Chapter 6

Khushi felt restless as she sat waiting at Sagar restaurant at Udupi city. She thought about how Arnav had consoled her after she had shared her innermost thoughts with him. It was three days since he had left for Bangalore, and she realized, much to her consternation, that she missed him.

"Hi Khushi," the familiar voice brought her out of her reverie.

Khushi looked up at Rishabh's seemingly expressionless face but she could see the latent anger in his eyes as he sat in the seat opposite hers. He summoned the waiter and ordered two cups of coffee without even asking her if she wanted one. He reveled in being the one in control.

"When did you get back from the US?" she asked politely, "did you have a good trip?"

"Do you even care?" He asked her, "I wouldn’t have known you were here if Rakesh hadn’t told me. You didn’t pick up my calls. You didn’t attend Rahul's wedding nor have you called Dee."

He probably had a right to be angry, Khushi thought, since she had not told him or Deepana about her move to Udupi, letting them assume that she had moved to Chennai instead. Two days ago, she had received a message from Rishabh, on her FB messenger, telling her he knew she was in Udupi. She had agreed to meet him in Udupi city after he had relentlessly messaged her.

"I will make a trip to Bangalore soon." She said in a low voice.

"I don’t know what has gotten into you --" he stopped when the waiter brought their coffees.

"I told you I needed some time by myself." She said quickly.

"Yes, when you told me that I thought you would be going to Chennai to spend some time with your mother ---" he paused, "—not come to this Godforsaken place to do – God knows what."

"I wanted to get away from Bangalore," she said. She had no intention of explaining herself to him. "I found a job here that's all." she said.

"Do you expect me to believe that?" His tone was laced with sarcasm.

Khushi decided to be direct. "It's up to you if you want to believe me or not."

"You have changed!" He leaned back with a look of disbelief on his face.

"What do you expect after what you told me the other day?" Khushi asked, "it came as a shock to me you know."

"I told you thinking you will move on – not that you will move here" he goaded her, "what do you think you are going to do? I know you talked to Ramya."

"Wasn’t I supposed to talk to her?" she demanded, "Meeting Ramya was just the same as I met Deepana and you. I wanted to know about Payal."

"What did she say?" he asked her warily.

She gathered courage. "Did you report to the police what you saw at the farewell party?"

Rishabh looked a little taken aback at the sudden question. "What?" he asked her as though he hadn’t heard her.

"Ramya told me that you discussed in the group that you should report that you saw Arnav Singh Raizada arguing with my sister but then she didn’t know if an actual report was filed."

He looked at her his eyes turning dark. "Of course, I did!"

For some reason his reply didn’t seem convincing. "So, after you reported it, the police still ruled it as accidental drowning," she stated, "why do you still think that he was responsible?"

She could see his temper was rising. "I don’t understand why you are asking these questions now."

"Please answer me."

"It's because I don't believe the police did their investigation properly," he told her, "he must have used his father's influence to hush up the case."

Khushi had a feeling that he was being evasive. "How do you know?" she demanded.

"Khushi, I am sorry I told you all that. I should have just let it be," He told her. "you have to let this go and come back to Bangalore – come back to me."

"No Rishabh, I am glad you told me," Khushi said, "I can’t come back to Bangalore now."

"I gave you a job when you really needed it!" He looked askance. "I even gave you that loan."

She had needed the money to pay off her dad's hospital bills that he had incurred days before his death. After running from pillar to post trying to arrange for a loan, she had asked Rishabh.

"You told me the loan was from office," Khushi said, "I am paying the EMI for that! I still have time."

"I am sorry Khushi – I didn’t mean that." He looked contrite.

Then he changed his tactic. "How can you do this to me?" he asked her in a low voice, "I was at such a bad place when I met you. You took me out of that. You can't put me back there."

"Rishabh – " Khushi felt weary. "whatever I did was out of friendship and nothing more."

"No Khushi it wasn’t just friendship – I know, " he insisted, "When I proposed -- you told me it was too soon – in hindsight I think I was hasty."

"I am sorry Rishabh," she apologized sincerely, "the reason I met you today was to let you know that I am no longer unsure. I cannot accept your proposal. Let's just be friends."

"Now, it is you who is being hasty," He stood up. "You do whatever it is you want to do. I won't bother you. I will wait for you as long as it takes."

