Chapter 5 & 6
It was after 2 P.M the lunch crowd had finally started to die down. Sugni finally took a seat on a chair she had behind the counter. Running a restaurant can be hard work, Vickram never thought about it , until seeing it all in action before his eyes. Every one played an equally important part in the running of this place and they all worked together like parts of a well oiled Machine.
His business side also kicked in and he could see the potential this place had to become a five star restaurant. He was pondering on wheather or not to approach Sugni about it, he would love to help her make this place grow.
He also knew she thought he was some sort of guard, of the middle class just wandering around. and should he suddenly give her business advice , she would have a lot of questions about that, questions that would open doors to his past , doors he was not ready to go back through yet.
His anonymity meant a lot of him. To protect that he decided to stay quite. But maybe he could approach it in a different way with out letting on on who he was. He decided he would approach her later on.
The door swung open and a man walked in, he was a stocky man , seemed to be middle aged , and looked as out of place in the diner as diamonds in a coal mine. He was dressed to the hilt , in a suit that looked to be costumed made. Both ears were pierced, and he had a gold chain around his neck. He was carrying some sort of file in his hands. Something about him reminded Vickram of toad. He smelled trouble.
Glancing outside he saw an expensive car with a driver in the front seat, belonging to Mr. Toad no doubt. Hmm maybe this guy was lost. Then his gaze went to the counter, Sugni was no longer sitting , but she was on her feet. The expression on her face was alarming, it was the expression she wore the first time she laid eyes on him, the same one she had when Digvijay and co. paid her a visit. Suddenly Vickram knew who this toad was, had to be the Jwala he herd so much about.
Alert now , he observed the movements of the intruder. His beady eyes took in the customers, befor making his way to the counter. "Hello Sugni dear!" he greeted her , the smile on his face was anything bur cordial.
"Mr.Jwala" She answered.
"My your busness has gotten back on track I see." He laughed "You know when I herd that you have been up to quite a bit lately , I knew I had to play you a visit.!"
"I have made all your payments" she said, defiantly.
"Ohh I see that you have, very good , I knew you could do it!" he continue.
"I am not here for that...I have another proposal for you...can we talk some where more privately?' he asked, although it was more of a demand.
"Have a seat on one of the tables i will join you" Sugni said, her eyes darting to the back corner that had become Vickram's usual spot. Silently he gestured if she needed his assistance. Slightly she shook her head no.
"How about your office, I would not want to disturb your customers from having their meal!" He replied. She agreed walking towards the back and the small office. Vickram got up and began to follow, no way was he leaving her with that creep. "Sugni?"
"It's Ok ," she said
"Ohhh soyou are the guard that i herd about?" Jwala said snow standing in front of Vickram. "Wow Sugni guard and all naa , what was the need for this ?" he asked.
"Hmmm I don't know maybe if you were man enough not to strong arm and bully a hard working young woman, she would not need one" Vickram said. The more he was around this man , the less he liked him. Looks like he would have to make another unscheduled call to Bushan to find out exactly who this creep was!
'Excuse me, i have no idea what you are talking about, i was out of town until last night, Mr...?" he trailed off.
"Ohh I know your types, to coward to do your dirty work yourself, you used your goons to do it"
"how dear you!? Is this the unmannerly type of people you hire here Sugni, no wonder you are loosing your business!' he said staring at Sugni...
Vickram was about to reply wen Sugni steped in..."Please...don't" She said to him
"Mr. Jwala please follow me." Indicating that he should stay where he was , he looked on as she entered the office with the toad in tow. He had a bad feeling about this.
A feeling further fed by the entrance of Champa joining him.
"This is not good, he is up to something!"she said ..tapping her feet nervously watching the office.
"You should be in there!" she said eying him
"She told me to stay here!" he retorted, feeling defensive, he knew he should, but he could not force himself where he was not wanted now could he.
Watching the minutes tick slowly by, on the clock. The office was quite. It was driving him crazy wondering what was going on in there!.
After what could be no more than twenty minutes but felt like hours , the office door suddenly burst open.
"Oh My God what are you crazy! , all I was trying to do was help you out. You want to kill me" Jwala was shouting loudly. Vickram immediately got up, but stopped in shock as he was that Jwala was bleeding profusely for a wound in his upper hand.
"Wha.." Vickram approached him...
