7. A Solace, A Disguise:

As soon as he was met by the calm sea-breeze, turning whatever little warmth present in the air into a chill and peaceful aura, he knew he was in Belhaven. Just as the breeze played with the locks of his air that was falling over his forehead, he found himself putting his head out whilst sliding down the window, even as his free hand surfaced his forehead pushing the hair back. He looked out of the window, at the green sea standing out behind the railing that separated the express way road from the sea-shore, at the locality of little town hugging the sea, the fast-food centers crowded with locals along the seashore, couples walking, dogs being walked by their masters, a fewer surfers working their way through the waves in the distant and the sudden splash of joy around, soothed his nerves like never before.

It was like his fast running has suddenly slowed down into a much relaxing walking pace. It was like the time has slowed down, and has sworn to run in a much slower pace, compared to the marathon of life he had been spending back in Mumbai. Or maybe the Scottish hot one has deliberately slowed down the car as soon as they reached the beach express way. Proving his thoughts, just as he shifted his eyes to the driver seat, he was met by the sight of her staring out of the window, almost mirroring him, her red curls playing with the wind even as her hands worked efficiently on the wheel, the side of her face from whatever he could see uplifted into her own serene smile and it somehow amused him. Being a local, she still seemed fascinated by the vision around. He wouldn’t blame her though, the place was such.

And just like that, a serene smile crept across his lips and he looked away chuckling a little.

“Beautiful place”

“You bet”

There was just something about the perfect blend of thoughts he seemed to have with this complete stranger.  As crisp and short as the communication was it still felt settled in a weird way.

Sighing, he noticed the car taking a deep turn backwards down into an adjoining colony, that was filled with blocks of wooden houses each one separated by a unique fencing. The backyard of the houses opened to the shore, and he found the place just as fascinating as the sea itself. He knew the car would drive all the way until the end of the road, and he knew the house staring at him from the end of the colony quite deserted from all the houses, the shore bordering the brick house on both the sides unlike the other buildings would be his destination place, since he have heard enough about the house that his aunt have been brought up in.  The car just as he expected, crossed the whole of colony and came to a halt at the last brick house. Staring at the two-storied building, he got down, quite mechanically his eyes glued to the view in front of him.

In his little trance, he haven’t really noticed when the car boot space was opened, the luggage was being placed on the road behind him and when he did, the Chauffeur-girl, was already getting into the driver seat and was almost driving away.

“Hey—hey, your money!”

“---It’s prepaid!”

He heard the voice from the car as it took a long turn around and rode away into the highway leaving him to stand awkwardly staring at the building quite clueless. Just when he decided to walk into the house, his eyes distantly caught a tiny Yorkshire terrier running towards him through the small opening of the large door of the house. It came running right towards him and shuffled a little along the circle of his feet.

“Hello…” he said sitting down to reach his level with that of the dog and started caressing its head for a while before finding a small card along his neck. Expecting to find its name in the card, he opened it and smiled reading the scribbled handwriting.

“Hi, I’m Coco, follow me to find your accommodation”

“Alright Coco, take me away, I’m all yours!” he said and dropped the dog to the ground turning it around and allowing it to run. Instead of taking the front door that he could see, the dog ran around the periphery of the house, taking a turn towards the backyard.

“Oh…okaaay”

He followed as Coco took him to the back of the house, and ran into what seemed like an adjoining shed. He bent his form entering the half-opened shed and walked into the wide space which seemed like a work area. The surfing boards were laying on one side of the area and a couch stood on the other side. Coco ran into an adjoining room and he simple followed, by now quite confused with everything. He then found himself entering into an old room that had nothing more than a single bed and a cupboard space.

“Wow!”

He looked around, his mind finally giving him a closure to the confusion he have had all this time just when he heard the sound of the shutter of the shop being opened vigorously.

“Who’s it?” he heard the familiar voice and turned around to walk out of the room, with Coco, already running ahead of him.

Sameer Gupta stood rooted just at the entrance of his shop as his eyes were landed on the visibly tall, distinctly familiar boy, or may be the boy he was expecting to see that morning was no more a boy in the first place. He blinked his eyes and let his lips curve into a small smile of recognition.

