CHAPTER : 9 :
"Was it something I said?", Arthi looked to Uday for an answer when Maya ran off without saying a word. Uday , who was in utter shock of having his wife and mistress face-to-face with each other ... could do nothing except shrug his shoulders in answer to Arthi.
"She's YOUR FRIEND Uday ... is there something bothering her?", she asked in a worried tone. But Uday didn't hear her ... he had a million-&-one things swimming in his mind and had no clue with where to start WHAT! Arthi hooked her arm into Uday's , thus breaking his thoughts : "The movie's about to begin ... shall we?" He nodded with a fake smile.
But all he actually wanted to do was run after Maya and explain himself ... OR AT - LEAST TRY TO EXPLAIN! Once seated in the cinema , he fiddled with his cell in his pocket until it rang (he made it ring by itself). He pretended that it was a business call and immediately told Arthi that he had to go urgently to attend an important matter.
"We need to go now Arthi" , he said hastily ; in order to speed her up. "You carry on Uday ... I want to watch this picture!", she said with a smile. "Fine , I'll send the driver to pick u up", Uday told before kissing her and leaving.
As soon as he got into the car , he sped to Maya's house. But the house was in darkness , not a single light had been switched on. He still got out from his car and attempted to open the front gate , when an old man approached him : "Can I help you?"
Uday : "Yes , I have to see the lady that lives here ... it's extremely important!"
"Oh , u are talking about Maya ... u just missed her - she left just 2 minutes before you came."
"U are? ", Uday asked irritatedly to the man.
"I'm the land-lord of this house , Maya was my tenant"
Uday : " What do u mean by "WAS""
"She left with her bags and handed me the house keys ... she won't be back!" .
Uday angrily curled his fingers into a taut fist and punched hard into the brick wall ... "Dammit Maya , why didn't u wait for me!" The old man patted him on the back and walked away , while Uday held his head in his hand , in sheer frustration.
Now he'd have to wait for tomorrow , because "Maya would surely be at the flower-shop", he hoped. Alas , it was not so , Uday went to the flower-shop the next morning but was told that Maya didn't pitch up for work ... and the lady there , didn't seem too enthusiastic about Maya ever coming back to that job.
"Where the f**k , do I look now ... Hell , I don't even know her last name!", Uday cursed himself. "I could ask Jaggat to look for her", he decided ; " ... but that would mean , I'd have a ton of explaining to do" . He was forced to dismiss that idea.
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Ali was sitting in his boat, waiting for the fish to be caught in his fishing hook, it was a one of the hard days for him , he didn't catch any fish. in the middle of the river, far from the riverbed, he sat frustrated : "oh, god give me some fish or my family will starve, he prayed and once again aimed his fishing line far hoping that some fish may bite the bait. He waited for minutes, when the familiar pull on his fishing line, made him happy. "Its gonna be a big one " he smiled happily and he began to pull it towards him with all his might.
He dragged the line towards his boat, pulling it up cautiously , and the next moment it was in his boat. It looked oddly familiar- he approached it with caution, it was not a fish, he was sure of that ,it was a bit hairy.. he touched that thing and then he screamed, he moved to the farthest corner of the boat, away from it.
He had fished ... he had fished out ... A HUMAN HEAD!!!!!!!!
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Jaggat arrived at the harbour. His days couldn't get even busier than this. The police officers saluted him as he made his way to the severed head. It was a disgusting sight. The head was about 5 days old, it was bloated and had started to decompose. The fish had started to feast on the head , particularly the eye-balls , because of the soft tissue! It looked like it had come straight from a English horror movie. .
"What do you have to say doctor?" enquired Jaggat to the forensic scientist.
"actually this is the missing head that we were searching for, remember the headless corpse we got 2 days back. The head is water dilapidated ... the eyes are eaten and all soft cartilages are decomposed. If you chech the neck region you can see that it was chopped repeatedly, to be separated from the body, just like the headless corpse ".
Jaggat : who do you think HE is??
"give me time till evening, I will call you if I get a positive lead".
Jaggat : ok
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It was a week since Maya had disappeared into thin air, Uday had searched for her high and low, but in vain. It was so frustrating not to see her ... feel her! Now he felt guilty for lying to her, but he had to , after all he couldn't afford to lose her, but fate played against him, and now she knew the truth. She was hurt, that is why she left without a trace.
