Serendipity

Episode #26 : The Betrayal

SCENE 1

Around 6 in the morning, Suman stepped down from the train at Ballia Railway Station. As expected, the winter was twice as strong in the village compared to the cities due to most of the area consisting of farms and fields. It was before dawn, dark still looming in the streets, and the fog limited the visibility as well. Despite wearing a warm sweater, she took out Abhimanyu's shawl from her bag and drapped it around her shoulders and over head like dupatta.

Stepping out of the station, she spotted autorickshaws and a few taxis awaiting the passengers. Normally, a person would be scared, specially a girl, to be out in the early hours alone. But Suman wasn't. She had grown up in that place, knew each and every street and corner of it. It was her area.

“Where do you want to go madam ?” - the taxi driver, who was leaned against his taxi, asked as she moved towards him.

“Pandey Nivas.” - she replied.

The taxi driver straightened up hearing the address and quickly opened the backdoor for her. She was not surprised at the reaction. Her father was the most influential person of the village and their house was looked upon by the villagers. So clearly, if she was someone heading there, meant she was either a relative of the family or their guest. In both cases, deserved respect.

It was something that Suman had never enjoyed. To her, every person in the world was equal to the person stood next to him regardless of caste, culture, colour and social status.

Sighing, she took a seat and they were off to her destination. She pulled out her phone and typed a message for Abhimanyu.

Reached Ballia safely. On my way home.

She pressed the send button and put her phone down. Her gaze fell on the foggy fields through the window as they passed by them. Her childhood was spent playing there with her friends, one of them being Pallavi. She still remembered, when other girls used to adorn dolls with jewellery and chunris, getting them ready for marriage, she used to put on a toy stethoscope and check their heartbeats. She had even done that at her home, playing 'doctor doctor' with her younger cousins. At that time, her father used to laugh when she would pretend to inject a cousin and cheered for her. Then why was he being so stubborn now ? Did he think it was her childish wish and would grow out of it on growing up ?

Her musings halted when her phone dinged with a notification. She was surprised to find it was a reply from Abhimanyu.

‘He is awake at this hour ?’ - she thought.

Relieved to hear that. ❤️ Now don't stress yourself out over anything and Don't. Drink. Cold. Water.

Her face morphed into a soft smile. She once had told him that no matter however cold the weather got, she couldn't stop herself from drinking cold water. She knew it was not good for health, being a doctor knew even deeply, but lukewarm water just didn't appeal her.

I promise I won't. ❤️

She pressed send before putting the phone down again. The soft smile remaining on her face. ‘I love you’ didn't always sound ‘I love you.’ Sometimes you could easily here it in ‘have a safe flight.’ Or ‘let me know when you land and when you reach home.’ And sometimes, it dripped from ‘don't drink cold water.’ She was lucky to experience all the versions.

The route from the station to her house took half an hour. It usually was a twenty minutes distance but the driver drove slowly, careful of the fog on the road. As the car stopped outside the gates, the sky had started to see some light. Pandey Nivas was illuminated with lights, as she had expected, since it was dawn. It was a ritual set by her father that every family member followed to wake up by dawn and start the day with the morning prayer.