THE RANDOM ROAD TRIP

“If we do it now, it would be perfect. There won't be any regrets of any kind.” He further explained.

“Know why? Because we don't have any expectations from each other. We haven't judged each other. We don't even know each other yet.”

The expression of others remained frozen as they contemplated the idea of a road trip. For them, the decision on the road trip was not tough. The tough decision was whether they should go on a trip with three total strangers.

Kabir continued to convince the others. “Come on, think about it. No regrets, no expectations, no judgments. Don't you want to escape from this worldly shit? Inside, you know that you would love this road trip. We are all tired of this. We want a break. Don't you want a break -”

He wanted to ask the woman. But then stopped in mid-sentence, realizing that he didn't know the name of the woman in front of her.

She was about to speak up when Kabir interrupted her.

“Wait! What about this, we won't tell each other our names.” He grinned wide as if the idea was a master plan to rob the Reserve Bank of India.

“Sounds... good.” The man sitting beside the woman shrugged and said.

“Seems like you're a lot protective of your name?” The man sitting beside the man who was sitting beside the woman commented.

“I have name issues.” The man sitting beside the woman replied.

“That's called trust issues.” The woman said.

“But I don't have trust issues. I have name issues.” The man sitting beside the woman replied.

“That was what I was talking about. No name issues or else. We don't have to share our names. Simple ground rules.” Kabir said to bring the topic back to the road trip.

“So, you mean that if this road trip shit ever happens, then we'll have to call him 'the name issue' guy?” The man sitting beside the man who was sitting beside the woman said, pointing to the man sitting beside the woman.

“Ah, no. I have a better alternative. We can make up fake names, or we can set our names based on some object, or some numbers. Like you can call me One.”

“Bad idea. My mathematics is crap.” The name issue guy said.

Apparently, the name issue guy was relatable to the member on every trip with the lowest IQ.

Kabir shared a look with the woman and the man sitting beside the name issue guy. They too had the same perception of the name issue guy.

“Well, then we can make up names based on objects or cities, or countries or something like that,” Kabir suggested.

“That, I agree upon.” The name issue guy said, nodding his head in approval.

There was a moment of silence during which they shared each other's glances.

“So, what now?” The woman asked.

“Now... this.” Kabir got up from his seat and walked a nearby general store.

He came back a minute later, with a notepad and a pen in his hand.

“Now, we do this.” He sat back down in his seat and signaled towards the notepad.

“Who's in for the perfect road trip?”

“I'm in.” The name issue guy blurted out.

“And?” Kabir asked and looked at the woman. He wanted her to say the two words. I’m in. More than anyone, he wanted to convince her for the trip. It had been long since he had let any woman in his life. For a long time, he had been Kabir, only Kabir. And it looked like this woman could change the ritual.

“The plan seems good.” The woman responded.

“Because it is good. Are you in or do you want to hear me convince you some more?” Kabir asked and smiled.

“Well, I guess I’m in. But a bit more convincing won’t hurt.” She said and smiled back.

“Have you thought of a name yet?” Kabir wanted to address her by something. Something which would make their connection a bit more genuine and personal.

“Ah, it’s Florida. I like that city, hence I like the name.” The woman said.

“Nice name. Mine is Buzz.” Before Kabir could respond affectionately, Buzz interrupted. The man sitting beside the woman or the name issue guy.

“Okay, Florida. Don’t you think that there should be more random happenings? That there should be less planning? It’s like every action of the human being is planned to avoid any mistakes. Don’t you think that there should be more mistakes? Things should be more random. You couldn't plan your life out. It’s not a movie. Life is random, that’s what makes it l. That's what makes every life unique. There’s nothing like life. Because life is something that has the smallest and biggest events happening at random. Anything could happen at any time. More like Game of Thrones. If we were to plan out every event in our life, where’s the fun? It'll get so boring. And this road trip is one of the most random things you’ll and you’ve ever experienced. Won’t it?”

“Okay, I’m impressed and I’m in.” The man sitting beside Buzz said.

“Name please?” Kabir asked and opened the first page of the notepad.

“Ace.”

Kabir wrote RANDOM ROAD TRIP in all caps on the upper part of the notepad page. There was still half-page space left.

“Here we go,” Kabir said and wrote his made-up name for the trip below the three words. “Mozzarella.” He spoke, rolling the ‘r’ a bit to give the name a Spanish origin. He passed the notepad to Buzz and Ace who wrote down their made-up names below Mozzarella.

Ace extended his hand to pass the notepad to Florida when Kabir aka Mozeralla stopped him.

“Wait, Florida hasn’t yet agreed on the trip. Have you?” He smiled his most charming and subtle smile.

