Free The Everest Files by Matt Dickinson Page A

sentence of misery.
    Wild thoughts came to him in the dead of night. What if he ran away with Shreeya? He had heard stories of couples their age who had taken this desperate step. Mostly they went to India and were never heard of again. Dark tales sometimes emerged of the terrible things they had to do just to survive.
    Kami felt that Shreeya would go with him if he proposed it, but in his heart he knew it would never happen. He loved his family too much, and so did she. If they ran away they would never find peace.
    Then came the offer to go to Everest and Kami began to see a new possibility.
    Using his earnings he might be able to break the marriage pact.
    But first he would have to talk to his father.
    Kami chose his moment with care, a Saturday free from work when he hoped his father would be receptive to a conversation. The formal way he phrased the request caused his father to raise an eyebrow in surprise. But he took Kami to the family room where they could talk in peace.
    â€˜I guess you want to talk about Laxmi,’ his father began.
    â€˜Yes, sir, I do.’
    â€˜Well it’s very simple. You’ve got to keep to the pact and that’s the end of the story.’
    â€˜I’ve been having other thoughts,’ Kami said hesitantly.
    â€˜Well put them out of your head. Families have been making marriage pacts like this for centuries and there’s no need to change things.’
    â€˜But, sir, I don’t feel happy … ’
    â€˜You will feel happy. Once you have Laxmi living at your side. She’s a fine girl and you are lucky to have her promise. Look at me and your mother, married by a similar pact and we’ve never had a bad word between us.’
    It was the argument Kami had most feared, for it was indisputably true; his mother and father were indeed happy together – living proof that a marriage pact could work.
    If the circumstances were right.
    But his situation was different, Kami reminded himself. The circumstances were most certainly not right. He had to tell his father the truth about Shreeya, but he knew by doing so he would be drawing the conversation in a most dangerous direction.
    And how to find the words?
    Kami had been raised in the traditional manner of a Nepali family. Rigid social codes dictated the way that men behaved towards women, children towards elders. Obedience to his father was absolutely at the core of who he was and he had never imagined a scenario in which he could disobey him.
    But now that moment had come and Kami felt the exquisite pain of something stretching and breaking inside him as he said the next words.
    â€˜I don’t want to make my life with Laxmi.’
    These words provoked exactly the reaction Kami had feared. The look of fury in his father’s eyes was truly terrifying. For a terrible moment he thought he would lash out with his fists.
    â€˜It’s Shreeya who has put you up to this!’ his father raged. ‘Don’t think I don’t know. The whole village knows about you two.’
    â€˜It’s not her.’ Kami was mortified that his father was trying to twist the blame. ‘This is my decision.’
    â€˜I should talk to her father. Get her sent away.’
    Kami felt his guts churn as this new threat. How stupid of him not to think of it. It would be easy for his father to arrange. Get Shreeya’s family to send her away to some far off place, marry her swiftly to someone else.
    â€˜You wouldn’t do that.’
    â€˜Wouldn’t I? It’s no more than you both deserve.’ His father spat the words.
    â€˜Is there no other way?’ Kami asked, ‘Something we can do to break the contract?’
    â€˜
Break the contract?
Who has put such thoughts in your head?’
    â€˜If we repay the dowry? Surely there is a way?’
    â€˜You don’t know what you are talking about. Her family and our family have been trading for generations. There’s more at stake