The flowing Cindy in a wooden box along the river did not reach General Udani's hand as Lejjari and his men expected. Before moving down to Udani's territory, the river current diverted the wooden box to a canal. That was the canal, where Father Paththiri's money-filled coffins were thrown.
That night, the wooden box enclosed Cindy, calmly moved down along the rhythmic swinging of the current. After a few hours of silent journey, by early morning she woke up from the sedation. She was amazed seeing the scene that she was flowing in a wooden box down the canal. She smelled the rose buds and flowers offered by her grooms and found many wedding rings scattered over her gown.
"Oh my God…! Where I am going to?" Did I flow the entire night like this, in a box through the canal?" She screamed in a fearful voice. She got up and sat for a few moments by looking around the shores of each side. She could not see any house or anybody in that quite empty village. She tried to remember what happened to her last night. Some pictures flashed in her memory.
"Yes, I remember everything now, the dance and music. Like a Royal banquet, I ate and drank with them. The melody of the classical symphony played there still I can remember. I danced with them. They showered their love on me. The last person who danced with me was the commander. He kissed me and said 'Darling goodbye forever.' I thought they were going to kill me. But they did not point their gun towards me. They still love me. Of course, they can't kill their bride."
Remembering the horrible incidents of last night, she moved down.
By early morning that journey stopped at a tiny dam. The shutter of the dam was closed. So her journey ended there.
"Where am I now? What should I do?" She said and tried to bring her boat, the wooden box, to the shore. While she was moving, she saw an amazing thing. Many floating coffins in a corner of the dam..!
"Oh my God…! What is this? Is it a water grave? Coffins are floating everywhere. They might be empty. But how did this many coffins come here." She paddled her wooden box by hand towards a coffin. It was partially opened. She tried to open it by pulling the top. While trying, a few dollar notes peeped out from the coffin. She put her hand inside and examined. "Oh my God, money, it filled with money!" she screamed.
"What fun is this? Enclosing dollars in a coffin, who tried to bury this much money?" she said herself and pulled out her hand from the coffin. "So these are mafia coffins made to keep black money."
She counted the coffins.
"40 coffins are there, filled with millions of dollars. This money might be belonging to a mafia group or somebody engaging in criminal activities." She said herself.
She came to the shore with her wooden box boat and removed her wedding gown. As she was a good swimmer, she didn't fear the water. First, she picked up the coffins floating near to the shore. Then she dived into the water to bring the coffins floating in the middle of the dam. That was a possible task for her. Doing the strenuous effort, she managed to take out all of the 40 coffins from the canal within a short time. She arranged them gently beside the canal road.
After that mission, she pulled out a few thousand dollars from the partially opened coffin.
"This is enough to buy a covered storage truck." She counted the money and said. "But I can't leave that treasury alone her and go somewhere to find a transportation vehicle. I need somebody's help. Just wait her."
As she waits there, a cycling boy appears on the road. She stopped him and asked.
"My dear, I want to get a truck to transport these coffins. Where I can find a truck? I will buy or hire?"
"You have to go to the nearest city, which is 20 miles away from here." He said.
"Can you do a favor for me? Just go to the city and find out a seller of used cars. I will give you a hundred bucks." She said and stretched a hundred dollar note towards him.
"Really? That is a fair thing." He smiled at her and asked. "But why are you accompanying these coffins in a wedding dress?"
"Oh, this is not fun. Our custom is like this. During the wedding, the bride will give coffins to her groom's family. My groom has forty family members. So I have to offer forty coffins. That is why I am transporting these coffins. Right?"
"It is a very strange and funny custom..!" He laughed.
"So do you know anyone in the city who sells used vehicles?"
"My father has a showroom of used vehicles."
"Really? That is fantastic. So, please ask him to come here with a good medium storage truck and the relevant sales papers. I will buy it from here."
She gave a hundred-dollar note to the boy. Happily, he rushed back to the city with his cycle.
Within a short time, a jeep and a truck came to the spot. A fat man got out of the jeep. He wished the bride. "Hi, I am Sam the father of the boy whom you sent to the city. As you advised my boy, I have brought a covered vehicle. This is a cold storage truck. For the time being, I don't have anything other than this."
"Yeah, it is pretty good. Let me pay you." She said
"So are you going for your marriage? Wish you all the best. My son told me about your strange custom." Seller seriously said and watched the coffins.
"Yes sir, we have some quite strange customs." She smiled and continued. "I need to go to the church soon. This truck is OK for me. How much? Let us finish the formalities quickly. Where is the sales document? Please help me to load the coffins into the truck. How much?"
"I will offer it for a special price as you are going to get married now. So, as a wedding gift, just pay fifteen thousand. That's all." He smiled.
She gave him two currency bundles. Quickly he counted it and said. "It is more than I said, five thousand more."
"Keep it. That is for you." When she said it, the seller and his driver started loading the coffins onto the truck. While they lifted the last coffin, it was the partially opened coffin, its top opened. The dollar bundles, filled inside, fell down and scattered on the road.
The seller and his driver looked at each other. They got stuck and could not react for a few moments. They just looked at the money lying on the road. Cindy doesn't show any feelings on her face. She simply said them.
"Please put it back in the coffin. This is the wedding money, which the bride should be paid to her groom, another custom." She tried to smile.
"You shut up. We have been tracing the black money of the corrupted foreign minister Aprilman who looted billions from this country's wealth. I believe you are one of the agents transporting secretly his money to the Swiss bank. So these are the coffins filled with corrupted money. We will check it." Very angrily fat man, the seller of the used vehicle, said as a warning.
"You are mistaken. This money is my family property. The other coffins are empty. If you want to check, you are welcome. Check it now." She said without showing any emotion.
"Come on, let us check every coffin. This is the money of this country." The fat man called his assistant. "She is an agent of black business. We need to enclose her in this container and hand her over to the police." The fat man expressed his anger without any mercy.
He and his assistant entered the container and started checking the coffins. While they trying to open one coffin, Cindy suddenly closed the doors of the container and locked it. They made noise from inside by hitting on the wall.
She collected the money which was scattered on the road to her lengthy wedding gown and kicked out the coffin from the road. She heard the noise of a coming vehicle from the back. Quickly she got into the truck and started the engine. The trapped persons were struggling inside by hitting on the wall and shouting. She pumped the accelerator. The truck moved ahead. While running, she turned on the refrigerator of the container. Icy fume flowed into the container.
She drove the vehicle through an empty road. She could hear the bawling of the trapped victims inside the container along with the snarling of the vehicle.
"I can't leave this much money for two men. So sleep peacefully there, sleep forever." She said.