6: An Obscurity, A Homecoming:

“What??”

Aileen turned around in one abrupt moment, her sudden action causing the girl sitting across the mirror to squirm as a result Aileen ended up cutting the girl’s thick long reddish locks a little more than that was required. The girl gasped just when khushi marched into the saloon with determined steps looking between the two who right now gazed each other with confusion. While one had a bewildered look, the other had a look of apology.

“Oh I’m so sorry” Aileen apologized, her hands already working with the red locks, adjusting the extra chopped strand. The girl looked at herself in the mirror, even as Aileen glared at Khushi from behind just when they heard a laugh of excitement.

“Oh it’s alright, I guess this gives the hair a kind of new look…” the girl spoke, adjusting the shorter strand to the side of her face.

“Are you sure?”

Khushi watched as her friend, the hair dresser Aileen Logan talking to her customer whilst arranging her hair, rolling and settling the ends, applying some gel, all the while shifting from her one foot to another quite impatiently.

“Ailie!” she called out only to be silenced by her friend.

“K! Have you lost? What did you say?” Aileen asked as soon as her customer left the room, making way for another customer to enter in.  She then signaled her assistant to give her a few minutes, before turning her attention to Khushi completely.

“Color my hair red!”

“What??” Aileen exclaimed yet again incredulously.

“Which part of color-my-hair-red, do you find it hard to understand?”

“All of it! I have been behind your back like forever now, to get your hair nourished at least but you wouldn’t listen to any of it. And now, you suddenly decide to barge in my saloon with your orders? I’m sorry K…”

“Ailie, you don’t understand! This guy is getting down that plane in another couple of hours, thanks to the flight that got delayed and I suddenly thought of this idea. Listen, I just don’t want to meet him, not today not anytime soon. You have to do this. I have to become anonymous. I have to become not-me. I have to look like somebody else. Color my hair red, right now! I don’t want to see him------”

“Shh, shut up, stop speaking up right now!” Aileen ordered making Khushi sit in one of the chairs “Take a deep breath in and a deep breath out” she used her hands, her sudden even voice attempting to calm down Khushi quite seriously, even as she put her own words into actions while Khushi followed the breathing pattern for barely a few seconds, before standing up abruptly.

“I don’t need your breathing lessons Ailie, I need you to color my hair, right now!”

“But why?”

“I’ll explain later, for now just Color-------”

“you hair red, I get it, I get it. Don’t keep chanting it. And I’m sorry I can’t, I have customers waiting and who actually come here with an appointment.

“Oh please  you have to! I will give you a free ride back home in the evening!”

Aileen narrowed her eyes at her friend.“Make that for two days and you are coming for the trekking in the afternoon aren’t you?” she said turning Khushi’s chair around to make her look at mirror before sprinkling her rough hair with spray of water.

“Of course! How else will you get a chance to hit on Cam?

**

As Arnav walked out of the airport, his one hand pushing the trolley that carried his luggage while the other arranged the back-pack hanging down his one shoulder, his dark brown mystic eyes veiled by Oakley shades he looked around the vicinity of the airport exterior at particularly nothing.

The typical May morning was warm and bright quite contrast to the heat of the summer he had been adapted to, the large pine trees bordering the vicinity and the splash of yellow owing to the poppy plants decorating the parking area caught the bright sun blooming up his surroundings even more and it all somehow uplifted his mood. He looked around the typical Scottish airport, with red and gray haired people showcasing a typical airport atmosphere and he smiled as the uncharacteristic solace settled inside his nerves. He always had seen this place, the Scotland, in his vision. He had only associated the place to one person he had known and admired for good part of his life, and finally he was right here, in this very place. It felt weirdly serene, in its own way.

May be this is what people called Escaping.

“I like it” he declared to no one but himself and suddenly all the unwillingness to fly to this part of the world no longer ceased to exist. He liked the mere fact that there was hardly anyone who recognized him. He had this weird sense of getting lost, that people often described when they talk about seeking solace.

He glanced over the place again, this time to look for something or someone familiar. Whatever it was that he was expecting, it definitely wasn’t a hot Scottish, red-head, taxi driver, holding the board with his name right in front of her face. His gaze travelled over her form, her head covered under the driver cap, the bright red wavy locks falling from the cap over her shoulders, thick glasses forming transparent veil over her eyes with the rest of her face hidden behind the board and a gray colored Scottish driver coat tugged inside the waist band of her loose cargo pants, the girl did look ravishing.

Smirking, he rechecked the name on the board and walked, dragging his trolley along with him. Bringing his finger over the board, he gently pushed it down, to have a good look at those eyes.

“Hi, are you looking for me?” he said flashing a smile, noticing that the girl held the white board firm against her face, clearly objecting him from seeing her and all he could see was those glasses behind which were one pair of distinctly familiar expressive eyes. He then saw her blink rapidly, before stepping away from him to stand beside what seemed like her taxi.

“Excuse me?” he heard her say, the thick Scottish accent filling his ears.

He stepped forward closing the distance she had managed to put, his fingers lightly knocking the board that was blocking his view. “I meant this” he said smirking.

He then saw realization registering in her confused eyes, as she vigorously removed the board away from her face even as her other hand simultaneously worked to bring down her cap to mask the top of her face. Her actions were weird to say the least, yet he wasn’t annoyed.

“Uh, yes, I’m sorry…” she said trailing off. “Good, good morning Sir” she added bringing in her cordial voice, the thick Scottish accent still very evident.

“Very Good morning” he smiled and for a moment it occurred to him that she tried to look into his eyes from beyond his shades and that for some weird reason pleased him.

