8. A Door, An opening:

“Can someone carry her down?”

“------Have you lost it? we walked all the way up using a third leg! If you remember?”

“Right and you might just tumble all the way down if you carry another person!”

“------two people can carry one..?”

“You will have to walk in this narrow downhill, you know?”

“Can we hang her through the rope?”

“No! The elastic rope would need a body momentum; we can’t just let an unconscious person fall!”

Arnav heard the discussion around him nonchalantly even as his eyes were attuned to the person unconscious, her head resting on one of her friends’ lap and her red hair continuing to veil the part of the face that he could see. He glanced around at the thoughtful worried expressions of the people as various alternatives were being exchanged and he let the inside of his lip twist into a smirk. He then turned around showing his back to the gathering facing the mountains and let his voice turn into a sudden shout, his hands covering his mouth as his voice echoed around, altering everyone instantly.

He turned around again smirking only to find the group of friends now looking at him blankly.

“Done? Great!” he said referring to their argument and walked amidst the two people straight towards the girl lying down. Without as much as any permission, he picked her up, cradling the girl in his two arms, turned around ignoring the questions with his concentration completely on the way ahead and just as he reached the elastic  ropes that were tied to the rocks, he gestured one of the helpers there to tie him up. He then placed the girl in his arms on the ground, supporting her by his one hand as he fastened the elastic rope around her waist, tying her up even.

With the people around them completely zoning out of his concentration, he ignored pretty much everything and anything that was being talked to him. He lifted the girl into his arms again and walked towards the edge of the mountain, the elastic ropes stretching behind him, even as she remained unconscious in his hands, cradled and unaffected.

He stood at the edge of the mountain and behind him stood a huge rock extension of the mountain, that separated into a wide water flow, penetrating through and travelling the whole of 4o0mts depth, to reach the land, where the white foams of water flew over hard flat rock, into a canal that lead into a water-body which ultimately poured itself into the sea after travelling for quite a few miles. He looked at the view yet again and he could almost see the entire flow of water, as he found himself standing at quite a height, and he took a nervous sharp breath. He then adjusted his hands, finally feeling some kind of weight in his hands.

As on cue, his eyes flipped to look at her all too casually; the red hair caught the glow of the setting sun and it blew away from her face while he chose the exact right moment to look at her. His casual glance flipped over, causing him to take double look and he was glued. Large almond shaped eyes which he could see from beneath the glasses that she was wearing, her eye-lashes hugging the pale colored cheeks, one pair of petal shaped rosy lips and a long slender neck as her head fell back, the mere vision and the sudden foreign emotion he was introduced to, brought with itself another sudden rush of familiarity. And just like that he knew who the Chauffer-girl, K, was…

The instructors called out to him, if he was ready to take the jump, and he found it hard to tear his gaze away from the vision in his hands, but nevertheless he did and nodded his head in acknowledgment. He took another step towards the edge of the mountain and realized the initial nervousness was long forgotten. His eyes continued to remain attuned to that of her closed ones and it happened in that split of a second…

A small drum beat rhythm started playing in his head, the low yet mysterious tempo of which was matching up with his accelerated hear-beat. Another small rhythm which seemed like a combined tune of bells and jingles joined with the drums and it seemed like the loud sound of waterfalls has decided to tone down into some music of a soothing pace. And just like that a weird mixture of instruments continued to play along in his head as he continued to stare at the familiar girl in his hands. The little tune in his head was trying desperately to accommodate into something, quite unknown to his own self, or so he felt. Ignoring the sudden sense of creativity within his mind, he took another step jumping instantly and the little drum beats playing in his head suddenly broke into an accelerated tune of a very high tempo.

“Arrey aankh se boondh gira koi, chingari ka tukda jala koi

As he jumped with her in his hands, with the water-falls forming their effective background, the tune continued to play, with his creative senses suddenly activated quite prominently in its own weird way. As they were falling, with the elastic ropes holding them evenly, he continued to stare at the unconscious familiar woman, and the tune vowed to not leave his senses.

“Behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de

A few droplets from the waterfall made its way to sprinkle on her face and after a few more drops, he noticed her little squirm in his hands and even as he continued to look at her, he noticed her eyebrows twitching into a frown and before he knew it, she was opening her eyes to let him look into the pools of those very familiar hazels. If he didn’t know who she was for sure a while ago, he knew now. He knew her and he knew her too well to not recognize. At least not now.

Sharrt lagi hai marr jaane ki, jeena hai to pyaar mein

The tune in his head turned into something which he no longer identified. It was a weird mix of Indian beats, Chinese rhythms and a distinct rock. The weird composition, if he may call it was completely off-beat, yet refreshing in its own way.

Khushi..

Just as the name played behind his lips, he flipped his eyes to that of her red hair which now blew in all places around her face and a little smirk adorned his face. There was just something about the contrast of personalities he could see, viz, the glasses and the red hair. As on cue, the glasses flew away from her face, owing to the heavy wind and they continued to fall, rather travel in the air, with the water-falls adoring the view behind them. He saw her flip her eyes to her falling spectacles, and he felt her squirm again whilst he noticed her eyes registering the moving objects behind their falling selves. She jerked again in his arms, her eyes going wide in that alarming way and he gripped her tighter, assuring silently.

But she wasn’t the ones to be easily convinced and so she jerked again causing him to lose his grip, the balance; and the next moment they knew, she fell away from his hands. What she didn’t noticed until then was the elastic rope that was tied to her waist, because of which, she did fell away from his hands but was still in the air twirling because of lack of momentum and panicking because of the unawareness of her safety options. Her overcoat even flew away with her hands now free off him and she looked around quite perplexed with everything. He caught hold of her hand that was in his reach and pulled her in back, encircling his one hand around her waist and thus holding their falling selves back in place.

