Dark Secrets

5

Dear Diary,

Last night we were on a boat on the Tosh river. He and I ,along with the five elements of nature. It's difficult to describe how magical it felt to be so isolated in the world with just one other soul beside me. We sipped wine,kissed and made love. He stripped me ,gently,layer bye layer, I was feeling shy and aroused. As soon as I was naked,I hugged him tight wanting to fuse into him. And then it happened. He started kissing me. I blush to even put it all down in words. I'm so happy that it happened at long last. I had always complained to him about keeping me at arm's length,but he finally fulfilled my innermost desires.

The diary entry made no sense to Shreshtha. She couldnt remember anything that had happened but the words in the diary clearly indicated that they had made love. Why didn't she remember it? Was this also because of the' incident'? Weren't the medicines working?

'Come down ,beta ,breakfast is ready,'she heard her mother call from downstairs.

'Coming!' She stowed the diary in the drawer in her study table and lightly ran down the stairs.

It was mouth watering- hot aloo parathas with curd for breakfast. Her father read his newspaper while her mother poured out the tea before sitting down beside her. Dude thumped his tail on the floor,looking forward to the tasty titbits that would make their way under the table.

'Won't you ever tell me why I need to take all these medicines?' Shreshtha asked.

Her parents exchanged a troubled glance,before her father spoke,' There was a bad incident'.

'That's what you say every time i ask. What bad incident? I lost my years of college. My friends sre all ahead of me. I feel.....I feel stupid because I dont know about my own life.'
Shreshtha pushed away her plate and stormed out. She wheeled out her bicycle from the porch and called out,'i'm off to the cafe'.
Before her parents could say anything ,she was already gone. Dude stood up,shook himself and then lay down again.
'Next time she asks',said Mr Srivastava,'just tell her it was an accident'.
'We should have told her about it a long time ago,' Mrs Srivastava argued.
Mr srivastava merely shrugged and went back to his newspaper.
Tosh as a tourist spot had gained traction recently due to Shreshtha's efforts. 'The Artisan Cafe :A creator's cafe ' had benefited greatly from Shreshtha's social media skills. The coffee shop include a small library, a corner to sketch,an area for pottery,and a stylish, modern kitchenette island for tea and coffee bang in the centre. Shreshtha had taken it over from her parents and expanded and improved it vastly,creating online accounts for the cafe which she meticulously updated. She invited tourists to both follow and post pictures using hashtags. Kishorilal,her man friday,was an invaluable assistant. He ensured that the cafe opened and closed like clockwork. And on a fortnightly basis he even sallied forth to the city to stock up on groceries.

  Kishori lal greeted her as Shreshtha hurried over to the counter and started checking the sheaf of invoices. A young American couple were exploring the quirky,offbeat features of the cafeteria. The man asked Shreshtha whether the pottery facilities were free.

'Of course! It's a creator's cafe. We will write your name whatever you create and display it in that large glass cabinet over there,' Shreshtha waved towards a wall where there were already several paintings and behind the glass were beautiful potteries of various sizes,shapes,and colours,all of which were labelled with the names of the artists. She ushered the couple to the corner with the potter's wheel and showed them where the raw materials were.
'What can I get for you?' She handed each of them a menu. After the couple were served their muffins and lattes, Shreshtha retreated to the counter and watched them unobtrusively. It was clear that the guy hadn't a clue about pottery, although the girl did seem to know what she was doing. She was trying in vain to teach the guy,but he was in addition to being all thumbs,a recalcitrant student. They looked incredibly cute together. Shreshtha made a mental note of perhaps trying pottery with Yuvansh one day. The door of the cafe burst open and three loud youths came in with beer cans,mouthing abuses,laughing raucously,and ribbing each other.
'Excuse me',said Shreshtha loudly,'i'm afraid we don't allow alcohol or outside food here.'
The bye eyed Shreshtha and seemed to strip her naked with their glance. It made her feel very uncomfortable.
'Sorry',said one of the guys. He snatched the cans from the other two guys ,looked around for a garbage can and dumped all three beers into it.
'Thanks' said Shreshtha. The boys say down, their eyes roving over the female clientele in the cafe.
'Excuse me' ,said the same boy who had discarded the beer cans,'can we have the menu please?'
Shreshtha glanced at Kishorilal who sullenly put one on their table.
Shreshtha messaged Yuvansh:

    WHEN ARE YOU COMING BACK?I   
     MISS YOU.

Her face fell to see rhe single tick mark against the message - it had not been delivered. Her existing bad mood only worsened.

