Forsaken - Chapter 21

Chapter 21
He woke up to the shrill jangling of Nisha’s alarm clock. It was five thirty. He felt like sleeping a little more, but the thought of practice woke him up. As he came into the living room, he saw light in the kitchen. He walked over there to find Susan in the kitchen.

“Ah, Monay, I was thinking about waking you up” she said as she poured him a cup of black, steaming coffee.

“Nisha is still asleep?” he asked her as he took the sip.

“She is a lazy girl. Never gets up before six.” Susan replied.

“But I have to go to the ground before six thirty.” he said with a little anxiety.

“No problem. You go and wake her up” Susan replied as she turned the dosa that she was preparing, upside down.

He went to the room to find Nisha sleeping on her side. One hand was folded under her head, and the other rested on the pillow which was laid to her side. He watched her sleeping. In her sleep, she looked like an angel, he thought. The rising and falling of her chest was rhythmic.
He shook her by the shoulder and called out her name. After a couple of attempts, she protested.

“What is this? Let me sleep, Amma”

“It’s not Amma. It’s me. Look” Ajit said in a low voice.

She opened her eyes, looked at him. Then giving him a smile, she sat upright.

“Isn’t it a bit too early, Aji?” she complained as she yawned.

“No. I had to leave by six ten,” he replied.

Reluctantly she climbed down from the cot and marched into the bathroom.

Ajit ate a couple of dosas on Susan’s insistence. He was not used to having breakfast this early. But Susan said the hotels were not that good and it was not a good idea to eat outside when you had something important lined up.

Susan gave the key of Raju’s bike, the Yamaha RX100. Susan told him to ride carefully and drop Nisha at her tuition class. He agreed and started the bike.

He learned riding bikes in college. Few of his friends had bikes, Yezdis, Bullets and RX100s. Now he was showing off his skills in riding. He opened the throttle to the maximum and the bike started to pick up speed.

“Aji, go slow. I am scared.” Nisha called out from behind.

He took both the hands from the handle. Nisha was terrified.

“Aji, if you don’t stop this nonsense, I’ll scream,” she warned him.

“Hey don’t worry. I know riding very well.” He put the hands back on and once again the bike started to gain speed.

“Aji, monay, Please. Slow down,” she pleaded.

Ajit pretend he did not hear it. The streets were empty except for a few people jogging on the sidewalk. He approached a junction and not knowing where to go, he slowed down for Nisha to guide him.

“Which way, Nisha?” he called out.

“Turn left” she said in a stony voice.

He took the left and after a few more turns Nisha asked him to the stop the bike.

She got down. Her face was clouded.

“Why, what happened?” He enquired.

“You go straight, take the second right and go straight. You can’t miss the college. It is on your left side.” She started to walk away.

“Where are you going?” he questioned.

“I can walk from here to my tuition center,” she replied.

“Come on. I’ll drop you there” He was confused.

“Not required. If I travel with you this way, we may not reach there alive,” she retorted.
So that was the issue.

“Ok. I’ll go slow,” he conceded.

“You carry on. I am not coming with you. You don’t pay any attention to my words” She was still shivering from the experience. She walked off to his left, without saying anything more, leaving a bemused Ajit behind.

He toyed with the idea of going after her and then thought the better of it.

He reached the ground when they already started warming up. Prof. Sathyapalan was there giving instructions to the boys. He joined in and started practicing earnestly. Vinod, his close friend in the team, came up to him.

“How was yesterday?” he asked in a mischievous tone. He knew about Nisha. Ajit has told him during the journey.

“Nothing man. I slept early.” Ajit replied.

“She is a beauty. You are lucky.”

Ajit just smiled.

“Ajit, the seniors are plotting something,” Vinod said in a cautionary voice.

“What?” Ajit was worried. He knew the undercurrents within the team related to the captaincy issue.

“I heard them speaking about losing the match. Don’t play well is what Suresh said to his cronies” Suresh was the captain last year. He was removed from it after a string of defeats against lesser known college teams.

“Damn it! How can they do it in such an important tournament?” Ajit cursed under his breath.
Vinod glanced towards the professor who was throwing balls to a group of boys as fielding practice.

