Monday, April 23, 2007

Chapter Nineteen

Shweta stood near him, looking down at the ground in front of the bike. Her nails kept prodding the handle. He could see she was nervous. It was understandable. They were going out clandestinely. They wanted each others presence. He asked her to relax. It didn’t seem to ease her. He got out of the bike and embraced her warmly. He stood in front of each other, his belly touching hers. Shiva looked around. They were standing in complete darkness. There was no one outside in that quiet neighbourhood. He turned around and looked at her. Cradling her face in his hands, he kissed her. She flinched. She had not expected it. But she made no effort to pull out. She closed her eyes and let him rule her.

He realized she wasn’t responding. He thought she didn’t like what he did. So he backed off and hugged her yet again. Her smile returned; her ever-splendid, naughty smile. They both got on the bike and drove away.

They were to go to the discotheque ‘EC41’ on the East Coast Road. It was a long drive from Sneha’s place. They both had never danced in their life! And to do it for the first time with the other gave them both intense excitement. They both had different plans for the night; plans about what they would do there. They didn’t talk after he started driving. The roads were deserted. Being a weekend, people had retired early for the night. The road from where they were to reach the city was normally deserted during this time of the day. Today it was more so.

Shiva noticed in the rear view mirror, a car trying to overtake them. He pulled over slightly to the left and slowed down a bit to let the car pass. It did. Then it did something else too! The car braked hard, making its tires screech to a halt and it swerved to its left, getting parked on the road, blocking the entire road. Shiva also applied the brakes, throwing them out of balance and stalling the engine too. He was unable to bear the weight of the bike and he dropped it down after it came to a halt. Shiva and Shweta tumbled onto the road. They were dreaming about the night and this brought them back to their senses. The car’s door opened. Three men climbed out. Two of them walked over to the bike and pinned Shiva down. Shweta stood between them and the car, staring with rapt amazement combined with fear. The other door of the car opened and a fourth man emerged. He was the man who had caught hold of Shiva’s throat!

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