TRUTH

An Upset friend

Karthik's diary......

Oh it's such a pleasure, Aasha needs to learn a lesson. She is right outside, urging me to open the door but I will not.

"Karthi! Open the door. Don't behave silly." she shouted. I knew I will not accept my defeat today. Why do I keep on requesting everytime? Its her turn today.

"No, I will not! Why do you care when you don't listen to me? You don't trust me right? So, I am packing all my things and leaving." Said I, I was not really leaving it was just to make her plead in front of me; a grin spread over all my face.

Yet I cannot understand how can she do this to me? That grey-eyed man knows something about my best friend which I don't and I can't bear it.

"Really? You are leaving?" To my disbelief, her words had happiness hidden in them rather than regret or guilt, but I guess I interpreted it wrong; she can't be happy on my leaving. Can she?

I swung open the door, with all my luggage packed in three suitcases. Mrs. Shankar wasn't avaiable and Asha! Really? She was sitting comfortably and in a relaxed position on the sofa, typing to someone - maybe that Vishh-aa-l. Huh!

"I'm leaving!" I shouted to attract her attention and to my great displeasure, she only said, "Okay; bye. I'll tell Mrs. Shankar to send rest of your things."

"Okay! Bye! I am leaving."

"Bye!" She replied sweetly.

"I'm leaving!"

"Yes, please!" I don't know why I suddenly recalled that scene from 'Hera Pheri' when Raju leaves and Baabu rao doesn't stop him. Honestly speaking, it may look very funny in the movie but when it happens to you in real life......I can understand Raju's pain now. Here I was ready to leave and my so called 'best friend' was least bothered.

I repeated, "I am leaving! Can you hear?"

"Karthi, I won't stop you if you want to leave, but stop shouting in my ears."

"I can't believe it. You don't even regret hiding things from me."

"Yes, I don't until it's for your own sake." She said grinning.

"O God, I am not a kid."

"Unfortunately, you are even sillier than a small kid. Kidoo."

I don't know why can't I ever win over this clever girl. I wanted her to plead and tell me the truth but here I was requesting her to tell me what was going on.

"Please, Aasha tell me. Am I not you best friend?" I said with my most innocent smile.

"No" she replied bluntly.

"I'll help you."

"I don't need your help." She said.

"But why?" Oh; now I got it, why would she need my help, she has that stony eyed fellow with her now. Oh, I wanted to cry. She can't give my place to him.

"Okay! I lose to you. At least tell me about it." I said giving a sigh of defeat.

"But you were leaving right now, weren't you?"

"No, I won't. Now tell me."

"Okay; but promise that after listening to it you will keep your mouth shut and will not give any of your 'super great ideas'."

"I'll think over it." She glared at me angrily "Okay fine, I promise."
And she told me one of the most interesting stories, the Roys whom she has been treating were dead seven years ago! Oh man; this is really interesting and I felt pity for Aasha who got stuck at such a position. Yet, I couldn't control my laughter, the moment she told me that she doubted if those people were spirits.

When she finished, I said; "Well, don't worry; we'll do something about it."

And then; exactly before she could speak something; the doorbell rang and in came he - Why is he there all the time? Has he not got a house of his own?

'Vishh-aa-l' was here, but he wasn't alone, with him came a man, in bright red t-shirt with everyone's favorite 'apna time aaega' title, a loose jeans, black goggles, that too at night and other accessories that made him look no less than a.... a...... I don't know what exactly, I mean maybe an ape with clothes. The way he walked in, it was sure that he felt very confident about his looks.

Vishal said to me in his as usual polite and formal tone, "Mr. Sharma, it's inspector Vikram, he was the one who looked after the Roys' case, so I called upon him for help."

"Karthik, my name is Karthik; how many times shall I tell you. Anyways, leave it, good evening inspector." We shook hands and he gave a red smile that looked so-so-so irritating.

I let both men in but Aasha wasn't there, then she came out from my room. She actually had kept my luggage back in my room and was talking to someone over the phone. Her expressions and the last few words were enough to make me understand that she was worried. About what, I didn't know. Again Vishal took the charge of introducing the inspector who quickly stood up from his place as Aasha arrived.

He was just staring at her like anything and I could see that she felt uncomfortable; I wanted to break that man's red teeth but that was not in my power so I did what was in my power, I went and stood in between them. That shameless man still tried eying her but I made her sit just on the other side of the sofa and sat between them so that he couldn't make her more uncomfortable.

She spoke from there itself adressing Vishal who sat on the other side of the sofa next to the man, "Vishal why have you got inspector here?" She spoke as if she was scolding him and I liked that.
"Well, inspector Vikram was handling the Roy's case so I thought he would be of some help."

Aasha said to the inspector without even looking at him, "I have only one question, were the bodies of all the Roys discovered?"

"Yes, except for Sameer Roy but only Mrs. Roy's body was identified through her face because the faces and bodies of the other Roy's were badly burnt; they were identified through ids."

"No DNA test was taken?"

"No, what was the need when we could recognize them with ids. And those days we had lot more important cases to attend to. It was just an accident." He spoke and as frequently the contents of his mouth would fall, he would clean it with a white handkerchief that was red now. This made him look even more ugly.

"And what about Sameer Roy?"

"Reports say that he ran away."

"The Roy mansion?"

"It still belongs to the Roys, no one came to claim it, so the mansion is empty."

"No, no, it's not, they still......." Vishal was about to tell the inspector everything when we signalled him to be quiet. After this, he had tea with snacks and went away, massaging his pot like stomach by his huge hands.

"Vishal; who asked you to bring that inspector here?" Aasha shouted angrily, oh! It was such a nice feeling to see your enemy getting scolded by your best friend. It makes you feel the best .

"I ....... I....thought that..."

Finally I got a chance, "Nobody asked you to think Mr. VISHAAL!"

"Listen Vishal, if I need help, I will surely tell you but please don't do anything until that. I think you should go now, or it will be late."
Vishal left and I felt triumphant. However, Aasha was very silent. She didn't speak a word, she was tensed and I will soon discover why.