Forget Me Not, Stranger

by Novoneel Chakraborty

  ‘I’m sorry, Tista,’ he said. Rivanah could sense his lips shiver and voice shudder as he spoke, ‘I know I broke your trust. But I’m apologizing now.’

  Nothing happened.

  ‘Will you please—?’

  One of the windows in the room opened suddenly. Rivanah was about to stand up but Ekansh held on to her tightly. She was profusely sweating by now. I’m not doing this again, Rivanah promised herself, as she heard Ekansh speak again. She had never felt her heart beating so hard.

  ‘Will you please forgive me, Tista? I love you and I mean it.’ Ekansh was staring at the coin hoping it would move to his left. A moment later, their fingers on the coin felt a push to the ‘yes’ part of the board. Was it really a spirit or was it Ekansh’s own guilt manipulating him to push the coin, Rivanah couldn’t tell.

  ‘Thank you so much, Tista, for liberating me from this guilt. I miss you.’

  Rivanah was glaring at Ekansh. He understood why.

  ‘Goodbye, Tista,’ he said and the next moment he let Rivanah’s hand go.

  ‘Are we done?’ she whispered.

  ‘Yes. Should we call upon Hiya?’

  ‘No!’ Rivanah stood up.

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘I changed my mind. And I’m leaving.’

  Ekansh could tell she was scared. Rivanah walked to the drawing room with Ekansh behind her. It was a foolish idea to even participate in this, she thought. One more minute, and she would have fainted there.

  ‘What’s the matter, Rivanah?’

  ‘Nothing. And, by the way, we are now officially done. Please don’t try to contact me.’

  ‘I thought we—’

  ‘Just don’t do that, Ekansh. We are done. Period,’ she said and was about to storm out when her phone rang. It was Danny. She gestured Ekansh to keep quiet, with a finger on her lips, and took the call.

  ‘Hey, baby.’ For Danny, she was having a long day at office. She tried her best to sound tired.

  ‘Hey, where are you?’

  ‘Office. I told you I have a long meeting.’

  ‘Hmm.’ He didn’t sound convinced.

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘Someone just messaged me saying you are with Ekansh at his place. I was pretty confident you weren’t, but I was passing by your office, so thought I’d stop over.’

  How could she underestimate this ‘someone’, Rivanah cursed herself and said, ‘Where are you now?’

  ‘I’m right outside your office. Can you come out for a minute?’

  Rivanah pressed the mute button quickly and looking at Ekansh said, ‘You need to help me out. Fast!’

  12

  ‘Give me five minutes. I’ll be downstairs,’ Rivanah told Danny on phone and disconnected. She wasn’t sure if it was Argho who had messaged Danny, but she decided she would take care of it later. First, she had to reach Danny.

  ‘But we can’t reach your office in five minutes,’ Ekansh said, picking up his friend’s bike keys from the key holder near the main door.

  ‘We’ll have to,’ Rivanah said and rushed out of the flat. Ekansh followed.

  They zoomed to her office on Ekansh’s friend’s bike. The traffic was intense and they had to stop at almost every signal. Rivanah’s tension grew by the minute as she constantly kept checking the time on her watch. What if Danny calls back? With such a cacophony of horns all around, he’ll immediately know I’m not inside the office. Four minutes after they had left, they had only crossed half the distance. She told Ekansh to speed up. He looked at her via the rear-view mirror and changed the gear. He didn’t stop at any signal even though most were red. When they were just one traffic signal away from her office, Ekansh was cornered by three traffic policemen.

  ‘Damn! Not now,’ Rivanah lamented. As Ekansh stopped his bike and took off his helmet, he turned around and said, ‘You take an auto and leave. I’ll sort this out.’

  Rivanah didn’t waste another second. While she was climbing down the bike, Danny called again. She let the phone ring for a bit while she hailed an autorickshaw and then cut the call. She immediately WhatsApped him:

  Two minutes, baby. Meeting is getting over.

  Okay.

  She prayed hard that she would make it on time. No more Ekansh. No more visiting the past. No more lies to Danny. Rivanah didn’t like one bit of what she was doing. And to negate the dislike, she kept telling herself, I will make up for it. I really will.

