“Yeah, let’s go,” Abhimanyu said, closing a half-filled tiffin.
“And don’t forget to take today’s newspaper, Abhimanyu!” yelled Anuja as she left for the car.
Abhimanyu ran to the small table in the living room and picked up two newspapers dated 20th September 2020. He then ran to the door juggling the tiffin and the newspapers in both his hands. As he opened it, he stepped on an envelope. He bent and picked up that envelope pressing the newspapers under his arm.
“A letter, huh? Why would someone send a letter nowadays?” thought Abhimanyu.
A shrill horn from the driveway disrupted his thought . “Chalo jaldi” shouted Anuja.
Abhimanyu put the letter in his jacket and jogged to the car.
A constant pit-pat on the roof of a store, caused by the heavy droplets of rain pouring heavily over the city of Delhi. There was the usual heavy traffic at the Chandni Chowk circle. A woman was running on the footpath, covering her head with a heavy file as if it would save her from the Delhi rains. She splashed water all along as she sprinted in her sport shoes, half drenched in water. Her badge was swinging to and fro as she ran swiftly, her tall legs aiding her.
“Good afternoon, ma’am!” greeted the receptionist as the woman made her way through the entrance ignoring the receptionist. She started walking briskly through the lobby as a short man accompanied her.
“Sinha ka mood aaj achhaa hai. But Vibha, if you are going to arrive this late, then thats not going help the cause,” said Prashant, sounding concerned.
“Okay, Prashant. I am here, right? So let me take it from here. You wish me luck,” said Vibha as she left Prashant with a friendly wink.
She jogged and reached a door. She stopped at the door momentarily and murmured something to herself, and then pushed the door open.
“Oh! Here you are,” exclaimed Mr. Sinha.
“Sometimes, it feels as if we are taking your appointment and not vice versa.” “Okay, never mind, sit down,” added Mr. Sinha with a peal of sarcastic laughter.
“It’s just that I am not used to the untimely Delhi rains….
“Okay, so I was going through your file,” said Mr. Sinha interrupting Vibha. “We have indeed gotten excellent reviews from our clients lately.”
Vibha’s face cracked into a broad smile listening to this, but to her dismay it did not last long.
“You know that you are a marriage councillor, right? You are supposed to rekindle a dying marriage and not pitch both the spouses against each other!” exclaimed Mr. Sinha sternly.
Suddenly Vibha remembered the couple she had counselled last week, what had started as a small argument, which is expected between the couple in a counselling session, but eventually turned into an ugly fight as the couple hurled abuses and yelled at the top of their voices.
Vibha was jolted back to reality as Mr. Sinha snapped his fingers, leaning forward. “But sir, there were too many differences, and they needed to have that real heated face-off…
“We at “Rekindle” help couples patch up and not ignite their pre-existing differences,” shouted Mr. Sinha.
“Please get your act together and remember that, clients pay us for finding common ground and not tearing apart the remaining one. And you may leave now,” said Mr. Sinha. He was a man of few words. So he went and sat on his chair and started digging into the files.
“I will talk to the couple again and try to sort it out, sir,” said Vibha sheepishly.
Vibha just sat there for two minutes only to realize that she had no other option than to stand up and leave. As soon as she exited the room, Prashant joined her.
“Kaisa tha? Achese grill kiya na usne?” said Prashant laughing.
“Arey vo kya grill karega. Maine bol diya, my way or the highway,” said Vibha foolishly smirking, leaving behind a puzzled Prashant.
Vibha entered her cabin and sat on her chair with a thud, exhausted by the unpleasant start to her day, which had started with the heavy rains and was worsened by the recent briefing. She began rotating the chair, and while she was doing so, she saw an envelope right on her laptop. She picked it up. It had her name, a address, and a note saying, “Truth be told.” She immediately rang the bell, and a peon ran in hurriedly.
“When did this letter arrive?” asked Vibha.
“It came in this morning ma’am. I had it put on your desk. It had your name on it, so kept it in your cabin,” answered the peon.