“Do you think it’s a good idea to tell Sir?” he asked Ajit.

“No. Wait. Let’s see. Anyway, I’ll ask Sir about the playing eleven. Then I may tell him.” Ajit said while busy calculating the different manipulations.

The match started at eight thirty. Ajit lost the toss and was put into bat. Despite the information Vinod gave him, the match was going smoothly. They have scored a healthy forty-two runs from ten overs with just two wickets down. Suresh was batting at one end and the new batsman was one of his friends.

That was when all things started going wrong. They pushed at the simplest of deliveries, played right into the hands of the fielders. The ploy was clear. Score at a snail’s pace.

Prof. Sathyapalan was clearly agitated. He waved from the sideline to attract their attention, but they did not even look towards him. They were busy shadow-batting, or removing some pebbles from the pitch.

By the fifteenth over, the score read a paltry forty-seven. Five runs from five overs. Ajit knew he has to do something. He walked over to the professor, who was clearly in a foul mood.

He explained what Vinod told him in the morning. The professor’s face went dark.

“Why did not you tell me this in the morning?” he screamed at him.

“Sir, I thought they won’t do it since this is an important match” He was taken aback.

He mumbled something which was clearly some profanity. Both knew they are helpless in this situation. Unless one of the players got out.

After a few minutes, Professor called up Ajit.

“If any one of them gets out, you are next. Okay? Go, hit as many runs as possible,” he exhorted.

“Yes sir” Ajit was already padded up.

It was not until the seventeenth over, that Suresh’s wicket went down. He scooped a full length delivery to the waiting hands of the cover fielder. But the damage was already done. With fifty-eight runs on the board, it was a lost match.

Ajit went in to bat. He was on the striker’s end since the other guy did not try to run while the ball was up in the air. Three balls left in that over.

The bowler was a tall fellow. As he was watching from the sidelines, Ajit saw that the bowler got a good bounce from the pitch. As the new batsman, he would probably try to bounce me out, Ajit guessed. He took guard on the leg stumps.

Ajit looked around to see the field formation. The offside has four men in catching positions. Keeper was standing back. No short-cover or gully. Good.

As expected, it was a bouncer on the off. Ajit judged the bounce and left it alone. The bowler came up to him in his follow through and sneered at him.

The next ball Ajit scored one run. The non-striker, Suresh’s crony, was reluctant to run. But if he did not run, either he would be run-out or Ajit would. Getting Ajit run-out may achieve the goal they planned, but it will be too obvious that had they played to loose. That could result in their removal from the squad. So he ran for one run.

Ajit was determined not to run single off the last delivery. That would give the other guy strike. He sure was going to waste the next over. So he stood his ground, when the other man pushed the ball into the gap and called for a run.

As the fielders were changing positions, Ajit saw Nisha. She was walking into the pavilion. She sat at the front row and as he watched her, she waved at him. Since it was an important match, the school gave off during the match.

Ajit felt a rush of adrenalin. This is the moment. He has to show her his prowess in this. He looked at her once more, gave a smile and got ready to bat.

The first two balls he drove to the boundary. There was sporadic applause. The next ball he hoisted over the mid-wicket for a huge, towering six. The ball landed in the pavilion.
He saw Professor and Nisha both were standing and cheering. He felt like king.

The next ball he drove the ball to the gap and took off. Only through half-way, he saw his partner turning back.

Damn it! He is going to get me out. He thought frantically. There is no time to run back.
He shouted to the guy.

“Run Gopi, Run.”

A scornful smile spread across his face as he stood there on his crease. Ajit already reached the non-striker end. What happened next was unbelievable. The fielder, who collected the ball, saw Ajit running and threw the ball to the keeper. It missed him by a mile. No back-up was there. The ball rolled to the boundary for a four.

Ajit heaved a sigh of relief. He got one life. It was a clear run-out had the ball struck the stumps, or the keeper collected it. Gopi still stood there, the smile replaced by a frown. Ajit walked up to him.

“What the hell were you doing?” he spat.

“You don’t teach me when to run, okay? I am your senior,” he retorted.

“Hell with you. Sathyapalan Sir already knows about your plans. The one you concocted with your wily friend, Suresh.” Ajit hissed at him.

