All Yours, Stranger: Some Mysteries are Dangerously Sexy

by Novoneel Chakraborty

  ‘So Ms Busy Bee finally found time to meet me,’ Danny said. His sarcasm didn’t hurt Rivanah for it was justified. It had been more than a fortnight since they met, when they had watched the movie together. She always gave him some excuse or the other and postponed their meeting. Danny’s presence brought her guilt to prominence as much his absence blurred it.

  ‘I’m sorry, Danny. Been a little hectic, that’s all.’

  ‘When did I complain? I’m free tomorrow afternoon. Where should we meet?’

  ‘Pick me up from my place around twelve. We need to go somewhere.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘To a friend’s place,’ Rivanah said cautiously.

  Next day afternoon they headed to IC Colony in Borivali West. Danny parked the car inside the complex. It was the second building from the main gate they had to go to. Rivanah and Danny together climbed up the stairs.

  ‘So you won’t tell me why we are here?’

  ‘Told you. I have to give this to a friend,’ Rivanah said, flashing an envelope she took out from her bag.

  ‘All right.’

  They were on the second floor. The second flat from the stairs. Rivanah looked around for the doorbell. Danny spotted it first and pressed it. They heard the bell ring distinctly. Half a minute later the door was opened by an elderly gentleman. He looked at Danny and Rivanah in a way as if he was sure they had lost their way.

  ‘What is it?’ He said. His voice quavered.

  ‘I was asked to deliver a cheque to Mr Dilip—’

  ‘Oh! Please come in. I’m so sorry to have kept you waiting.’

  Danny and Rivanah shared a glance and stepped inside the flat.

  ‘Give me a moment, please,’ the man said, closing the front door and then he disappeared inside.

  Everything in the flat seemed old and untouched. There were lots of photographs on the wall. A particular one caught Rivanah’s eye. It was a picture of a boy along with a lady and the man who opened the door for them. Danny was by then ensconced on the sofa. He pulled her by the hand and made her sit too. The next second the man who opened the door came out with an elderly lady who smiled at them. The two sitting on the sofa smiled back. Rivanah guessed she was the lady in the photograph. The elderly lady came and sat by the sofa in front of Rivanah.

  ‘How is my son?’ she asked, still smiling, looking at Rivanah and Danny alternately.

  Which son? Rivanah for a moment was clueless. She noticed the elderly lady was still looking at her expectantly. She looked at the man. He looked a little tense.

  ‘I don’t know . . .’ Danny started but was cut short by Rivanah.

  ‘I’m your son’s friend. He is doing fine,’ she said and saw how the man too smiled now.

  ‘I told you he is fine. Just that these days work is so much that he doesn’t get time to come and meet us. But he will be here soon,’ the man told the lady.

  ‘Only I know how difficult it is for a mother to keep waiting for her child.’ The woman sighed, looking at the floor. ‘Anyway,’ she continued, ‘at least this time Arun sent his friends, otherwise it is always some errand boy delivering the cheques.’

  ‘Did you say Arun?’ Rivanah asked.

  ‘Yes. Didn’t Arun send you?’ the woman asked.

  ‘He did. But we call him by his nickname so I got confused.’ Rivanah gave an unsure smile and thought hard. No, she didn’t know any Arun. Something about the elderly woman told her it would hurt her if Rivanah was honest with her about having no clue about her son.

  ‘I had given the nickname. Though he doesn’t like it much.’ The woman had a nostalgic smile on her face. Then she looked at Rivanah and said, ‘What will you have? Tea or—?’

  ‘Nothing, Aunty. We are—’

  ‘They will have tea.’ This time the man spoke a little assertively. The woman looked at him and said aloud, ‘Let me prepare it.’ She got up and went to the kitchen.

  The man came and sat down adjacent to Rivanah. He looked at her and said, ‘Thanks.’

  ‘What happened?’ she asked.

