It was pouring down heavily but fortunately Preet’s friend Sameer had arrived with his car outside the main gate of the office. Preet noticed his car instantly and made a move towards it, just then he halted and turned to Priya, as if his eyes wanted to see some more of her.
“Please ask me to stay a little longer.” wondered Preet. He didn’t say so though.
“Can’t you stay here a little longer?” wondered Priya, but didn't utter a word.
“Ok then, see you tomorrow, Priya.” Preet bade her goodbye and drifted out of the shed they were standing under, protected from the heavy downpour.
Priya didn’t say a word, but just waved her hand and passed a lovely smile, still standing under the shed.
Preet with a heavy heart, his bag hanging behind him on his right shoulder, and his left hand trying to cover his head, rushed through the main gate and hopped into the car standing outside, but managed to steal a glance at Priya, who was waiting alone now for her cab to arrive.
Preet buckled up still looking out of the glass pane of the window, which was, of course blurred due to the rain. Suddenly, he was jolted out of his trance just as Sameer fired up the engine and in no time the car was speeding away on the waterlogged road with all its passengers. Sameer used to carpool, and therefore he had two more people sitting on the rear seats of his car.
Priya kept looking at the speeding away car until it got vanished around the corner.
“Should I have stayed back with her? I shouldn’t have left her waiting there all alone in this heavy rain. Don’t worry Preet, her cab is about to arrive in five minutes.” Preet’s mind was flooded with all such thoughts and it was evidently visible on his face too.
“What happened Preet? You look lost.” asked Sameer.
“Nothing Sameer.” replied Preet flatly with a fake smile. Sameer didn’t buy his answer, he, however, got back to his steering wheel.
“Her cab might have arrived by now. Let me check with her.” mumbled Preet. Sameer looked at him instinctively and immediately went back to his driving again. Although, there were not many vehicles on the road, however, he was driving the car very slow due to heavy waterlogging on the road.
Preet brought his phone out of his bag and dialed Priya’s number. He kept looking at the screen anxiously until the call was received.
Seeing his call, a relieved smile flitted across Priya’s face and she immediately received it.
“Did you get the cab yet?” Preet asked right away skipping the call mobile call formalities.
“Not yet, Preet. In fact, the last cab was cancelled by driver due to heavy waterlogging on the road to my pickup point. I’ve booked another cab, though. It is expected to reach here in another seven minutes.” - replied Priya in a single breath.
Preet could sense the anxiety in her voice now. He punched his thigh annoyingly, more so because he realized that it was getting darker now.
“Damn it man, I shouldn’t have left her waiting there all alone and now it’s getting darker. I should’ve stayed with her until she has got a cab. Thankfully, her next cab will be reaching her in a while.” wondered Preet.
He kept quite all this while with all those thoughts circling in his head.
“Let me ask her if she has boarded the cab already?” thought Preet and started typing a text message.
“Boarded the cab back home?” Preet sent the text message.
“Not yet. This cab also got cancelled.” replied Priya with a sad face smiley. Preet read that message with a deep breath, clearly the anxiety was getting on his head now.
He shuffled through his bag and found a small zipped plastic packet. He shoved his mobile phone and wallet into it and pushed that into his Jeans’ pocket.
“Stop the car, Sameer.” said Preet anxiously.
“Why?” – asked Sameer utterly baffled.
“Please don’t ask me anything right now, just stop the car, Sameer. And take my laptop bag also with you, I’ll collect it from you tomorrow.”
Presumably, Sameer had realized the urgency, so he immediately pulled over.
“What happened Preet? Where are you going? It’s raining heavily.” asked Sameer just as Preet pulled the lock of the door to open it.
“I forgot something really important back there.” replied Preet and opened the door.
“Ok then, let me take you there.” Sameer proposed.
“No Sameer, I don’t want the others to get late because of me. Please you go now, I’ll manage it, don’t worry.” replied Preet quickly and eloped out in the rain.
He had hoped to find a public conveyance, but to no avail.
“I can’t just wait. Let me just run down to office and will take an auto-rickshaw if I find one on the way.” Preet told himself and started running on the road, by then the rainwater had already started dripping off his hairs.
He was running for about ten minutes, but he didn’t find any auto-rickshaw on the way. He slowed down a bit just to catch up his breath. The sky was getting darker with every passing minute, mainly due to the heavy water laden clouds up there. He looked at it and sped up again.
“Preet, she needs you right now, make it fast.” he told himself firmly and started running with all his strength. Although, he had already covered more than half the distance, he was yet to cover another kilometer, which he hoped to cover in another five or seven minutes.
“Almost there.” he said and soon after his eyes started looking for Priya towards the gate, while he was slowing down to stop. He stopped eventually, in front of the gate, splashing the logged water on the road all around with his foot mainly due to the momentum of the body.
He stood there for a while, panting hard trying to catch up his breath with his both hands resting on his waist, and grimaced face. The water was still dripping off his hairs over the forehead, however, now that was difficult to part from the sweat on his face.
His eyes kept looking for Priya desperately, who he couldn’t find there. He rushed closer to the gate but all in vain. By then he had realized that Priya was not there.
He cupped his face into his hands, wiped the ever-falling rain droplets and sweat off his face. He kicked hard in the logged water on the road impulsively. He was, apparently, disappointed since he couldn’t reach there in time. He was tired as hell, so he sat down right there on the road cross-legged.
“Let me ask her, where she is?” thought Preet and pulled his phone out of his Jeans’ pocket.
He unwrapped it out of the plastic packet. Before he could make a call, he saw a new message notification on his home screen. He tapped that message to read, it was from Priya.
“Hey Preet, finally I got the cab, heading back to home now.” read the message.
Preet looked at the message once again and couldn’t help his smile this time. Out of curiosity, he looked at the delivery time of the message, which was one minute ago.
He kept sitting there for a while, but with a relieved smile this time.
댓글