Florida tilted her head and put a finger on it. “No, I haven’t. Convince me more.”

“So, when you plan, things get boring. Life is more based on chances rather than plans. We all know it. No one gets to plan where their life is going to take them to, how they are gonna turn up in someone else’s life. Life cannot be planned. We know it and understand its universal truth. Yet, when things go wrong or our plan fails, we get upset. Don’t we? We become upset that things were not how we expected them to be. It is ridiculous how our understanding and plannings contradict. But still, we keep believing it and keep making plans. And we keep getting upset whenever the plan fails.”

“Don’t you think we should leave more on chances. You know, relying more on chances rather than making plans and seeing them fail? Don’t you think we should live along with the happenings in life and enjoy what it throws at us? We don’t always have to throw the same things back in life. We have to dodge if life throws cactus. And we have to open our mouths if it throws olives.”

“I don’t like olives,” Florida interjected.

“Me neither, but I couldn’t think of any other small edible thing that could be thrown and eaten.” Kabir chuckled.

“I have a love-hate relationship with olives. It should be peanuts.” Buzz said.

“Nah, they’re boring. It should be grapes.” Ace said, smacking his lips. “I like grapes.”

“It would be much better if its a nut,” Florida commented.

“Like walnut? How are you supposed to eat it? If you try to catch it with your mouth and forcefully chew it, then you’ll break your teeth.” Buzz said, shrugging.

“Nuts also include cashews,” Florida said.

“I agree with that.”

“Whatever, place your favorite nut in the place of olives,” Mozzarella said in a rush. The conversation was going off-topic. “Florida, you convinced yet?” His philosophical talk was close to coming to an end.

Florida’s face bore a slight pouted expression. She considered whether she should hear some more pep talk from the good looking guy. She was having a good time hearing him. But, she thought she had had enough of it. Not in a negative way, though.

“I guess, I am.”

“Too bad, I had two more pages left to narrate.” He lied.

“It won’t do any harm if you...” Florida began. She believed him about his last statement.

“Nah, I’m good. Moreover, we need to start the trip right away. Let’s go.”

“Let me sign that.” Florida took the notepad from Ace and calligraphed her name below Ace’s.

“So, ready?” Kabir said as he stood up. Others followed.

“Let’s go.”

“Wait a minute, where are we going?” Florida asked.

“Anywhere the world takes us,” Mozeralla said.

Florida raised her eyebrow in question.

“I haven’t decided where. I’ll pick a place at random. First thing’s first, we need a car. I rent a car but we share the cost equally.”

Kabir was about to turn back when he heard the question. “Why?”

It was from Ace.

“Ah, excuse me? You want to walk on a road trip?”

“No, I mean, why you? Why do you get to pick the destination? If you haven’t noticed, we all have agreed on the road trip.”

“If you don’t remember, let me remind you. This whole plan was mine. A moment ago, you were sitting there with absolutely no purpose. You were clueless as to where your life is leading you. You were sitting there, whining about your problems to your conscience until I came up with the plan. I get to choose the destination because it’s my plan. Simple.”

“It might be your plan. So what? If I’m parting with my money, I ought to have power as equal to you!”

“And if it’s my plan, I ought to get credit for it! Don’t forget that I am the one who cut your whining off!”

“What do you mean credit? We share the costs and we all decide on the destination. It’s as simple as that. And speaking of which, why the hell were you here, if not whining yourself?”

Kabir hesitated, not a moment's hesitation. But a long hesitation. He had not expected to face this question, and so, he didn’t have an answer or a comeback ready. But hen, he retorted back, after almost it was too late.

“It’s none of your business!”

“It better not be. I don’t give a shit about your business.” Ace said, contemplating the end of the argument.

“We’ve not even known each other for more than ten minutes and there you have your first fight,” Buzz whispered to Florida.

“Practically, it wasn’t a fight,” Florida said, without facing him.

“I agree with that.” Buzz nodded in understanding.

Florida strolled towards Mozarella.

“So, what now?” She asked him.

“Huh?” He didn’t get the question.

“Where are we going?” She elaborated on her question.

“Ace and I were not brainstorming travel places. We still don’t know where are we going.”

“Then?”

“Then what?”

“Then where will we go?” She was a little irritated now at Mozeralla’s oblivion or oblivion-act.

“We’ll see. For now, first, we need a car. Shouldn’t we get that first?”

“No! First, we have to be sure of our destination! It’ll be like flying a plane and not being able to land!” Florida retorted.

“No, it’ll be like sitting inside the plane, deciding the destination, and then flying off the runway.” Mozeralla corrected her. He couldn’t help but notice that though Florida was kind of snapping back at him, her voice and tone remained polite and sweet. It was the sweetest voice he had ever heard. Florida never could be rude to anyone. He liked her for the quality. Actually, he liked her, generally about everything.