  As the autorickshaw took a turn from the Linking Road signal, she noticed a Xylo near the main gate of her office building. Danny was sitting on the driver’s seat perusing his phone. Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t afford to get down from the autorickshaw there. She asked the driver to go around the office building and eventually got down near the back gate. She paid the fare and WhatsApped Danny:

  Where are you? I’m at the back gate.

  Oh, I’m at the front. Wait, I’m coming, Danny replied. Waiting for him, Rivanah wondered what a fool she had been to have involved herself with Ekansh for the planchette. Like always! Every time she convinced herself she had improved, she ended up doing some stupid act or the other. And her instinct told her it would continue till she was done with Hiya. Or maybe till Hiya was done with her. She would have herself died of fear in Ekansh’s flat had she been there for a minute longer. She wanted to know who had killed Hiya Chowdhury and who the Stranger was, but not this way. This way, she would only die and join Hiya wherever she was. Rivanah saw a Xylo taking a turn on the back lane. She waved and walked towards it.

  ‘I had a talk with Sadhu Ram,’ Danny said the moment Rivanah got into the car and wore her seat belt. She looked at him expectantly.

  ‘He said Argho is presently at his flat in Andheri. I also passed him the number from which I received the message. Sadhu Ram got it checked. It came from the tower closest to Argho’s place.’

  ‘Goddamn it! Can’t we just get him?’

  ‘I asked him the same thing. But we need more definite clues to round Argho up since the number wasn’t registered in his name.’

  ‘Oh!’ She took Danny’s phone and checked the message:

  Rivanah is alone with Ekansh at his friend’s flat in Santa Cruz.

  She swallowed a lump because every word of it was true. She checked the number next. A chill ran through her spine. It was Ekansh’s Mumbai number which, she was sure, the Stranger had duplicated and used to message Danny.

  ‘Do you recognize the number?’ Danny asked.

  Rivanah shook her head hesitatingly.

  ‘I ran it via Truecaller. It did throw up a name—Ekansh,’ he said.

  Rivanah frowned as if it was news to her.

  ‘Anyway, where do you want to go for dinner?’ Danny asked, shifting the gear.

  ‘Home.’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘Remember, I’m supposed to prepare dinner for us tonight,’ she said smiling.

  ‘Oh yes. Sounds super.’

  Rivanah leaned back on her seat, switched on the FM to a channel which was playing a soft romantic number and tried to relax, hoping Danny would not probe further, when she heard him speak.

  ‘Don’t take it otherwise, Rivanah, but is there something that I should know but you aren’t telling me?’

  Rivanah glanced at him not knowing how or where to hide her emotions. Yes, there are things I haven’t told you yet. But, trust me, they aren’t important. Not any more. Those things involve me—and only me. I know what involves one involves the other too in a relationship, but, trust me, I won’t let it affect what we share with each other. She locked her jaws tight in order to gulp her emotions before they made their presence obvious.

  ‘Has that scoundrel been disturbing you a lot?’ he asked.

  Rivanah spoke after a pause, ‘Not really.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I think he knows I have been to the police so I haven’t heard anything from him again. Nothing after the kerosene episode.’

  ‘Hmm.’

/>   Danny surprised Rivanah by clasping her hand gently. He looked at her as he drove on a rather empty lane.

  ‘I don’t want a veil between you and me, Rivanah. If we love each other, we shouldn’t have filters. You get my point?’

  Do I get his point? Or do I already know what he means but can’t believe in it enough to implement it? But Rivanah found herself nodding in agreement. The only filter that love is capable of building in us is secrecy. When we are in love, we don’t want our own selves to be an enemy of our relationship. And the more we stick to this want, the more vehemently the filter of secrecy is built. Though it is to protect something we long to have—the relationship—it is also potent enough to destroy it.

  Once they reached their flat, Rivanah went to the kitchen to prepare lemon rice and pepper chicken, which they had with red wine. Every time Danny appreciated the preparation, Rivanah’s guilt got a massage. Done with dinner, she went closer to him and, making herself comfortable in his lap, wine glass in hand, asked, ‘Danny, you know I love you, right?’

