by Sweth Water
One hand on the steering wheel, she took a large bite. Delicious. She occasionally ate junk food. Craving stopped her brain to do chattering. She stopped the car at the signal and ate her burger.
No-one was there. Having the car at the signal when there was a curfew in the city … it was not good. They had given the orders to shoot at sight! I hope they won’t shoot me without asking some questions, and give me a chance to show the badge.
Before she could have the first bite of the second burger, the signal was green.
No army officer or roadblocks she saw while going to her place.
She parked the car in the parking lot. She grabbed her snacks and the purse from the back seat and got out. Her apartment was on the second floor. It was morning. No chance was there that someone would be outside to die.
She put the key and opened the door. She pushed the door with her foot once inside the house. From the kitchen, she took a water bottle and was near the TV when she saw a man sitting on the couch. Before she could do something, he rose and pointed a gun at her.
Chapter
25
Two days before the accident
I am pregnant!
I can’t wait to tell Coal about it. It is one of the happiest days of my life. What more can I expect from life? The much awaited moment is coming. Coal would be very happy and emotional too to hear it. I want a baby girl. Please. Even Coal would love to see a baby girl in our house.
I have been waiting for Coal since morning. I want to tell March about it. She will be as happy as I am. She definitely knows how it feels like to be a mother. That lovely girl of hers will also be giggling if I tell her that. But I will wait. Coal shall be the one who would know it first.
I sigh and try to control my happiness.
I go to the kitchen and have some water and smile like an idiot. I caress on the belly where the baby is growing. Oh God! This is just ... I will go crazy by thinking about it. Maybe this is what all the women feel when they have the first child in their lives. I relax my body and go to the bedroom.
I sit in the bed and see the pictures of the babies on the walls. Coal bought them last week as if he knew that I would be conceived soon. I blush and lie back in the bed.
Soon my thoughts change to what Holl said over the phone few days back. He is not really considering killing me, is he? I am his sister. And I am going to have a baby. He might forgive me when I tell him about it. But he still thinks of me as a traitor.
I didn’t do anything wrong!
Opinions and perceptions have changed us so much that we sometimes don’t see the other option but believe what is told to us. Like religious beliefs or patriotism. I am not questioning them to be wrong. People choose their paths sanely these days. What If I choose a different path than killing innocents? Does it make me a traitor? Maybe the regime would be deciding that; the definitions of heroes and villains change from one regime to another. So, I should kill my conscience and be a dumb person to let people do what they want to do? For power or greed or whatever the reasons they have, I just can’t sit and let them do that.
I have made some hard decisions in my life. None of them I’ve regretted so far. Working behind Coal’s back was no easy task. I wouldn’t be able to tell him what I really am. So I left my bag inside the Department. They will find that soon. Gin told me that she had planned everything to get me out of the country. I have not told her that I have the documents. But how Holl knows about them then? On the call, I told the threat that I might have. She asked me the name and I couldn’t give her.
My brother can hate me. He has the right to do that after what I did. I wish he’d not seen me working on the computers that day. Holl will not tell Coal about me. But the threat was real; I can tell by the tone of his voice.
As the time is passing I am getting jitters. This whole feeling of leaving Coal, and the baby and then Holl, it is really going to be a mess for me. Shall I talk with Coal about it? I think about it for few minutes and shake my head. That is a wrong step. Agent Gin will be punished for helping me if Coal tells someone else. She is not the only person who knows this, there are many. I will not be able to say the names but some high officials are ready to do anything to have peace in the world.
Yes, peace. A small word that we are forgetting each day as we are growing up. How hard is it to grasp the truth that we will not be living for ages? We all have to die one day. Then why not stop doing bad things? Things that lead to bitterness and hatred and wars and crimes that we have shielded with the ignorance of our own denial. Maybe we all have believed that God sent us on this earth to spread hatred.
I sigh again.
I hope people wouldn’t be so dumb to agree with everything that military or governments are doing. It is so fucking insane. Dumb as fuck!
My eyes have tears now. I am crying. How many times did I cry in my life? It’s been a long time when my cheeks were wet. The vibration of the phone let me come out of the thoughts.
I pick up the phone.
“You didn’t change your mind?” It’s Holl.
“Holl, please. Stop calling me.”
“Three times a day, sweet sister. I call you three times to convince you to tell the truth. But you seem deaf to me.”
“I am doing it for some reasons, Holl. I don’t want you to agree with me, but you should listen to me first. There are people who are going to smuggle the weapons from our country to another to create chaos. They have a big plan that even the President doesn’t know. And then they will convince the President to invade. It is the hard truth, Holl. Someone’s despair is others’ happiness. I can’t tell you more. I will tell Coal what I did. Not today.”
“Today, Rose. And I don’t know where you cooked this story. I don’t give a fuck wherever the war is going on and how many people are dying. My country comes first to me. I will die for it.”