“Whatever...” She muttered and walked past Mozeralla.

“Hey! Where are you going?” He asked after her.

“To sit in the plane.” She called back.

“Have you thought from where will you get it? And are you going to buy it?”

Florida stopped walking and faced him.

“How are we doing it then?” Everyone wanted to ask the question to Mozeralla. But the first and only one to get the thought word-ized was Ace.

Mozeralla smiled. He nodded towards Florida. As every pair of eyes turned to her direction, an Audi screeched its way behind Florida, stopping before it touched her legs.

“Ouch!”

The car door opened and out came a bearded guy with a hand behind his head.

“I’m sorry. I was in the flow and...” He lowered his eyes a bit and faced her again. “I’m sorry.” He repeated.

Before Florida could respond, or rather scold the man about his driving, Mozeralla responded with an “its no problem.”

“Excuse me, it is a problem. He hit me, not you. You have to right to forgive him on my behalf!”

“The lady here is a bit frustrated, please try to overlook her.” Mozzarella continued.

“It’s okay sir. It was my fault anyway.” The bearded guy apologized again. “I’m sorry.”

Florida glared at him before saying. “You better be.”

“Okay, guys. So here’s our car. We’ll have to pay at the end of our trip. For now, its ride and fun. Hop in!” Mozeralla sat in the driver’s seat and adjusted.

“Anyone having a problem with me driving?”

“Nope.” Ace said, followed by Florida and Buzz.

Mozeralla eyed Florida who was making her way to the back of the car.

“Hey, Florida! Would you mind sitting next to me?” He again put on what he considered his most charming smile. It worked.

She reversed and sat next to the driver’s side. Or next to Mozeralla.

After they all were seated inside the car, Mozeralla called out to everybody.

“Before starting the trip, there are some ground rules which everyone needs to follow. First is to not use your real name, address, phone number. Second is no sharing of any personal information which may lead back to you. The third is to not share your secrets. You don’t have to tell each other anything. We just have to enjoy the trip. Fourth is no personal relationships. Let it be siblings, or couples or friends. No judgments, no commitments, no betrayals, and no love shit. Got it?”

“YES!” came the voice from Ace, Buzz, and Florida.

“Okay then, let’s go.”

Kabir ignited the engine, the car gave a soft, almost inaudible purr and they were ready to go.

“Anything to say before the car moves and we begin the journey to and beyond life?” Kabir asked the group.

“Journey to and beyond life?” Ace chuckled.

“Anything to say before the car moves and we begin the most random trip of our lives?”

“Much better.”

“Anything to say before the car moves and we begin the most random trip of our lives with an a-hole sitting behind?”

Buzz burst into laughter.

“He meant you.” Ace said.

“Oh man, you’re so innocent! He meant you!” Buzz said, his voice full of fake pity.

“I don’t think I like the two of you.”

“Thanks, because the only one I care about liking me is sitting right next to me here,” Mozeralla said and smiled at Florida. She looked back at him, almost laughed but said nothing. Not that Mozeralla needed a reply.

Florida opened the pocket beneath the dashboard of the car. It was empty except for a knife. Not a standard middle-class household knife. But a big, sharp chef knife.

“What is this doing here?” Florida asked, pointing to the knife lying stationary inside the car dashboard pocket.

Mozeralla eyed the knife, stroking the steering wheel to indicate that he meant the car and said, “I don’t know. I don’t own this.”

Florida shut the tiny door while Mozeralla reminded everyone to switch their phones off. “And hand them over to me.” He added.

“Why you?” Ace asked.

“You have a better idea?”

Ace didn’t answer. Instead, he switched on the internet to check for any important notifications or emails. The news app he used chimed and there came the headline with BREAKING NEWS tag on it. It said:

‘Serial Killer Kabir Shah “Mozeralla” escapes prison’

That same news app would’ve delivered a piece of related news to its users about Mozeralla a day later.

‘Serial Killer Kabir Shah “Mozeralla” kills two more on the way to Nainital. Escapes with a woman hostage’

***

Florida woke up and gasped. There it was again. The same dream. The same nightmare repeating itself.

Her mind and body still felt the sensations of the incident.

It was the greatest deception she had heard or experienced.

The guy she had felt was handsome and nice turned out to be a serial killer who used her as a key to his freedom. It kind of explained why he was being nice to her and why he tried so hard to convince her about the trip.

She got off her bed, went down to the kitchen to fetch some water to calm her nerves.

As he opened the refrigerator, a familiar voice called out from behind her.

“Did you miss me?”