The Memoir

by Vaibhav Reddy IVN

  ‘So, why did you shoot me? Was it because I killed your dad or something else?’

  Vanessa took a pause before answering him. ‘I would have ensured you were dead, if not for Manyap. When I found you leaving my dad’s office hurriedly, I did not understand why you were there. But when I discovered my dad dead, I came to the conclusion that you were his murderer. So I tracked you down and shot you. As soon as I shot you, Manyap called your mobile and began pleading not to commit suicide just because you killed my father, who was involved in Operation Rochen Fort. I accessed my dad’s office camera from my phone and saw your conversation. I partly understood my dad’s guilt and completely believed you. So I took you to hospital, admitted you there and left fearing that you might die because of me. Fortunately, you sustained just a concussion, an abdominal wound and coma for few days.’

  THE MEMOIR

  Vanessa stood weeping as Daniel lost consciousness after falling down on the ground. Before she could manage her various emotions, his phone began ringing and she reached into his pocket to fish it out. It said “Manyap”. She answered the call.

  ‘Daniel, listen to me. There is no point in committing suicide. I understand the guilt you are experiencing about killing Belfort and Romero. But, they were accidental and for the right cause. You need not bear the guilt.’

  The right cause?

  Vanessa ended the call abruptly and reached for her phone to access the camera in her father’s bar. When she saw the conversation between Daniel and her father, she understood the circumstances partly. However, she completely understood her father’s guilt and arrogance, and justification for Daniel’s actions. She deleted the footage off the server and removed traces of it. She dragged Daniel towards her car and piled him in. She put the car in gear and sped towards Kraminko General Hospital.

  BACK FROM THE PAST

  Vanessa remembered the oath she had given Manyap in the hospital about how she would not reveal their murder of Belfort, which played a major role in Daniel’s suicidal intentions.

  Daniel marveled how to react to his near death experience. ‘Fortunately?’

  ‘Yeah, if I had taken into consideration that you grew closer to Margaret while working in the Old-Age Home, you would have been dead.’

  Daniel recollected Manyap asking if he loved Margaret, which inclined him to believe that he not only grew closer to her, but also had begun loving her. Believing that that part of his past was a stranger to him, he decided not to recollect it again and not to disclose those details to Vanessa. ‘Just a concussion?’ Daniel asked.

  ‘Yeah. So, you were relieved of the painful years of our relationship and the activities that took place in the SAF because of that concussion.’

  Daniel laughed at her explanation and slapped her hand. ‘I always wanted to ask you something. Why did you particularly love me of all those ninety members of our class and the thousands of boys in the country?’

  ‘Well,’ she said, thinking for a moment. ‘In our first year, we had an open discussion about how we would react if we woke up one day and found ourselves changed to the opposite gender. Then, you said, “I would try to attract some drunkard rapist and then burst his balls to show him that girls aren’t weak. They only differ in anatomy, but not in physical strength”.’

  Daniel smiled and shifted his attention to his phone, when he received a notification from the Fremia Daily app and it said “Gary Fernandez, Ross Jankis’s friend and perpetrator behind trapping Ross in the conspiracy, whereabouts unknown since the past four years.” Daniel studied the news and felt at a loss of words.

  ‘Vanessa, excuse me for a minute,’ he said and dialed Xavier’s name. ‘Daniel, I need to talk to you about something important urgently.’

  Daniel Xavier complied to meet him at Sodding Love.

  ‘Vanessa, I have something important to talk with Xavier about my father. I think it’s better if you leave,’ he said.

  ‘OK, meet you later. I have got to make arrangements for our wedding.’

  Once she left, Daniel ordered another lime tea and sipped it slowly until Xavier arrived in his lost-and-found Corolla. He took the seat opposite him.

  ‘I would have made you pay for the car if it was lost,’ he said, pointing to his Corolla.

  ‘But, it’s pretty fine there. What isn’t fine is my dilemma,’ Daniel said, leaning forward.

  ‘What’s with that?’ Xavier asked.