  ‘Yeah? I never knew that! Mind explaining?’ he said, with an amused smile.

  Rivanah looked into his eyes and held his chin in her hand, tilting his face a bit, and then planted a hard kiss on his lips. The moment their tongues met, she pushed herself inside his mouth and within seconds squeezed the blood out of his lips.

  ‘You want more proof, mister?’ This time a wicked amusement reflected in her face.

  ‘I don’t mind,’ Danny said, maintaining eye contact. Rivanah slowly emptied the entire glass of red wine over his forehead and then started tracing it as the wine cascaded down his face. She licked his forehead, his cheeks, his ears, his chin and finally she came back to his lips from where she sucked the blood out from the tiny wound she had made seconds back. They were about to smooch again when Rivanah’s phone rang. She pursed Danny’s lips as she picked up her phone. He broke the kiss and asked, ‘Who is it?’

  Rivanah cut the call and said, ‘Nobody.’ She proceeded to kiss him when the phone rang again and Ekansh’s name appeared on the screen. Danny caught Rivanah glancing at the phone in a spiteful way.

  ‘Why don’t you just take it?’

  Rivanah understood even Danny was affected by it as much as she was. She picked up on the last ring.

  ‘I’m sorry to disturb you, Rivanah . . .’

  When will he stop using that goddamn sorry word! Rivanah wondered.

  ‘I came out with you in a hurry,’ Ekansh said over phone. ‘I forgot my driver’s licence. And now they have locked me up at the Goregaon police station.’

  ‘What?’ Rivanah couldn’t hide her shock.

  ‘Could you please come and bail me out?’ Ekansh said. ‘I called all my friends here in Mumbai. Nobody is available right now. The ones in Navi Mumbai will take forever to reach.’

  ‘Uh-huh.’ Rivanah kept shooting furtive glances at Danny trying to maintain a calm demeanour.

  ‘Okay,’ she said.

  ‘Thanks a lot.’

  ‘Okay. See you in some time. Bye.’ She hung up and gave an exasperated look at Danny.

  ‘Office call and you have to go,’ he said.

  Rivanah nodded.

  ‘Then why are you looking so guilty about it? Work first. Should I drop you? It’s already eleven.’

  ‘I will take an auto or a cab. Don’t worry. I’ll be back soon. And . . .’ she took his face in her hands and, kissing his nose, said, ‘I will make up for this real soon.’

  ‘You better! And be safe. Call if need be,’ Danny said. Only a woman knows how much a man’s concern can turn her on, she thought.

  ‘I will,’ she said, kissing the tip of his nose with a smile.

  Soon Rivanah was in a cab heading towards the Goregaon police station. The traffic had eased out in the last hour. As her cab took a left turn from Mega Mall, a biker joined them from behind. The biker had his head covered with a helmet just like Ekansh had a day before.

  What the fuck! Rivanah thought. When will this guy understand we are done with each other? She asked the driver to stop the cab. The driver slowed down first and then halted the cab on the left. Rivanah got down immediately and turned to see the biker had stopped right behind the cab.

  ‘What’s wrong with you, Ekansh?’ In the calmness of the night, it sounded like a shout even though it wasn’t quite.

  The biker rode the bike to reach her.

  ‘What? Will you explain this?’ she said, first shrugging and then putting both her hands on her hips.

  ‘You are going to have it from me if you tell me you lied about the lock-up thing.’ The biker didn’t move except for stretching his right hand towards her. His fist was closed. She noticed the biker was wearing gloves. A familiar smell reached her—It’s Different, Hugo Boss. Rivanah’s heartbeats slowed down. His fist opened and . . . Is he going to slash my throat? Rivanah thought and felt her knees lose strength by the second. The hand caressed her cheeks. She saw something drop to the ground. She looked down. It was a white piece of cloth. Before she could lift her head, she heard the biker speed away. There was no way to note down the number on the plate. It was only seconds after the biker left that Rivanah regained her composure and picked up the white cloth. In black embroidery it read:

  People use love to justify their dishonesty. You ONLY have two more days to confess, Mini.

