The Night Of The Chase

I have learnt many things in my life things that I expect to learn more about when I get older. I have seen so many things that I aint ever going to forget. I have also seen many things that I so much wish to forget. I have done so many things that I am ashamed that I did. And so few at things thing that I am proud of. And weird strange stuff that always seems to happen to me some way or the other. Among those few things is the thing that I had done that summer.

It was a raining bad that night. My friend Prabhu and I were returning from another bad day at the tuitions. The teacher, Manivannan was a real pain in the wrong place. He cannot keep his nose out of other people’s business. Today again he insulted another girl on how thin she is or how a boy’s attention towards a fellow female classmate was bringing his marks down. Why the hell does he care about the diet of that girl or even the romantic aspect of a boy? Was he jealous that the girl was able to stay thin while he had a belly almost ready to burst? Or was he jealous that the person finally had some attention from a good-looking girl while he was stuck with a pig for wife. His wife Laxmi, a pig by all means. A real mean pig at that. She treated all others like shit. He never gave a damn about anyone. Nor did she care about anyone other than herself. She was an uptight prick, proud that her husband had a fat wallet.

We were talking about these all too familiar topic on our way to the bus stop. Tonight as always, we stop on our way at a stall to buy some steam peanuts. That night classes had finished early because Mani had to get home early for dinner. Yeah right! That is what I hate bout these delicate geniuses. They can change the timetable, as they want. They want us to change our time so that we can fit into theirs. And if we ever failed to do that, he would yell as if we had violated the Ten Commandments. All of them. At the same time. We cannot talk to consult them about some help that they can offer because it was their field of expertise, unless we were in the confines of their office. Take doctors and therapist for instance. If you make an appointment, you better be there on time. While they can dump you and go schmoozing with whomever they wanted doing whatever they wanted. Hate them for it.

Oh sorry! Where was I? Oh yeah. We were on our way to the bus stop. We stopped to buy that steam peanuts. We were at the stall when we saw that a girl come out of the restaurant at the corner of the street. She was with two other boys. Clearly, she was drunk. So were the boys that were with her. She was skimpily clothed. She was wearing a black spaghetti top with a Metallica logo printed on it. And she wore tight jean shorts. And high Latin heel shoes. We were gawking at her curves. With mouth wide, open. My eyes were all over her. And my mind was wandering someplace else. By the look on Prabhu’s face, I knew immediately what he was thinking. Well, you cannot possibly blame us. We were adolescents with raging hormones. The trio were crossing the road the boys were doing all the talking. She was laughing loudly. We could hear her high-pitched liquor induced laughter. She was smoking hot and stinking drunk.

The boys were leading her to the back stairs of the residential building on the block. The stall vendor was eyeing us suspiciously. So I motioned Prabhu to walk on. We walked a few steps. None of us spoke a word. Each knew where the other person’s mind was. Then suddenly Prabhu asked the question that I did not have the courage to ask him.

‘Let’s go and see what those guys are up to!’

I tried to maintain a straight face and act innocent.

‘What which guys are up to what?’

He made grinned at me.

‘Oh do not act innocent I saw you staring at that girls behind with such intensity that I am wondering how it did not burst into flames.’

Despite my efforts to act innocent, I burst up in laughter.

‘Alright. I confess I was staring at the girl. I know you were too. And I think we already know what they are up to!’

He gave his usual lopsided smile.

‘Yeah and I need confirmation’

‘I don’t think that is a good idea.’

‘Oh come on. Do not be such a puss. We are still early to catch our return bus. At least it will be better that waiting in that stinking bus depot. Let’s sneak and have a peak.’

‘Ok but if I get in trouble I am going to kill you.’

‘Yeah right!’

We crossed the road and walked forward in the shadows. And made our way to the building where we had seen the trio enter. I silently opened the gate and Prabhu close at my heels. We were at a long lobby. There was an elevator to one side and car park to one side. This great. We made our way down here and we do not know where to go from here.

‘Where do you reckon they went?’ Prabhu whispered in my ears.

‘How do I know you were the guy whose bright idea was this? Why don’t you say where we should go?’

Our answer came in the form of the same high pitch laughter that we had heard earlier on the street. But only this time it was from that car park. I nodded my head to that side and signaled him to lead the way. And that he did. We silently entered the car park. It had quite number of cars there. Most of them had a thick layer of dust on them, which said that it had not been moved from that place for quite some time now. The girl was leaned on a red fiat parked in one of the corners of the parking lot. She was still laughing at some joke made by the tall one of the boys. The shorter one with an earring was standing next to her, openly staring at her legs. And was simultaneously stroking her hair. She did not seem to stop it. She was busy laughing at the tall person’s jokes. Slowly the person with earring placed his hand on the shoulders of the girl, turned her face to her, and kissed her full on the lips. The other person was undressing himself and her at the same time. At that instant, she started to resist and asked her companions to stop. But they did not seem to have heard a word.

The tall person was soon undressed and had successful torn the girl’s top in shreds. The other person was working at her skirt. She was yelling and crying at the same time. Pleading the men to stop and leave her alone. When that did not seem to help, she starts throwing her arms and legs around. The men got hold of her, threw her on to the floor of the car park, and held her arms tightly. The tall person started spreading her legs.

Prabhu was rooted to the spot. He was staring at the violence. He had probably never seen a scene of such violent except in movies. After all Coimbatore was a peaceful city. I had had my experiences. After all, I was from Mumbai. The railway trip always had some yelling and quarrels. But this was way out of proportion to any of them. I did not know what to do but I felt I had to do something.

