New Story: Shamisha - Part 4

‘What has happened?’ asked the rider.

‘Don’t know. The car went dead abruptly.’ said Mithilesh.

‘How come you guys are on this road? This is generally not used during this hour.’ the pillion looked suspiciously at us. I noticed that both of them were carrying guns.

‘We were getting late for a party. This is the shortcut and so we took it. Who knew that we would be trapped in this way?’ Arvind explained. We were all in our dapper best- the reason could have looked genuine.

‘Let me have a look.’ said the rider after a moment. Probably he was evaluating us.

He scrambled for a few minutes and then looked triumphantly at us – ‘Here’ he showed us a disconnected wire. Mithilesh and Arvind had done a good job. I admired their thinking and guts. He fixed it and the car came back to life.

‘The area is not safe. Go and I do not want to see you guys a mile within this area in future.’ the rider said showing the arm he was carrying on his shoulder. He appeared kind enough. We made a run. We had completely forgotten about Shamisha.

‘That girl of yours wanted us to see this.’ opined Arvind.

‘I am not sure but it looks like a logical explanation.’ I said. ‘I think we should inform Shiv Kant about this then.’ I dialed his number and informed him about the events till now. He was ready to move in with a team.

‘I still have no answer about the girl. Shamisha!! Who the hell are you?’ I muttered.

‘Don’t worry dude. We will soon have some answers.’ Arvind assured me.

It was well past midnight. We had our dinner at a reputed roadside eatery. Shiv Kant and his team had nabbed the gang. They were into child trafficking. I and Gulati passed a knowing smile on hearing this. We were sitting at the comfortable lounge area of Shiv Kant’s police station. We had given our statements and were waiting for further instructions. There were plenty of activities outside – Media crew had somehow got the lead of a major breakthrough. They were vying for news bites.

‘Look at what you media guys do?’ I said to Nitin pointing to the numerous OB Van outsides. He just smiled.

‘Surprise Surprise!!’ said Shiv Kant as he entered the area.

‘What?’ I asked expectedly.

‘The gang leader’s name is Karan.’

‘And…’  Every eye was set on him.

‘No. He doesn’t know anyone named Shamisha. Neither does any of his team members.’

‘You are sure of this?’

‘Well!! Shamisha is a unique name. Don’t you think? They would have remembered knowing someone with that name. Anyways I would do further enquiry to see what else I can get.’

‘Thank you.’ We said in unison.

‘Are… I should thank you guys. This is a great catch. We have saved the lives of many innocent children.’

‘I think you can leave now. It is already late. If you can, I would suggest, take a day off tomorrow. All of you.’ and he left.

‘It was a good adventure.’ Gulati and Mithilesh said in unison.

‘Yeah!! It was. And you guys were all set to leave me out of It.’ said Arvind.

‘We did not even get to be in live action.’ rued Nitin. William was smiling wistfully.

It seems that the riddle of Shamisha was not of prime importance at the moment. ‘I wish I could have solved the riddle of Shamisha.’ I sighed.

Ending 1:

Mithilesh dropped me at home. I was in a somber mood. My mind was clouded by Shamisha. I threw myself on bed. It was around 3 AM. My phone suddenly buzzed. It was a message from Shekhar – ‘I have sent you a mail. Please check.’

‘Shamisha died in a freak accident a couple of months ago. See attachments.’ His mail read. I opened the attachments (which were copies of news clipping and police reports) and was devastated. I cried my heart out as I rued the fact that I did not even express my feelings to the girl I loved.

Another message from Shekhar came at around 6 in the morning – ‘Sorry. I wish I could have been there. Be Strong man.’ I had recovered somehow by now.

I called Mithilesh – ‘Bhai, she is dead.’

‘Who? Shamisha?’

‘Yes.’ I felt like crying again but managed to hold myself somehow.

‘How?’ I told him about the mail from Shekhar. Mithilesh took Gulati and Arvind on conference.

‘But you always used to keep a tab on her whereabouts. How could you miss this?’ Arvind asked.

‘I left it after your advice to leave the bogey of past.’

My friends consoled me and soon they were at my place. And as always has happened, they took me out of my misery. They stayed there, all of them (taking the day off), till late evening and till they made sure I was okay.

I decided to skip dinner and spend some time with an old classic. As I was setting up the system, a phone call gave a skip to my heart.