“I understand your emotions. But what I am doing is for the best of our country and others’.”
“You didn’t hear me, dumb woman? I don’t give a fuck about other countries. I am a patriotic person. I will die and kill anyone for my country.”
I sigh. He is not going to understand this. “This is not what you call patriotism; this is known as idiotism.”
“You are not giving me any choice!” he roars.
“Do what you have to do.” I say calmly.
“Two days. Note it down. I will kill you in two days.”
“Coal will find you and he will make sure you suffer.”
“Don’t worry about that, sister. He won’t find out.”
And there is a beep.
I let it go and promise myself not to tell anything to Coal about the baby. When I will be away from the country, I will call him and tell him the truth. Until then no harm should come to me or my baby.
I close my eyes and pray to God.
After two days, I go out with Coal. We have decided that he would be driving my car. He doesn’t touch my car as if it would give him a shock. I sit next to him, looking at the pretty face of the man I love.
My phone is ringing. I ignore that; it must be Holl.
I think of telling Coal about the baby. Holl said that he would be killing me in two days. Two days have passed. I misunderstood him. He is my brother and he wouldn’t kill me. I am just going to tell Coal about our baby when he tells me that he needs some vitamin pills.
Five more minutes. I smile to him.
He pulls the car over along the street and gives me a flying kiss. I am happy that it is finally over. Whatever the madness Holl had doesn’t seem to be realistic now. And I can tell Coal about who I really am. I look at Coal as he moves to the pharmaceuticals.
... bang.
Chapter
26
Holl was inside the house. One night he had stayed. And today he would be killing Coal. And that woman Gin would be free. It was not easy to feed her without any talking. He meant no harm to her, though he fired the shot. It was necessary. He didn’t like when people
took him so easily. She was hospitalized and asked not to do something stupid.
Holl planned to kill Coal at night. He had some poison with him to add in the food. It would not leave any trace in his body. The same poison he was going to give to Rose. She suspected that. Most of the times they ate food outside whenever he stayed with them. Not even water she would have from a bottle in the refrigerator. She had known his plan.
Clever woman.
So he had to plan to ram her car with a truck. He was near the shop that day. A driver he had hired. A poor man. He promised to take care of his two daughters and give them the education that they needed. An insane man ramming the car would never let the authorities know that it was a murder.
Holl loved his sister. But he had to do what he did.
And now it was Coal.
He could ask him about the files that Rose had. But he was sure that Coal was as stubborn as Rose was. There was not even a tiny thing that they didn’t have in common. Holl understood that the day he met Coal.
A perfect plan to kill had failed once. It was not going to happen again. He had given thousands of Euros to the people who couldn’t complete their job. Tonight it was going to happen.
“Holl, you need anything? I am going out.” Coal asked.
“No. I will ... I will wait for you here.”
March was standing on her porch, alone. Wind was released last night by Fog. Finally, he’d taken Coal’s call and told him the other man who was possibly working with Rose. He didn’t talk for a long time. Rose’s name was still a pain for him.
He jogged without looking at March. After fifteen minutes, he stopped and wiped the sweat on his forehead. It was starting of a new day. He forgot everything that happened in his life. Even Rose. Start a new life from the beginning, he promised himself last night.
He sat on the chair in the park and took deep breaths. People were talking and doing their exercises and yoga. People who knew how important it was to have a healthy body would always be there. Even children were there, playing and laughing. He placed his hands on the knees and closed his eyes.
His house was at a perfect place. Everything that was needed to live was there. Women are very choosy when it comes to the houses. He never understood that part until he was married. He thought how many people Rose deceived with her identity. Did her parents have any idea of their daughter’s crimes that she might have committed before marriage? What about Holl? He was such a good man. By listening to the reports he would have broken.
He didn’t talk about it with Coal.
Didn’t matter how hard he tried to keep the thoughts of Rose away from his mind, it never worked. He wished whatever he faced in his life wouldn’t be faced by anyone. Sometimes things are so devastating that you don’t want them to happen to even your enemies. People go crazy every time. The heart but ... it keeps reminding us who we are and what we should do. Coal had a kind heart. Rose too. She had betrayed him but never hurt someone physically. This pain is worse than physical pain. In that you just suffer; in this, you die every day.
He sighed and opened his eyes.
Wind was coming in his direction. He was in his pantsuit. His shaggy beard and long brown hair was not braided. Rose always told him that people with long hair look smart. He would laugh.
He sat next to Coal, his hands clasped. “I am sorry, Coal.”
“What for?”
“You know for what. I was ... I behaved liked a bad husband in the past few days. I raised a hand to my beloved wife. I cursed myself for doing that,” he pressed his lips hard. “Maybe I was drinking a lot in those days, or stress. Tens of reasons I can give. It was wrong though. I have apologised to March, and I am here to apologise to you too.”
“Me? Why?”
“Because I mistrusted you. I was going to lose both a wife and a friend.”
