CHAPTER 4 - the misunderstanding
It was a guy dragging her. Tiara did not look aghast, only annoyed. Like she knew him, but didn’t want him to take her away. I kept track of how far I was from my bus, but eventually I couldn’t tell. I ran until I finally reached him and yanked him away from Tiara. “What the hell are you doing? Forcing this kid to come with you? You can’t kidnap her. I’m reporting to the police.” I said, very sternly. All I got from him was a confident smirk. He had a good build, fit for a gangster. “What? You think I’m gonna let this go? This isn’t an empty threat.” I took out my cell phone to prove my point. Urgh! That smirk again. What was wrong with this guy? Wasn’t he scared? That was it, I couldn’t take any more of his super annoying expressions.
I started dialling when Tiara spoke. “Stop. He isn’t kidnapping me. This is Armaan. He’s my neighbour, and my friend." Friend? He looked my age. “Why are you forcing her to go then?” I asked, unable to interpret anything. All he said was “I’m not letting Tiara close to any impure souls”. And he left. Just like that. Did he just call me an impure soul? There was something in the way he confidently said it, and in his expression that was fierce. Whatever arguments I had in mind, I kept them to myself. He didn’t know me at all and the hypocrite had already decided that I have an impure soul. Whatever the case, I could see he cared for Tiara and wasn’t as harsh to her as it seemed from the distance. She wasn’t hurt. But I had a strangely strong anger build in inside me. I had the urge to twist his neck hard enough for him to die, or strangle him some broad yet pointy object. I wanted to see him down on his knees, begging for life. No! I said to myself. I was becoming a devil. What the hell? One line. One line of his made my worst side come out. I wasn’t that monstrous. First the drama in the morning with Aksha and now this. I felt ashamed. I turned back to leave and bam! I was lost.
My heartbeat sure picked pace, but it wasn’t all that scary as it would have been, if it was dark out here. There weren’t many people on the road, but there was a small mart. Hopefully they’d give me directions. “Excuse me? Can you tell me the way to the cotton factory?” I enquired at the counter. I was pretty sure that was a big landmark. I followed his directions and my gut told me I was on the right track. Things slowly started seeming familiar and I spotted my bus.
“Where were you Sana?” Kumar sir’s voice sounded heavy and angry. I realized I’d slowed down the trip. My JHAKAS group looked really relieved on seeing me, but also worried at the same time. I gave everyone a recap of what happened, except for the part where I’d been called an impure soul. John was the only one who burst out into laughter, while others had an angry glare fixed on me. The misunderstanding was clearly amusing to him, but eventually everyone started laughing, including me, easing the tension a little. Kumar sir strictly forbade me from wandering off again, and I was happy he didn’t know anything about my night trip to the forest.
Once I got into the bus, I noticed Khushi glaring at me. The glare had nothing to do with my detour of course. I went to sit beside her. “Hey”, I said. No acknowledgement from her side. This was going to be tough. “What is it Khushi? Just say it.” “You know what this is about Sana, no need to act all innocent.” I knew what she meant. I clarified immediately, “Look I’m not dating John. And neither is Aksha with Adhiraj.” “Reeeeally?” she finally said with a friendly teasing smile, emphasizing on the ‘e’s. Anyways, it wasn’t official. I was glad she finally accepted my say. I didn’t want her to feel left out. We didn’t want to hide anything from her.
We had our activities lined up after lunch. Aksha asked me once we were alone, “You look upset about something. Everything okay?” She was still careful while talking to me after my outburst this morning. She was my bestie and I couldn’t hide this from her. I told her about me being called the “impure soul” and my reactions to it. She was definitely mad at Armaan, though she didn’t even know him. Obviously, I would feel the same way if we exchanged our places, but she was concerned about something else. “I didn’t know you have a violent streak miss softie” She was trying to joke about it, but I could see her unease. I shrugged it off.
Our next stop was a scientific research centre tour. It was very interesting. Or maybe it was just me, because everyone else seemed quite bored. I guess I was very satisfied because it was something normal. Given the past few hours of my life, normality was something I was really looking forward to. We left from the science centre and headed back to our hotel. I needed sleep so bad I actually fell asleep in the bus. It wasn’t even night time, just about early evening. Aksha’s voice woke me up. She seemed uncomfortable and confused. What was the matter?
“I’m not sure whether I should tell you this…” now she was making me extremely curious. “Just say it already Aksha”. “No I’m sorry I shouldn’t have brought this up” she said while slipping her cell into her pocket. “Go to sleep. Want me to tell you a bed time story?” I was in no mood for her jokes. She was hiding her cell from me? Why? “Just tell me Aksha please?” I supposed a request and a little emotional blackmail would suffice. And it did. “Please Sana, don’t get very angry.” She seemed like she was bracing herself for something.
“I searched for it online. For the Phargadh forest. About its stories.” I was afraid I’ll snap at her, like I had in the morning. However I managed to control my temper which seemed to be rising every second. This is what she was afraid of. When she noticed me taking this cool, she continued. “And the stories are not good. They say it is… abnormal? I don’t know. Something like that. Like its bewitched or something. People who go there don’t come back and stuff like that. Similar to Bermuda Triangle. They just disappear. And some stories say that…” “Stop Aksha stop it!” I couldn’t control my anger now. I was curious. I wanted to know about the forest but I was yelling at Aksha to stop. Why? It just happened. Aksha was taken aback too, but she understood. “I’m sorry” I whispered. She was my best friend. Why was I acting like that with her? Urgh. I hated myself for this. We quickly changed the topic and moved on to something…. Normal.
We reached our room and I loved seeing my bed empty. It was so tempting that I climbed on without even removing my footwear. Within seconds I was fast asleep. I must have slept really well because when I opened my eyes, I felt sunrays touching me softly. I was glad for that. Aksha and Martika were still asleep. I smiled, happy that I slept carefree. Here I was, awake, alive and smiling. I liked it.
A knock on the door, woke the others up. The volunteers were asking us to get ready for breakfast. Sounded good to me. We were supposed to have an adventure today, starting with rappelling. “Where are we going?” I asked Kumar sir. He seemed excited about this. “On the Firuki mountains” he said. I used my GPRS tracking to know its location. It told me that the Firuki mountains were right there, right where I dreaded to go. It was beyond the Phargadh forest. And the only way to reach there was through the forest…
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