**

“Mera pal pal ang ang bar diya, tune jaan pe junoon sa kar diya

Khushi looked up her one hand clutching his collar, just as she hit the inside of his chest owing to the force with which he pulled and the next moment she knew, she was absorbed into the same trance and same world in which he seemed to have wandered off, again, quite oblivious to her own self.

In that split of a second, her mind took her back to the weird dreams, the ones in which a stranger guy was singing to her, the dreams from which she started picking up weird lyrics from her own mind and in another split of second, she knew who the guy was, who sang to her in her dreams. She instantly recognized those mystic dark brown eyes, which were so prominent in her dream, quite contrast to every other vague image that she had remembered and then she just knew. It was him. She dreamt of him.

That was a realization enough for her to keep her hazels locked to that of his mystic orbs, as they twirled around a little just before their feet touched the ground, accepting the gravitation and thus the weird travel ended, with two new strange journeys beginning in their minds.

“Beh ja, beh ja, chal tod kinare ko

Behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de mujhe behene de

**

“Ah…” She winced as soon as she gained back her position on the ground with the back of her wrist pushing him away, as they stood on one of the rocks, with the flow of water splashing over their feet, washing their shoes in its flow.

“What the hell just happened?” he spat causing her to look at him incredulously.

“Excuse me?”

She observed him for a moment but he looked lost, confused, and uncertain and a lot more of that terminology. And that was her own cue to snap out of her little trance.  “I’ll tell you what the hell happened, you…you ruined it all!”

“Ruined?” he asked his low voice barely audible as the sound of the waterfalls dominated his confused voice, and he found himself flipping his eyes back to the top of the mountain and then back to her.

“You…you..how dare you..?” she seemed to be struggling to utter some words of anger, deliberate fury even as he observed her clenched teeth and digging fist, her eyes trailing away like it seemed that she was thinking of some sensible things to say.

“The spectacles…” she continued. “my glasses! You flew them away! How dare you?”

“What?”

“My glasses flew away, do you know how expensive they are? How am I supposed to read now? And my coat? That’s my driver coat! My cab agency is going to give me penalty if I lose it! If I lose it? What am I saying? I lost it goddamit! Everything because of you! What the hell did you? And after everything you have the nerve to ask me, what the hell just happened?

WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED??”

He saw her yelling on the top of her voice, using her hands and her eyes to deliberately show the body language of her anger and that little outburst was enough for him to finally come out of his long trance.

“Khushi?” he said finally accepting that it was indeed her. It couldn’t be anyone else.

“Oh congratulations! You don’t really have a long term memory loss after all, yes its Khushi and let me tell you, I’m nowhere near to be pleased to meet you Arnav singh Raizada!” was it the anger that her little disguise was revealed and in such a way or was is it that she just discovered she had been having dreams of the very same person whom she claimed to be hating, she didn’t know. But she was angry, and the anger has to come out, in whatever way she could.

“That I can really see, you seem disturbed, I have that affect on people, don’t I?” he winked causing her to shut her mouth immediately.

“Listen you..”

“-------and you are so ungrateful, how can I expect anything else from you anyway? But you could try and smile for me you see? If you cannot thank me?”

“Ungrateful?” she let the word twist with her Scottish accent. “Thank----you?” she sneered. “No freaking way! Because I exactly know why you brought me down. You thought you could take an extra chance with the hot Scottish driver you met this morning…..”

“Oh you think you are hot then?” he smirked, letting his gaze roam over her slightly wet form.

“You think so too. Look what the nasty kid has become into. A Womanizer? Your intentions are completely improper and I have no reason to be thankful to you…”

“Oh look what the grumpy kid has grown up into? Wait, did you really grow up? It looks like you aren’t!”

“Shut up!!” she snapped, her eyes filling her face as she threw anger daggers at him. He just continued to keep his smug look intact.

“Listen you Basass, don’t mess with me. Stay as long as you want but don’t…” she showed him her finger. “Don’t cross the same path as I do. And yes, you will get me new glasses and a new driver coat as soon as possible. The exact same kind of ones, mind you…”

“And if not?” he challenged stepping into her periphery causing her to swerve her eyes up to meet the little height difference that they had. He folded his hands across his chest and she continued to look up at him with fury.

“I will show you my true colors…”

“That sounded hell sexy I tell you….”

She looked at him for a split second confused and he continued to look down at her coyly. The moment that she chose to let her jaw fall open in realization and her eyes going wide, he chose to burst out into a sudden peal of laughter.

“You….jerk!” he continued to laugh walking around the little space, throwing his head back, completely ignoring her annoyed look or the insult. With her annoyance having the best of her, she walked to him in purposeful strides and using her two petite hands, she pushed him back causing him to fall right into the small canal of water.

“Fuck!” he cursed, just as he found himself drowned completely with just his head popping out of the canal.

“Laugh as much as you want” she said poking.

“Its freaking cold! You mad woman!”

This time she laughed out loud in victory and ran away, completely satisfied with her winning the argument. As he saw her run away, he flapped his limbs a little to reach out to the nearby shore. He climbed up the rock, shivering and settled himself at the bottom of the entire waterfall view and just as his gaze travelled the whole of the place, the droplets of cold water dripping down his drenched body, the weird tune in his mind from a while ago, continued to linger, much to his own confusion.

What the hell just happened?”