The
speed racing car, the excited shrieks of laughter and encouragement around,
drinks and loud music, the darkness of the night illuminated with the bright
headlights of the vehicles, fun, zeal and thrill, the night was all but
eventful for Arnav. It had always been. He enjoyed the mere adrenaline rush he
is subjected to and enjoyed the attention that comes with winning the race. The
most exciting part as he would like to conclude is when in the end, as soon as
the police patrolling at the Juhu beach road would begin, all the kids would
run in all different direction, not stopping to care where there were going and
in what. Each of them would grab whatever they could, a bike or a car in the
vicinity, and rush, laughing out loud even, enjoying the thrill, all over
again. And more because to ensure their vehicles wouldn’t be caught, they ended
up grabbing the ones used for racing as they flew away into the distance in all
different directions, away from the place.
The
whole process was tiring. Yet exciting enough. On his way back late in the
night, as he drove some care all alone, to reach home, generally he wouldn’t
really care to return the racing car and get his own car from the parking. It
was the job of his driver the following day. However that night, he found
himself at the parking of the racing place, unusually, as he wandered around
the closed shutter of the cellar, contemplating his decision to take his car
back. Nevertheless after a few more minutes, he reached out to open the shutter
only to be met by thick darkness.
As he
stepped down the small of the staircase that lead into the parking space, his
footsteps echoed around, with his insides suddenly churning with slight fear.
The darkness was such. He found himself thanking his stars to have parked the
Mercedes just beside the curve of the foot-steps and he reached out his hand to
touch it, to make sure it indeed was there. The next moment he knew, he was puzzled.
Shocked. Confused and Alarmed. To say the least.
There
was a loud squeal of a girl, clearly petrified. A Sudden hit on his back with
her feeble hand-fists. Continues punches across his neck from behind and soon
the girl even started kicking him at his legs, her voice breaking away into
distressed screams.
“Stop,
stop!” He tried to say, already recognizing who that could be and finding it
hard to believe it was her. He was too confounded to even process what was
going on. And when she stopped suddenly, pausing a little, he rushed to the
front of the car, patted his pockets, removing the keys in quick hurried
moments, and he turned the ignition on, switching on the head-lights, to
illuminate the place. The light flashed over the wall ahead of the car,
reflecting glow back and then he turned around to see her standing still, her
posture alert than ever, her hands joined together all set to continue the
beating, and there was that one look in her face, which he was sure he had
never seen before. Khushi was terrified.
“What
the----”
Before
he could say anything else, he saw her stance suddenly relaxing. She fixed her
eyes on him, her breathing long yet fast, as if she had been running a race and
has just stopped, her stance tired and she processed him for another minute
before leaning onto the body of the car, closing her eyes releasing those last
deep breathes before her breathing became even. He continued to observe her for
another moment, figuring out what to say. There were a lot of questions
actually. His initial immediate reaction was to blast at her, like he did in
the canteen, putting some sense into her senseless mind. But something stopped
him to react in the traditional way that they followed.
“What
the hell!? What took you so long to take your car? The race was done long back!”
she definitely didn’t or cannot think of any other way to talk, other than
their traditional way. He could have retorted back to that tone, like he always
did, but then he didn’t. Perhaps, he didn’t want to. For some odd reason.
“Haunted?”
he just said, still not being able to come out of the shock. Had she been there
inside, all the time, all alone? What if he didn’t suddenly decide to get the
car himself?
“What
else will you call this?” Her yelling suddenly toned down into a voice with
much lower decibel. But then he could tell she still was pissed. Horrified
rather.
“Did
you see a ghost?”
*
Was
that supposed to be sarcasm? She wondered before looking away from him, her
initial anger, terror, frustration everything of which weathering off, in rapid
moments; The familiarity of being around him working as magic, after hours of
spending in distress and panic.
“Almost”
she said indicating him. “You could have killed me”
“And
you plan to defend yourself with that strong fist of yours?” he said with a
straight face, but the humor was evident. She looked at him amazed, and took a
second glance to observe if he was smiling. Yes, there was a ghost of a smile,
which soon turned big and then into a laughter. He was teasing her. She frowned,
folding her hands across her stomach.
“Auch! My
neck hurts Maddy! Did you have some practice in Martial arts?” he mock massaged
his neck.
“Very
funny” was all that she could say. She definitely was not in mood to retort
back and fight. She was just genuinely, truly relieved that he had come, let
alone late.
When he
observed her relaxed state for another moment, he walked towards her and took a
complete look in whatever little light that was available. “Are you okay?” he
asked quite seriously.
“Huh?”
she batted her eye-lids, alarmed.
“There isn’t
any mental imbalance that happened, is there?”
“---what?”
“Yeah, if
your brain is damaged more than it already is, we might have to move you into an
asylum. The trauma didn’t get into your mad mind, did it?”
She
resumed her fist hits this time, much stronger than before and all he did was to
defend himself, laughing at her. Few moments later, she laughed along with him
too, but the moment their laughs met, it died off causing them to stare
awkwardly. “Uh, lets just go” he declared, walking to open the car door and she
chose to be silent for once, sitting the car, as he turned wheel reverse, took
the deep turn towards the upward slant, that opened outside, driving away as
soon as he can.
*
“Cathy must
have been worried” he said as soon as they stopped at her place.
“Uh, I’ll
say I have been at Lavanya’s place” she replied absent mindedly as if she is
replying to her own question in her mind. She had been thinking the same too.
He
raised an eye-brow at that, when she chose to give him a side way look. “Else I’d
have to say where have I been and for what?” she answered the question in his
mind, handing him the camera that she had brought along with her that evening.
Without much argument or any further probing, she got out of the car, walked
away into her home, not giving him another glance but somehow being aware of
his staring gaze until she stepped inside and locked the door behind her.
**
The
following couple of days until the weekend have seen weird silent encounters of
the two. There had been silent encounters before too, but then they were filled
with angst. They were teamed with eye-rolling, tongue-poking, arrogant glances
with attitude. Now that seemed to have changed. Or maybe not. They didn’t know.
While she no longer wanted him to give him that attitude, just to be grateful
although not verbally, he waited to see if she resumes her banter. She didn’t.
And hence he didn’t.
He helped
Aman with the party organization at her place the weekend, just before their
father’s arrival and that’s how he ended up wandering around the familiar home,
lazily dismissing the people who greeted him on his way, waiting to escape into
the adjoining veranda for some fresh air. Just when he released a sigh, his
eyes caught the wooden coated shining metal that was leaning on to the grand
piano in Khushi’s room. The place where the two have practically learnt the
whole of their music lessons, the ones taught by Cathy.
As on
cue, he found himself walking towards it almost fascinated by the instrument
and just as he reached, his two fingers found their place over the strings and
the next moment he knew, a high note echoed in the room.
“A
Cello Maddy? Wow!” he found himself say still fascinated by the new instrument
in her room.
He said
just when she walked into the room listening to the sudden sound.
“Yeah
Bhai, that’s what we thought, we will do something with it”
He
looked between Aman, who just entered the room as well and Khushi before
looking at the fascinating instrument for one long minute.
“What
do you have in mind?”
**
He let his
fingers swing over the white keys of the piano and she waited for the tune to
kick in. With the giant front piece placed in between her legs, she adjusted
the Cello-body with her toes and let the bow in her hand move over the strings,
as she used the pegs to alter the pitch. And just like that the room was filled
with their instrumental blend of piano and Cello, mesmerizing and awing one and
all.
It was
nothing but magic.
**
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