"I don't know why she hired you, believe me she is not the one in need of a body guard!" he said as he hastily made his way to the door. Wailing loudly about an attempt being made on his life. The customers were all staring wondering what happened . .
Champa was making her way to the office, before Vickram stopped her. "I'll see what happened...can you clean this up?" he asked indicating the trail of blood that Jwala left behind. Nodding she left.
He found her with her back towards the door, staring out the window.
"Sugni?" he called , no response from her. Quickly making his way towards her. He placed his hand on her shoulder. "Hey!"
Slowly she turned to look at him, a look of shock on her face. "What happened in here?" he asked
"He never wanted me to repay this loan, he dose 'nt want the money, it was never about the money, he wants my business...he won't give up" "She whispered, so softly he had to strain to hear what she was saying. The dazed look was beginning to wear off.
"I can't ...I can't loose this" Suddenly she began to cry, her heartbroken expression was tugging at his heart stings. This was Sugni, this girl who under tremendous pressure never gave up. Always optimistic. He recognised the look on her face well, it was the beginnings of unrelenting despair. Once it got a hold of you then getting out of it's clutches is difficult.
He could not let that happen to her, not her. She was a fighter, but it seems as though she was about to give up her fight. There was a pain in his chest, only this time the hurt was not for himself but for this girl in front of him. Ignoring his better judgement , and going with his gut he wrapped his arms around her her small hands clung to the front of his shirt as she continued to cry softly.
"Shhh..its ok...we'll figure it out ok " he said softly.
"This is all I have of her, I can't loose this, he won't give up until I do." She continued "I just made it worse"
'What happend?" he asked again
He released her from his arms , grabbing a couple of napkins from the desk he handed it to her. Taking her hand he led her a worn couch against the far wall where they sat. Sugni wiped her face trying hard to compose herself.
The door opened , to Champa who had a glass of water. She handed it to Sugni placing a hand on her shoulder reassuringly,
"Would you like me to lock up?" She asked.
"No...I'll be out in a while ok" Sugni said taking a sip of the water.
After Champa left...she wet back to staring out the window. Vickram waited patently for her to start.
"He wants to buy this place...he offered me $300,000. And a waiver of my loan."
Vickram was confused, "but you are 1/2 way through paying your loan, how can he waiver it if you made payments on it."
"It's all in the file..." she said indicating the black manila file lying on her desk. He made his way to the desk and picked up the file and started reading.
"What the hell..." said after he began reading it. He could feel his rage building as he continued to read through the file...
"He can't do this, where are your payment receipts?" he asked pacing in front of her.His brain working overtime as to how to stop this.
"He burnt them" she said
'What?! How did he get them?" He asked in shock.
"Well i told him I had another installment ready for him, and he agreed to take it, he was making out a receipt when he said he wanted to verify something ,if he could see the copies of my last three. I showed hem to him and well he took it."...
'He not only duped her and took the receipts , he told her that for non payment off the loan he could had all rights to size her diner, since she would not be making any payments in the six months she agreed to. But if she would agree to sell him the place he was willing to pay her. A shocked Sugni watched in shock as he set it on fire with his lighter . He told her she had two choices either give it up willingly and start afresh , or forfeit it lack of payment. She had three months to make up her mind... only because he already had a signed agreement he had to keep up appearances!
Even more disturbing was his offer, to allow her to continue working for him as a servant in his house. He then approached her touching her in a leering way making his intentions clear, with out second thought, she sliced him with a letter opener she had laying on the table. That's when he made his way out of her office with claims she tried to kill him.!
After accounting the events to Vickram , whose rage was close to boiling point , she began crying again. Taking a deep breath to control his emotions.
Kneeling in front of her, he took hold of her hands, "hey , look at me" slowly she raised her eyes looking at him. Wiping her tears, he said...
"Listen to me...all he is doing is trying to bully you, scare you . But I am not going to let that happen. Ok...'
"What else can I do? I can't fight him...he did the same thing with Mrs. Sammar after her husband...she did it all went to court, but he was more powerful , had more money, he intimidated her endlessly...until she just gave up...only she had no where else to go and always said she would die there and she did, she committed suicide! And look we all see the shiny new building going up where she once made a home." She continued.
"This place was my mothers life...it was her dream to see this go on...and now"
"And it will happen, i promise you!" he cut her off.
She kept looking at him. "No it won't...I'm no match for him!" She said brokenly.
