by Ranjit Lal
Shroom nodded. ‘What I meant, Megha aunty,’ she explained slowly, ‘is that we could go for a morning walk now and in the afternoon, after my lessons, we could go to Shroom’s Perch.’
‘But Gudiya said you got very tired yesterday, running around all over the place the whole day.’
‘Uffo, what do they know, aunty? I’m fine now. Besides, I rode here on Brownie, so I haven’t walked at all.’
She polished off her eggs and looked at Gaurav. ‘Coming?’ she said, and fished out a crumpled envelope from her jeans’ pocket. ‘We’ll walk up to the school, then I can post this in the letterbox there.’
‘Okay,’ he shrugged.
It was a light-and-shade morning, with the first pre-monsoon clouds sailing over on a cool breeze. Shroom’s mini entourage walked behind them as they ambled along in the direction of the school.
‘You don’t want to ride?’ Gaurav asked.
‘Nah, I’ve just eaten; I might get sick.’ She glanced at him sideways. ‘Right then, Special Agent Taklu, now tell me again: who are you here to kill and how will you do it?’ Gaurav furrowed his brows as she slipped her hand into his. ‘Really, I could help you!’
‘Thanks,’ he said, removing his hand from her grasp, but he played along as he’d decided to the previous day. He took a deep breath. ‘As a professional special agent, I expect you’ll understand that such information is secret. Classified. I’ll be killed if I tell you.’
She nodded. ‘Hmm… yes, I know that. But with me your secret will be safe – god promise!’
Luckily for him, his mother was coming their way with Mihi and Mariamma. Kanika smiled when she saw them and her heart lifted a little more. Gaurav was interacting with other people, even if it was this little girl. He seemed to be looking and feeling better here in the mountains. And he had actually shaved!
‘Hi, there!’ she called, and smiled at Shroom. ‘How are you, dear?’
‘I’m fine, thank you,’ Shroom replied, then reached out and gently touched Mihi’s cheek. ‘Hi, Mihi!’
‘So where are you two off to?’ They made a queer bald twosome, Kanika thought, smiling fondly at them.
‘Just… checking out the school up ahead,’ Gaurav answered.
‘I see, have a good walk.’
‘Okay, bye, aunty.’ Again Shroom took his arm and led the way. Behind them, Savita and Gudiya smiled and followed.
‘Would you like an energy bar?’ she offered, digging into her pocket and pulling out a half-eaten one. ‘I’ve had some from this end; you can bite it from the other.’
‘I’m fine, thanks.’
‘We’re both special agents, of one blood. We must share everything to show we trust each other to death.’ She bit into the bar and handed it to him. ‘Now show me that I can trust you, Special Agent Taklu!’
Gaurav looked at her. Fine, the kid could have it her way. What did it matter, anyway? He took a bite from her end and, to his amazement, her cheeks and ears turned brick-red and she gulped. God, was she going to burst into tears or something?
‘You took a bite from my side! Now we really are of one blood,’ she whispered. ‘We are partners for life and have to stand by one another.’
They had reached the school and several children ran out and surrounded Shroom, laughing and squealing. She seemed just as excited to meet them. Gaurav looked up as a parade of thunderclouds rumbled overhead. Just outside the gates of the school, a battered but freshly painted letterbox was clamped to a tree. Shroom broke away from her friends, took out an envelope and, standing on tiptoe, deposited it in the box.
‘Mission accomplished!’ she announced, dusting her hands, and sat down on a rock next to the letterbox. ‘Now that stupid postman better come quickly.’
Gaurav peered at the box. ‘He won’t come till ten o’clock,’ he said. ‘That’s when the next clearance is.’
‘What’s the time now?’
‘Almost nine.’
She frowned. ‘You mean 0900 hours.’
‘Whatever.’
‘Look!’ she said, delighted. ‘Miss Raveena and Miss Monica are coming. Now we can go back to the palace with them.’
The girls were making their way down the track from the rest-house. ‘Rave,’ Monica grinned and nudged her, ‘it looks like you’ve got competition. Your boyfriend’s been bagged.’
‘What?’ Raveena looked up and saw the two waiting by the letterbox.
Gaurav shifted his feet uncomfortably.
