YOU’RE NEXT, BUDDY
PRE-NOTE:
Kindly excuse correct the grammatical mistakes. Thanks
in advance. :-)
PART 5:
“Supriya,” said Vasanth
promptly.
“Supriya? Sounds
familiar,” said Prashanth, moving his drafter by an inch over the chart.
Vasanth frowned. “Say,
where do you come from? She’s only scored a 99 in my paper. Does the whole
compering for the college symposium. Familiar!
That’s what you’ve got to say?”
Prashanth leered, still
not taking his eyes off the design in the chart. “Then she should be an ideal
reference-library on the question paper set by Professor Vasanth. By the way,
do people actually score 99 in your paper? Such a waste!”
“It’s just English.”
“That’s why I don’t put
much effort into it,” he sharpened his pencil and was about to draw a line.
Vasanth snatched the
pencil out of his hands and said impatiently. “Listen, this is not about me,
you or my class. I was going to talk about Supriya.”
Prashanth slumped onto
his chair. “Go on.”
Vasanth explained what
happened at college. “The first shock was that she is in love with me. And the
second shock is that she drinks. Is that even allowed in college hostels?”
“I am getting a bit
confused here. When you ask whether that is allowed in hostels, are you talking
about love or alcohol?” Vasanth threw the pencil angrily at his younger brother
who caught it and started laughing. “I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. Stay
please.”
“If you mock me one
more time…”
“You’ll put me in
detention?”
Vasanth got up to leave
and Prashanth shouted. “Sorry, sorry. She is not staying in college hostel. She
is staying in a PG with Ayesha.”
“Ayesha? OMG, she is a
bully. I bet she was kicked out of college hostel. Now I understand why Supriya
was drunk. Wrong company!”
“You know that you’re
behaving like a parent – blame it on the other kid when something is wrong with
your kid.”
“Yeah, Ayesha makes a
great friend – why don’t you go join her gang tomorrow?”
“All right. I agree
that her gang is little creepy. Actually it’s a mix of people from all the
colleges in our university. Do you know that? Rocky is an arts college guy,
Jhansi is a hotel management student and I have no idea what part of world does
Sandhya belong to. Not to forget David…”
“Blame it on the
university who decided to have a single campus – all the worst from each
college formed a gang. What are the odds of that happening in any place?”
“I know, right? And do
you really believe that your Supriya is innocent?”
“That’s what I want you
to find out,” said Vasanth.
“What?” Prashanth
shouted despite himself. “Am I looking jobless to you?” He pointed all the
instruments that he was using to draw a plan of a house. “FYI, you’re paying
for all these.”
“She is a nice student
and I don’t want her to choose a wrong path. I…”
Prashanth crossed his
arms across his chest. “Tell me that you’re in love with her too. I’ll do it.”
“What? Oh, these old female
battle-axes don’t faze me, brother,” said Vasanth, smiling.
“This isn’t a
battle-axe, my brother; it’s a delicate, singing blade.”
“Will you or will you
not…”
“I am into it. I will
talk to her tomorrow.”
***************
David was awakened from his dream by the church bell. His
first drowsy thought was, What a nice way to be reminded that I promised myself
to attend the Sunday mass. But as his senses sharpened it seemed to him the
reminder was too insistent. The old bell, with its flat and cracked clang, was
pealing away like a 1900 fire alarm.
He rolled out of bed and went to a window. To his surprise,
he saw Ayesha waving at him and she was in her tracks. “Rocky! Come here! Your
girlfriend is all sweaty and sexy…”
“Let me just sleep,” he moaned. “I was up all night trying to
hack into our university database…”
“Tell me that you’ve succeeded and got the semester question
papers,” said David but his friend was already back in the slumber land.
Ayesha pounded on the door. “Rocky! Wake up!”
David opened it. “What’s up? Left your gym membership card in
Rocky’s pockets?”
“No. It’s because Supriya wanted to run around the park near
Vasanth’s house.” Ayesha let herself in.
David laughed, closing the door behind. “So it’s getting
worse.”
“She is crazy, god,” she sighed. She walked over to the bed
and kissed Rocky on his forehead. “By the by, she had another dream.”
David sniggered. “Now what?”
“It’s a bit long. But the summary is that Vasanth and
Prashanth were having conversation about her. Vasanth was telling Prashanth to
check on her because she is basically a good girl and having wrong company.”
“You know what? I don’t want to hear more. Will this story
ever get interesting?”
“Prashanth just talked to her in the park. I overheard it –
it’s about how pathetic our gang was.”
“You see the look on my face and you’re still talking?”
