A to Z Challenge: Soliloquy

Rising

A man got into her cab at the airport. Riya was already disgruntled, this guy didn't bother stowing his suitcase in the open trunk. She has had to get out of her idling car and set it to rights, all the while hoping that the airport cop did not give her a ticket. She opened the separating door with more than  usual force and asked the customer in a clipped tone, "Where would you like to go today?" Nick jerked out of his reverie as if slapped and said, "Powai". "Why do I get all the weird ones?", thought Riya to herself as she banged the opening shut again." In my cab and life, both."

Nick was trying to call her. She wasn't picking up. But then she never did pick up when he dialed her at this time. He hadn't asked her what she was up to.  He wasn't sure if he wanted to know. What he did not know could not hurt him.  But with every inch that he was getting closer to discovering the truth. Why was he doing this to himself? Trying to surprise her, startle her almost into a confession, by landing up at her door unannounced. This wasn't how he envisioned it all coming to an end.

"Let's not go to Powai", he boomed suddenly. "Stop at the next coffee shop you see." Riya started. She wondered what was with him. She felt like she was suddenly stuck in a parallel universe where she was in a spy movie or something. She stole a glance carefully in the rear view mirror. He was still stuck deep in thought, his eyebrows were furrowed and he was frowning at his phone. She did not where this day was taking her and she wasn't sure she liked it very much.

A to Z Challenge: Rising

A loud noise on the television woke her up. She had fallen asleep on the plastic chairs she was resting on with her feet up. It was almost morning- what poets wax eloquent about- the magical hour before dawn, when the blue of the sky is a brilliant blue, when the yellow of the sun soothes before burning. For Riya, it wasn't very magical. It meant she had woken up way too early before the start of the day. She rubbed her eyes trying to rid them of any residual sleep. This was beginning to happen way too often for her liking.

She walked into the tiny balcony which extended out from her living room. There wasn't enough space even to swing a cat in. That phrase had always fascinated her. Why would anyone want to swing a cat in a room. It was sure something to think about. Her room mates would be up soon. Before the flat was filled with the bustling noise of thumping footsteps, she savored the last quiet few moments of solitude. It was impossible to be alone in Mumbai. Wherever you went, you felt like you were being carried along by a sea of humans.

Her morning tasks done, she headed down 15 floors to start her work day. If walking in Mumbai was being carried along by a sea of humans, driving was like following a trail of ants walking in a line. It was exhausting and mind numbing to say the least. There used to be a time when she had enjoyed driving in Mumbai. Now it was just part of the job. She swung the cab door open and stepped in. Switching on the Uber app on her phone, she accepted the first ride of the day and drove into the packed road.

A to Z Challenge: Questions

Hanged

Insomnia
Jaded

Keeper
Labour

Mystery
News
Ominous
Punishment

Rini sank onto the pillared courtyard of the village school. Her movements had woken up Aryan who now joined her. One look at her ashen face was enough to tell him that she had found out something unpleasant. He made her sit down and recount what happened. His first reaction the next morning was to limit her interaction with the villages. He took up the maximum of the field work she had to do. He had watched her enough number of times now to do the heavy lifting. He hoped to reduce the chances of anyone recognizing her.

The second thing Aryan did was book them onto an earlier flight. He wanted to get her out of the village and away as soon as possible. Three days of very very hard work on Aryan's part, a million anxious calls from her mother and a lot of irritation from her side, she found herself on the dusty road to the nearest railway station. They paid off their driver and headed to the burning hot platform for their interminable wait for their sloth like passenger train.

Aryan headed off in the pursuit of sweet milky tea and Rini collapsed, wilting in the sun, on the nearest bench, Suddenly, a huge platoon of people dismounted from a local train. It seemed to be the entourage of a politician. She craned her neck to get a better view of the main guy so to speak. A shiver passed through her. This was the same face that flashed before her every single day in her nightmares.

