Chapter 29Tying the last rope of the tent to it's post, Maan said to himself, "I will stay here tonight, and then head back to Delhi tomorrow. Truly, I will be happy never to come back here again. Ever since the first time I arrived, there has been one problem or the other. It's not the place, so much, as that girl which is the cause. Ever since I met this Geet, nothing has gone right with me. Well, forget that Maan. Tomorrow you will go home, tell Dadima what happened, and she will easily object to our marriage when she learns what Geet did."
Confident that his life would return to normal soon, Maan moved to go inside the tent to start setting up his bedding when he heard a noise. It sounded like something moving through the forest, possibly a large animal. Though India's animal populations were not as large as they had been in the past, there were still many dangerous predators that still roamed the forests. Maan, who did not intend to take any chances, went to the jeep and quickly got out his rifle.
Maan didn't believe in ghosts and he never had. He knew that what people thought were supernatural events had perfectly logical explanations. Yet, if he had been a believer, he would have sworn that he saw the ghost of a slim girl running desperately in the faint moonlight as he looked through the rifle's crosshairs. It also could have been a hallucination, but Maan Singh Khurana did not hallucinate. When he heard a very human cry of pain, he knew that was he saw was no ghost or figment of imagination, but something very real.
The pain in her arms and leg was strong, but nothing compared to the total exhaustion that she felt from the continuous attempts to evade her captors. Geet knew she should get up, but she just didn't have any strength left. All she could do was repeat Babaji's name, hoping that he would somehow save her from Brij's talwar. She began to loose consciousness as she saw her brother raise the sword high, her eyes closing involuntarily as a flash of white appeared at the edge of her vision.
If he had had time to ponder, Maan would have been grateful for all his martial arts training that allowed him to, among other things, stop a swinging sword. He would have been grateful, but he was too busy stopping Brij Handa from murdering his own sister. Neither he, nor the men that were with him, were any match for Maan, but they were determined, not willing to give up. Eventually, Maan was forced to hold the talwar at Brij's throat, threatening his life, to get them to back off.
"Geet, wake up, Geet!" called Maan, rushing to her side as soon as the group of men had run off.
Maan couldn't tell if she heard him or not, for she kept murmuring, "Babaji," over and over. When he touched her face, her eyes fluttered before opening slowly. Blinking twice, Geet suddenly shot up and hugged Maan as if she would never let go. More surprising that that, was that Maan hugged her back in relief that she was alright. He had worried that maybe she had been severely injured, but from the way she clung to him, it was obviously not the case.
Soon Maan noticed that her hold had slackened. Moving slightly, he saw that she had fainted again. With the possibility of Brij and the other men coming back, there was nothing Maan could do, but pick Geet up and carry her out of there. He meant to take her back to his jeep and to the nearest hospital, but it quickly became clear that idea would not be possible. Even with the strong moonlight, Maan could not see well enough to find his way back to camp.
Eventually he found a small hut that was deserted. Bringing Geet inside, he set her on the hay, then went about securing the place as best he could. There wasn't anything to block the door, so he decided to sit against it. If those goons came back, they would have to get through him.
The next thing Maan knew he was springing up in a sitting position after having been asleep for he didn't know how long. Obviously some noise had woken him, causing Maan to get up and check to see if anyone was there. Once he was satisfied, his attention drifted back to the girl who lay almost still as death. The wound on her arm reminded him of when she tended to his wounded had on the way to Amritsar. Slightly concerned with the propriety of touching her so intimately when she was unconscious, he still went ahead. After all, there was no one else there to take care of her.
Almost as soon as he put her salwar back in place Geet became restless. She muttered a lot, but Maan could make out her pleas for help to Babaji and her assertions that she had done nothing wrong. While trying to think of what he might do to help clam her, he received another shock when she sat up, throwing her arms around him tightly.
"Don't leave me. Save me, save me. Don't leave me," she cried over and over.
Maan was unsure of how to respond. He didn't know whether to reciprocate the hug or push her away. He didn't even know what disturbed him more, her pitiful pleas, or the way her face was pressed so hard against his chest. This was not a situation that he had ever been in before, so he didn't know how to feel. When she pulled back, the look in her eyes had him spellbound, to the point that he couldn't move.
Only when Geet herself moved away was the spell broken. To avoid thinking about what happened, he took refuge in anger, complaining about what her brother had done and about her family. Other than some slight mumbling, she didn't say anything, not even when he suggested that she should go to the police. Maan just could not understand this girl, and her silence frustrated him no end. It wasn't like he could force her, though, so he just gave up and sat back down in front of the door.
Geet huddled in a corner, hugging her knees to her chest in a desperate act of self comfort. She didn't understand what to do now, and nothing that Maan said to her made any sense. Previously when she had tried to get his help he didn't listen, and now suddenly he was telling her that she should go to the police and that her family didn't care about her at all. The way no one had supported her against Brij, that was obvious, but it was still crushing to hear it said allowed. All she wanted to do at this point was go to sleep and wake up from this horrible nightmare.
She still wanted to wake up from the nightmare the next morning as she sat in the jeep next to Maan, holding her brother's talwar tightly. She kept thinking back over everything that had occurred since the time that Dev Khurana first came to their house. She thought about the way that Daarji and Brij had reacted to everything and wondered if going to the police like this would really change anything.
Almost impulsively she shouted at Maan to, "Stop the car!"
When he didn't respond immediately, she said in a much firmer tone, "I said, stop the car!"
Geet knew that Maan would react negatively when she told him that she wasn't going to the police station. She knew that he would start accusing her and misunderstanding without even asking for or listening to an explanation. After all, that was always what he did, so why would she expect anything different now. No, she didn't even bother trying to explain that going to the police would not change her family's behavior. Turning her face away, she began the long walk back to the village, uncaring that Maan continued driving the jeep in the opposite direction.
Precap"Saabji, don't do that! This taveez is pulling you in a good direction. You should treat it with respect."
Edit: Oh, yeah. I suggest that everyone watch episodes 43 and 44 again. Hardly anything I wrote in this chapter is different, although I did try to give a bit of a different perspective.
Edited by laxmi2010 - 13 years ago
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