‘Good morning, Special Agent Shroom!’ Monica said, coming up to them and giving Shroom a hug and a salute. ‘Miss Raveena will be briefing you this morning in science and mathematics.’ She said a quick hi to Gaurav, while he and Raveena exchanged awkward hellos.
Gudiya stepped forward and spoke to Raveena, glancing up at the glowering skies. Raveena nodded. ‘Shroom, I think we ought to wait here for a bit; it looks like it’s going to rain. You can’t get wet.’
‘Oh, yes, the Geek Empress will be mad.’ Shroom looked back at the school, where Monica had started taking assembly. ‘Can I sit and wait with them? Please?’
‘Sure, I don’t suppose Miss Monica will mind.’
Shroom sprinted away, to be greeted by more shrieks and screams.
‘So how are you doing?’ Raveena asked Gaurav.
He shrugged. ‘Okay, I guess.’
‘I see you’ve shaved,’ she smiled.
‘Uh-huh…’
‘I’m sorry if I embarrassed you last night. I was… kind of high.’
‘It’s okay.’ Oh, so she was buzzed; that was the only reason she had kissed him. What a relief.
‘I mean, not that I…’ She blushed.
He looked away and stuffed his hands into his pockets. ‘It’s okay; forget it.’
She took a deep breath. ‘I’d sent you that photograph by e-mail…’
‘The police deleted all my mail.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry. I could send it again. Is your e-mail ID the same as before?’
‘No, I changed it. I’ll give you my new one.’
‘Thanks.’
Suddenly it became dark as a giant thundercloud loomed overhead, shrouding the mountaintop and blurring the pines. To avoid getting soaked, Raveena suggested they go up to the rest-house and wait till it cleared up. She quickly went and informed Monica and Shroom, then returned and led the way up the path.
Gaurav wondered what the hell was going on. First he’d been hijacked by the little girl and now he was meekly following Raveena. Inexorably, they were twining themselves around his life, when all he really wanted were Zara and Rani.
They reached just as the first fat drops of rain thudded down.
‘Whew, made it! Come, sit. I’ll make some tea.’
‘It’s okay, really.’
‘I want some, so you may as well have some too.’
Gaurav watched as Raveena pottered and clattered around the small kitchen. She was wearing jeans and a deep-maroon kurta embroidered with green parakeets. Her hair was loose, cascading over her shoulders down to the small of her back. She had rounded cheeks and incredible almond-shaped eyes. A tiny emerald stud sparkled at the edge of her pert nose.
‘I’m mixing everything up – the milk, sugar, ginger and elaichi. I hope you don’t mind.’
‘No, that’s fine.’
She brought two steaming mugs of tea to the dining table, and sat down. ‘Would you like some biscuits?’
‘No, thanks.’
She took a sip of the masala tea, and said, ‘You know, I never thought it could be you… I mean, yesterday, with the catapult.’
‘Well, it was.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know. No one cares anyway; why should I?’
‘Of course people care…’
He shook his head. ‘They don’t! They don’t listen, they don’t care. They just killed her and dumped her in the garbage. I never even saw her body again.’ He stared at her. ‘And, now they’re going to pay. All of them. I swear!�
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She looked at him in alarm. ‘What? What do you mean?’
‘Nothing.’ He sighed. ‘I just get so angry thinking about it, I want to… She was such a lovely dog. She understood everything.’
‘I know,’ Raveena said softly. ‘I just wish we had asked you to walk with us a little longer that evening. Then none of this would have happened.’
‘Sometimes I can’t bear it… That cop has got away scot-free. They all get away scot-free.’ He shook his head in frustration. ‘It’s wrong. They need to be taught a lesson.’
The rain was now thundering down on the roof, pouring over the sides as it overflowed the eaves.
‘Wow, it’s quite a shower.’
‘They say it rains like this nonstop for days during the monsoon.’
‘I guess…’ He looked at her. ‘You know, you just can’t escape them.’
‘Whom?’
‘These bloody VIPs. Even here…’
‘Vijaya Abhinav is different – well, sort of…’
‘She’s got armed guards all over her place, hasn’t she? The SPG or NSG, or whatever they call themselves.’