A to Z Challenge: Punishment

Links to previous parts:

Hanged

Insomnia
Jaded

Keeper
Labour

Mystery
News
Ominous

Things came to a head one day when Sunita woke up from an evening nap to a scratching at her door. She had been trying to power nap before starting another shift at the village clinic. Ranjan was visiting one of the nearby villages and she was alone at home. She cautiously inched her way to the back door and opened it a crack. She knelt down and pulled the terrified Radha into her arms. The child wasn't crying or making a single sound. She was in shock and deeply traumatized by something she had seen. Sunita could hear a loud commotion in the distance. Some instinct made her want to hide Radha. Her gut was telling her Radha was not safe. She concealed the child in a closet covering her with a bunch of blankets. 

She stepped outside to see what was going on after securely locking her main and back doors. There seemed to be fighting and violence of some sort in the distance. Looking closely, she found that it was issuing from Tara's home. She quickened her steps to see a large crowd gathered there. There seemed to be two large mobs fighting outside the house. The village had gathered to watch the madness. Were these the warring families that Tara had told her about? She elbowed her way into the house and no one stopped her. She was not prepared for the sight that met her. Tara lay lifeless in her living room. She had been murdered. She inched back out and escaping the notice of the mobs, she slipped away. She did not know what to do. She should inform the police, find Dhruv. What was she to do? Ranjan wasn't around to help either.

Ranjan came home to find his wife huddled in a corner of the house. All the lights were switched off and Radha lay asleep in her arms. She had been crying. "Tara is dead. They killed her. I tried to find Dhruv.  They.. they.. the tree.. that tree.. behind the village lake.. They made it the hanging tree. They were trying to find Radha. I tried to hide her. We need to leave." It took him a long time to get a coherent story out of her. When he did, he acted quickly. There were three of them on the flight back to New York and that is when Radha became Rini.

A to Z Challenge: Ominous

Links to previous parts:

Hanged

Insomnia
Jaded

Keeper
Labour

Mystery
News

"Mom, I haven't spoken to anyone here yet. Don't worry. We just got here. But you can't leave me hanging like this, I need to know." Rini muttered as she paced up and down in the corridor of the village school which was their makeshift shelter for the night. She was trying to be as quiet as possible as Aryan slumbered at the end of it, chivalrously having given up the whole interior to her. " I really wish I didn't have to tell you this over the phone. But I guess, you will not listen to me until I explain my reasons. So you know you are adopted. But there is a story behind your adoption which your father and I had decided to protect you from. Now it is time to tell this story."

23 years ago, Ranjan and his wife Sunita had been volunteer doctors in Anjeer village. They had come down for a tour of service from America where they had met and gotten married. In this remote village, with minimum medical facilities, they were welcome with open arms by the community. They brought with them what seemed like salvation to this tiny village. They took shifts at the temporary clinic that they had set up and it was at this clinic that they met Dhruv and Tara. Dhruv was the school teacher in the small village school. He and Tara had brought their four year old Radha to Sunita. Sunita was thrilled to meet Tara and Radha. It was love at first sight for her with little Radha. Tara and Radha could be seen trailing behind Sunita on many of her innumerable house visits. They took long walks in the surrounding forests and hills and went exploring. The families spent a lot of time visiting each other and practically living in each other's houses.

On one of these visits, Sunita noticed that Tara always seemed on the verge of blurting out some sort of secret. Finally the day came when she finally spilled the beans. "Dhruv and I ran away from home to get married. There is a huge blood feud between our families. We met in college and wanted to marry each other. But our families wouldn't agree. So we eloped. We are still not sure that they aren't looking for us. It has been 6 years. The day they find us, they will try to kill us. That's the reason why we chose to live here. So nobody can find us. We are hiding right under their noses." Sunita shrugged off Tara's worries. It all sounded too Montague and Capulet to happen in real life. Surely, Tara was exaggerating.