There was a loud thud sound echoing throughout the alley we were patrolling. Wrapping up our hearts with all the hopes that no one was hurt, I followed the trail of Prakash who was running ahead towards the noise. And why did this person get involved in every mess? Should I have felt sorry for him? But I did feel sorry and pathetic for not being able to keep him from the danger.
We had this talk the last evening, "Do you think meeting Ashmit is just a coincidence?", I was perplexed. Prakash threw some random shits outta nowhere, and I knew he had always been a curious kid.
"Although I feel sorry for him…", I got reminded of Reema every time I heard his name. It was as if Reema tainted Ashmit forever, and I was gonna feel horrible for that forever.
"I wish he lives in peace…", Prakash some heartful words in a while, "I mean we meet him so often, we can't hide since we live around his place.", he couldn't look at my eyes when he was talking, "And Reema wouldn't come forward to reconcile or do whatever to give him a more peaceful life…"
We felt the same, it was not us pitying Ashmit but we felt too much guilt that could kill us alive on behalf of Reema. Reema, she had lost touch for a while and there was no one who had her contacts. Even her family moved away and did not contact us for months. It was fishy and unsettling, so we went to visit her family.
I did not see the car they owned, I remembered mom's phone call stating that they invited mom to the temple visit when they bought their new car. But no one in that alley parked a car in their house. And it was a mystery how unbelievably life turned tables, never in their wildest dreams would they have thought of going losing wealth and living so silently.
The most flamboyant marriage I had ever seen in my life was Reema's elder brother's. And such a louder family was her's and they lived without contacting anyone at all.
I banged on their door, after finding no calling bell out there. The bang on the door was rippling over the neighbourhood, I doubted anyone lived there. The road was so narrow, the auto-rickshaw almost hit Prakash when it passed by with a loud horn. Then a lady opened the door of the adjacent house and she was so short and might have hit her fifties already. Her face resonated with her annoyance and I already was ready to get a piece of her mind.
"How many has it already been?", she yawned when she was talking, "...are you here to collect your debts?"
"Aunty! We are not…", Prakash replied, "Does Mrs Sheela live here?"
"She does!", she then inquired, "What are you here for?"
"We used to be her neighbours, we heard she lives here… So we just wanted to visit her once…", I was hesitant.
"Ahhhh! She rarely comes home. As you can see…", she went on her toes towards the house and said, "they are not here now. Come some other time."
We thanked her and left, but we felt her eyes on our backs walking towards the end of the alley. We were not disappointed, at least we confirmed that she lived there. Deep puddles narrowed down the path and the crickets were in a rampage making chaotic noise. Walking down the alley in the dark was challenging.
And then, that old man was running from us, it was so uncalled for. Ashmit was hurt, he seemed tattered. We needed to wrap it as soon as possible to go and check on Ashmit.
"Prakash!", I called him and we knew we could use our powers for common good. As usual, the moment our fingers touched, we were in front of the old man, his face…
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!", hysteric laugh made me feel so sick.
"Sita, don't get scared of him.", I barely managed to let Prakash's words sink in but I nodded.
"What is this? Who am I seeing? You insects are still alive?", I did not like that he looked down on us.
"Have a business, gotta weed out… you've got a problem with that?"