  ‘I don’t know whom to thank. I was a junior-level government employee. Now all I have is a meagre pension, no medical cover and literally no savings. Whatever I had invested in my son’s education, thinking . . .’ He was too choked to speak. ‘Every three–four months someone or the other keeps coming with the cheque. And thus my wife and I continue to survive.’

  ‘Are you . . .?’

  ‘I’m Dilip Rawat. And I know you aren’t my son’s friend nor has he asked you to bring in this cheque.’

  Rivanah’s lips slowly parted. Does he know the stranger then?

  ‘But Aunty said it is Arun who sends the cheques.’

  The man looked at the floor for a moment and said, ‘My son Arun died few years back.’ He kept staring at the floor as if he had just got the news.

  Rivanah and Danny shared an awkward glance.

  ‘We are sorry to know that,’ Danny said and made a mental note to ask Rivanah about the matter. If Arun was dead then why did she not know about it, since she said it was a friend’s place they were visiting?

  The man suddenly looked up at them with a smile and said, ‘It is okay.’ The smile curtained a pain. ‘The problem is, my wife doesn’t know about it,’ he said.

  ‘She doesn’t know her son Arun is no more?’

  ‘She once did. But the shock was too much and she developed Alzheimer’s in no time.’

  ‘The disease where you lose your memory?’

  The man nodded.

  ‘I have packed roti and aloo-matar for your tiffin,’ the woman cried out from the kitchen. ‘Take a bath now. I’ll look after the kids.’

  The man looked at Rivanah and said, ‘She doesn’t even remember I have retired from work.’

  ‘Why don’t you tell her?’ She asked.

  ‘I need to go after lunch today,’ the man said aloud to his wife who was still in the kitchen. Rivanah got her answer.

  ‘Where do you go if not office?’ Danny asked.

  ‘I travel from here to Churchgate on the local train and then roam about here and there. And then come back home on time in the evening.’

  ‘But how long do you think this will go on?’ Danny asked.

  ‘I don’t know. I’m okay even if I can keep her away from reality for one more day. You see I told her something years back. I’ll do my best to live up to it.’

  ‘What did you tell her?’ Rivanah said curiously.

  ‘That I love her.’ The man sounded slightly choked again but he controlled himself well. The reason the stranger sent Rivanah here slowly dawned on her.

  ‘Don’t you wonder, Uncle, who these people are who bring you the cheques?’

  ‘I only know that there are still good people in this world.’

  Rivanah understood that the stranger asked people to visit with the cheques, pretending to be Arun’s friends. Just like he had sent her.

  Mrs Rawat came out with tea and some snacks on a tray. Rivanah and Danny had it with Mrs Rawat talking for most of the time. Before Rivanah left she gave the cheque to the man, Dilip Rawat. She had only one thing on her mind: with the delivery of the cheque she had officially become broke. What was she going to do?

  Danny asked her if he should drop her to the office. In order to not arouse his suspicious she agreed.

  ‘So, who is this friend of yours whom you don’t know and yet you went to give money to?’ Danny asked while driving her to her office.

  She knew this question would come. She was ready with an answer that wouldn’t raise further questions.

  ‘Arun’s friend is a friend. I thought it was his place.’

  ‘And the money?’

  ‘The friend will return it.’

  ‘Okay.’

  This was one thing Rivanah always liked about Danny. No complicated questions. He was always satisfied with what she told him. Would he be all right if she told him the guy in the multiplex toilet the other day was Ekansh, her ex? That he w
as now her new roomie’s boyfriend? And that he fucked her the day they met in the flat with her giving in to him so easily, something she would have never thought possible?

  Danny dropped her right in front of the office building and went off to his film’s acting workshop. She was wondering if she should go back to her flat when she got a call from a private number. She picked it up on the fourth ring.

  ‘Let’s have coffee together, Mini,’ the stranger said.

  For a moment Rivanah didn’t know what to say. Then she said, ‘Yeah, right.’

