“Monkey Temple,”
The rickshaw driver grinned.
“This is the zoo.”
“Yes. Monkey Temple.”
His teeth flashed white through the rearview mirror.
Dani crossed her arms in the back seat.
“Drive. Us. To. Galta-ji.”
Ten minutes later, he did.
~
The trail climbed up, then wound downhill into a valley.
Below us, monkeys sat on walls, splashed in pools, and watched us from rooftops.
One jumped on Dani’s back. She shrieked, then apologized.
“For what?”
“For startling. I chased away the monkey, and you lost the photo.”
“No. I’m just glad you’re okay.”
We continued downhill.
Beyond the pools stood the temples. The buildings looked beautiful in a neglected sort of way. Floral designs still covered the walls, though much of the plaster had chipped away with age. In the courtyards, monkeys played.
I wandered toward the doorway of one temple, assuming it stood abandoned.
A monk stepped from the darkness. He looked thin, dirty, and nearly naked.
“Come. I will show God to you.”
Before I could answer, he turned and walked back inside.
I followed. I don’t know why.
He led me past a courtyard and down a hallway. Sunlight flickered through broken roofs and walls. Trees and vines grew where rooms used to be. He stopped before a wooden door and pulled a skeleton key from somewhere inside his robes.
“God is underground.”
The lock clicked, and he pushed the door open.
Blackness first, then my eyes adjusted.
Inside sat a tiny room with mud walls and an orange bedroll on the floor. A single candle flickered beside a blue idol holding a bow.
“God.”
He sounded reverent.
He gestured for me to enter, and for the first time, I hesitated.
“Where’s Dani? Where’s my wife?”
I turned around.
She wasn’t behind me.
“I … I need to go.”
Then I rounded a corner, trying to retrace my way out, and saw her.
Another monk was leading her through the same temple.
She looked just as uncertain as I felt.
When she saw me, her face changed immediately.
“I… think we should leave.”
I reached for her hand.
No footsteps echoed after ours as we moved through the halls—left then right, my body knowing the way.
A few seconds later we stepped back into the sunlight.
The monkeys still played in the pool.