“She is scared and I just convinced her that everything will
be all right once we see the doctor.”
“What doctor?” Rocky rubbed his eyes and stretched.
“The doctor that you’re going to take her to,” Ayesha purred
sweetly.
“I don’t know any doctors. Davy, if you…”
“Heard that you have a meeting with Dr. James Alwin this evening,”
said Ayesha winking.
Rocky was wide awake now. “He is an oncologist, for Christ
sake. Is your education bad enough that you don’t understand the difference
between an oncologist and a psychiatrist?”
“I took her to Vijay,” said Ayesha, looking offended.
“Which is nonsense in its own way. Also I was going to discuss
the software that would find even a tiny mass in the X-rays. It’s a million
dollar project and you wanted me to give an introduction about a half-witted
girl in the beginning?”
There was a knock on the door and Ayesha put her index finger
over her lips. “Shhh! Rocky, I’ll get you the latest Xbox thing for your
birthday. Deal or not?”
“Okay,” said Rocky halfheartedly, pushing the lock of hair
that fell on her cheeks. “Also, you’re going to work on impressing my family
especially…”
“We have to talk about it,” said Ayesha slowly, gesturing to
David.
David nodded his head and went to open the door for Supriya.
“Hey Davy!”
He slipped out and said with a grin, “Why don’t we give the
lovers some privacy and roam around?”
“Sure. What’s in your mind?”
“A lot. Let’s take a drive,” he dangled the car keys in front
of her before jogging towards his car. Supriya followed suit happily.
The first thirty minutes, they both were calm and then
suddenly Supriya said. “This is it.”
“What is what?”
She pointed out. “This is the address that Vijay gave us – it
happened to be an empty ground. I wonder how he sent a gift to this place and
how someone actually collected it and how that was wrapped around Vasanth’s gift
with my signature on it. Pure mystery.”
“Now that you put it this way, I am curious,” he halted.
They both stepped out of the car and David examined the
barricade around the place. He twitched the fence a little, bent down and went
in. Supriya grabbed his jacket and pulled. “What the hell are you doing?”
“You girls did some investigation eh?”
“Yes, why?”
“That’s Jhansi’s bracelet,” he pointed a spot where the sun
made the ornament shining.
“But… but we never crossed the fence. What’s going on? It…”
Suddenly she screamed, holding her chest, as David pulled the bracelet and it
came out along with a hand. Jhansi’s hand.
***************
“Ranjani
aunty, I came here for a book. I am super bored,” said Sylvia with a broad
smile.
Ranjani offered her a hug before letting her and Priya into
Vasanth’s room. Sylvia took a deep breath and looked around. “Phew! This is not
a room; this is a library.”
“I know. Let me sneak around the brother’s room, okay?”
“I am fine with it. Go ahead,” Sylvia waved her hands
carelessly as she was still in awe of the arrangement of all the books neatly.
“Separate sections eh?” She told herself as she ran her long
fingers through the pile of books. “Mystery, Romance, Science, Sci-fi,
Laughter, History, Fantasy…” Suddenly her fingers stopped as she read,
“Supriya!”
She picked the first book on it. It was Neil Gaiman’s ‘The
sleeper and the spindle’. She turned the page and read it.
People say that pen is
mightier than sword.
So instead of an arrow,
I hope that this pen strikes your heart.
I am in love with you.
Supriya
The signature was followed by a heart with an arrow along
with the date and Sylvia smiled at it. Suddenly she remembered something – this
book wasn’t released in India back then. Somebody must’ve got it from abroad.
If the cover was from The Purple Penchant, why not the book?
She clicked her tongue and settled on the nearby couch to
inspect the book. She worked delicately with the first page as she suspected
that two pages are glued together. Her thoughts wandered to some other point.
“Wait a minute. Didn’t Vasanth return the book to Supriya?”
Her mind tried to come up with several answers but she
dropped each one of them as it didn’t explain one thing or another. And none of
them explained the dreams of Supriya. Finally she shook her head and resumed to
scrutinize the book yet again. Her assumption was right – the paper which
contained Supriya’s signature was pasted over the original paper of the book.
It was a clever work and no one could find it unless they knew what they were
looking for.
She used a paperknife and separated the pages. She felt like
throwing her arms in the air and dancing as the original first page revealed
the beautiful handwriting of Vijay.
Dear Juhi Sinha,
Congratulations on
winning ‘The Crown’ for this week.
Keep your mind sharp,
Vijay.
“Wow! Juhi Sinha is the fourth victim of…” She didn’t
complete the sentence as Priya screamed for help from the adjacent room.
