MoRan- Dare to Love

Part 1

The white clouds covered the mountains from a distance while a thin layer of mist could be seen on the forest trail. The air felt cold and refreshing, smelling of pine and rain. It was a nice and comfortable scent, making it ideal for a slow walk.

Alighting from the bus, Monami looked around until she spotted a stone path. Following the path for 10 minutes, Monami saw the grey-ish green roof of a European styled cottage.  Ever since she could remember things, she had always seen this cottage at the outskirts of the hillside.

Despite the fact that twenty years had passed, this cottage didn’t feel outdated at all even when compared to the modern infrastructure nowadays. This cottage had been left unoccupied for the past few years and there were even rumours that it was a haunted house.

Monami had believed it when she was younger, since the house was always sitting alone amidst the darkness at the outskirts of the hillside. It was only when she got older then she learnt the truth. It turned out the truth was just that the owner of the house had gone overseas with his son when his wife passed away.

However, the house that stood in front of Monami now was different from her memory. This cottage was given a fresh coat of paint and she could see the lights shining from inside, the weeds surrounding the cottage were also pulled out.

Monami was a last year college student majoring in both English and Hindi literature. The reason she was here today was because her school teacher had introduced a part time translator job to her after knowing that she was on holiday. Although the pay was rather good, her teacher had mentioned that this employer was very picky. This employer had rejected all of the previous applicants that her teacher had referred.

Removing her gloves, Monami knocked on the front door. A man who looked to be in his twenties, wearing a thin sweater with black trousers, greeted her. He was tall, thin and had delicate features.

“Monami?” He asked, giving her a cheeky smile.

Monami’s cheeks were red, possibly from the coldness. Her breath came out in white mist and her eyes were slightly wet. “Yes, I am Monami. Nice to meet you.”

“Come in,” the man stepped aside to let Monami enter.

Layers of dark purple curtains lined the window, there were large velvet couches with curved backrests. At the corner of the house, Monami saw a fireplace with logs in it. This felt very much like a typical European styled cottage. At the side of the house, a deep brown wooden staircase led up to the second floor which was really quiet as though there wasn’t anyone there.

The only thing that felt out of place in this cottage was the metal railings that were fitted on the windows, not allowing much sun rays to come into the house. With his sleeves rolled up, the man washed his hands before handing a cup of tea to Monami and gestured for her to sit down. When he sat down opposite her, Monami caught a very faint but familiar scent from him. A scent which Monami couldn’t quite remember where she had smelled before.

The man gave Monami a friendly smile, “Hamara naam Faizuddin Siddiqui hai.. aur iss Ghar ke malik h hamare dost - Karan Shergill.. We are currently looking for a translator to translate his English documents into Hindi.”

Monami nodded, wondering if the owner was related to the previous owner of the house or maybe he was a new owner.

Faizi took out a stack of papers and a pen, handing it over to Monami. “So, let’s not waste any more time and start the test to see if you are qualified for this job. Within half an hour, please translate all the English articles here.”

Monami flipped through the articles before looking up, “Is there a computer here?”

Faizi shook his head and a helpless smile appeared on his face. “Janaab ko.. I mean Karan ko documents handwritten hi sahi lgte hain.."

“No problem,” Monami picked up the pen and papers and started to work her way through the articles. Faizi got up quietly and headed to the sink to wash his hands again before leaning against one of the windows, sipping his tea quietly.

“The victim had been sexually assaulted and there were signs that the victim’s hands had been tied together. There were also multiple wounds on her lower body – " Monami was a bit surprised by the content and paused in her translation. She looked up at Faizi who was impervious.

As Monami had experience in translating such things in the past – except that it was not as gruesome as this, she got over her surprise rather swiftly. She got back to translating the article until she came across a word that she did not know. Briefly looking through the whole article, Monami encountered quite a number of words that were rather uncommon. “Do you have a dictionary specialised in this field of work?”

Faizi pointed to the bookshelf at the side, “Feel free to use any one of them.”

Monami managed to find what she was looking for and she buried herself in translating the article again.

“Sexhanges – , Parentiside – ……” It was not a surprise that she did not know such words as she continued looking through the dictionaries.

After she managed to translate everything, Monami checked it thoroughly once more. Faizi looked at his watch and was rather surprised when he saw that only 25 minutes had passed since the start of the test. “Hum yeh articles Karan ko deke wapas aate hain.”

After saying that, Faizi headed up to the second floor. Monami simply sat on the couch and waited for Faizi. He was back in a short while and he went to the sink to wash his hands once more before drying it on his handkerchief. “He is looking through it now.”

“Okay,” Monami nodded.

With nothing much to do, Faizi started to strike up a conversation with Monami. “Are you studying at a University in Kolkata?”

“Yes, I am graduating next year.” Monami answered.

Faizi inclined his head slightly, “I see. We have been talking for quite a while, toh aap bta payegi mera kya profession ho sakta hai?”

The man in front of Monami looked to be older than her by a few years and he was a very courteous person. Monami had a good first impression of him. “Are you a doctor?”

Faizi’s smile got deeper, “Aapne kaise jaana?”