I threw my bag on the floor and ran to the corner to where the rape was progressing.
The sound of my footsteps and my barbaric yell made the tall man, who was already on top of the woman, turn back. By then I reached him and kicked him on the sides. He fell away from the woman. His accomplice grabbed me by the neck and pushed me to the side of the red fiat. I was choking badly.

‘Prabhu don’t stand there, asshole. Help me’ I managed to yell.

At the mention of his name, he came out of the shock and ran my way. The tall stood up and tried to body snag him. But Prabhu being the stockier one. Pushed him back and he tripped and fell on the man who was choking me. His grip on my neck loosened and I got free of it. I started to kick them blindly. Prabhu went to the woman and helped her to get to her feet. She tried to cover up her exposed body. She went to the fiat and turned the key on the ignition while Prabhu was helping me with the men. The taller one had somehow got to his feet and had started wrestling with me. Blows were going all around us. Some of mine made contact with his nose and his on my temple.

The girl started the engine. She got the car moving. She directed her car to the exit from the parking lot. She drove her car nearer to the exit she leaned out of the car, picked up my bag from the floor, and threw it into the car. And yelled at us to get into the car. We did not need her to tell us again. I managed to push the guy on the floor. The guy on the earring was already on the floor. Prabhu had not taken any mercy on him.

I ran to the car and opened the rear door and got in. Prabhu had got himself into the passenger seat in to front. The girl drove the car out of the car park as fast as she can. I was glancing back at the two men. The guy with the earring was still on the floor, clearly, his leg was broken. The tall guy was leaning on a dusty car; I had successfully broken his nose. It was bleeding profusely. Its then I turned to the front. Prabhu had bruised his right arm. But he did not seem to notice that. He was staring at the woman. His expression was not that of lust as before. It was of pity. I looked her now. My expression changed as his too.

The girl was crying. She barely managed to stay on the road. Her hands were trembling. She looked nothing like the hot girl that I had started earlier at the street. She was a total mess. She was half-naked. She had bruises on her cheek and her lip was bleeding too. She was badly shaken by the incident. I looked over at Prabhu. He too was lost for words. He did not know what to say. I somehow managed to say.

‘Ma’am you are trembling very badly. It would be better if you stop your car now. We are far enough from the parking lot.’

To my surprise, she obeyed like a faithful puppy. She parked the car and burst into tears. She opened the door, went out to the sidewalk, and cried. Prabhu looked at me not knowing what we should do now. I got out of the car and followed her. Prabhu stayed inside. I went over to her. As soon as she recognized me, she embraced me and wept. I let her cry. She cried for some time. I tried to console her by saying that the guys are gone and she was far away from them. She slowly controlled herself. Then Prabhu came out of the car. He had somehow found a shawl in the car. I took it from him and put it over the woman’s shoulders. She took it and covered herself saying thanks. And then she finally talked.

Her name was Priya. Today was her birthday. She and some of her friends got drunk in the party at the restaurant. All of her friends had left except those two men. They were friends of her friends. She was still looking over her shoulders toward the road in the direction from where we had come. Prabhu noticed this and said.

‘Don’t worry. No one is coming here. At least not the tall guy. He is very much naked.’

Then I noticed that Prabhu had taken the tall guys clothes when he got into the car. This got the woman laughing and eased the tension. She thanked us, hugged, and kissed each of us. I felt hot on my cheek where she had kissed. She asked about us and we told who we were. When she got to know that, we had missed our bus back home. She offered to ride us back home. We tried to decline.

‘No no no..... you guys have saved my life. And the very least I can do is to get you home.’

There was no way we can make this girl to agree with us so we accepted her offer. And we were off on our way. I was sitting on the passenger seat. I told about seeing her at the street and the real reason why we followed her. She laughed and said.

‘This is the first time I am thankful that I wear skimpy clothes. Without it you would not have followed me and I would have….’

She did not complete the sentence. I asked where she was from. She welcomed the change of topic. She talked about her work. She worked at Infosys. She had come here from Delhi a month ago. Then she said about her birthday party.

‘This is one birthday I would never forget in my life. I almost got raped by those animals. If it not were for you two, I would have been dead by now. How can I ever thank you?’ She leaned again and kissed my cheeks. And again, my cheeks got hot. I was blushing like a frigging 13 year old. Damn sexy that might have been.

We talked all the way to my house. Then I got off and thanked her for the lift. She got out of the car. She hugged me again and told me that she would never forget what we had done tonight. She then bid goodbye and got into the car to ride Prabhu to his home. She told again that we would meet again sometime. I was very much sure that I would never hear from her again for the rest of my life.

But I was proved wrong. Priya met me again the next day at the bus stop and drove us home. And the next. And the next. It had become a routine for us soon. She stopped coming in a few weeks. She had got herself transferred to Mumbai. And again, I was sure that I would not be hearing from her.

And again, I was wrong. She kept emailing me. She is now married and has a baby girl. And every time I talk to her, the memories of that night come back to me. The night when I became the knight in the shining armor and helped a damsel in distress from two brutes. And left one of them running naked in the streets.

. . .

‘Dude you missed your stop!’

I woke up with a start. I looked around. I was on the last corner seat of the bus. I had been dozing. Prabhu had been trying to rouse me for a while now judging from the way people around me were staring at me. I turned to him and asked him.

‘Where are we?’

‘Saravanampatti! Now you will have to get an auto to get back. There is no bus coming back from there now. I have been trying to wake you up for so long. You were dead man. You were even mumbling in your sleep. What were you dreaming about? The girl we saw outside the restaurant right?’

‘Yea. Kinda....’

That was a dream? I read way too many J.H.Chase books. Shit.

----

Please like my FB page to stay updated on upcoming posts:

https://www.facebook.com/An.Irony.Called.Life