Vibha just nodded, which was a signal for him to leave. She took a pair of scissors and tore open the letter. There was a small gift card. It had a picture of a beach and her name written on it. Below on the right-hand corner, there were a few numbers that seemed like coordinates for a place. But then it had nothing more on it. So Vibha just rolled her eyes and thought somebody was playing a prank on her and threw that gift card into the trash can.
“The couple that you counselled the other day is back, ma’am,” said the peon peeking through the half-opened door.
“Send them in,’ said Vibha.
The couple entered the room and sat on the couch. Vibha took out their file from the drawer and sat on the opposite couch.
“So I would like to start by apologizing for my act the other day and the little drama that we witnessed, which was uncalled for.” apologized Vibha.
“It’s okay, we understand. As a matter of fact, that little fight we had was like a ventilating moment for both of us and cleared out many misunderstandings,” said the wife. “In fact, we would like to apologize for creating such a drama and chaos in your cabin,” added the wife.
“After that we even went out on a small date. More of a casual dinner but we tried to rekindle our relationship, and it felt perfect!” interrupted the husband.
“Oh! Okay. That’s a surprise!” exclaimed Vibha, a little puzzled. “So now I guess we are on the right track, and we should proceed. And somebody please tell about this to the old man,” murmured Vibha.
The couple was a bit surprised to what was Vibha saying but then eventually ignored it.
“So now, proceeding with the…
Vibha was suddenly interrupted by her phone vibrating. She ignored it. Within two seconds, the phone rang again, and once again Vibha ignored and muted it.
“You should receive the call. It could be something important,” suggested the wife.
“Oh no, it’s fine,” said Vibha.
Five minutes into the session, her phone pinged, and she received a text message from the same number. This time she opened the text, which read.
Did you receive the gift card too? If you did, please call back as soon as possible.
–Abhimanyu.
This message took her by surprise and even more so because it had come from Abhimanyu. Now Vibha was getting anxious as to what Abhimanyu had to say to her so urgently and was now thinking of ways to end the session.
Keeping the phone aside, Vibha said, “Mr. and Mrs. Hasan, I am sorry for the interruption, but you were right. It was something urgent. My uncle is a paralytic patient, and he just had an episode of convulsions. So I might have to rush there now. So is there any chance that we could carry forward this meeting to next week, and I assure you that the office will adjust your appointment accordingly. It’s just that this is urgent. Hope you understand,” said Vibha in an apologetic tone.
“Okay, no problem. We understand,” said Mrs. Hasan getting up from the couch. “Hope your uncle gets well soon and you take care too,” added Mr. Hasan.
Vibha walked them to the door and shut the door as soon as they left. She locked the door behind them and walked to the dust bin and removed the thrown card. She again examined it but found nothing peculiar on it. She then called back on the number from which she had received the message.
“Hello! You finally called,” said Abhimanyu on the other side of the phone.
“Abhimanyu. What is all this about the gift card?” asked Vibha.
“Did you receive one, too?” asked Abhimanyu curiously.
&nb
sp; “Yeah, but I thought someone was playing a prank on me, so I threw it in the dustbin,” answered Vibha.
“Okay, you did not see it then. Could you flip the card and look at the top right corner of the card,” said Abhimanyu.
“There is a date written there, 23/09/2020,” readout Vibha. “But I find nothing peculiar in that.”
“Vibha, It’s 23rd, my birth date. The same date we had the house party at my farmhouse 20 years back, remember?” said Abhimanyu in a sharp tone.
Listening to this, Vibha was stunned for a second and then replied in a crackling voice, “What about that now?” “Why would someone send a gift card with that date on it?”
“I have no idea Vibha...
“Wait a minute. So the numbers are coordinates to some place. Did you check those Abhimanyu?” asked Vibha hurriedly, interrupting Abhimanyu.
“Yes, I did, and they are for someplace in Panaji in Goa,” said Abhimanyu. “Isn’t the 23rd of September five days from now? That’s odd,” said Vibha, still staring at the gift card.
