Cryptic Crime

Managing the umbrella in one hand , a shopping bag on the other hand, the backpack clinging like a baby , Sachi felt a like a juggler in the circus. The merciless rain was beating in the opposite direction almost drenching her. She desperately looked for a taxi to escape the inclement weather and wanted to be in her cozy flat.

 It was Friday evening and for weekend she had to buy the groceries since she was not sure when she would get her chance to go out. The metro logy report had predicted rain for the next three days. The empty street, the vacant bus stop, and thin traffic made her feel creepy. She wanted to rush to her lonely house which seemed far better than the morbid street.

A year back she had moved to this city, leaving behind all the bad memories of more than a decade of betrayal, distrust and heartbreak. Slowly she picked up the strings of her knotted life with her new job and place. She never made friends even in her office. “It’s better to be a loner than being in a crowd where you are never sure who would stab your emotions”, though Sachi, wiping the rain drops on her glasses clouding her vision or was it the tears of unhappiness, she could not comprehend.

She stepped in the street and decided to walk instead of standing all alone like a lamp post and get wet. Once upon time how much she loved the rain. She would wait to feel the fresh rain drops, dance wildly and like a wet cat enter her home laughing at the disapproval glances of her mother. When she grew up, Cupid cast his love spell; the romantic moments were the rainy evenings spent in the warm embrace of his strong hands.

 jerking the wet memories, Sachi slowly started walking on the sidewalk, balancing the umbrella and the bag oblivious of the beauty of the rain washing the buildings, way side trees which appeared far more greener than ever.

Suddenly there was this deafening sound of tyres screeching on the wet road, followed by opening of the doors of a car just next to her. She tried to see through her moist glasses, while her bag slipped off her shoulder. For a split second she thought someone took pity on her and stopped the car to offer her a lift.

Two men in grey suits with broad plastic hats covering most of their face came out and like a tiger pouncing on the dumb deer, caught hold of Sachi’s hands, wrenching the bag from her shoulder, mercilessly pulling arms behind her and hand cuffed her wrist.

No sound came out of Sachi the way it happens in a nightmare. She was literally shoved in the car , her backpack still clinging to her. May be the warmth of the car, helped her to overcome her fear. “What did I do and who are you? The cops?” She almost stammered. One of the grey coats in a menacing voice thundered “you know what you did and stop pretending to be a baby rabbit in a snare!”

Sachi didn’t understand a word. “What did I do ... even all these years I did not get a parking ticket forget about doing any crime”, she silently thought.

She desperately wanted to wipe her wet glasses. Her hands were already paining and the backpack was hurting her. But both the devils hardly had any sympathy while pushing her like a rag doll in the back seat.

She had no clue where the car was heading. She was still new to the city. Moreover the rain and her moist glasses clouded her vision. She had read somewhere “ we are born alone, live alone and die alone, only friendship and love create a moment of illusion that we are not alone” but she was out of this illusion long time back and revenge was never her way. In the worst times, she only blamed herself but not the one who betrayed her.

The ride seemed the most terrible in her life. Many years back she had experienced the same feeling on a roller coaster ride in an amusement park though 'He' was with her, holding her arm.

“Uff! It was not the time to recollect those events which have no more relevance in my life. What did I do now, to be dragged like an animal to the slaughter house? Did I commit unknowingly something serious ...” she thought wearily.

When she was in school may be in grade seven or eight, she had hit her best friend Palak with her school bag so hard that it left Palak bleeding but the punishment was instantaneous. She was made to kneel down for solid one hour and forced to write a letter of confession about the incident. In college she remembered how she had stolen hundred rupees from her roommate since her mother couldn’t send her the money in time. But she had spent the stolen money on the same friend to buy a birthday gift for her and recalled that at the end of the semester, she returned the hundred rupees under the pillow from where she had stolen. Why! often she was scolded by mom for having pencils, erasers and pens of her class mates in her bag and  for feigning innocence that she never knew why they were in her bag. Even her Cupid blamed her several times of his missing pens, money from the wallet and even his cuff links.

“My most beautiful moments were the times I spent with him. Gifts, affection, attention, and care were given to each other without any limits. He could easily understand what I wanted and I would easily understand his bad mood even over the phone. Life was so interesting. Likes and dislikes, waking hours and sleeping hours matched. Rain, rainbow, rising sun or moon, and even food fads matched so well. But as if someone cast an evil eye. He drifted away like piece of wood on the high seas and I stood on the bank for him to come back. What made him to move away? No idea. May be he found something more interesting? But how can anyone treat a human relationship like a piece of stuff to be discarded at your whim and fancy.  Many a times the thought of killing me or killing him crossed my mind. But I am sure thoughts are private and these men can’t arrest me for this”, she sighed.

The ride seemed endless. One of them started smoking making Sachi more miserable but she didn’t dare to ask him to quit. Her bag was dumped in the boot and she wondered what would happen to the groceries especially the yogurt and milk cartons. She bit her tongue for her stupidity of thinking of those insignificant things when she has almost lost her freedom and god knows how long the torture would continue. She felt miserable that in this unknown city nobody would even feel her absence.

The car at last stopped in front of a police station. She was literally dragged and hauled like a sheep riding along with a herd stamping each other’s foot. She was forced to sit on a cold  wooden bench. The man on the opposite table looked at her quizzically and questioned the two grey suits.

“ Hi! What has this chicken done buddy? It looks she would collapse on the bench itself. Open the handcuffs before the blood circulation stops and gangrene would set in.”

 One of the grey suits removed his hat and with pock marked face looked really frightening. He came closer to Sachi and yanked the handcuffs with such a force that she felt that her numb wrists chopped off her hands and she was just left with two stumps. But in a little while she could feel blood flowing in her wrists.

“I wonder what I have done. Why don’t these donkeys end up the suspense? I am hungry and cold. I don’t mind sleeping even in a cell tonight”, murmured poor Sachi.

The man in the opposite table asked the two grey suit villains “what has the chicken done buddy. Let me get the details. I have to go home. Wifey would be waiting with warm soup on this lousy cold weather. Be fast. I better go before the soup becomes cold and she turns hot” winking he laughed loudly at his stupid joke.

Sachi waited anxiously to know the reason for her arrest. Minutes ticked slowly but her heart raced to know the details.

The other grey suit walked in slow motion, brought her bag, and with a careless movement emptied the contents. “ oh God ! What an embarrassment! Groceries, soaps, a bottle of shampoo, a pack of tampons, razor and of course a pack of mint candy... Sachi wondered how she hated mint candy? The grey suit picked up the candy pack and showed it to the man on the opposite table. “Your chicken has light fingers John. She flicked this ten rupees pack and walked out of the stores like a queen without bothering to pay.”

 Sachi with an open mouth looked at the trio and the words of her mother, friends, and her Cupid echoed like a dilapidated drum “You kleptomaniac, won’t you ever change!”