Leave it to destiny

Chapter Twelve/ found Baba.....

Somewhere on the way
Late in the evening........
"We need to find shelter for the night. Soon it will be too dark."
"Hmmn..the man at the last stop said something about a small town."
"We passed that two hours back."
"Look around you, we are in the midst of a forest. There are only trees and bushes."
"I am hungry!"
"My stomach has been grumbling for the past one hour."
"I kept some food, aside when we were purchasing our lunch at that town, we can eat some of it, if you both want?"
Two pairs of hungry eye were trained on her. It seemed anything would do at the moment. She shrugged her shoulders and turned to the sack lying near her. Pulling out two red apples, she handed one each. Within seconds just the core of the apples were staring at her.
"We need to go slow. Don't know when we will be able to buy more food, so better not finish off everything now." Abhimanyu and Prakash looked at each other like two errant boys. She couldn't help the slow smile, as she took out another apple and rubbed it against her dhoti, and then bit loudly into it. Abhimanyu turned to look at Maira, while Prakash was looking at her through the review mirror.
"Look!" She pointed to something on the left. "I think that is a gate." Prakash braked hard, then reversed back to stop next to the gate. It was a gate, an old iron gate, broken and hanging, just about. It lay about half open, to what looked like a driveway.
"Maybe, there is some sort of shelter, we could go and see."
"No harm! as I see it. I mean otherwise anyway we shall have to spend the night on the road as it is."
'you sit in..." she was out , pushing the gate before Abhimanyu could complete the sentence.
"Not very biddable huh!" Prakash had a smug grin, Abhimanyu wished he could wipe with a smack.
Not trying to hide his irritation, he quickly got out and followed Maira as she slowly tread through the overgrown drive way. They must not have gone more than a hundred step, when the path divided into two. It seemed to be curving around. They walked around and abruptly came face to face with a rambling broken down old bungalow.
"Well!! A bungalow in the middle of nowhere."
"Looks like an abandoned forest guest house. We are lucky we found it." 
"Yah! But is it safe to spend the night here, is the question."
They walked to the front door. It somehow looked even worse up this close. The door was just about hanging on to it's hinges. The windows most of them seemed broken. As Maira pushed the door, it gave a loud creaking sound, moved open a bit and then wouldn't budge. She pushed with all her might but, it still wouldn't move.
"Something must be stuck in the back. Here let me." He pushed harder, and at first it did not move, but then with a loud creak the door moved open half way. It was just enough for them to pass through. They gingerly stepped in, over fallen debris. A part of the roof had caved in. There was a small room in front of them, not a room exactly, for the back of the room had fallen and caved out. The roof in parts was equally bad, most of it broken, a huge gap where the roof should have been. Abhimanyu let out a whistle.
"Look there, on the left, lets explore that." There were two rooms, the first must have been the bedroom, and the second looked like a kitchen. The bedroom was empty, bare but it looked alright, atleast the roof was intact and the walls were standing, even the windows weren't broken.
"Hey! whats taken you sooooo...wow!this is a mess." Prakash stood at the door looking at the mess around them.
"This room is fine, it's habitable."
"It is already getting dark. We will have to stay here, not that we have any choice."
"Prakash have you got the car in?" Prakash shook his head negatively. "Fine! You get the car in Abhi can you collect some wood, we will need fire for the night. I shall search for some fresh water."
"Yes ma'am!" Prakash saluted jovially as he turned to leave.
"And don't forget to get the blankets and food from the car." She called out to him. He waved without turning.
She stepped into the kitchen, looked around. Nothing! Then she stepped out through the service door, into the courtyard. Well overgrown and run down, it still looked better than the indoors. She walked up to the well, that she spotted in the centre, of the courtyard. Ughhh! It was dirty, leaves and whatnot had accumulated, were rotting. She was thirsty and feeling so dirty too. She had really hoped for some drinking water.......