BALI 100 KM (Book 1) ✔

Chapter 41

Bandu knew he had jolted Samar to silence with his declaration. When silence prevailed for long, Bandu looked up and met two pairs of wide eyes with eyebrows raised.

"You were a self-declared orphan and had claimed that you did not remember your whereabouts," Samar reminded him.

"Yes, yes, I did say that, and it was true until yesterday. At the age of ten, I watched my house destroyed by the blaze and imagined to have lost my loved ones too. With no relatives and no one to accept me into their home, I was taken to an orphanage and left there," Bandu said, trying to convince Samar with his story.

"Ok, where is Nand now?"

"I have brought my mother and Nand's mother, my elder sister, and a niece too to stay with me here," Bandu said, bracing for another set of questions.

"Ok," Samar acknowledged absentmindedly, placing the drinking pot on the stool outside.

"Wait a minute! Why are they staying with you? Where is Nand's father?" Samar asked. He came and stood next to Bandu with his hands on his hips, a puzzled look on his face.

He did not answer right away, as he was pouring milk into the brewing tea. He kept the milk container back in its place on the table, covering it with a lid, and then took up the spoon to blend in the milk. Satisfied with the outcome, he turned to face the impatient Samar.

"Nand's father happens to be a wanted man by the police hence on the run. The family, when I found them was in dire circumstances, with no money for food or medicines. My aged mother did odd jobs to feed the family. Isn't it my duty as a son to take up their responsibility since there was no other earning member in the family?" Bandu said, putting up logical reasoning in his explanation without mentioning Balwant's name. He could not state the entire truth to Samar and settled for partial facts.

Any further interrogations were interrupted by the arrival of a bus that made its halt near the shop. Bandu was relieved. The passengers alighted and stretched themselves. Some of them came forth and placed their orders.

Having limited items in his menu came out as a disappointment for the customers, but the brewed tea compensated for the shortcoming. Many offered him suggestions about snacks that he should include in his menu. Bandu was overwhelmed at the appreciation he received. After the group left, Samar collected all the glasses and put them for washing, in which Bandu was currently employed.

Soon another set of motorists came along. There were five bikers carrying pillion riders attired in uniformed leather jackets and helmets. They parked their big heavy bikes and removed their helmets to ruffle their sweat-coated hair.

Jackets were removed and set aside on the bike handles on top of the helmets. They gathered together to discuss what to have and pointed towards the menu chalked on the shop wall. From the look of it, they too appeared disappointed with the menu.

But after much deliberation, they made up their minds, and one of them walked forward to the shop, but...,

"Arrh..." he screamed, suddenly finding himself on the ground with a heavy thud.

His friends rushed to him and supported him to his feet. Laughter and jokes followed as the brave fellow nursed his bum and looked around for the cause of his embarrassment. Samar, too, had rushed out by this time to deflate any distress and anger. The fellow had spotted something on the ground picked it up for everyone to see. Samar broke their cordon and entered the ring to look at what he found.

Samar then took it upon himself to apologize to them for the inconvenience and requested them to hand over the find to him, which they promptly did. Thanking them, Samar returned behind the counter. Samar recited their order, and Bandu got to preparing it.

Seated on the bench and their bikes, they had loud discussions about their destinations and stopovers. Soon with tea over, they pay and leave in their big, heavy, and noisy motors.

"They were as loud as their bikes," said Bandu sounding irritated.

"They are on a road expedition," Samar informed.

"What had he given to you?" Bandu asked, finally remembering and his irritation, now giving way to curiosity.

Samar had collected all the glasses to be washed over to the sink when Bandu questioned him. He dried his hands clean on the cloth tied around his waist and retrieved a round object from his pocket.

For Bandu, there was a striking similarity of the object with the one he previously received. The only difference was that the ball was wound with a white thread. Samar snipped off the string with his pocket knife kept in his kurta pocket and then began to unthread the ball.

"Oh..one more paper ball!"Bandu exclaimed, snatching up the ball from Samar's hand to observe it closely and returning it to Samar's still open hand.

"You have had one like this before?" Samar asked.

"Yes, it must be another warning of some sort, written on the paper, if you can read," Bandu said with a frown on his face.

Samar had already straightened the paper and was reading from it.