“I was hired to pick you up from the airport”

He raised an eyebrow at that. “I would love to be picked up by you”

“The..the taxi, I meant the taxi has been hired to pick you up from the airport and drop you at the Gupta Villa, Belhaven, a couple of hours away from here”

“Oh!” he exclaimed in mock disappointment. “I didn’t know the taxies here are automatic. Wow! So how does this work? Do you like key in the instructions into some digital machine and the car will automatically drive you to the destination?”

“I” she said pointing a finger to herself. “will be driving” she stated and he knew she was losing her cordial well-mannered exterior and if there was one thing that Arnav Singh Raizada took pleasure in doing, it was to annoy an uptight person.

                                                                                                                                      

“And hence, Chauffer-girl, I would love to be picked up by you” he spoke again in his trade mark coyly voice, with his tongue in cheek even as his eyes glinted with mischief.

**

Did he think he was funny? Or an expert flirt? Khushi huffed looking away from the weird man. Yes, that’s what she thought he was. A weird man. How had he managed to grow up into this? That 15-year old good-for-nothing kid? Was he the same? She didn’t know, she didn’t want to know even. Every sentence of him was dipped in sarcasm and tease. Whatever she had expected from the Arnav Singh Raizada, it wasn’t this.

“We” she started trying to look back at him, but all she saw was his coyly smile emerging in between that rough stubble, the only part of his face which she could see, owing to the large shades ending until his cheekbones.  

What was so funny? She wanted to say after observing him for a good few moments. “We should get going” she ended up saying and turned around abruptly to reach for the door of her car.

“Uh, Chauffer-girl?”

I have a name! “Yes sir” she forced a smile too broad for her own good, as she turned around to face him again.

“The luggage?”

She nodded reaching out to the lock at the front of her car and the boot space clicked open. Arnav tried to lift the door up but with this pre-occupied hands, and the back pack that was falling off from his shoulder quite often, he was having difficulty in holding the door open. Noticing which, Khushi walked forward offering to help and lifted the door up while he yet again held her gaze whilst loading his luggage with that unique smug of him. She dint really understand what that look meant. It was silly and weird in a way and yet annoying to no extent. Who was he? Did he know who she was? Was it even possible?

Except for his name, she couldn’t associate anything of him to the Arnav she had known. At least as much as she have seen of the person who was with her at the moment. And so, there was no way he could have identified her. A valid logic. No?

He sat in the middle of the back seat, such that the rear view mirror displayed her eyes right across his view and his eyes to her view. By this time, she had adjusted her cap back in order to concentrate on her driving and that caused her face to be visible to him in right amounts. Just as she ignited the engine to a start, she had noticed the intelligent way in which he had placed himself and stretched her hand ahead to adjust the mirror away from his view, all too nonchalantly.

He then moved to his side to resume the eye-lock, she adjusted the mirror away. He moved to another side and the mirror was adjusted to the opposite. He moved to the center and the mirror was vigorously moved away from the center and finally after a couple of more movements, it broke from the hinge causing Arnav to chuckle and she glared.

“You have a great car” she heard him say, her annoyance at the person teamed with the reluctance for the situation she was forced into, increased with every passing second.

“Thank you Sir”

“You drive quite well Chauffer-girl”

I have a name! “I suppose that’s my job sir” she faked a smile, not really at him realizing which she rolled her eyes. Arnav only sneered enjoying the put up.

“Do you have some music in the car Chauffer-girl?”

“I have a name! and its Kh……” she spat without thinking and squeezed her eyes shut, even as her hands effortlessly worked with the wheel owing to the vast highway road.

“K?”

“Uh, yes K, I go by K, people call me that”

“And what exactly does K stand for?”

Why am I supposed to tell you that? “Ka….Katherine”

“Katherine? With K?”

There was a sudden change in his voice and she just knew why. At this moment, she really wanted to check the look in his eyes. Since she couldn’t, she just waited patiently and secretly promised herself to rip his head off right away if he dared to utter a jab at that name.

“Lovely name”

She heard him say, his voice was followed by a small sigh, almost unnoticeable, that is if she ignored. And there was no hint of tease in his statement. It was a genuine compliment and she knew it.

“So Kathe----uh, I don’t want to take your name, let me just call you K…”

She smiled, with some sudden warmth engulfing her.

“Do you have any music in the car?”

And the smile died off almost instantly and Khushi groaned quite audibly. Another music addict joining her home. The least thing she needed at this moment. “No sir, no music, none whatsoever, I hate music”

“What did you just say?”

Of course he would be shocked. He might have hardly heard anyone say such a heavy word towards music.

“I hate music sir” she stated rather firmly. Too firmly for her own good.

“I wish hating was really that easy”

There was a sudden calmness in his voice. Something she hadn’t witnessed until this point. A sudden even tone, a thoughtful tone of someone who seemed lost or rather confused.

“You wish?” she found herself ask, suddenly drawn into the conversation quite unwillingly, with some unknown foreign pull dragging her in.

“Do you know how it feels to be around something for so long, so long that you no longer know what you feel about it?”

“Hatred?”

He chuckled dismissing her word almost instantly. “That’s a strong emotion. It’s like this constant fear of not doing the right thing with the right amount of determination…”

“—and then decide to not do at all, instead of ruining it altogether”

“Or so we think”

They completed each other’s sentence in a whim, in perfect syncing thought process and paused, silence hanging in between them. Silence continued to linger in the car, a weirdly serene silence, as the car sped away through the highway that connected Edinburgh to Belhaven, with determined speed.