“Sylvi!!! Come here!”
***************
Vijay looked thoughtful. “I am not at all convinced, Bhargy.
This might be a trap.”
“Don’t be chicken. It’s Phoenix. That’s where you shop,
remember? Raymond, Park Avenue, Louis Vuitton…”
“Fine,” said Vijay. “As she proposed the venue, let’s propose
the time. Tell her that I am free at 8 and I’ll meet her outside Luxe Movie
hall. If this is not okay, cancel the appointment.”
“Done,” said Bhragav, after burying his head into the laptop
for a few seconds.
“All right. Let’s leave now.” Vijay slapped the back of
Bhargav, hurrying him up.
Bhargav looked at his watch and then at the wall clock. Both
of them announced that it was half past two. “Excuse me? We just had lunch. And
my math book taught me that we have 5 more hours…”
“Let’s watch a movie and shop a bit in one of those shops that
you fondly spoke about.”
“What? What? What? You…” But Vijay wasn’t there to listen to
him and he felt as though he was talking to a wall. “All right.”
He went inside the washroom and washed his face with cold water.
When he came out, he saw Vijay was ready. “How are you planning to get out of
the house?”
“Via the gate. I am wearing white, Bhargy? Do you want me to
climb the walls?”
Bhargav grinned. “I’d like to remind you that there is a
security in the gate.”
“Spadiha is distracting him. She heard someone yelling near
her window.” Vijay looked up and mostly talked to the ceiling.
“Of course she heard.” Bhargav raised his hands and Vijay hit
it before they walked out.
Bhargav took the driver seat this time and raced forward,
checking with Vijay for directions every now and then on the way. They didn’t
mention the case or the arrow – not even a single time even though it was in
their mind. Vijay avoided it deliberately and Bhargav didn’t push him. He
simply answered Vijay’s questions. “What’s your next project about, Bhargy?”
“It will come along when I finish the current one.” He tapped
his temples.
“What’s your current project about?”
“Give me a set of fingerprints – my software will draw the
picture of the person.”
“Oh!” said Vijay, turning on the music.
“Hey, believe me, okay?” said Bhargav, turning it off.
“I believe you. I just don’t want to encourage this
freelancing life of yours because my wife doesn’t like it. Why don’t you just
get a job and settle down in a place?”
“Is this coming from your heart?”
Vijay shrugged his shoulders. “Nope. But Indhu…”
“Indhu is going to say it to me anyway. So save it, Vij. I
can’t go to a software company and do what they ask me to do. I tried once,
Vij. They were using IE 8 browser and wanted me to develop a Java application
with Tomcat server. With the world moving toward DaaS, I can’t believe that
they want me to work on such a stupid application. I want to do something new –
I am not the guy who can…”
“I think I get it, Bhargy. So who are you selling this
software to?”
Bhargav winked naughtily. “To the highest bidder. So far,
Scotland Yard is in the lead.”
“Scotland... what?” Then he snapped his fingers. “Oh yeah, if
they get the fingerprints, they can always get the criminal. Cool, this
software is supposed to be with the Indian Police Department because the crime
rate is higher here.”
“And then those criminals will be immediately convicted by
our fast track courts and we all will live happily ever after in an ideal
nation called India,” said Bhargav sarcastically.
Vijay laughed. “Okay, all the best for your software. Can you
do the same with the DNA?”
“You just gave me an idea about my next project. I think it’s
possible but…”
A ringing cell phone disturbed both of them. “That’s a Nokia
ringtone. Neither of us uses Nokia,” said Vijay, looking around.
“It’s from the glove compartment,” said Bhargav, opening it.
A pungent smell hit their noses and Vijay tried hard not to smell it.
“Chloroform? How on earth…” he couldn’t speak further as
something pulled him far away from this world. All Bhargav could manage was to
brake the car and stop it before slipping into unconsciousness.
The Arrow appeared from the nearby alley.
“That was easy,” He told his partner with a smile. “Remove anything that might
have a GPS – his watch, his cell phone, even his pendant. And take this car and
park it at Phoenix mall.”
When the partner was about to move, he
said, “It’s the watch. It has GPS. Donate it to some beggar on the way and give
him a ticket to Luxe Cinema Hall.”
“Seriously? His uncle might believe that Vijay
is watching a movie but it only buys us a couple of hours.”
“Your point being?”
“It’s a Rolex.”
The Arrow laughed. “Go. Now.”
To be continued.
Comments and criticisms are welcome. :-)
For previous parts, kindly check
Thanks & Regards,
Lavanyaa
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