  Daniel opened the app and pushed his phone towards Xavier to show the newsfeed. He studied it for a few moments and fell silent. ‘So, Daniel, was his friendship with Ross Jankis his only connection with Operation Rochen Fort?’

  Xavier clasped his hands together and shifted his gaze to Daniel’s questioning face. ‘No, as you have already seen, that wasn’t all. He was a friend of Ross Jankis, but as I have revealed in my report, he cheated him for money. It is your father, Daniel. I couldn’t say this to your face for the second time.’

  ‘Second time?’

  ‘Yeah, I told this to you as part of our agreement along with some names. Right then, you were anxious and disappointed after knowing this. You said that it might be the reason your mother denied his existence because she knew that he was responsible for these things.’

  Daniel held his head and tried to press back tears of anger. He felt ashamed for what his father had committed all those years ago. He did not attempt to draw any conclusions supporting his father’s deception, and let his father’s guilt change his opinion about his father. He recollected how he had tried to commit suicide when Vanessa came to shoot him. He wondered if this added to his list of guilt.

  The sins of the damned father!

  ‘So, do you know anything about Ross’s family?’

  ‘He was survived by a son and a wife. However, they disappeared together after the investigators were done with investigation. However, movers emptied their house overnight and the neighbors claimed that they might have moved somewhere else. However, they recovered Ross’s body after he was found hanging in his ancestral house.’

  Daniel managed a meek smile. ‘I can’t believe this. But, if you can find something about the Jankis family, let me know.’

  THE WEDDING- A MONTH LATER

  ‘So, you wouldn’t drink even in your marriage?’ Martello asked, stretching out the champagne glass towards Daniel.

  Daniel studied Vanessa’s face for a moment and the curiosity in her face was unmistakable. ‘No Milan, you know that I don’t.’

  Martello nodded and drowned it himself. ‘Thought so.’

  Daniel shifted his attention to Vanessa. ‘For a moment, you thought that I was going to, right?’

  Vanessa nodded and burst into laughter.

  ‘If Vanessa asks you to, would you?’ Martello asked, rising from his chair.

  ‘No,’ Daniel said.

  ‘Thank god, I thought you were going to be henpecked.’

  As Martello walked towards the drinks section, Vanessa’s mother excused herself and walked towards some guests. ‘So, she doesn’t know about me and your father?’

  Vanessa shook her head. ‘No, she doesn’t. However, she was more depressed by the revelations and the criticism my father received. Luckily, the RCAF closed the investigation of his murder, claiming that murderer’s murder isn’t worth investigating. I wonder who must have drawn such a conclusion to relieve themselves of the strain to investigate it.’

  ‘Yeah, I was like, “What the hell?” after listening to that statement. I don’t understand whose motive it was.’

  Manyap walked in with his fiancée, Jenny, and joined them at the table. Daniel stole a glance at Manyap’s new Rolex and said, ‘such a costly watch, yet late for the party.’

  ‘A gift from the government, I could say. You are lucky I was posted here in the city to take care of arrangements for the elections. If it was the borders, there’s no way I could manipulate my higher officials to let me leave so early.’

  ‘At least, you came, buddy.’

&nb
sp; ‘So, what are your plans for the future?’ Manyap asked.

  ‘I am trying to get back into Kraminko General Hospital and my post-graduation. There is a desperate need to retaliate my sins with medicine,’ Daniel said, turning to the photos of his mother and Vanessa’s father placed on either side of the dais.

  ‘Suits you pretty well,’ Manyap said, raising his glass. ‘Where’s our Fremian Sherlock?’

  ‘Hasn’t come yet,’ Daniel said, surveying the crowd. Fremian Sherlock was the new name given to Daniel Xavier after the announcement of his hand behind the revelation.

  As if he heard them, Xavier emerged out of the crowd with a heavy gift pack in his hand. He settled beside Daniel and placed the gift-pack in his lap.

  ‘Happy Married life,’ he said.

  Daniel hugged him and handed the present to Vanessa. Vanessa weighed the pack in her hands and asked, ‘what have we got here, another conspiracy report?’

