A Thousand Encounters

Chapter-64

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Nandini scrolled down the spreadsheet and tried to find the darned error in the balance-sheet. Her eyes burned as she dived into her computer screen. The singing bird sang irately and she glanced at the wall cloth. It was almost 9. She could see how lights outside were turning duller as mist started to cover the range. She still had to make a few entries before she headed home. 

Home.

That word struck the wrong chord. That house was one freezer without that one man. It was a week since they had talked. She bit her lower lip as she missed him more. After their heated argument, none of them tried to talk, even if that meant making a call. She didn't because she had overconfidence in her cadet's coping inability. She had this blind faith in his impatience when it came to staying mad at her. She guessed she had terribly misjudged her worth in his routine life. She bit her lower lip harder as an urge to cry blinded her vision. 

She corrected the wrong entry with an urgency and saved the spread sheet. Taking her coat from stand, she switched off the lights and rushed out of room. Her red truck stared her face as if was complaining for leaving him out in cold for entire day. She had started to like the company of inanimate objects. 

"Losing mind already?" 

She asked herself as she put the keys in ignition. Starting her truck, she drove it on dark misty roads. 

It was not heavenly Saturday where she could sleep with hope of a Sunday with him. It was damned Monday with a preceding Sunday where he didn't come to see her. Manik hadn't come home last day and that was certainly 100th last nail in the coffin. She huffed in fury and then frowned in anxiety. 

  "FINE! Then why I should even care? Why I should even say that place as my house when I cannot even make a simple payment for it?"  

His words rang into he rears and she clutched the steering wheel to fight the anxiety. What if he never came back? The thought was scary. But she hadn't ever let fear run her mind, had she? 

Never.

But now 'never' had started to find its way out of her life. He made her feel so vulnerable. She had vested her life in him and now he wasn't showing up. She looked at the sky which was nothing but misty. There were no starts gazing her tonight, nothing of that sort which could give her company. An urgency churned her insides and she halted the car in middle of road. Picking up her phone, she dialed a number but then disconnected it after two rings. His voice would do but then she wouldn't be able to hold her muffled cries. 

She opened message box and typed something urgently. 

"Okay! But Make sure you reach before 11."

She read the reply of her boss and threw the phone on passenger seat. 

 The invasion was scheduled for tomorrow morning. 

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The military truck halted and Manik opened his eyes. 

"Finally home"

Harshad mumbled tiredly and jumped out of truck to see the academy bathed in white mist. Manik followed him and sighed at sight of that huge building. 

"In your dorms right away, GCs"

The officer commanded and they all started to jog towards the dormitory. Almost each one of them audibly whimpered as they found their beds after a week long. The rigorous drill in upper hills had fluxed their muscles.