Monami was rather pleased that she managed to guess correctly, her gaze landed on Faizi’s slender fingers. “It was just a lucky guess, since I saw you washing your hands a number of times which means that you are a person who placed great emphasis on cleanliness. I also smell a very faint disinfectant scent coming from you and your fingers… It looked rather doctor-ish.”

“I guess I will take those as compliment then,” Faizi replied. They continued chatting about other things when the conversation somehow steered back to Karan. At the mention of him, Faizi sighed. “I am leaving here in a few days, par Karan ki tension h... To be honest, he is a fairly withdrawn person.”

Listening to him talking about Karan, Monami simply gave him a polite smile with no questions asked.

Faizi sneaked a glance at her before continuing, “Even though he has been back for quite a while, he still didn’t have any friends. I bet you don’t even know when he got back here.”

Monami’s smile remains unchanged, looking as though she had no intention of continuing the topic. However, she saw Faizi looking at her intently as if he was waiting for her answer. Although Monami felt quite weird, she replied to him nonetheless. “woh yahan par last year aaye the right?”

“How did you know?” Faizi asked.

“I passed by here last year during my holidays and I didn’t see any creepers at that time.. par aaj jab aayi toh woh creeper 5-6 meter tall ho gaye.. mere ghar me bhi creeper ek saal itne hi badhte hai...”

Unexpectedly, they chatted with each other for half an hour. Faizi looked at his watch with a smile on his face. “khafi late ho gaya nahi.. aisa krte abhi aap ghar jaiye.. and I'll call u.. if u are selected..”

Monami nodded.

“Thank you for coming today, if he decides to hire you, there will be a contract drawn up. You will be required to work here for twenty days straight and all translation works had to be done on the spot. Also all the information has to remain confidential, so you can’t bring home any of it.” Faizi informed her as he walked her to the door. “Karan is currently recuperating so without any permission, you are not allowed to head up to the second floor. Regarding other details, we will discuss it when we sign the contract.”

****

When Monami left the house, it was close to evening time.

The sun was setting, bathing the area in an orange glow. It had looked especially pretty when the rays landed on the crystal white snow and the leaves that were covered in snow.

Monami was pretty confident about getting hired. Despite the fact that the employer hadn’t shown his face once, making him rather mysterious and a little eccentric.

But at the end of it, this job was referred to her by her teacher so it should be reliable.

After walking a few meters away from the house, Monami turned back to look at the house once more.

 From the window on the second floor, she spotted a tall and slender man, wearing a black cut suit. A rather striking sight if you asked Monami. However, she was too far away from the house to see the man’s face clearly.

*****

Once Monami was gone, Faizi went straight up to the second floor.

Compared to the warm elegance on the first floor, the second floor was rather gloomy and cold. There were a number of sealed rooms and the walls were completely void of any decorations.

Going to the room at the end of the hallway, he saw that the door was left ajar.

 He pushed it open and leaned against the door. There was none of the refined elegant man left as he cursed loudly.  

It caused the man who was reading a book to frown momentarily at Faizi. However, at the next second, he resumed his reading.

Faizi was nonchalant as he picked up Monami’s translation work and handed it over to the man. “janaab bandi ki writing toh badhiya hai.. aur translate bhi ek dam perfect hai… to the point.”

Faizi took out a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. On the paper, there were a few questions like what was his occupation, how long has Karan moved here and etc.

Yes, those were the questions that Faizi had asked Monami to guess just now.

He slapped the piece of paper on the table and said, “Karan aur jo bhi janaab aapne question diye the.. sabke sahi jawab diye hai mohtarma ne.. so... Are you satisfied with her?”

The man’s lips turned up ever so slightly.

 Seeing that expression, Faizi was afraid that he was going to be picky again, so he pulled out a chair and sat in front of him.

“Dekho Karan, If you are not satisfied with her na, you can always translate it yourself. Aur hum tumhare assistant nahi hai bhala aur toh aur hume wapas city jaana hoga, isliye tum humesha yeh nahi soch sakte ki Faizi ayega and woh tumhari help kr dega.”

The man looked up from his book with a weird expression on his face as he replied Faizi.

“My time isn’t to be used doing those silly things.”

For a moment, Faizi did not know how to reply to him.

 “You are a homicide expert and she is just a translator, hume yeh nahi samjh aata why is there any need to test her observation skills? Hame toh lagta hai un mohtarama toh lg raha hoga ki hum janab kitni bak bak krte hai.”

This time, the man revealed a very gentle smile.

“Woh toh tu krta h.. And Obviously, main kisi aire gere person ko mere work related papers translate nahi karne de sakta... If the person isn’t meticulous enough, he will only be translating directly from the article. He won’t be able to translate the finer details and most definitely he won’t be able to grasp the true meanings behind those words.”

Faizi really didn’t know if he should laugh or be angry but he was all too used to him being like this. “So does this mean that Monami is able to understand you?”

The man's face went blank for a second. Then he went back to read his book and said, “Samajh.. toh koi bhi nahi sakta.”

****

Acha.. toh back with new story.. this one is adapted from a Cdrama...

This one is na full crime-mystery-romance story...

And do give a shoutout..

Till the next one,

Your writer

Kriya