile noticing Renata and Kenny setting up the wood for the bonfire. Both looking more than happy in each other’s company. Bet he’s getting a rose tonight.

  I head to the hose attached to a nearby tree to freshen up. A bucket and a hose, Nepali style bath for you.

  “Ivi.” Big Mom’s voice reaches me as I wash my face for the second time, rubbing my hands over it to get all the dirt out. Or at least try to. Hygiene, to say the least, is not exactly a priority here.

  Drying my hands on my cargos, I walk over to meet her. “You called me?”

  “You box.” She says in her limited English with an encouraging smile.

  My brows bunch as I try to decipher her words. “Do you need a box, Big Mom? Do you need me to put something in boxes?”

  She shakes her head, her hoop earrings swaying with the movement. Her expression coils with frustration. “You box, room.” A little triumphant smile curls her lips. “Package! You package room.”

  “There’s a package in my room?” She grins at me with a nod. “A package for me?” I ask again. No one has ever sent me packages during any of my trips so far. Perhaps she’s confusing me with one of the other volunteers.

  “Package Ivi Kert.” She says, reading my doubt. She drops her hands to either side of her hips, silently commanding acquiescence.

  “Thank you.” No point in arguing, Big Mom looks determined.

  Indeed, on my narrow folding bed, on the itchy, tattered wool blanket stands a cardboard box with my name printed on a white label. Cautiously, I take the box in my hands for a closer look. Besides my name there is no other indications of what it is, or whom might have sent it. I bend to sit on the bed and put the box on my lap. My fingers itch to rip it open to find out what’s inside. But they have nothing on my flipping belly and accelerated heart. I just know it. It’s from him. It’s from Tyler.

  Shoving my hand in my thigh pocket, I feel for my swiss army knife. We all carry one around. With our current line of work and the general conditions, it’s elementary. Flicking the blade up, I run it over the middle of the box, cutting through the tape. I flick the blade back in and pocket the knife. Biting on my lips, I push the box flaps to the sides.

  A giggle escapes my mouth to the packs of peanut butter filled pretzels lining the box. There’s a black cotton fabric nestled amid the snacks. Picking it up, I realize it’s a folded shirt. I hold it up and let it roll down. Another chuckle leaves my mouth, this one louder. Joyful and amused to find Tyler’s face plastered over the front, with a sexy smile. My own smile feels like it’s coming straight from the center of my happy heart. I hug the soft fabric to my chest, and inhale. Longings wash over me with Tyler’s scent hovering my nose. I close my eyes and inhale again. The thought of him thinking of spraying the shirt with his perfume just amplifies everything that sparking in me. When I turn to set the box aside with a dreamy smile and go join the rest of the group, I realize that there’s something else at the bottom of the box. I cock my head looking at the smaller black box before opening it to reveal its content.

  I observe the cell phone in my hand with its thicker body and funny looking antenna. And the penny drops. I’ve seen this type of phone before. It’s a satellite phone. Tyler sent me a satellite phone. One of the only options to communicate with the outside world besides traveling to one of the surrounding cities which is at least sixty miles. That is if you’re lucky enough to catch a ride there.

  Besides being a source of communication to the world, I also know how pricey these calls are. I sigh, holding the phone between my hands. About to put it back in
its box, I sense something attached to the back. It’s a little note folded in half, taped to the back. I release the paper and unfold it. I don’t know what it is, but seeing Tyler’s hand writing here, in this place, does things to me. Emotionally wonderful things.

  Call me, Kiisu.

  Three simple words that mean the world to me right now.

  Giddy, I leave the room, not before tucking my care package under my backpack. Opting to call Tyler once I figure out the time difference (we’re on two different continents, after all) I join my friends.

  Both volunteers and some of the locals had congregated around the fire by the time I join. Kenny’s friend, Billy, strums on a guitar while two of the older ladies in our group give a whole repertoire of The Beatles. The younger local crowd keep watching us like we’re a new-found species. It’s something you get used to quite quickly. They follow us a lot during the day. As a matter of fact, as soon as we leave the house, we have a small audience staring at us. Especially those of us from Northern European descend. The fairer you are, the most fascinated looks and followers you get.

  I walk over to help myself to some Chiya, a local tea with milk. Noticing Mike approach, a proud American veteran with whom I had an immediate click, I remain in my place. Cradling the metal mug with both hands I bring it closer to my mouth and blow on it, waiting for Mike.

  “Ivi.” Mike tips his head, reaching for the thermos.

  I grab a mug and hold it out for him to pour the steaming tea. “Erm, Mike, do you happen to know what the time difference between Nepal and the states is?”

  Taking the full mug from me, Mike asks, “Where in the states, darling?”

  “Oh.” It takes me some beats to answer, because I don’t have one. I know that Tyler is on a mini tour across the states, but I have no idea where he might be right now. “LA?” Comes out as a question rather than an answer.

  Taking a sip of his tea, Mike licks his lips. “Nepal is about fourteen hours ahead of LA.” Mike’s mouth twitches as my mind drifts, doing the math. “It should be around six a.m. in the City of Flowers and Sunshine.”