“Hello Uncle”

He heard the thick manly husky voice and his gaze roamed all over the person taking in the high cheekbones, the well shaped muscles, the strong arms and more than anything else the doughty spirit with which he presented himself, completely appealed to him.

“Arnav…” he sighed walking to envelope the younger man in his large arms, patting his shoulders a little.

“You’ve grown up into a ravishing one!”

Arnav smiled just as they withdrew, and stood awkwardly being not quite used to loving reunions. “How are you doing Sam Uncle?” he said looking intently at the older person.

“I’m doing good! How’s everything back home? How is your monster Raizada doing? Is he off your back yet?”

And that was all needed for Arnav to warm up to him and to get back into their usual camaraderie. “Oh don’t ask uncle, he is the same”

They chuckled together before sobering up.  “But, wha—what are you doing here? I mean this is more like a store room, the house is that side..” he trailed off looking at the luggage residing at the entrance of the room. “How did you reach here anyway? Didn’t she pick you up from airport?”

Just to answer his question even as Arnav stood clueless, Sameer picked up Coco, studying the scribbling on the card tied to its neck. “Oh god! She is impossible!”

Arnav didn’t have to think twice, to guess who the conversation was about. The one person he so knew hated him with conviction and he himself wasn’t looking forward to meet the person anyway.

“Arnav, I’m so sorry, she has developed this habit of playing pranks, this must be just some way to play you..”

He knew this wasn’t a prank in any possible way. This was her way of letting him know that he wasn’t as invited in her home as it seemed he was. Well, then two can definitely play this game, madass.

“Come, let me take you to the guest room..”

“—uh, actually uncle I’m fine here”

“What?? No Arnav, this is just an extended room for this shop. I kind of have occasional assistant trainers here during the summer and it’s for them, we have pretty decent home back there, come..”

“Perfect, since the summer is now almost over, I hope there is no one staying here?”

“Yeah, but…”

“I love this place uncle, I prefer to stay here, it kind of gives me the privacy that I might really need in my music sessions and all. Trust me, I’m good here..”

“Really? But the place..”

“Oh, don’t bother about that uncle, just allow me to modify the room a little? ” he said with a smug and Sameer caught the look in his eyes even before he nodded his agreement.

“Of course you can, would you like to come for breakfast? Or do you have any jet-lag symptoms? Do you want to rest?”

“Uh, no, I’m good. I’ll freshen up and be there”

As he saw Sameer leave the store, he flipped his phone out of his pocket and walked around the parlor a little observing the place curiously. He checked the list of customers registered for the following day, a bulletin board which pretty much had theoretical details about surfing along with the geography of the small costal place, amidst which was a colorful piece of paper that caught his attention, just when he heard the voice from the other end of the phone.

“Aman, travel a bit in the Edinburgh city when you get here, and get me few things, will you?”

He hanged up the phone after a few minutes and read the information on the paper with real concentration.

Weekend Mountain Hiking

Saturday, 11 am.

“Hiking? Interesting!” he turned over the paper to find a map which has a guide to the Hiking path, and that seemed not very far from the residential area he was in. Processing that the day he was in was indeed the same Saturday, and the event was going on somewhere nearby, he suddenly wanted to be there, as strange as that seemed to his own self.

Whatever was the reason his dad has decided to send him here, he was finding it more like a holiday destination, a way of escapism and a closure to find peace with himself. And just like that the decision was made in a whim.

**

Khushi hit the breaks to let the car stop to a sudden halt in purpose, as she let the screeching sound echo around the empty surroundings, with the mountains peeping at her from a distant and the dampness in air increasing with every passing minute. She used her palm to horn the car yet again quite loudly with intention and finally she saw Camron rush out of his house holding two back-packs towards her car.

“You are ridiculously late, I thought you said you are taking the day off today and what was all about the Coco training call that I got a while ago……whoaaaaa!!!”  Camron’s blabber was ended with a loud exclamation just as he got into the seat beside her and his eyes immediately caught the only appealing thing in the car—her hair.

Khushi just looked at him alarmed and shrugged registering his even more alarmed expression.

“Good Lord! What the hell has happened to your hair?”

“Wha----- I colored my hair! Don’t you like it?” she said bringing her locks more onto her shoulders, while tossing away her driver cap, but Camron still looked quite perplexed with the sudden splash of red on her head.

