It was an idyllic summer evening. This was the first time I was staying in B’lore. All of a sudden, the heavens opened up and it began to rain cats and dogs. “Walking like a man, heading like a hammer, she’s a juvenile scam, never was a quitter, kissing like a rainbow….”, rang the mobile. ‘She’s got the look’ by Roxette is one of my favorite. I connected the call and it was my girl. She was stuck in the midst of this heavy downpour and she asked me to fetch her.
Taking the keys, I made it to the car and unlocked it. Inserting the key, I turned on the ignition and the engine roared to life. It’s an hour drive from my house, to the place where I should pick her up. I need to traverse a highway, not to mention the woods which would nevertheless take about half an hour of my journey. Having a penchant for my car, I have a leather upholstery with a leather finished dashboard and a sun-roof and a good music system.
“Cheri cheri lady, living in devotion …” I sang along with Modern Talking’s crooning in my car’s stereo. I was already in the woods when my reflexes urged me to pull the hand brake on seeing some obstacle in the nearest distance. The car came to a screeching halt and I pulled over the road. I looked out of the window, only to find a boy and a girl, completely drenched in the downpour. I couldn’t deny them a hitch and so the boy made it to the front and the girl to the rear. I was always afraid of hitchhikers particularly after reading “The Hitchhiker”. It’s a good story, in which the protagonist suffers his agony after hitching a guy, who's the villain. Now, it’s a different story altogether.
Another half hour of my journey was still left. I switched off the stereo and I tried to pick a conversation with them. Both of them were completely soaked and were dripping wet. I turned to the guy and asked him where he was going. Then I introduced myself to him. I turned back and tried to talk to the girl. The guy interrupted stating that the girl wasn’t well and so I cut the talk. However I looked at the girl in the rear view mirror and she’s terribly shaken. I can see it from her eyes.
The guy however must have noticed it, kept me busy with the conversation. He pulled out a cigar and offered me one. I don’t smoke and so I softly rejected. He then asked me for a lighter and I removed the automatic lighter from the dashboard and lighted his cigar. He puffed and I coughed. He must have noticed my obnoxiousness and he put out the cigar and threw it.
He told me that the girl was his wife and she’s inflicted with some injury, a sharp blow, it’s supposed to be. As it was raining heavily, commutation wasn’t possible and so he hitched the ride. He asked me to drop them in a nearby hospital, which is a few kilometers ahead, which comes, of course before my destination. I was asking about how she was inflicted, but he kept mum all the time.
On reaching the hospital, I pulled over and the girl got down from my car and thanked me. I looked beside me and found no one. I got down from the car and helped the girl to make it, into the hospital. I turned around for the guy, but he wasn’t there. I inquired the girl about the boy. I froze when she said that she alone hitched the ride. A chill ran down my spine. I completed the formalities and got the girl admitted into the hospital.
Suddenly a thought flashed across my mind and I ran to the car. I opened the front door and found that the leather seat was still wet, as if some one has just left the car a few minutes back. I could even see the ashes on the floor mats. My head drooled over for a few seconds, and thinking that its time for me to leave, for my girl should be waiting, I quickly pulled the car onto the road.
And when I reached the place, where I am supposed to wait, I couldn’t find my girl. I immediately called her, and what she said further astounded me. She was with her friend and that she hasn’t called me in the evening, and more over her number wasn’t working. I reversed the car and went back to the hospital to find answers to the intriguing questions.
I asked the girl about herself and how she was injured. The girl revealed some facts which were horrifying. She along with her husband was pillion riding a bike, the day before, when a lorry coming in the opposite direction, knocked them down, and mowed her husband. There were no vehicles in that route and so she had to wait till I picked her up and got her admitted to the next hospital. I immediately made way to the accident place and verified the facts. They were indeed intriguingly true. I even found the dead body of the husband, and in fact he was the very man who sat beside me in the car!!!
There are three remarkable facts in the above horror tragedy. The first one is that I received a call from a known number which wasn’t supposedly in use. The second one is that even if the husband called me, why should he hitch the ride and accompany his wife to the hospital. And finally the third one. I have never been to B’lore.
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