  13

  ‘Madam, chalna hai ki nahi?’ the cab driver asked, realizing Rivanah was standing like a fool even after the rider had long gone.

  Rivanah nodded and got into the cab again. Was it Argho? Is he really going to tell Danny the truth if I don’t confess in two days? Rivanah kept wondering as the cab drove to the Goregaon police station. Standing outside the station entrance, for a moment Rivanah didn’t know why she was there. Her phone buzzed with Danny’s call. She picked it up on an impulse.

  ‘Did you reach office?’ Danny asked.

  ‘No,’ Rivanah blurted.

  ‘What? It’s been half an hour. Didn’t you get a cab or what?’

  It was then that she remembered the lie she had cooked up and made up an excuse for her slip up, ‘I meant I’m about to enter the office building.’

  ‘Oh, okay. Call me once you leave. I’m not sleeping until you are back.’

  ‘Sure.’

  Rivanah cut the call, paid the cab driver and then got out of the cab. She went straight inside the police station.

  There were two vest-clad constables sitting and laughing outside a lock-up. The old man inside the lock-up, a convict by the looks of it, too was laughing with the constables. There was no sign of Ekansh. Rivanah went to the inspector sitting with his legs on the table and flipping through a foreign issue of Maxim. Rivanah coughed to get the inspector’s attention. He looked up at her, startled. He kept the magazine aside and withdrew his legs from the table, shooting an inquiring look at Rivanah.

  ‘I’m here to meet Ekansh Tripathi,’ Rivanah said. The inspector’s reply was blocked out by the beep of a WhatsApp message on her phone. It was from Ekansh:

  Thank you.

  ‘Please excuse me,’ Rivanah told the inspector and called up Ekansh.

  ‘Hey, nice to get your call,’ Ekansh said picking up the phone.

  ‘Where the hell are you?’

  ‘I’m on my way home. Why?’

  ‘Who bailed you out?’ Rivanah asked. By then she had already started walking away from the inspector and towards the entrance. The inspector kept staring at Rivanah cluelessly.

  ‘You sent a lawyer and bailed me out ten minutes ago.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Why are you sounding so surprised?’

  ‘Did you tell anyone about the incident except me?’

  ‘No. Why would I?’

  Only one person could have known where Ekansh was.

  ‘Is something up?’ Ekansh asked.

  The inspector saw Rivanah step out of the police station. He was too lazy to ask her why she was there in the first place. He pi
cked up the magazine again.

  ‘No, nothing,’ Rivanah said and continued, ‘Ekansh, I want you to listen carefully to what I’m about to say next.’

  ‘I’m listening.’

  ‘I want you to delete my number after I disconnect this call. Whatever we shared—good, bad, ugly—it is all in the past and we should put it behind us and move on. Do you get what I’m trying to tell you?’

  ‘Hmm. You don’t want us to be in touch any more.’

  ‘Precisely.’

  ‘But I need you, Rivanah.’

  Rivanah rolled her eyes and continued, ‘Please don’t say things like that. When you had me, you never needed me. Now when you can’t have me, you shouldn’t need me.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘Ekansh, this is for our own good. I expect you to understand this and ask no further questions. Stay good.’

  ‘So this is it? We become strangers?’

  The last word sent a shiver down Rivanah’s spine. What if the Stranger was watching her?

  ‘Yes, this is it. We don’t become strangers. We simply stop believing the fact that we are not an option for each other any more.’

  There was silence at the other end.

  ‘Goodbye, Ekansh. Take care,’ Rivanah said, expecting a reply but he said nothing. She disconnected the line. A few seconds later, she deleted Ekansh’s number as well as his chat messages from her phone. She looked around for a cab but couldn’t find any. She opened her phone and tapped on the Ola app. There was a cab available within 5 minutes. While booking the cab, she heard something and looked up. At a distance, there was a bike with its headlights on. The rider was intentionally accelerating the bike to draw attention. In the darkness, she couldn’t tell who it was and yet she knew it could only be one person. Her phone rang with an unknown number. She swallowed a lump and put the phone against her ears.