Coal wrapped his arms around him when he cried. “Everything is normal now. You are back where you were earlier.”
“I ... I hit my wife, Coal. You know how stupid that sounds?”
Coal had no words for that.
“I was being an asshole.”
Wind wiped his tears, relaxed.
“I heard about Rose,” Wind said. “I am so sorry for that.”
“Me too.”
“March and I talked at night and she told me everything. I still believe there is some kind of mistake.”
“It is the truth what we heard, Wind.” Coal had no expression on his face. “We live in a world where a deceit is very easy. It hurts, though, when someone close to you does that. It really hurts.”
“I am sorry, Coal.”
They talked for a while and then Wind left him.
He controlled himself. He told himself to remember the promise: life is going to change. Rose was his past. What future would have for him he was curious now. Not all the women were same. If Rose was a deceitful woman, didn’t mean there were not good in the world. Both types of people live in this world. He had met both of them. March and Rose. He wished his wife were more like March.
Coal walked back to his house. Holl was alone there.
March waved her hand.
“Did Wind talk with you? He asked me where you could be,” she said. She had a smile on her face after days.
Coal was happy for her. “Yes. He did.”
“We sorted the things out. And he apologized to me.”
“That’s good.” He didn’t say what Wind told him.
“Did you find the man you were looking for?”
Coal shook his head. “I scanned all the photos. A headache I had last night and then I slept. Holl is there in the house. I am trying to give him some company.”
“I saw him. He was in bad shape.”
“You are right. He didn’t talk much. Last night we had a couple of beers and then slumbered. Today I can try to take him out of the house to get some fresh air. Sitting in the house will not do any good to him. He lost his both parents and sister.”
“Call me if need any help.”
“Actually I need it now.” Coal grinned.
March waited.
“You have some butter? I don’t want to go to the market now.”
“Of course. Come.”
Coal followed March inside the house. The house seemed to be glowing. He didn’t know the reason, but maybe it was that no tension was there between March and Wind. The mess that was on the couch that day was not there. Everything was as perfect as March might have hoped in her life.
Sun was on the mat, playing with her toys. She giggled when she saw Coal and raised her hands up and down. Sweet child. She was in a white dress and her hair was not combed. He caressed her head and kissed on the forehead.
“She likes you, Coal.” March said.
“I know.”
“You want something to eat? Or a cup of coffee?”
“No. Holl is waiting. I will make something with butter. What, I have no idea. Holl will help in cooking.” He laughed.
“You don’t know how to cook then?”
He said nothing for few seconds. Rose never liked whatever he cooked. Even if he gave her some water, she thought it wouldn’t be as good as if she took it directly from the refrigerator. He had teased her many times by making the dishes. She would make a gross face and then have one bite just to give him some respect for the time he wasted on cooking.
He cleared the thoughts in his head. “Actually, I can cook anything for myself. If I cook for someone, they won’t like it.”
March laughed.
She handed the butter to Coal. “Here it is. I am happy that Mom will be coming to meet us today.”
“Have a good time!” He waved the hand having the butter. “Thank you for this.”
He was going back to the door when his gaze fixed at the picture on the table. Wind was there with another person. He took the frame. Was it ... was it the same man? Was it the photo that reminded him that he had seen the guy before? He was not sure. The man was far from him that day. Thi
s ... this man with Wind, somehow, looked like him.
“March.”
She took Sun in her arms. “Yes?”
“Who is this with Wind?”
She looked at the photo. “It’s Wind’s brother. Fin.”
A silence.
“Is he—”
“I can’t say that. Where he works?”
“He is a police officer. He—”
They heard the voices outside. The commotion was so loud as if people were going to fight with each other. He placed the frame on the table and ran to the door.
His house was surrounded by many people: reporters, neighbours, and police. He found Chase coming out of the car. Reporters were asking the questions, and she was telling the police officers to clear the path. It was not a dream. Reporters hadn’t asked him questions related to his wife. He had hoped that it would never come to that. This might change now.
“Please. You will have the answers. Right now, you need to give us the space to work. Out of the way.” Chase was shouting. Mikes were coming to her face, and she was using the same line again and again.
She knocked at the door. There was a man that she had not seen before. He was flabbergasted as if he was guilty of something.
“Search the house.” she told the officers with her.
“What is ... what is happening?” the man in the house asked.
“We have a warrant to search this house. Please step out of our way.”
“I can—”
“It’s okay, Holl.” It was Coal. “Let them do the work.”
“Thank you, Coal.”
Reporters started asking questions to him. Before he could answer one, they would ask another. All the mikes were now to his direction. He used his hands as a shield against the flashes. The words were so mixed up that he didn’t see the face who was talking to him.
“Did you know about your wife’s role, Officer Coal? Can you tell us about her other burglaries?”
“She was—”
“Do you have something in your house that was stolen from the Department?”