“Yes, it is. I guess whoever sent us this, wants us to be there on this particular date only,” guessed Abhimanyu.
There was a weird silence on both the sides, and breaking this silence, Vibha said, “Do you think all six of us might have received it?”
“I guess so. We both have received it, so probably they might have received it too,” replied Abhimanyu
“Yeah, right.”
“How is Richa? Heard from her lately?” asked Abhimanyu
“I did visit her in the behavioural centre about a month back. She seemed fine to me” “We did not talk much. But she kept on murmuring something. After all, she was the most traumatized of us all. She did not take it well,” said Vibha
“It was traumatizing for all of us Vibha. It was just that she got the most affected,” said Abhimanyu
“Okay. All right. I will get in touch with Kaajal and check if she has received this gift card too,” said Vibha.
“Yeah, you do that. I will check on the others,” replied Abhimanyu hanging up the call.
Chapter 7
“Tick Tock! Tick Tock!” a woman murmured continuously, sitting on a chair in a brightly lit room filled with people babbling. The chattering in the room had numbed down the television’s sound, which had become nothing more than a background noise. The people in the room wore a uniform, and every uniform had a serial number. Everybody was busy in their own world, but this woman sitting on the chair stared at the television and kept on murmuring, “Tick Tock! Tick Tock!” The commotion around, did not bother her a bit. She sat so steadily, that even an earthquake could not have shaken her and displaced her from her position. And right then the steel door buzzed, and in came the warden and walked up to that woman.
“You have a visitor today. Let’s go,” said the warden tapping her electric rod on the wooden chair. The woman still sat there without moving a muscle and was still murmuring.
“All right, Let’s go!” yelled the warden.
This time the woman suddenly stopped with the murmuring and looked up at the warden with a poker face. She stood up and started walking stiffly towards the steel door, murmuring continuously while she walked.
Through the corridor, she walked with heavy steps, continually looking down at the floor. At the other end of the hallway was one more steel door. The warden buzzed the door open, and they walked into a big, well-ventilated room with sunlight pouring in from the three big windows, illuminating the whole room. Everyone sitting in the room was talking with their visitors. Some were laughing, some just fighting, and some just sitting there without having a conversation.
The guard took the woman to table number 22, where a lady was waiting for her. She stood up as soon as she saw the warden coming in with the woman.
"I want the chains removed. Here is the token for it,” said the lady to the warden. Without saying anything, the warden took out the handcuffs and the chains and left.
“They are treating you well here, huh,” said the lady.
“Kaajal could you do away with the greetings and get done with this,” said the woman in a hoarse voice.
“I am just here to look upon you, Richa, that’s it,” replied Kaajal.
“I don’t need you!!” added Richa raising her voice this time.
“Richa, that unfateful night had an impact on all of us in different ways. It’s just that you started behaving a little odd when all that we were asking you to do, was to get over it and put it behind you,” said Kaajal leaning forward and clenching her teeth.
“Get out and leave me alone!” exclaimed Richa slamming her fist on the table. This time she was loud enough to catch everyone’s attention as everyone turned towards their table.
“Calm down, Richa! exclaimed Kaajal. “You went to the police Richa! And you had started getting hallucinations. We did not do this to harm you, but rather, to do good to you,” whispered Kaajal. “You think we wanted all of this? Especially me?” she added.
Richa was half-listening to her as she was busy sharpening her nails and looking down at the table. Just then, Kaajal bent down and took out a small gift card from her bag.
“Here, open it,” said Kaajal sliding the card towards Richa. Richa just stared at it for a while only to pick it up and open it. She read the gift card and looked up at Kaajal.
“Look at the date written at the top right corner…
“It’s Abhimanyu. It’s the same date” she said unclearly, now staring at Kaajal in disbelief.