‘Hey!!’

‘Hey!!’

‘You know this would be my last call.’

‘Yes.’

‘I want to thank you and your friends for what you have done today.’

‘It was nothing. I could have done anything for you. It is another thing that I was not sure if it was for you.’

‘Yeah!! It was more due to your friends but still… You were concerned about them. I know.’

‘Why?’ I trembled while asking this question.

‘I knew that you liked me – from the very beginning. You never had the courage and I was not keen on taking it further. By the time I started developing feelings for you, it was too late I guess.’ I felt a pang in my heart – It could have worked. ‘At the time of my death, I rued that I did not express my love to you.’

‘How did you die? Shekhar’s mail suggested that it was a freak accident.’

‘Shekhar is considerate for he did not divulge everything to you... I died trying to expose this racket ran by Karan. I got killed along with my colleague – it was not an accident, it was murder carried out by Karan and his associates.’

‘But Shiv Kant said that they did not know you.’

‘Shiv Kant is a friend of Shekhar. He was advised on telling the truth to you.’ I was wondering on why the gang spared us last night.

‘Don’t bother too much about it. You were just plain lucky.’ I did not know that spirits can read mind and that too over phone.

‘You are weirdly funny. Haan, I can read your mind over phone too. I think we could have a great time, had we been together.’

‘I think that too.’

‘I will have to hang up now. Do know that I loved you. Take care. I would be watching you from wherever I go from here.’ And she hung the phone.

Ending 2:

‘Then you should have sought the help of the ultimate riddle master.’ it was Shekhar.

‘What are you doing here?’ I asked. Everyone was bewildered by his sudden appearance.

‘Solving a case my friend.’ He was in his characteristic self.

‘You said that in our communication – you did not mention that you are in the city.’

‘Does it matter? Anyways, I heard that you guys had a great adventure. How was it? Tell me.’

‘Well!! It was super…’ Mithilesh started and then halted. ‘Wait a minute. Were you playing games with us?’

‘Who? Me? No.’

‘Shekhar!!!’ all of us growled at him.

‘Okay… Okay. I accept it was my plan. But what could I do. You guys were always pestering me to show you a glimpse of my life. I did it for you guys.’

‘This is not funny.’ Gulati complained.

‘Is it? Tell me… Wasn’t it fun? Weren’t you all nervously excited? Wasn’t it an adventure worth going for?’

‘Yes it was. But now we know that all of it was orchestrated.’

‘That’s the beauty. You guys met real criminals at real crime scene. Nothing was orchestrated. This was a real case.’

‘So, you left us at the mercy of the criminals?’

‘Now you are underestimating your friend. All of you were well protected. Shiv Kant’s team was already there. You were just given a small time to have an adventure – of course at my request.’

‘And you knew about Shamisha… So, you brought in a voice artist to rattle my life.’ I was angry with him.

‘Shamisha’s angle was the masterstroke I think.’

‘It was.’ Everyone agreed in unison.

‘Don’t you want to meet the voice artist?’ he asked me.

‘Of course I do. She was good… she was very close to the original. With whatever…’

‘You speak too much. Shamisha come here.’

A girl in her mid-twenties appeared.

‘Shamisha.’ I gasped. She smiled and waved at me and others. Others were flabbergasted too.

‘I told you her angle was the masterstroke. I had a chance meeting with her in Bangalore. I knew you would never tell her about your feelings… So, I told her on your behalf.’ I froze.  She passed a knowing smile at me. ‘She wanted to talk to you. And then it struck me – I let her talk to you but in a way which served two ends – one, I am sure, it re-ignited your subdued feelings and two, it drew you guys to this adventure.’ She was still smiling. I was at my wit’s end with this sudden change of script.

‘How did you manage to get those calls done?’

‘You are talking to a Computer Science grad and that too a topper dude. I am good with technology… but this time I took the help of your wizard friend.’

‘Sougata. That bastard…’

‘Don’t abuse him. He helped you to get your girl.’ I inadvertently blushed.

‘I think you would wish to have some time with her. Go then.’ I hesitated. ‘Go. No one will pull your leg. I promise.’

As I approached Shamisha, she hugged me. With the corners of my eyes, I found Shekhar, Gulati, Mithilesh, Arvind, Nitin and William moving out.