Introductions

Jade straddled the bike and took a moment to familiarize herself with all the gadgets. She’d never had a bike like this before. Speedometer, odometer, head and tail lights, turn signals - the works. The seat and handlebars adjusted easily to fit her short body.

“Hey.”

Jade looked up, startled. A young man with dark skin was standing beside her.

“Sorry,” he said. “Didn’t mean to scare you. My name’s Gregg.”

“Jade.”

“Nice to meet you,” Gregg said with a wide smile. “Hey, I heard you chanting something. Can I ask what it was?”

“It’s the Pavamana mantra. It’s…,” Jade blushed. “It’s really supposed to be spoken before a sacrifice, but the words give me strength when I’m facing difficulty.”

“Sounds really cool. I don’t recognize the language.”

“It’s Hindi. I was born in Kolkata, India, but my parents moved to the United States when I was still a baby. I was raised with a lot of the Hindu traditions.”

“So, what are the words in English?”

“From falsehood, lead me to truth. From darkness, lead me to the light. From death, lead me to immortality.”

“That is so cool!” Gregg grinned from ear to ear.

Jade couldn’t help but to grin back at him.

“Hey, you wanna get a bite to eat?”

“Yes, I’d like that.”

“Great! I know a nice little place not far from here.”

They rode down River Street for about ten minutes, turned onto 4th Street, and stopped at a place called Chom’s Cafe.

“Mmm! Thai food!” Jade said.

They locked up their bikes, grabbed their mobile phones, and headed into the restaurant. Gregg paused for a moment, scoping out the place.

“Ah!” He pointed to a desolate table in a back corner. “We can talk more privately.”

The waitress arrived quickly with menus and water. They studied the menus for a few minutes and were ready to order when the waitress returned.

Gregg nodded to Jade, indicating she should order first.

“Um, I can’t decide. You first.”

“I’ll have the Thai fried rice with chicken, please,” he said.

Jade sighed. “I’ll go with the mango curry.”

After the waitress left, they sat in awkward silence for a few minutes.

Gregg cleared his throat. “So, are you from Troy?”

“No,” Jade said, shaking her head. I moved up here from Queens a few weeks ago. I got tired of the big city. What about you?”

“Born and raised here.”

They both got quiet again.

Jade cleared her throat and leaned forward a bit, speaking in a hushed tone. “So, what do you think of this Checking Piece Courier Service?”

Gregg also leaned forward. “I think it’s a great thing. I, uh, think change needs to happen.”

“Me, too. How did you hear about it?”

“I saw an ad in the paper and went for an interview. They had apparently done some kind of background check on me already, because after some pretty standard questions the conversation kind of veered. I don’t know how we got onto the subject, but we started talking about… the state of the world. We talked for over an hour and eventually they asked me to come to this meeting.”

Jade nodded.

“What about you?” Gregg asked.

“I worked as a courier for a different company in Queens. I’d see the Checking Piece people all the time. I was making a delivery one day, and one of them was also making a delivery at the apartment next door. After he left, I heard a man scream. Then a woman yelled something about a rook. I didn’t think anything about it until I was on my way to my next delivery and it dawned on me. Checking Piece was the name of the service, and the woman had said ‘rook.’”

“Weird!”

“Yeah! So after my next delivery I stopped for lunch and who do you think was at the restaurant? The courier!”

“Whoa!”

“We had quite a conversation.”

“I’ll bet!”

“That was a little over a month ago. Then I decided to move upstate because the city really was getting to me. It felt like everyone was getting more and more tense, and there was more talk of the corrupt crown and the yoke of England. I overheard too much stuff as part of my job.”

“So, what made you decide to work for them?”

“Well, I’ve been staying with a friend and was just cooling my heels. I spent some time at the library reading up on history. Did you know that both New England and India revolted against England?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“New England started in the mid 1700’s and tried to form a country called the United States. England put them down. Then, in the mid 1800’s, India started an independence movement, but England put them down also.”

“Wow!”

“I read up on English rule and noticed that England’s royal family and members of Parliament have a lot of perks. Technology we could only dream of. Did you know that in London hardly anyone rides a bike? Most people have what are called motor cars. There are a lot of them in New York City, too, mainly in Manhattan. There are some in Albany because it’s the capital, but not as many.”

“Huh!”

“Anyway, I got to thinking that it wasn’t fair and that everyone should have the right. And then I remembered my conversation with that guy. So, I looked up the local Checking Piece office and talked with them.”

Their food arrived. They chatted about their likes and dislikes and growing up while they ate.

Gregg grabbed the check as soon as the waitress laid it on the table.

“We split it,”Jade said.

“I insist. I asked you out, after all.”

“Fine! Then how about we see a movie this weekend? My treat, I’m asking you out.”

Gregg laughed. “You said you’re an Agathe Christie fan?”

Jade nodded.

“Death on the Nile opens this weekend.”

“It’s a date!”

Outside, the air had cooled considerably. The evening was late and the street lights had come on.

“May I escort you home?” Gregg asked.

Jade smiled. “You may, my good sir.”