‘Well, she is the PM’s sister, so I suppose she has to have some security – but I don’t think these are SPG.’ Raveena grinned suddenly. ‘And then there’s your little girlfriend: Shroom. Vijaya ma’am says she’s constantly trying to give her security the slip and is absolutely delighted when she succeeds.’
‘She’s a funny girl. She’s had brain surgery, but sometimes it seems as though she needs it!’
‘She’s quite something. Vijaya ma’am said she was an exceptionally bright kid, and then they detected the tumour in her brain. She has suffered a lot, poor child… you can see it in Vijaya’s eyes. She had the works – surgery, radiation and chemo. I believe the prime minister absolutely dotes on her and was terribly upset when she fell sick.’
‘That’s what Megha aunty said too,’ Gaurav nodded, a faraway look in his eyes.
Raveena placed her hand on his arm. ‘Gaurav, I understand how you’re feeling. You can talk to me, you know.’
He took a last swig of his tea and put down the mug. ‘They said I deliberately set Rani on that elephant in an attempt to kill the PM. Can you believe it? That fucking cop blew his whistle in the elephant’s ear, so what do you expect? Naturally, it bolted, and Rani thought it was attacking us… But nobody gets that. I couldn’t get anyone to hear me out. Even Zara just vanished…’
‘Look!’ Raveena pointed. ‘It’s stopped raining. Come on, let’s go; the sun’s coming out.’
They stepped into the dazzling garden. The sky, washed clear, was a brilliant blue, the mountain ridges serrated with columns of chir pine.
‘God, it’s so beautiful here,’ Raveena breathed.
Gaurav glanced at her. She was attractive, no doubt, and he was glad just to have someone who would listen to him without being judgemental. But she wasn’t Zara.
The leopard had a gorgeous dappled coat. Its dark rosettes gleamed in the sun as it lay sprawled on the rock by the forest pool, fast asleep.
‘It’s beautiful,’ Gaurav said softly, admiring the cat through Shroom’s binoculars. He desperately wished Zara was here to share this moment with him. But it was Shroom he was sitting next to, his face up close against her cheek as he peered through her binoculars. And she was awestruck, by both the animal and her co-agent.
On their way back from the school in the morning, Shroom had ordered him to meet her at Shroom’s Perch at 1500 hours. ‘You’ve got yourself a date, James Bond,’ Raveena had winked at Gaurav. Savita and Gudiya had as usual accompanied Shroom, but they were sitting on a boulder just before the ridge narrowed and led out to the perch. They knew where she was and kept an eye on the ridge. If she went down to the pool, they would spot her at once. ‘They don’t know the leopard is there,’ Shroom had whispered to Gaurav when he got there. ‘They’ll freak out if they see it!’
Gaurav was enthralled by the beautiful animal.
‘Look, he’s woken up!’ Shroom said.
The leopard raised its head and looked around. It yawned, then stretched and got to its feet. Lithely it leapt off the rock and disappeared into the forest.
‘Oh, no, he’s gone. He won’t come back now – the sun is going away from the rock…’
‘But I saw him,’ Gaurav said, taking the binoculars off his eyes.
‘I told you! But you don’t tell anyone. They’ll all get scared and make a noise and drive it away. And then they won’t allow us to come here again.’
‘How many times have you seen it?’
‘Three or four times.’
‘Do you come here often?’
‘Every day. I like sitting here. You can see almost everything from here.’ Shroom fixed her eyes on Gaurav. ‘So, did they torture you?’ she said suddenly.
‘Huh? Who?’
‘The police, silly. Did they crush burning cigarettes on you?’
‘Umm, no. But I told you, they shot my dog in front of me. That was torture. And then they stamped on my neck and choked me and banged my face…’
‘Oh. Is there a scar?’
He shook his head. ‘They’re clever. They know how to torture you without leaving a scar, so you can’t show it to anyone and blame them.’
She nodded thoughtfully. ‘They use rubber hoses to beat you. Did they beat you with rubber hoses?’
‘No,’ he replied, then added, ‘How about you?’
