The Translator

“Are you sure you want to go here?” The cabby asked Jahlia. It was the fifth time since she handed him the address, on a piece of paper, as they left the airport.

“Yes, I know this isn’t the best part of town, but it is what I can afford.” She smiled at him as he opened the door and set the two large suitcases beside her.

“I hope I don’t see you on the street. If you know what I mean.” He admonished. His accent very pronounced, but his intonation left no doubt what he meant. “You have a job?’

“Yes, I will be working at the United Nations Building, I am a linguist.” She smiled at the older man.

He spoke in his native tongue, but her brain translated the words quickly and she answered him.

“You understand what I am saying?” he asked.

“Yes.” She answered in his dialect. His eyebrows raised in surprise.

“You will do very well there.” This time he spoke in a different dialect. She nodded and responded in that dialect. “I know I will.”

“You are working in the office?” he asked in yet a third dialect.

“I don’t know where I will be working. I go tomorrow for the orientation.” She again matched his dialect.

“Indeed, you are very talented.” This time he reverted to English.

“Thank you. I feel privileged to be chosen from my small village.”

“Where are you from?” his voice was less friendly.

“I am from, Modaju, a small village in the mountains of Croatia.”

He was silent for a moment then smiled, “I wish you well in your new venture.” He touched the brim of his hat and nodded before returning to the driver’s seat.

Jahlia watched as he drove away. There was something very odd about him. He spoke to her in three dialects, all from different counties and none of them common. Was he Modajan like herself? If so why didn’t he mention the fact? She went into the building and found the door marked "Office."

The caretaker of the building gave her a key to her apartment, but didn’t offer to help carry her bags. She pulled the bags along to the elevator and pushed the button.

“It doesn’t work, in fact it has never worked. No matter how often we complain, they never fix it.” A young woman stood at the doorway of an apartment. “Hey Jon, come out and help this girl.” She yelled in French, back into the room. “What room did the old bat give you?” she turned to Jahlia.

“Twelve.” Jahlia relinquished her hold on the cases as a very large black man stepped out of the apartment behind the woman.

“Hi, I am Suki and this is Jon. We work at the United Nations building and I will bet so do you.” She held out her hand.

Jahlia shook it and nodded at the man who had already begun to climb the stairs. “I start my orientation tomorrow.”

“Great. We leave here at 7:00 am, so we can show you around to the classroom. The building is bit difficult to find to from here, but the subway takes us as close as we can get. We found a short cut through the tunnels so we don’t get wet when it is raining or snowing.” She finished as they arrived at number twelve on the second floor.

“Thank you for carrying my bags. I am sorry they are so heavy.” Jahlia spoke to the man.

“He doesn’t speak English. He works in the French area and speaks only French, and his own African dialect.” Suki nodded to him he started to turn away.

The man was staring at Suki.

"Thank you for helping me," Jahlia included both, but spoke in French.

Jon swung around and came back to the two women.“You speak my language?” Suki''s mouth was shaped in an "o" as she listened and understood the conversation.

“Oui,” Jahlia answed.

Jahlia looked around the hall and motioned for the two to follow her inside her apartment. She shut the door behind them and looked around her new abode.

It was clean, one large room where a couch and two chairs face each other. Along one wall was a counter that ended next to a small refrigerator, and at the other end was a tiny stove. The sink was in the middle and cupboards were above and below the counter. A door was open and she could see a bed.

“Not bad for the rent.” Suki watched her take the tour, “unfortunately the bathroom is shared by you and another tenant. Sarah is in number eleven. She is okay. You have a key and so does she. There are two towel racks, soap holders and cupboards. I wouldn’t leave anything in them that you don’t want used or stolen. Now I want to know how Jon can understand what I am saying and I can understand him.”

“You can because I am the medium.” At this Suki and Jon both backed up a little.

“A medium?” Suki repeated.

“Yes, a linguist medium. Your languages filter through me and I allow them to be translated into a language you understand. Let’s say English. You hear what you can understand in your own language even when spoken by someone who doesn’t know your language.”

“From now on we can speak English?” Jon asked testing the theory.

“If you are with me, yes. But once you are out of my control area, then you will revert back to the way you were. Translation only occurs when I am open and in close proximity to you. I will ask you not to tell anyone about this. It isn’t a trick or something that I broadcast. It can have very adverse reactions.”

Suki laughed, “I bet. Hearing things you aren’t supposed to.”

“Yes there is that.Thank goodness I have learned to control the area around me. Otherwise it can be disasterous.”

Suki grabbed her arm gently, "I am so going to take you to my manicurist. I know they are talking about me."

Jahlia laughed, "Yes, I have done that once in a while. It teaches the women a little more respect for the clients. They aren't so quick to make fun of people."

“I'll bet. We'll let you get unpacked and you will need to get some food supplies.” Jon nodded at the bare, slightly open cupboard door. "Come down stairs when you are through and we can go out for dinner and shopping.” They closed the door behind them and she heard them trying to speak English but reverting to French when they moved down the hall.

The next morning Jahlia stepped into the crowded elevator after Suki had given her directions to the orientation room. There had been no conversation at first, but as the box moved on its path upwards she heard a whispered conversation, “The meeting has been set. You will get your signal and time on your phone. Do you have it?”