“Yeah its Abhimanyu’s birth date, but I have no idea what it means, what I do know is that whoever sent us this wants us to be there at that location on the 23rd, which is three days from now,” said Kaajal, pointing at the coordinates on the gift card. “So I am here to take you out for a few days.
“I checked with the reception and you have not received any such gift card. That’s the reason I am here to pick you up. I just thought it would be best to take you along for your safety,” said Kaajal consoling Richa, who was incessantly rocking to and fro on the chair.
“It’s a right turn from this side road, I guess. Yes, that’s the one. At least that’s what the map says,” said Vibha instructing Abhimanyu.
They were in the middle of a countryside road with dense jungle on both sides of the road. There was a dusty milestone on the left side that read Panaji 25kms. The sun was beaming down. A small crooked side road led somewhere into the jungle and was the subject of the debate between Abhimanyu and Vibha.
“Are you sure this is the right way? I don’t think this leads anywhere,” asked Abhimanyu, a little confused.
“Yeah, take this right. Surely this is the one,” assured Vibha.
“Doesn’t even qualify for a road,” said a disgusted Abhimanyu, as he took the right turn.
“How are Akansha and Anuja?” she asked.
“They are fine and at home,” he replied
“You should have brought them along. For a mini vacation,” she said.
“Seriously? That’s what is on your mind right now? And this isn’t any vacation that I might tag them along,” said Abhimanyu firmly, trying to drive on the half paved rocky road.
“I really hope someone is playing a prank on us now,” said Vibha sheepishly.
They drove on that rocky road for a couple of kilometres, and then they came to a halt because that’s where the map ended.
Abhimanyu turned down the engine and got out of the car. He had a look around. The place was surrounded by dense forest. A little further was a small well with algae growing all over it. And on the left side of the well was a small wrecked warehouse. It was completely covered in dust, its walls had wide cracks with creepers growing out of them. The warehouse was like in the middle of nowhere, completely hostile and away from human existence.
“Is this the place? This is where we had to arrive?” questioned Vibha, irritated on the sight of the ruin. Abhimanyu was still looking around, trying to find the place.
�
�I think it must be that wrecked warehouse. Let’s go and check it out,” suggested Abhimanyu walking towards the warehouse.
They walked towards the warehouse and found a door covered with cobwebs and wild plants. Abhimanyu found a big branch. He then tried to cut all the cobwebs and plants with it and then had to kick the door open. As soon as he opened the door, a gush of musty wind welcomed them, making them cough and sneeze. Abhimanyu helped Vibha to enter the warehouse. They started walking around in the warehouse, covering their faces. The whole warehouse looked like it was at least fifty years old. There was a yarn in one corner and a few other weaving machines covered in dust. Three windows were the only source of sunlight, one of them being completely broken. Abhimanyu, while moving around, found another door and went towards it. He held it by the handle and yanked it vigorously, trying to open it.
“Tried it before too. Could not open it,” said a man walking into the warehouse from the main entrance. Both Vibha and Abhimanyu were startled, and Vibha ran towards Abhimanyu.
“We both tried it, but we couldn’t. I guess it doesn’t want to be opened,” said another man walking inside, dusting his t-shirt.
“Nishant! Ishaan!” exclaimed Vibha.
“Oh, so you guys have already arrived here,” said Abhimanyu. The four of them walked towards each other and hugged each other.
“But tell me, how did you guys enter? The door was locked, right?” asked Vibha.
“Who do you think broke that window. We came in from there,” replied Nishant, pointing at the broken window.
“Yeah, right. It was his idea to do that,” added Ishaan.
“Kaajal kidhar hai?” added Ishaan.
“We have no idea. She might have received the card too, given that you guys received it too. Maybe she is on her way here,” said Abhimanyu walking around in the warehouse.
“How is life as a photographer coming through Ishaan?” asked Vibha
“Oh! It’s going smooth. I am working with a famous photographer based in Amsterdam. And surprisingly the pay is decent too,” he replied.
“And what about marriage?” Vibha asked out of nowhere.
Into The Shadows Page 4