" Sugni ,do you trust me?" he asked softly
She nodded.
"I know some people who can help us get out of this, but to do that I will have to leave town for a few days. Lawyers and whatever else we may need."
He could see her taking all that in..."I can't afford a lawyer" she said.
"Don't worry about it?"
"How can you say that...lawyers cost money and then court cases he made sure I have no proof that i gave him any money, it's his word against mine, which one of us you think they will believe, I don't think I..."
"Shhh" ...he cut off he rumblings by placing a finger in her lips. She looked at him in shock...at the same moment he removed his hand a strange invisible cord seems to hold there gazes together. As they continued to stare into each others eyes. Out of nowhere the urge to kiss her crept up on him...hitting him on the head. What? Where did that come from...He blinked rapidly braking eye contact trying to clear his brain. Thoughts like that were dangerous he better nip it at the bud.
Getting up he made his way to the door and back.
Taking a deep breath he sat at the opposite edge of the sofa, making sure to clasp his hands together before they gave in to the urge to hold hers.
"Look, don't get carried away, first off these people owe me ok? All I am going to do is get some advice and find out how we should proceed. Then you can decide what you want to do ok?" "Three months is a lot of time to figure this out ok!" He had a feeling that they had less time than that but he did not want to further scare her.
"OK" she said. 'When will you leave?"
"In a few days...but first I need to make some arrangements!" There was no way he was going to leave her alone with out security now.
"What arrangements?"
"What type of guard would I be if I left you alone?" He said..."you want to get me fired?" he joked
She smiled.
"Bu.
"Don't worry I'll make sure no one harasses you and this place keeps running smoothly while I am gone!" He said...he needed to speak to Bhushan as soon as possible.
"I thought you were a wanderer, how...?" She asked...
So it started the doors he was trying to keep closed on his past were starting to shake open. He couldn't let it happen, he was going to hold that door shut with his life.!
"I left to wander is true but I did have a normal life close to a year ago. I took the decision to leave, to return when I felt the time was right. " Some thing in her expression changed to one of alarm
"You're going back?" She asked sounding alarmed, like she received even more bad news. The tear s were welling up again.
"No!" he said, reassuringly, "But some one told me that if you need help there is no shame in asking." He said, reminding her of her words she told him in one of their many morning conversations. "And right now we need a little help, and I know the people to do it so I'll take a step back!" He smiled.
"OK" She "yes , your right" She smiled. He placed his palm on hers giving it a reassuring pat. Intending to remove his hand, but failing.
She looked at him again making eye contact, igniting that feeling again. Her eyes shiny with unshed tears.
"Thank you...for doing this...you've done so much for me already I can never repay you for what you're doing? "
"I am not doing anything special, and I should thank you ...you took in a perfect stranger when you should have kicked me out!" He replied.
"Nooo...you don't understand" , She said had a look in her eyes that were doing funny things to his heartbeat. "I had to take your offer, if you were not in there that day they would never have left so easily, truth was I was on the verge of giving up, I was tired and scared and felt so alone ...I really had no where to turn...asking my mother for some sign some kind of help ...and then there you were offering to be a guard free of charge. You did more than just help me out ...you saved me!" she ended. Tearfully smiling at him.
Vickram stared at her speechless, her emotional outburst shocking him, looking at her he could feel himself being pulled toward her. It was so strong he was no longer inclined to fight it. Moving closer to her again wrapped her in his arms. She rested her head on his shoulder. It felt like the most natural feeling in the world thoughts of nipping this in the bud some how not as important as before.
"It's going to be OK I promise" He said, a promise he realized he meant from every fiber of his being. He would make sure it was ok, if it was the last thing he did.
They stayed that way for how long he did not know. Offering her silent comfort, while battling with this new feeling that was emerging, he was too scared to put a name to it. Again fate seemed to be up to one of her games, this was not want he set out for. Not only that he was also sure that if Sugni knew about his past , she would run from him as fast as she could and he could not blame her if she did.!
Finally he decided it was best to go away for a few days and figure out his this battle that seems to be starting between his head ad his heart!
His inward monologue was interrupted by the door swinging open to an alarmed looking Champa.
Releasing Sugni straighten up leaving his arms feeling suddenly cold and empty... "Champa" She asked taking in her look.
"Sugni...OH my God the police are here, they say they came to arrest you!!!"
Edited by Vinnie79 - 12 years ago
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