Sumaya gets ready for action

Sumaya knew something was up.

They didn't speak like that, nobody welcomed you to the place they were gruffly accepting of your presence at the best of times at the worse they would rather you not enter the premises but they were not in their position to stop you. It was an agreement of sorts, a sign, if we change the way we do things you know something terrible has happened and you know what to do next.

Ah well.

It wasn't that she had never thought about it. She had fantasized about it, even gotten off to the thought on many embarrassing occasions. And preparations had been put in place, as a part of complex roleplaying. Not because we're going to need it, they said, because we want to pretend like we're doing something great and not just having fun, so lets put all our energies into it. It was really quite something, the details were ironed out to the last minute. Someone needed to trigger it, the first one to notice things were different.

She smiled.

Is Raju in yet, she asked, as she checked her phone. Ahh yes, yes he came in a bit earlier, a woman with very dark shadows under her puffy eyes said as Sumaya picked her phone to pretend talking to Raju. She ended the call quickly. It must be a different Raju, my Raju is on the way, she said giggling. I'll wait outside, it's a bit loud in here no, why is the generator on, I thought they didn't have load shedding anymore, she asked the woman. Our connection has gone out, she replied.

She pressed the send button on the templated message.

Sumaya patted herself, did an inventory check. If things don't go according to the plan...she stopped there. She didn't want to think too much about contingency scenarios. It was too much work, people had broken their arms or tore up their leg muscles even after years of training. She would want to avoid that.

Her phone pressed against her right ear, the young woman looked around the neighborhood. The balconies, the roofs, the treetops, lamp-posts. What was happening at the tea-stalls? The air was buzzing with tense energy. It was not just her. They do were expecting something clearly. The man selling gutkha on the street wouldn't be checking his watch three times in five minutes otherwise. Was it her? Did they know about the uh plan, is there anyway there was a mole who had informed them of the situation? It was a possibility. If she informed the group of that they could pounce upon her and take her as a hostage, and that was the best possible scenario. Of course.

It's possible our friends group might have intermingled, she typed, they're waiting for something, unclear if it's us, and sent it to the group. A thumbs up in response.

She went to the nearby tree and sat down under it. Normally a cup of tea would have been perfect but she couldn't take the chance. Could I get a cup of tea please, she said to the old man, lots of milk lots of sugar. The old man nodded and went about. I haven't seen you about too much here, it's generally younger brother and his wife who're here, what happened to them, she asked.

They're my son and daughter-in-law, the old man said gruffly, they are both sick and sent me. I don't know why he never talks to me always asking about my property always always talking about this and that and now he needs his father's help to look after the shop when they are ill. Maybe now they will understand my value even besides the land I have, the old man said, his voice low and tired. Sumaya had to strain to make sense of what he was saying.

She took a sip of the tea.

It was fine.

Something big was afoot, and it was not about them.