‘Evergreen Hotel?’ he asked half-heartedly, the sign still held aloft in front of him.
‘Yes!’
‘Come.’ He jerked his head towards the exit and began to walk off.
‘Wait, hold on,’ she called. ‘I need to get a SIM card for my phone. Could you help me?’
‘There’s no time,’ he shot back over his shoulder, picking up his pace so that Olivia had to break into a light jog just to keep up.
No time?
You’re the one that’s nearly an hour late!
‘Please,’ she begged, the momentary bliss of relief disappearing as quickly as it came. If she didn’t have a local SIM card, there was no way she was going to be able to keep in contact with people – not unless she was willing to fork out fifteen pounds a day.
‘We’ll get it later,’ he replied, beckoning her to follow him.
‘Are you sure? Is there a phone shop near the hotel?’
‘Sure. Now come. The car is just down here.’
Olivia followed her driver through the double doors and nearly collapsed as the wall of heat hit her. If she’d thought the inside of the airport was a melting pot of chaos, it was nothing compared to the inferno waiting for her outside. Olivia had been following the weather reports for days before she’d arrived in Delhi. She knew full well what the temperature would be. But this heat was different. It was thick and heavy and clung to the skin like a coat of burning leeches, sucking you dry from the inside out. Even her eyeballs seemed to shrivel inside their sockets in response.
‘How far away did you say the car was?’ Olivia wasn’t sure she could last another thirty seconds in the heat.
‘Not far.’ Her driver gestured to some vague spot in the distance.
It turned out that their versions of the word ‘far’ differed enormously. By the time they reached the car, Olivia didn’t even bat an eyelid at its battered and bruised exterior. She barely registered the smashed front light and the scratched bonnet; all she cared about was clambering inside and whacking the air conditioning up to full blast.
‘Excuse me?’ Olivia asked, feeling the sweat-slicked skinon her back sliding down the leather seats. ‘Could we have the AC on, please?’
The driver gave her a toothy grin in the rear-view mirror. ‘No AC. Just windows.’
Wherever you are, Leah, I hope you’re bloody happy with yourself.
*
By the time Olivia arrived at her hotel she wasn’t sure whether to be sick, cry or simply pass out. The journey had been one of the most traumatic of her life. There were cars and people and bikes andcowseverywhere; lining the roads, pulling out with no warning, beeping their horns so loudly that the sharp sound was still reverberating in her eardrums. Yet despite the absolute pandemonium on the roads, her driver didn’t even break a sweat. Not when a family on a moped cut them up and nearly sent them flying into another car. Not even when a group of begging children stuck their hands through the car window and began grabbing at Olivia’s clothes. He simply blinked, changed gear and continued to drive.
Finally, the car pulled to a stop.
‘Here we are,’ the driver stated solemnly. ‘Do you want help with your bags?’
‘No, I think I’ll be fine, thank you,’ Olivia managed, her frayed nerves still sending waves of panic through her body.
‘OK.’ He opened the boot and waited for Olivia to drag her rucksack out.
‘Before you go,’ she said, heaving the solid weight up on to her shoulders, ‘where was that phone shop you mentioned? I still need to sort my SIM card out.’
The driver, without uttering a word, turned around andpointed over towards the end of the dirt track. Olivia could just about make out a small wooden shack with a big 3G Vodafone sign tacked up outside.
‘That?You cannot seriously mean that?’
‘Yes.’ He shrugged, jumping back into the car. ‘It looks closed though.’
‘Well, where can I get one from the—’ she called, but the driver had already slammed the door and started the engine. Olivia watched him drive away and felt the sticky sense of dread solidify in her stomach.
‘Thank you very much for the help!’ she bellowed to the clouds of dust the car had left in its wake.