‘I’ve got scars. If you look at my head, you can see them. They cut out part of my head and took out my brain. They said that part of my brain had gone bad – like sometimes an apple goes bad? And they shot me in the stomach. See… bullet holes.’ She lifted her shirt and showed him the marks where drain tubes had been inserted.
He winced. ‘Did you cry?’
‘Well, a little sometimes, when no one was looking.’ She snorted. ‘Even the Geek Empress cried – can you imagine? She thought no one was watching, but I was: she was wiping her eyes and sniffing. Even bade-mama cried. He’d come to the hospital after the operation and came into my room for a few minutes. He thought I was sleeping, but I had my eyes half open – like this – and I could see him. There were tears in his eyes and he pretended he had a cold and blew his nose!’
Gaurav’s eyebrows shot up. ‘It must have hurt,’ he said.
‘I don’t like injections,’ she said simply. ‘I hate needles and tubes.’ She looked at him and frowned. ‘But you still haven’t told me who you’re going to kill.’
‘I’d be killed if I told you. But you’ll know soon enough.’
‘When? You can’t keep secrets from your partner.’
‘It’s for my safety and yours; otherwise they’ll get me and then they’ll come after you.’
‘Who?’ She frowned. ‘It couldn’t be Miss Raveena and Miss Monica, could it?’
‘No-no, it’s not them.’
‘Then there’s only Agent Anantram and Dr Sham left. Do you want to exterminate them?’
‘No – they’re only interested in stupid birds.’
‘Then who? You are exasperating,’ Shroom stated, her nose in the air.
‘Oh, really?’
‘Totally. I’m not going to talk to you unless you tell me.’
They sat in silence for a while and a big cloud wafted up, covering them in a white blanket. Gaurav could hardly make out the oval outline of Shroom’s head in the mist, not a foot away from his face. Behind them, the trees and ridge line had vanished in the fog.
‘Does this happen often?’ he asked.
‘Why should I tell you? I’m not talking to you.’
‘Listen, I’ll tell you everything when it’s safe. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. You’ve been tortured enough as it is.’
‘So you’ll tell me then? Promise?’
‘I promise!’ He had never hated himself more. ‘Do you like it like this?’
‘What?’
‘I mean when it’s foggy like
now.’
‘I don’t mind it. It’s what god’s waiting room would be like, isn’t it?’
‘I suppose so.’
‘But I don’t like it too much when it stays like this for long.’
‘Don’t worry. The cloud should move away soon.’
‘Sometimes I think I’m dead when it lasts for too long. And I’m scared to get up and walk back because I can’t see anything.’
She moved closer to him and put her tiny hand in his, her fingers cold, and rested her soft prickly head against his chest and chin. ‘Do you have a girlfriend?’ she asked.
‘Umm… yes, no – I don’t know.’
‘What’s her name?’
‘Zara.’
‘Do you have her picture?’
‘No.’
‘Have you drawn her?’
‘Yes.’
‘Can I see, please?’
He took out his sketchpad and flipped it open.
There was a long moment of silence as she stared at the dark sketch. Surrounded by the white mist, it glowed, as if lit from within.
‘Wow. Is she really so beautiful or have you drawn her like that because she’s your girlfriend?’
‘She’s pretty much like that.’
‘I wish I were that beautiful.’ She sighed.
‘But you are…’
‘Nah! Besides, I’m a ’shroom!’
‘So what?’
‘You really think I’m beautiful?’
‘Of course.’
‘Thanks, partner. Is Zara a special agent too?’
‘No. Very few people can be special agents.’
‘You think so?’
‘Yes.’
‘I would like to meet her.’
‘So would I! Her father’s been mad at me, after the incident. She got into trouble because of that.’
‘You should elope! You should go to her house, rescue her and come here. We can hide you here.’
‘I don’t even know where she is!’
‘Find her. That’s what special agents do. Do you miss her?’
‘Very much.’
She patted his hand. ‘Poor Taklu.’ Then she looked at him seriously. ‘It’s a pity I can’t be your girlfriend.’
‘Why not?’ he asked out of plain curiosity.
‘Because we’re partners, silly. We won’t be professionals if we are boyfriend and girlfriend; at least that’s what I’ve read. But still, I like you very much.’ She squeezed his hand and smiled. ‘I hope you don’t mind.’