  Xavier managed a meek smile and said, ‘no, I spare you this one time. It is something not even completely related to Daniel.’

  Daniel threw his questioning look at Xavier, who responded with an “open it” gaze. Daniel set his soft drink aside and removed the wrapping of the gift. It was a worn out photo album.

  ‘It belongs to Rachel Jankis, Ross’s wife. She left it along with some other things in a box in the attic when she moved from Silvinkeria. It has some photos of your father and mother too,’ Xavier said, looking around for the waiter. But his eyes remained fixed on the dais and he grabbed Daniel’s arm suddenly. ‘Who’s that?’

  Daniel saw that he was pointing at his mom’s photo. ‘She’s my mom, Celina. I captured it with my first camera. I lost her four years ago,’ he explained to prevent the conversation from progressing in that direction.

  ‘But…’ Xavier stuttered.

  ‘Yeah? Is something the matter?’ Vanessa asked, as Daniel remained busy in opening the album carefully.

  Xavier tried to let out words, but failed to produce the right words. ‘It can’t be,’ he said, snatching the album from Daniel. He turned to the first photo and laid the album on the table for everyone to see. It was a photo of Ross Jankis and Rachel Jankis. The photo left him transfixed and words failed him. It was his mother with Ross. He turned the page hurriedly and found a photo of Ross and her on one side of a snowman with Gary and another woman on the other side.

  ‘This is Gary’s wife, Regina,’ Xavier said, pointing to the woman on Gary’s left. ‘According to your story, she is supposed to be your mother, Daniel, not Rachel.’

  Daniel studied the faces and ran his shivering fingers over the faces of Rachel and Ross. The photo to the right of it had a younger Daniel with Ross and Rachel. Below it, it said- 2nd BIRTHDAY OF MICHAEL WUD JANKIS. Daniel had grown up with only his childhood photos in his home and no other photo of his mother or father. Tears fell on the photo and Daniel wiped them off the photo as if the photo will be permanently lost.

  THE MEMOiR

  The first recollection of my father was the best thing that had happened to me after my mom, and before Vanessa. My years at medical school taught me many things, which helped me care for the sick. But it also taught me that children could not remember everything from their childhood since their brains aren’t so well developed. However, I had only this one recollection of my father where I saw him oscillate my swing as I enjoyed the wind in my hair. But looking at both Ross and Gary in a single photo, a new memory came back.

  I was two or three maybe. I saw myself in an enormous green field sitting beside a heavy bag with long sticks, while two men hit a tiny white ball with long sticks. I realized that I was sad and it took me few moments to make out that I needed a chocolate desperately, which I my dad had denied me. I started weeping aloud, which turned the two men towards me. The two of them walked towards me and knelt before me asking what I needed.

  ‘Chooclateeeee,’ I said.

  They both smiled at my naughtiness. , I collapsed on the green ground trying to catch my breath. ‘Ross, what’s wrong with him? He collapsed,’ the man wearing a white cap said. The man with brown cap shook my face violently and then stood up.

  ‘Gary, I will get him help. Take care of him while I go and call the ambulance,’ the man with brown cap said and sped away as I watched through my hazy vision.

  The man in white cap pressed his palm gently on my chest and blew air into my mouth.

  ‘Michael, get up!’

  At that moment, I felt that he was no less than a dad for me.

  BACK FROM THE PAST

  The sudden recollection explained everything as to why his mom had changed their names, her locale and everything that she called hers. As he began relating his features to Ross Jankis, the weight of guilt he bore on his chest seemed to subside and his hatred for Gary aggravated, while his pity for Ross Jankis modulated into love.

  The tears welling up in his eyes seemed to say I love you, Dad!

  SOMEWHERE IN MERCUPO- TWO DAYS AFTER THE REVELATIONS

  Maxim walked slowly towards the heavy truck as it stopped in front of their den to dump the dead-bodies from the shootout. Despite the excruciating pain in his arthritic knees, he stood there counting the bodies, as his men loaded them out of the truck. As the mutilated bodies of Mudassir and his family were laid down in front of him, the pain in his heart exacerbated and he felt a burning rage in him, which he had last felt many years ago when he inspired his friend Mudassir to fight for the liberation of Mercupo.