“Cam! Common! I don’t look so bad, now, do I?” she asked the last part of her sentence trailing away doubtfully.

“Ah, well, you look in…..incredible…” he said his Scottish accent making the word even more fake than the fake convincing look in his eyes.

“Whatever! I don’t care okay? I just wanted to and I did it, this person just freaks me out in the worst possible way! I haven’t even met him properly and look what I have become! Wait, did you train the Coco like I asked you to?”

“Yes I did! Although I had to sneak away from your dad to get that done, but who is coming? A guest?”

“Yeah,….someone like that” she rolled her eyes.

“And where are your manners?”

Khushi snapped a look at her friend. “Relax alright? My dad is very fond of this person and I’m sure he will not let him stay in that store room anyway. This is just my attempt to let the person know that nothing has changed since we have last met…..”

“You do realize right? I don’t always necessarily follow your self-blabber”

Khushi snapped another look at him and Camron shrugged off. “Anyway, we have to get going, people are waiting. I have packed all your hiking equipment that you have asked, do you have a coat in the car? It’s getting really cold”

“I know! But I guess I will have to work with this driver coat today! Oh Hiking! It’s going to be such a relaxing time away from home today!”

“You are escaping from whatever it is…”

“I’m buying time Cammy! Stop being the perfectionist and let’s just get going! And will you drive please?” she asked and without waiting for his answer, she crawled into the back seat of the car pulling her legs from over the gear area. Camron just nodded his head dismissing his weird friend and settled himself behind the wheel, speeding away towards the mountain that they could still see.

They parked the car in the adjoining pathway, and hanging their respective back-packs to their shoulders, they walked crossing the small canal-bridge, while opening their hiking poles.

Hike the mountain, reach the water-falls and jump down the falls using elastic ropes.

Khushi read the summary of the hiking yet again and sighed peacefully as her nerves started relaxing instinctively. “This is going to be exciting!” she said just as she reached the group of young locals, as they cheered each other and set on to their journey.

**

A few hours later, the high-ways of the same mountain saw Arnav hiking his way up, with his back-pack hanging on his shoulders and the hiking stick taking him up quite effectively. Hiking the mountain, with no one but himself, with nothing but the shaded greenery and the mountains surrounding him,  the sea peeping from below him although not literally he could still feel himself several miles above the juggling waves and the mere serenity of it all engulfed him with such self-peace that the cheerfulness in his mood was just bound to increase .

And despite the lack of proper rest, he felt relaxed, he felt peaceful and he felt completely settled. He didn’t need to listen to great music made by others to soothe his nerves, he didn’t need to stare at the little aquarium in his room to feel the nature, he didn’t need to throw a jab at someone to feel alive, all he needed to find pleasure with himself, was to breathe….

Breathe in nothing but the dampness in air and to smell nothing but the innate sense of indefinable aura around him.

The place was heaven.

And he knew this just within a few hours of invading it. The unwanted people can go to hell; he would just make sure the time he could spend here will be the best, irrespective of the results.

He reached the huge mountain rock blocks that separated to pave a way to huge waterfalls which was the landmark destination of the whole hiking. He climbed a few more miles, letting the whole vision of water-falls present itself to him and he stood there rooted taking in the beauty of nature quite breathlessly. He could finally see people who might have started hiking before him, a few were playing with the water they could reach, few others were preparing themselves for the rope-fall tying themselves up, but what caught his attention was a small group of people surrounding one single person who seemed to be laying down on the grass land of the mountain.

Taken by his own curiosity, he walked towards them------ "What happened?" he inquired one of the guys within the gathering. The guy moved away from his view allowing his eyes to land on quite a familiar gray colored driver coat and an even more familiar red hair that has formed a thick veil on what seemed like the face of a fainted woman.

“She has exhausted and fainted---”

“---and wouldn’t wake up!”

“K! oh god!! How do we take her down?”

He heard bits and pieces of the conversation even as his eyes were completely attuned to the Scottish Chauffer girl he had met earlier that day, who right now lay completely unconscious, amidst the huge mountains and behind them stood the 400 ft, waterfalls, the sound of the water dominating every other sound of the nature.