An expression of alarm crossed Gopi’s face. Then he shrugged it off.

Last ball Ajit scored one run to retain his strike. This time, thinking about the consequences, Gopi complied and ran.

At the end of their innings the total read eighty-four runs.

During the break Prof. Sathyapalan gave Suresh a dressing down. He warned him that if he tried any tricks in the field, he could be sure of sitting on the bench for the remainder of the tournament. Or for any matches that was going to come after it.

Ajit placed his field in an attacking manner. The bowlers responded to it and bowled in a tight line. Ajit opened the bowling and bowled two overs in tandem with Vinod. Once they completed their first spell, it was fourteen runs without a wicket.

Ajit sensed the match slipping away. He was aware about the opposition’s tactic. Play it safe in the first half and blast through the second. He knew that if they loose this match, they would be returning home, the same evening. No more seeing Nisha.

He rotated his bowlers, placed fielders in catching positions but no wickets. After the halfway mark, N.S.S College was sitting pretty with fifty-two runs without a wicket.

Eleventh over. Ajit took the ball. While he was marking the run-up, he thought of the long wait to see Nisha. After this, there may not be another chance for long. I want to win this, he said to himself. It was apparent that the batsmen are not going to play areal shots. He re-arranged the field packing the offside. He placed Vinod in the first-slip. They had a talk during the break of previous over. Ajit had a plan.

Ajit started his run up. As he was closing in to the crease, he saw the batsman moving towards his leg to make room. In the delivery stride, Ajit changed his pace and bowled a slow delivery that swung in. The batsman heaved, missed the line completely, edging the ball in the process. The ball ballooned in the air.

For a second, Ajit’s heart stopped beating. He saw the ball going up. He thought it is being hit for a six. Then he saw it right above him. It was coming down. Somebody screamed “Catch it.”
The ball safely landed in his outstretched open palm. One wicket down.

The team crowded around him, high-fiving each other as they see it on television.

The next batsman was a short guy, and Ajit decided to give him a yorker. He steamed in with all the power he could muster and banged in a full length delivery. His intended yorker turned out to be a full length one. It landed right in front of the batsman.

The batsman tried to drive the ball. It took the outside edge and travelled to the first slip. Vinod gleefully accepted the offering. Two wickets down. There was even bigger celebration this time.
The rest of the over was completed without a single run scored. They were back in the match!
Wickets started to fall and by the eighteenth over they folded up with seventy-two runs. Ajit was elated. Not only had he saved his team, but his stay has been extended by two days. He saw Nisha standing the gallery, clapping. The coach came over and hugged him.

During dinner, Nisha was talkative and explained her mother how Ajit single-handedly won the match for his team. He tried to be humble, saying it was others who took most of the wickets.

“When is the next match, Aji?” Susan asked.

“Day after tomorrow,” he replied.

“I think Raju Achayan will return by tomorrow evening. If it is possible we will come to watch,” she said.

Ajit went to the practice early next morning, and returned home by ten ‘o clock. Susan was ready to go to the shop and explained him where things were. She had prepared break fast and lunch.

Ajit wandered around the house feeling lonely. Then he thought of calling Ammachi.

“Hello, Ammachi,” he said in a cheerful voice.

“Monay, is it you?” she was anxious.

He explained how he won the match and how good Nisha’s mom was towards him. Ammachi asked him to finish the tournament and return as soon as possible. He sensed a tension in her voice.

“Is everything all right Ammachi?” He was concerned.

“It’s okay. Nothing to worry. But come back soon.” Then she hung up.

Ajit put the phone back into its cradle. He was thoughtful. He was sure there was an edge to Ammachi’s voice. Was she ill? Or was there some kind of problem? He was worried. He thought of calling back, but decided against it. If there was something he needed to know, she would have told him. He brushed away the thoughts and turned his mind to Nisha.

During the journey to Trivandrum he told Vinod about Nisha. He was his best friend and confidant. He told him about the night at Johny uncle’s house. He told him about their childhood days. After all Vinod was the more experienced one in this matter. He had many girlfriends.

“So now you are going to stay at her house?” was his first question.

“Yes,” he said sheepishly.

“Have you touched her?” He was sporting a devilish smile.