  One of his men approached him from behind. ‘Sir, The Invincible Army has announced David’s nephew as the next leader.’

  Maxim managed a smile, despite his sorrow and said, ‘A new leader shall rise. Neither will I spare The Invincible Army nor Fremia!’

  MERCUPO ISLANDS- FOUR YEARS AGO

  Gary Fernandez shut his eyes tightly as the men in front of him murmured something to themselves. The only things that he recalled repeatedly amidst the darkness were the smiling faces of his wife and son the day he left his hill-house to meet Gabriel Romero to negotiate his extra pay to keep the truth and proofs confined to himself. But when he returned home after negotiating it successfully, he found his wife and son dead in the bedroom, while Markus Levisohn waited in the living room with a gun in his hand.

  ‘You shouldn’t have messed with the wrong people,’ Markus said.

  As Gary made a maneuver to tackle the heavy person, Markus brought him down on the floor with a single fist to his abdomen. Markus stood over him and raised Gary’s leg from the ground. One of Markus’s men handed him Gary’s golf-stick, which he used to break Gary’s right leg. Then, Markus lighted a pile of papers on the table with some kerosene and gestured in his associate’s direction. The man walked into the kitchen.

  ‘I’m doing this the old way. By the time the leaked gas reaches this fire and burns your house, you can either crawl out any way you like, or lay there and die with the rest of your family. Choice is yours.’

  Markus made an exit with his men and closed the door behind him; Gary decided to abandon the remains of his family and tried to escape.

  One of the four men, whom he assumed to be Jeremy Miller, walked forward. He fixed a silencer to his gun and aimed the gun at his forehead. ‘Thanks for your information about Operation Rochen Fort. If not for your aggressiveness towards my father, I wouldn’t have known about it.’

  Gary counted seconds until his death and tried to bring back the picture of his wife and son for one last time. But, what returned was the Ross Jankis’s sharp gaze at him as Markus shoved him into the van.

  RIMONE PRISON- TWO MONTHS LATER

  The two months since his capture in the summerhouse had gone like a flash amidst his dwelling between consciousness and deep slumber. When the sedatives had finally drowned off, Jeremy experienced the real pain. The pain was in neither his right arm, whose humerus was fractured by the bullet nor his left arm that was rendered useless by the bullet. The searing pain in his chest neither allowed him to sleep nor
stay awake. He tired himself out daily by walking around his cell idly until he was tired out to the point that he could not do it anymore.

  The judiciary had given him “life-imprisonment” and “solitary confinement”. While everyone thought it was a best way to serve a disabled like him, he thought that it was another chance for him to prepare, to complete what he was destined to do.

  Jeremy strolled towards the wall and leaned forward so that the fingers of his right hand in the sling touched the wall. He scratched at it with his overgrown nail as bits of his nail broke and fell off. For a man who lost it all, bits of nail did not seem to be much. When he finally completed it, he proudly read the scribbled word- DESTINY?

  ‘Jeremy, I sensed that you were alone. So, I thought of helping you fight your loneliness,’ a voice said from behind.

  Jeremy turned around and saw Ethan in his usual black suit, sitting on his bed with his legs crossed. He smiled at Jeremy and extended his arms wide.

  ‘Ethan! Thank goodness! You are here,’ Jeremy said, grinning.

  ###

  Thank you for reading my book. I hope that you liked it. Would you mind leaving a review to encourage more readers to read my book?

  Thank you

  Vaibhav Reddy IVN

  THE MEMOIR OF MY WRITING EXPERIENCE

  Since you are here, I believe that you liked some part of it, or the whole of it, or maybe not. Anyway, this is to thank:

  My Mom and Dad (V&J), who did not particularly appreciate me writing, yet provided me with all the support I needed.

  My Brother (N) (my best and worst critic), who was the first to get to know the story, not because he read the book, because I narrated it to him.

  All those literary agents, who did not believe in my work. Your refusal was my motivation to go on.