Chapter 47
"This Dusht Danaav is so strange," thought Geet as she looked at Maan. "See how calmly he is sitting there. This place is so creepy with no lights and no people, it's straight out of a horror movie. Soon we will start hearing scary sounds, or maybe only I will hear them. This DD is too interested in his blueprints to pay attention to anything else."
Maan looked up from the paper in his hand to see Geet staring at the door. "Geet where is your attention?"
When she looked back at him uncertainly, he demanded, "Are you still thinking that I brought you here for something other than work?" When she tried to deny, he ground out, "The look on your face tells me that you're lying!"
"No, Maan, I promise I'm not scared of you. I don't think you will do anything wrong."
"If that is so, then why do you take two steps back when I take one step toward you?" Maan questioned, even as he demonstrated his point my moving closer to Geet.
Geet silently wondered how he expected her to react when he came so close without any warning. Trying to think of a way to prove to him that she was telling the truth, since he wouldn't listen to her words, Geet finally hit on closing the door to the conference room. That would show him that she had enough trust to stay alone in a closed room with him. It would also make the office seem less scary, since she wouldn't have to keep viewing all the darkened, empty corridors.
"Geet, what did you do?" yelled Maan, rushing to the door when he realized it was closed.
"I closed the door," replied Geet plainly. "You wouldn't listen to me, so I had to show you that I wasn't afraid to be alone with you."
"Wow, Geet. Your thinking processes are truly unbelievable. Didn't you think to wonder about why I left the door open in the first place? The lock is broken on this door. It can only be opened by a key from the outside."
"What?"
Well, neither Maan nor Geet were too happy with each other after this incident. Maan couldn't believe that Geet had gotten them locked in, while Geet couldn't understand why Maan didn't use his muscles to break down the door. Rather than even try to respond to her crazy idea, Maan searched for his cell phone, only to realize it had been left at home. Geet also had no phone, and office phones were switched off after hours. When Geet's suggestion to call out the window to the guards also proved fruitless, Maan saw only one alternative, work. They would do their work until the night guard came by. He was sure that the guard would find the closed door suspicious and open to investigate.
Working together didn't go as smoothly as Maan would have liked. Geet had no qualms about arguing with him, something that the rest of his employees didn't do. She didn't like the layout of the upper floor, believing that the bedrooms were too far apart for a family house where parents would need to keep watch over their children. She also wasn't impressed with out the kitchen had no outside window.
As if she was on a college debate team, Geet clearly spelled out to Maan how middle and lower class families lived differently than rich people. They would not always be running the AC and would want a window to the garden that would let them see the children. Maan finally gave into her ideas for the kitchen, setting about changing the blueprints a necessary. He wouldn't give into her on the bedroom issue. He felt that the house was small enough that distance would not be a problem.
"We're finished and it's already 2 in the morning. When is the guard going to come? I'm feeling very cold," complained Geet as she sat rubbing her arms, pouting like a little girl.
"And you are going to permanently ruin my brain with your craziness. This is the third time you have said you are cold. I already gave you my waistcoat, but you wouldn't put it on. Now you have to keep complaining about a situation that is your fault to begin with!"
"My fault! MY FAULT! It's not my fault, but your fault. I didn't know the door would get stuck! I only closed it because you wouldn't listen when I tried to tell you that I wasn't scared of you, I just didn't feel comfortable in this big, dark, empty office building. Who knows what kind of weird people might be lurking around," Geet voiced her fears with a shudder.
"No one could possibly be weirder than you! There's not going to be anybody lurking around, that's why we have the security guards. And why couldn't you just say why you were scared instead of getting us stuck here?"
"Don't try to keep blaming me," she responded. "You were the one who wouldn't listen. Anyway, what are we going to do since the guard hasn't come yet?"
"I don't know," admitted Maan in frustration, pulling off his tie and beginning to pace.
Geet smiled a bit, remarking, "You know, you are just like my Daarji. Whenever he would get angry and frustrated, he would walk back and forth, back and forth while thinking, looking very stern."
When Maan looked at her slightly in shock, Geet realized what she had actually said. She hadn't spoken one word about her family in almost a month, doing her best not to think about what had happened. Moving toward the window, as if being closer to nature would somehow wipe away the memories, she couldn't stop being sad at the memory of what she had lost. She could feel Maan coming to stand beside her, and his presence was a welcome distraction from her own mind.
"You miss your family." It was a statement, not a question. "Have you spoken to them at all since we left Hoshiarpur?"
Geet didn't answer immediately, taking time to consider her words. "The girl who went with you to Hoshiarpur, Geet Handa, is not the same girl you brought back to Delhi. I broke all ties with them, so no, I have not spoken with anyone from the Handa family."
"But what about that guy...I mean, the one you asked me to help get away from your house? Haven't you talked to him either?"
"Gurvinder was my friend Channi's husband. I know you thought something else, but there was nothing like that between us."
"Your friend's husband," repeated Maan, shocked. "Then...you weren't trying to run away together?"
"No." It took Maan several minutes to fully comprehend Geet's answer, his mind flashing back over everything that had happened in Hoshiarpur.
"If that's true, then why was your family trying to kill you?" he finally asked.
Geet trembled slightly, the tears starting to form as she explained, "Brij...Brij veerji killed Channi, because she...she and Gurvinder did run away to get married. I was trying to help Gurvinder get enough evidence so the police could a..arrest Veerji. My family...well you know what happened. That's why...that's why I needed..."
Geet's tears disturbed Maan to the point that he asked her to stop talking. "Whatever has happened that is giving you pain, that is causing tears when you think of it, that is something that you should forget. Life teaches one thing and that is dwelling on the past never makes any difference. If your family could see how you've been handeling your life since you left them, I am sure they would be impressed, but what's more important is that you feel happy with your accomplishments. The praise of others becomes unnecessary when you know you've done your best."
Geet sniffed a bit, before wiping her eyes and cheeks. "Better?" Maan asked, almost the way you would ask a hurt child.
"Yes," she replied, her voice still slightly thick from the crying. "Thanks."
"Well, at least something good came out of all this," Maan remarked, only to have thunder rumble past his words, bring a storm and a power outage, causing the conference room to plunge into darkness.
Precap
Baahar se koi andar na aa sake...
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