"ring ring", the phone blared
"yes?"asked a disinterested Uday
Arthi : Don't forget to pick up Tani today, our driver is on leave, you know that na
"Ya, I will" he cut her abruptly.
He got up and started to search his pant pockets for his car keys when he felt something like a jewellery there, he pulled it out. It was a earring ... Maya's earring. He took the earrings as if it was a delicate piece of art, looked at it teary eyed and brought the earrings to his heart. He sat down on his chair, his mind focused only on Maya and the sweet memories he had of her.
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Tani looked at her chotta bheem wrist watch and it was 5 40 pm. "Where is daddy? ", she wondered. She was getting late for her favourite cartoon show and she hated the thought of missing it. Her home was just a 10 minute drive from her dance class ... so walking couldn't be THAT far! She knew her way home - she should walk home, after all she was a big girl.
She started to cross the high way. She remembered what Reshma mam had taught her while crossing the road. Look right, then left and again right , when crossing. She took one step at a time, as she reached in the middle of the road a car came rushing towards her.
She didn't know what to do ... she stood still, as if frozen! . Veer was watching Tanisha, it had become his habit to check on her, it was not time to launch the next attack, he looked suspiciously as she started to cross the road by herself. "What is she thinking?" he thought, when he noticed a car speeding towards her.
Instantly he ran towards her and pushed her out of harm's way. The car zoomed past them, Veer bruised his elbow in that process, but pulled Tani away : "are you ok?" he enquired. His voice was anxious. Tani was too shocked with the encounter that she just cried.
"Hey , tell me?", Veer asks again
"I want to see my mommy", she cried.
"Ok, I will take you" said veer, just like a big brother.
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"This is my address Bhaiyya" , Tanisha showed Veer a note where her home address was written. But Veer never looked at the paper , his mind jammed on the word 'BHAIYYA" . He was an only child ... he desperately wished that he had smaller siblings ... but when THIS girl called him THAT, he had a shrill ache in his heart.
SHE was next in his HIT-LIST , he saved her from getting knocked - because ... HE WANTED TO BE THE ONE TO KILL HER. There was an unmistakable pull towards her ... he could feel it from the first time he saw her. But he had constantly ignored it. He didn't want to feel anything for her ... she was his TARGET - that's all.
Now here she was formulating a relation with him ... he wanted to scream at her , but looking at her innocent brown eyes - he didn't have the heart to. Silently , he took the paper from her and started walking with her to her home. As soon as she opened the gate , she ran into Arthi's arms : "Hey Tani "
"Hi mommy"
Arthi noticed the young lad still standing by the gate and asked Tani if she knew him.
Tani : Mommy , U know daddy never picked me up from school today ...
Arthi : WHAT!"
"Ya , then I started walking home by myself , then there was this big car - it nearly knocked me ... this Bhaiyya saved me!" , Tani explained.
Arthi ran to Veer and held his hand : "Thank u so much for saving my child ... U have no idea what you've done for me ... Thank you , thank you ... God bless you!"
Veer : Aunty , I was at the right place ... it was my duty to help.
"Please come inside ... ", she practically dragged Veer into the house. "I can't believe my husband didn't pick her , but thank God for you , u know I already lost 1 child ... if I lost Tani too ...' , she started to sob making Veer very uncomfortable with guilt.
"Aunty , I think I should go now", Veer got up to go , when Tanisha saw that his elbow was severely bruised ... probably when he fell on the road in order to save her.
"Mommy , bhaiyya is bleeding", she pointed out the wound to her mother. Even after his numerous protests ... Arthi did not let him go without dressing the bruise. Tani smiled as her mother delicately applied medicine to the wound and neatly bandaged it.
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"BTW - U didn't tell us your name", Arthi told. "It's Veer ", he replied shyly. "Ahhh , VEER as in BRAVE ... and u did a very brave thing today! U share my husband's name ... his full name is UDAY VEER. U know , apart from the name ... u look a lot like him. In fact very much like how he looked when he was younger! ", she laughed and pointed to a photo-frame of Uday : "That's him ... Tani's father" .
Arthi went to keep the first-aid kit and Tani hoped along behind her. Veer picked up the frame and stared at Uday's photo ... carefully analysing every feature of Uday's : "I DON'T SEE ANY RESEMBLENCE DAD!"
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Sheesh , finally done😆!
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Love ...
ANDY + NAVINA 😳
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... Andy is the CAPTAIN of this SHIP😆!!!!!!!!!!
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