'It's not here ',the boy complained loudly.
'I'm sorry?'
'I looked for you on the menu. We wanted to know the rate,' the three louts  struck their palms in boisterous high fives and guffawed. The other customers ignored them coldly.
'Perhaps she's priceless'.
'Perhaps free,hence not on the menu.'

Shreshtha went over to their table ,'what's your problem?' She asked quietly.
The louts stood up. 'Nothing. We're gone'.
'Good'. As she turned away,Shreshtha felt a hand slap her buttocks.
'There was a fly,'he said insolently. Shreshtha fumed but held her peace because she didn't want to make a scene in the cafe. Truth be told, she was a little scared. The three boys laughing among themselves, left the café. Kishorilal had telephoned her father by then.
Shreshtha returned to the counter,her body trembling with rage. Yuvansh's name flashed on her phone. She answered the call and burst inti tears.

The Tosh river's banks glistened in the silvery moonlight. The three youths who had harassed Shreshtha were sitting by a boulder ,having beer ,smoking weed and cracking bawdy jokes when they heard clanking. They turned around to see a man at a distance in the light of the moon. He appeared yo be carrying what looked like  heavy chains. The man secured the chains around the smaller boulders.
'Piss off,mother fucker! You're interrupting our moonlight picnic,' hollered one of the inebriated louts.
Without a word, Yuvansh pulled out a revolver from his pocket and screwed on a silencer. At the sight of the gun,the boys dropped their beer in alarm and stood up.
'Whoa ,calm down,man. You can totally use this space. We were just leaving.'
'Who touched the girl?' Yuvansh asked.
For a moment ,they were all at sea ,'what?'
'The girl in the café. Who touched her?'
Two gestured towards the third guy who was wringing his hands together. 'I'm sorry,dude. I really am.'
'Men like you are never sorry. You need to be made to feel sorry,' Yuvansh said and gestured with the gun,indicating that his two cronies move aside.' Come here'.
Nobody moved.
'Do you want my gun to do the talking?'
The terrified hooligan came over to Yuvansh.
'Fasten these around your ankels,'Yuvansh said. It was a pair of handcuffs links to the chained boulder. The boy obeyed,rapidly descending from his cannabis and beer high. Yuvansh produced two more pairs of handcuffs and ordered the other boy to tether themselves to each other with the handcuffs around their anklets, a length of gleaming chain between them. The boys were now freely wetting their pants in terror.
'Now jump in the river', Yuvansh's  voice was icy.
The boys were petrified.
'We dont know how to swim,' confessed one of them.
'I' m not your mother to give a fuck about what you do or don't know'.
When they didn't move,Yuvansh went over and yanked the louts, chained to each other,to the water's edge. Yuvansh's incredible strength took him by  surprise. The youths held back,cringing and whining.
Yuvansh turned around and snapped,'one more squeak out of you and I will shoot you in the head and dump you in the river.'
He ruthlessly dragged the two weeping lads and pushed them into the river. The boulders tethered to the chain sank without a trace dragging the unfortunate louts into depths of the river. The silence was deafening.

Yuvansh turned to the remaining romeo who had passed out.

A few hours later,he woke up ,his eyes adjusting yo the moonlight nightmare that had not ended. Yuvansh was sitting beside hum, waiting patiently.

'Man, i'm really sorry,'he wheedled. Yuvansh reached out and grabbed his hair cruelly; the boy screamed. A filthy rag was thrust into his mouth. The struggling youth realized  that his arm had been twisted behind him and cuffed to his ankels. Only his right hand wss free. Yuvansh put a photograph on a boulder in front of him and asked him to take a good look at it. It ws the girl in the café, the one he had dared to spank.
'Touch her',Yuvansh commanded. The biy shook his head,slobbering. Yuvansh snarled out the order, alittle louder this time. The boy touched the photograph with a trembling forefinger. Yuvansh sliced off the finger with knife. The boy's screams muffled by the gag.

'Touch her',Yuvansh repeated. With tears in his eyes and almost losing consciousness again, he placed another finger of his bleeding hand on the photograph reluctantly. This was ruthlessly hacked off as well. Each of his five fingers were severed. The boy blacked out from excruciating pain. Yuvansh removed the gag and tethered the guys feet to another boulder before dropping him into the river as well. The miscreant sank like a stone.
Yuvansh cleaned the tell-tale traces of blood off the boulder and collected his belongings before calling the local police station. He told them that he was a local resident who had chanced across an unattended car by the Tosh river.