  ‘I’m serious. Krishna Towers terrace in half an hour?’

  Was the stranger seriously going to have coffee with her in Krishna Towers? Did he live there? Rivanah thought as she felt excitement run through her veins. She found herself saying, ‘Yeah, okay.’

  Rivanah took an autorickshaw and rushed to Krishna Towers. Fortunately for her there wasn’t much traffic and she reached her destination a few minutes before time. She knew the terrace keys were kept with the security guard. She asked for it, citing the excuse that she needed to check her dish antenna.

  ‘The terrace is open, madam. A few minutes ago a television mechanic took the keys to check the dish antenna.’

  Was it really a mechanic or . . . the stranger? Before the guard could say anything more Rivanah dashed inside the apartment building, took the elevator to the fifteenth floor—the topmost floor—after which she climbed a set of stairs to come face-to-face with the terrace door. It was indeed open. She checked her watch. One minute left for it to be half an hour since the stranger had cut the phone call. She took a deep breath. One more step and she would be able to see the stranger. Rivanah exhaled and crossed the terrace door to step onto the terrace. She looked around. There was nobody. She heard a phone ring. She followed the sound and reached a corner away from the door where a mobile phone was lying on a table. A private number was flashing on it. Rivanah picked it up.

  ‘Hello, Mini.’

  ‘Where are you?’

  ‘Look to your right.’

  Rivanah obliged but still couldn’t see anybody. The stranger asked her to look again at the table on which the phone had been left. Rivanah noticed there was a pair of binoculars on the table. She picked them up and, as directed by the stranger on the phone, looked to her right again. This time she could see a figure on the terrace of one of the high-rises adjacent to Krishna Towers. Rivanah adjusted the zoom to the max but realized it still gave her only a vague outline of the person. She couldn’t be sure if it was a man or a woman. If she ran out, she wondered, and got to the opposite terrace, by then the stranger would be gone. She could make out the person was waving at her. Very smart! she told herself as a smile touched her lips.

  ‘There’s more,’ said the stranger. Rivanah found there was a cup of coffee right under the table, covered, so that it didn’t lose its steam. She picked it up, all the while pressing the binoculars to her eyes. The person lifted one of his hands. She did the same, lifting the coffee cup up.

  ‘So won’t you meet me ever?’ Rivanah said on phone.

  ‘Only when the time is right.’

  ‘And when shall that be?’

  ‘You’ll know.’

  ‘Hmm. Thank you, by the way. Thanks for leading me to this amazing couple. Though I felt sad for them, I felt good about myself after a long time.’

  ‘I had to do it.’

  ‘Why “had to”?’

  ‘How else would you have known that nobody is always good or always bad? For example, the girl who cheated on Danny is also the girl who is now the reason why the elderly couple shall survive for the next two–three months.’

  A sadness eclipsed Rivanah’s excited self. She removed the binoculars from her eyes, lost in thought.

  ‘Have your coffee, Mini,’ the stranger said.

  Rivanah took a sip and said, ‘Why did I slip in that moment in the kitchen with Ekansh? I was so sure I loved Danny till that slip.’

  ‘We all have this special talent for hiding a truth by adding layers of lies on to it.’

  ‘What’s the truth?’

  ‘That you genuinely love Ekansh. You can’t escape it.’

  There was a silence which Rivanah broke by saying, ‘Does that mean the lie is I don’t love Danny?’

  ‘The lie is: you love Danny . . . only.’

  Rivanah sat down on the table, holding her head. She wasn’t able to think clearly.

  ‘What should I do now?’ she said in a choked voice.

  ‘Ekansh already knows the truth. That you love him. It is time for Danny to know that as well. That you love him too.’

  ‘But Danny knows I love him.’

  ‘You have to tell Danny that you still love Ekansh, even if it means that you want to live with Danny.’

  ‘That’s absurd! I will never say that. Danny will leave me for sure. I don’t know if you know this or not, but I’m not in touch with Ekansh after the kitchen incident.’