Ajit’s face reddened. He knew what his friend meant by “touch.”

“Come on. I can’t do that. I can’t think of her that way” he protested.

Vinod let out a delirious laugh, As if he heard the best joke of the year.

“You fool. Are you going to marry her?” he asked.

“Of course I am” Ajit retorted.

“Are you going to do it then?”

Ajit did not respond. He did not like someone say those things about Nisha.

“Ok Kiddo, you have to understand it. If you love her, she is all yours. Be intimate. Touch her, fondle her and if possible…” his voice trailed off in a suggestive manner.

Ajit tried to think of it. He and Nisha. Somehow the thought was disgusting. But at the same time it was arousing. He liked to believe that his love was very pure. Very divine. Somehow sex did not really fit into the scheme of things.

Ajit left the subject at that. Now being alone, he thought about Nisha. He knew his feelings had taken a new dimension after that talk with Vinod. Even when he came to the house and they embraced, he was aroused.

He ate the lunch Susan Aunty prepared. He did not feel like eating since he was not used to eating alone. He tried to watch television, a small black and white set and got bored very soon. Doordarshan-Hindi was the only channel available and they did not have anything interesting.

It was three ‘o clock when the he heard a knock on the door. He opened the door to find Nisha standing there.

“Hey, How come you are back so early?” He was surprised to see her. Usually she would return home before four o’clock.

“I wasn’t feeling well. I have a head ache,” she sounded tired.

“Oh.” He let her in.

She went directly to her parent’s room and lay down on the cot. Ajit followed her.

“Shall I apply some balm on your forehead?” He asked in a concerned voice. He touched her
forehead and it was warm. Then he remembered the talk at the church when she was having her period.

“Hey, you have temperature. I think you have fever, or is it the other thing?” He was sporting an impish grin.

Nisha’s lips parted in a smile as she tried to spank him. He evaded it.

“No. It’s okay. Give the Vicks bottle. It’s in the side table, second drawer”

He took the small bottle from it and scooped some balm on to his finger. Then he gently applied it on her forehead and front neck. Her skin was smooth. He kept massaging her on the forehead.

“Feeling better?” he asked after a few minutes passed in silence.

“Um” she replied without opening her eyes.

“If you are not feeling good, Shall I call Aunty?”

“No. You just sit here with me. Just keep doing the massage,” she said in a soft voice.

She dozed off. The gentle caress of his hands had a soothing effect. She was not feeling too well since morning. She thought of skipping the afternoon session of school, but dragged herself on. By two ‘o clock the pounding was unbearable. So she informed the teacher and came straight to home.

Normally she would have gone to the hardware shop since her mom would be there. But then the thought of Ajit at home drove her there. She was little apprehensive about what her mother would think, but being together since childhood, her parents had never suspected them. In their eyes they were still kids.

She wasn’t sure what she was feeling, but whenever he touched her, she was experiencing a strange feeling. Her heart jumped with joy. Her whole body erupted in a shock wave. She just wanted to experience that feeling. She never thought that he would act indecently.

So when she sensed that somebody was lying besides her, she thought it was her mom. She had no idea how long she had slept, or slept at all. She put her hands around her mom, and snuggled closer. That was when she realized it was not her mom. The softness was not there.

She sprang open her eyes to see Ajit. His face was very close to hers. His breath came in rapid hisses and was hitting her on the face. His hands were under her blouse and were caressing her back.

Nisha recoiled. Her whole body went rigid. Then the reality hit her hard.

She tried to push him away. But he was too strong for her. He kissed her while embraced her in a vice-like grip. She could not fight him.

“Aji, please let go off.” She tried hard to get away from him.

“Nisha, we love each other. Then why?” His touch was very hot. His face was like a pan radiating heat.

“This is wrong. I love you but this is wrong.” She got one of her hands free and tried to push him away.

The fight did not last long. She knew she was succumbing to the lust. He planted an affectionate, long kiss on her lips. She felt her whole body weaken.

“Aji, please don’t do this.” She pleaded in a weak voice.

He wasn’t listening to anything. For him, she was all his. There was nothing wrong in what he is doing. Nisha’s pleas fell on deaf ears. He was blinded by lust.

Outside it started to pour down.