On the day Tejas was to be discharged from the asylum, Trish wanted to give him a proper goodbye, along with some words of encouragement. But she wanted to do it away from the prying eyes of her peers.
However, on that day, she was assigned to guard the ground floor of the asylum on the same day. She requested their chief to exchange her area of duty with Jagjeet.
"You must state your reason," the chief said in a gruffy voice. When she replied, "For very personal reasons, sir," obviously her request was denied. She wished she had lied because she couldn't take a leave either. There were only a few sick leaves for her to begin with.
She kept thinking of other ways as she jogged past the doors and windows of the place she was supposed to be in, to the bottom of the ramp, where it met the ground floor and continued to do so. When she saw Tejas and aunty Dheera descend down the ramp, she stopped, quickly thinking of the words she wanted to tell. Suddenly her device rang, "Meet me in my office."
Among a myriad of numbers that changed quickly and nauseatingly on the digital boards behind, sat her sister. She moved her eyes from one board to another. When she saw Krish, she instructed the computer next to her, "Sort all files from 1004 according to name and date ," and swiveled away from the screen. Keeping her hand on something that looked like a speaker, she murmured, "Come closer, I have a very important task for you."
This room had always made Trish uneasy. She let out quick sighs and breathed heavily as if that would give her the courage to stay there longer. Krish covered her mouth and whispered, "I have reserved one seat for you right beside Tejas. I can't tell you where he is supposed to go, maybe later ." She touched Trish's palm, slipping something there, "This is the ticket. You have to get down in the next station. But make sure," she whispered in an even lower voice, " that you give him your contact id."
Of course Trish was puzzled with questions. She was deciding what to ask first, as she moved her eyes around the stuffy room. "Don't waste time, be quick!" saying that she put a mask in Trish's breast pocket.
Trish sprinted out of the room and the building, through the campus and to the station. Her training and the daily exercise the guards had to do in their dorms were all helping her to move swiftly. Within five minutes she had reached the entrance of the tunnel, which lead to the station, she debated on whether she should meet him there or in the train. Seeing both Tejas and Dheera aunty at a distance, she decided on meeting him directly inside the train since Krish was so secretive about this mission. She didn't want Krish's boss to know anything. Not until Krish wanted to tell her on her own.
She stood under the number 'B11' and continued to look at Tejas from a distance.
Just like the day Tejas had declared he remembered nothing, he gravitated to the many monitors where the passengers booked their seats and gasped at wherever his eyes fell on. On the other hand Dheera aunty walked so fast without even noticing at him. She did slow down for him eventually and her mouth moved as if she was telling something to him. Something not very reassuring as Tejas looked more scared and rather anxious.
Before they walked up to the queue where she was standing, she put on her mask hitting herself on the head for being so careless. She looked at Tejas, imagining how he would've acted had he been his older self. He would definitely not be making any eye contact with anyone, let alone a stranger. He would be deep in some thought about things she didn't understand, and occasionally cause small accidents.
She almost gave a loud laugh when he bumped into the invisible door. "In some ways he hasn't changed," she said to herself suppressing her laughter. But when she saw how desperately he hugged aunty Dheera, how he looked like he would almost breakdown, she immediately felt very guilty. Even when he was standing in the queue, he wasn't gaping at the way the train had arrived, or any other thing that he had considered 'cool' earlier. He was trying to calm his shaking hands by shoving them behind, making it clearly visible for Trish.
Even when they sat in their seats, he looked at nothing but the seat infront. Trish looked out the window however and found aunty Dheera looking around very suspiciously. "Maybe it's too soon now," she thought resting her hand on the mask. She stole quick glances at Tejas through the corner of the eyes. He was sitting like a plastic doll, who was crammed awkwardly into a chair.
As soon as the train was in motion, he looked back at the station. She looked outside with him as well. Aunty Dheera was not there anymore. She thought that it was her chance to say what she had to but when she saw him easing into his chair and returning back to being surprised by the world, he had been a part of, she said to herself, "I still have 20 more mins."
When he finally looked to his side and recognized her, she thought she needed to explain. "--I'm not following you, I promise." She was so caught off guards that she blurted out, "Give me your dial."
Since he was fumbling with the device, she grabbed his wrist and inspected the model of the device. The model was slightly older than the ones people used. Then she checked on the mode of the device. As she had expected, it was in assistant mode.
Before giving instructions to Mr. Ghosh, the device voice assistant, she looked around, for a precautionary check. Then she proceeded with the steps to add her contact id, whispering commands loudly.
When she was done she informed Tejas about the update and added, "Do not hesitate to ask for help."
She rejoiced secretly at finally being able to say some words of comfort. But when he asked her, "By any chance, where you my girlfriend?", she instantly regretted saying anything. So much so that she didn't look for the time to cleverly explain the story.
It wasn't the first time she had heard those words. In the past, they had spend so much time together, that people had always made speculations and come to conclusions of their own. It was true she liked his company, she liked to listen to his conversations and feel proud of the way his mind worked, even though she understood so little. But she knew that it was never romantic. Tejas in the past always defended how their relationship was different, sometimes referring to each other as long lost siblings. But to hear the same words from him, made it unbearable.
Tejas too didn't hide that he was upset by her harsh manners. Trish said to herself, " It is not his fault. He doesn't know better."
She tried to apologize to him even though he gave her the silent treatment. When at last he declared in his anger that he didn't even know her name, she came to so many realizations at once.
Tejas was no longer the boy he used to be. He had lost a huge chunk of so many things of his life. To him, she was just one of the many guards who were supposed to take care of him. He was still figuring out who everyone else was.
Although it upset her to think of all the loss, she smiled, exchanged a few words and decided to get down at the next station. After all that was the destination of the mini mission that her sister had entrusted her with.