  ‘When we hide something from our partner a part of us is never with them. And in your case a very important part won’t be with Danny. Understand this, Mini: when you are attached to one and attracted to another, then one’s truth becomes the other’s lie as long as you keep the truth away from each other.’

  ‘What if Danny leaves me? I simply can’t take a break-up now. I’ll die.’ Rivanah’s eyes had tears in them.

  ‘From when did love start to concern itself with who is leaving whom? Love is whether someone truly belongs to someone or not, be it for a moment or for a lifetime.’

  There was a prolonged silence. In that silence Rivanah understood she was staring at an abyss which was her life. Everything she thought was dear to her was finally gone. The last bit left was Danny.

  ‘I will not only tell Danny the truth but also go back to Kolkata. I am anyway jobless and after Danny hears what I did I am pretty sure he will leave me. Mumbai won’t have anything for me. Nor will my life.’ She was sobbing by the end.

  ‘Before you start to pack your bag, do check your email, Mini.’

  The stranger cut the line. Rivanah immediately checked her email on the phone. What she read made her smile through her tears. She would have given the stranger a tight hug if he was near her.

  20

  The email was from the HR team of Zeus Technology Pvt. Ltd, asking if she would be available for an interview the next day. Reading the email Rivanah couldn’t decide whether it was real or just one of stranger’s jokes. She looked through the binoculars and was about to say something on the phone but the line was dead by then. There was nobody on the distant tower as well. To be sure Rivanah immediately called the HR’s number that was provided in the email itself. They confirmed a time for an interview the next afternoon.

  Rivanah thought of sharing the news first with her parents but stopped herself. It was only an interview. She must get an offer letter first, otherwise there would be a barrage of questions from her parents, the most important of which would be: first of all, why did you leave your job, Mini? She didn’t want to share the news with Danny either till she had an offer letter with her.

  Instead Rivanah shared the news with Tista on the phone right away. She had to tell someone about the interview in order to calm her thrilled self. She knew it was stupid because an interview did not necessarily mean a new job, but for her even this was welcome news.

  ‘That’s wonderful, Rivanah di! All the best,’ Tista said, equally excited. Rivanah adored how genuine Tista always was. Whatever she said or did was straight from the heart; no filters, no pretension. Like she had once been. It also made her sad because the kitchen incident wasn’t only about cheating on Danny. It was also about cheating on Tista and the bond they had formed as roomies. What would happen if she ever came to know about it? She too will have filters from then on, Rivanah answered herself in her mind.

  ‘Thanks,’ Rivanah said.

  ‘But I will need a treat.’

  ‘It is only an interview. I haven’t got the job
yet.’

  ‘You will. I’m sure,’ Tista said. Rivanah only hoped she was right.

  The next day Rivanah reached Zeus Technology’s office on time. Zeus was in Mindspace, Malad West, and it was not as big as her previous office. She remembered the place well since she had been here following Argho once. Would she stumble upon him again? This was the first time she was going inside the building. She found out that Neptune Solutions was two floors below Zeus. Once on the desired floor Rivanah was asked to wait for fifteen minutes after which a junior HR came, the one whom she had already spoken to, and set her up with a technical person who interviewed her for close to an hour. Once it was done, the same HR junior told her that she would be interviewed by a senior at 2.30 p.m. Though Rivanah wasn’t hungry, she couldn’t resist the idlis a vendor was selling just outside the building. She ordered a plate and was promptly served steaming idlis with a dash of coconut chutney. She finished her food and was wiping her hands using a tissue paper, when her phone rang. It was Danny.

  ‘Hi, I have something to tell you,’ he said.

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘I will tell you when we meet. Let’s have dinner tonight.’

  He had sounded the same when he had surprised her with the film contract. Was it a surprise again or . . . ?

  ‘Okay,’ she said.

  ‘I will message the place. Be free around eight.’