The Girl Behind The Door

Part 23 - Anuradha And Kali Maa

Mayuri POV

The world flies past me, everything I've ever known growing further from me every second. I don't know where I was going, if I am finally breaking free or if I am just running from one hell loop into another. But wherever I am going I know it won't be worse than where I was, and that thought alone was my biggest comfort.

For the first time in the past six years I was alone. I wasn't surrounded by the other girls and I didn't have a man lying next to me. It was just me and the sound of the wheels on the tracks. We had ran i don't know how long but the men were still behind us and getting closer, however we managed to cross some train tracks and followed it to the station just in time to get on the train as it was gaining speed leaving the station.

I'm sitting on a blue leather seat rocking in the rhythm of the train. The carriage is fairly empty aside from a few people scattered along the various seats. But it was still dark outside so more people would start to come in as the sun rose. I wonder where the train is going...? Wait, we don't have tickets..?. Oh god I know I haven't prayed to you in years but please, please please please, let us get to wherever we are going without any trouble. Please don't check our tickets and don't let us be kicked out please please please. Whichever god will listen, Shivji, Jesus Christ, Allah anyone please...?

"What are you praying"

"Huh" I open my eyes and look up to see Bhavik looking back at me

"You looked like you were praying for something, what was it? '' He repeated a little louder as he moved in and sat opposite me.

(oh kuchh nahin... main to bas...)

"Oh nothing... I was just..." I shrugged.

"Hmm"

Silence

He was sitting forward with his back bent and elbows on his knees. His black jeans were streaked with mud and dirt and his grey tank top was like a second skin clinging to his well toned body which was covered in sweat, and water stains which surrounded faded blood marks. Although his face was to the floor and his hair fell around his face I could just make out the tightly pressed lips, and slightly scrunched eyebrows. Why isn't he talking? Is he angry at me? I have never seen him like this, should I say something. Maybe I should say thank you.

I don't like this silence, my heart is beating fast and loud, I want to say something but I don't know if I should. I open and close my mouth but nothing comes out, I look like a fish but I don't know what to say.

"Anuradha" My voice is quiet, barely above a whisper. I hadn't said that name in years. It felt foreign on my tongue. I didn't expect him to hear it but he looked up. He still seems annoyed.

(kya)

"What"

I quickly look down, lowering my gaze. Urgh stupid me, he was falling asleep, did I wake him. Oh stupid, stupid. I slap myself internally. I can't just stay quiet, I need to say something.

"Anuradha... Thats my real name" I keep my eyes down.

"Anuradha" He repeats his voice soft. I feel a wave of emotions wash over me. It feels as if someone in me had been longing to hear that name for a lifetime, I felt like a lost child who had just found his mother amongst a crowd.

"Anu" Various voices echoed in my ears, as images flashed through my head as fast as the scene outside, babuji calling out for me from the school gate on his cycle. "Anu, where are you?" My brothers called out as they searched the house while I hid behind the chair."Anuradha, slow down" my friends were chasing me as we ran around the tamarind tree.