“Yes, who is bringing the weapons?’

“You will have that just before the meeting.” The doors opened and the two men pushed their way out. Jahlia, looked at one their badges as they passed her. It was green, with his picture and the name, Simon Rashti – India printed on it.

The other people in the elevator didn’t look as if they heard, but as soon as the doors opened on the next two floors they hurried out and away. Jahlia knew they understood the conversation, she hoped they would report what they heard. There was no way at the present she could tell anyone what she heard.

After her orientation, the large group of new candidates were broken into smaller groups and taken on a tour of the building.

“We will have to take some of the stairways as there is a delegation meeting today and security is very tight. Their meeting will be held in one of the large conference auditoriums.” The tour guide told them as they made their way down the hallway to a doorway marked “Stairs.”

She spoke about the different meeting rooms, and types of services offered in the building to the delegates. They turned on the landing of the stairs and three men were standing in the open doorway. One, Jahlia recognized as Simon from the elevator, his back was to her.

“They suspect nothing.” He was saying, “Ashish will bring in the powder and dust the food before they eat, by tonight they will all be dead.” The final words ended as the door shut between the men on the landing and the group that had just passed into the hallway of that floor.

“Did you hear that?” on of the men in the group whispered. “Maybe we should tell some one?” Their tour guide was nervous and hurried down the hall ushering them into a small waiting room. “Get me security, now!” she demanded to the woman seated at the desk.

Within minutes, black suited men with curly cords that ran from somewhere in their suits to their ears, were asking questions. Jahlia tighten her senses so there was no imput or output of translation. Each person that didn’t speak English had to have an interpreter. She stepped forward to help where she could. The men repeated question ‘how did you all hear the same thing, in your own language?’ no one answered, they shrugged their shoulders.

The three security men took four each of the group and headed in different directions. Jahlia’s group was moving to the main staircase. “Wait here for a moment.” They were stopped outside the men’s restroom.

After a moment, two men came running out and headed to the stairs, security was on the move after them. They continued down the stairs and Jahlia could see them sliding on the railings just as the security guard came out of the restroom.

“Yes Sir,” he was speaking into his lapel, “They were talking at the wash stand. Yes they saw me come in. They were talking low but I don’t know why they thought I wouldn’t hear what they were saying. I-well as quickly as I could I called it in. They heard me.”

The shouting down below had stopped. Jahlia wanted to lean over the rail to see what had happened. Instead, their leader turned them over to a woman staff member, who motioned for them to follow her.

“I am sorry for all the excitement. Normally it is very quiet here. I don’t know what is going on, but security is all over us today.” The little group followed her.

The end of the hall opened to a circular area with windows that overlooked an auditorium. Jahlia looked down into the room and saw someone she recognized, he was dressed in a black suit with some ribbons on the lapel.

“Miss, do you know who that man is?” Jahlia asked the woman leading them to some obscure location.

“I do not know his name but I am sure he is part of the delegation. See the blue ribbon?” She seemed unconcerned and started to move away.

“Yesterday he was my cab driver.” Jahlia told her. “He seemed a bit odd to me. He knows many languages.”

At that moment the man in question, on the floor below looked up. He saw Jahlia standing there and his eyes narrowed but he turned away. He spoke quickly to the man next to him. Across from him another man shouted. The cab driver, shook his head frantically and held up his hands. The man next to him tried to speak, but the cab driver said something and hit him with a cane. The driver dropped to the floor.

The staff woman next to Jahlia gasped, "Something is wrong down there. Stay here, all of you, don’t move from this spot.” She ran to a panel on the wall that opened to reveal a phone. Jahlia didn't listen to what she was saying, she watched the action on the floor below.

In the auditorium there was confusion and pandemonium. Jahlia could see the men looking across the room and at each other. They were pointing, and shouting and some were tackling others to the floor. Everyone was trying to be heard, yet acted surprised when they were understood and heard retaliation in their own language. Staff dressed in their serving uniforms entered unaware of what was happening and pulled the curtain, revealing the tables of food prepared, the little group above gasped in recognition.

“If they eat they will die!” one of the women whispered.

“We have to warn them!” a man added.

“How? Will they believe us?” another voiced his concern.

“We have to try,” was the response.

Jahlia nodded and they moved to the door that opened to the balcony above the main floor. The little group trooped in and made their way to the railing.

One of their group, a man with a deep voice, shouted above the din. “Stop! Do not move, Listen to me or you will be going to your death.”

Everyone on the floor stopped moving and looked up. The look of surprise was on their faces, but they listened.

“The food on the tables has been poisoned. Do not eat or drink anything. Some one has sabotaged this meeting.”

“How is it that we all understand you?” someone shouted back.

No one spoke for a moment. Then the shouting resumed, each side accusing the other of the atrosity. The wait staff backed out of the room only to be cornered by security that swarmed into the room.

Before anymore questions could be asked, Jahlia smiled, moved out into the hall and down the stairs to the main doors. At the edge of the square she looked up at the many flags that lined the plaza. Now she would have time to explore this wonderful city before she went home.