He walked away from her leaving her completely nonplussed.

The next morning, Arnav stepped into the kitchen watching Khushi as she stood staring listlessly out of the window. She appeared to be lost in thought. She wore a white sleeveless cotton top on denim capris.

"Penny for your thoughts Ms. Khushi," Arnav spoke in her ear.

Khushi turned around her eyes wide with surprise. "Arnav -- when did you get back?"

"I got in late last night," he said, "I remembered to take the keys with me this time."

Arnav wore a gray graphic t-shirt on navy track pants. It looked like he had visited a salon as his hair and beard had been trimmed a little. He looked a little tired.

"You should have slept in."

He couldn’t miss seeing her looking like a breath of fresh air. "I didn’t want to miss breakfast," he said, "What are you doing?"

"I was just trying to break this coconut – for chutney," she showed him the hard substance in her hand.

"What happened to Ratna?" he enquired.

"She hasn’t come in yet," she said, "it's alright --I am making dosa today. I don’t really need her – except I don’t know how to break this. Ratna always did this for me."

"Give that to me," he took the coconut from her. He walked to the back yard, to the grinding stone and broke the coconut on it, into two perfect halves. "It's done." He handed them to her.

Khushi made coffee for Arnav and then began to scrape the coconut.

"Arnav --- what is going to happen to the college?" she asked him.

"When I looked through the accounts that day I found some discrepancies," he said, sipping on his coffee, "Mr. Rao has a lot of answering to do."

"Can you ask him first about what happened," she said tentatively, "He doesn’t seem to be that sort of person."

"You know something." He guessed.

"His daughter is in my English class," Khushi said, "I think her mother is very ill – she is on dialysis for her kidneys."

"Hell!" Arnav swore.

Khushi looked at him. "Could you talk to your dad and explain –"

Arnav looked at her, his face a hard mask. "What do you think is going to happen if I tell my dad?" he retorted, "he will fire him in an instant. Do you think he is where he is today because of his compassion?"

Khushi's face fell.

Arnav walked up to her and took the scraper from her. He took a knife and chipped off pieces of the coconut from its shell. As she watched, he went on to prepare the chutney himself after collecting all the necessary ingredients and adding them to the blender. After grinding the mixture for a few minutes, he transferred it to a bowl and seasoned it with mustard.

"A world class chutney for you." He turned toward her with a smirk.

No one could be miffed with a man who looked like that.

A little later, Arnav came back into the kitchen, after giving his aunt her breakfast. Just then little Kushal came running into the kitchen. "Khushi akka, my mother will be late. She had gone to the well to see Manjula. She had been caught by a bhoota!"

"What?" Khushi wasn’t sure she had heard it right as bhoota meant ghost!

"F@#$!" Arnav swore under his breath as he rushed outside.

"What's going on?" Khushi asked him as she followed him.

"Idiots!" he slipped into his flip flops, "I will have to go and get that kid out because none of these people will enter the well." He walked toward his Enfield.

"Wait -- I want to come with you!" Khushi exclaimed.

"Hurry up then!" he urged her.

As Khushi climbed onto the bike, Arnav said, "The roads we are going to use are quite bad. So, be prepared for a bumpy ride."

In a few minutes Khushi realized that the route they were taking was not a road in any sense, was more of a muddy path formed by frequent treading of passersby, something like the shortcut she took to go to college. The now familiar landscape of the lush greenery against the bright blue sky, was breathtaking as usual and the early morning air, unpolluted and fresh.

When they reached their destination, Khushi saw at least twenty people, some standing, some sitting, disaster written on their faces, amid which, there was one woman was profusely crying with her hand on her head.

Arnav approached the group, and as they moved to give way to him, Khushi saw a brick enclosure. When she joined Arnav, who was looking in to it, she realized that it was a gigantic well in which the water level was at least at fifty feet depth. There were steps that could take a single person to the water. A young girl who looked about sixteen waist-deep in the water was holding on to the steps.

Arnav looked at Khushi, "I am going down into the well to get the girl out."

"Why didn’t any of these men get her?" Khushi asked completely baffled by their behavior.

Arnav looked at her gravely. "They think that the well is haunted," he told her to her greatest disbelief. "They don’t use water from this well – I don’t know why this girl came here."

Then he took off is t-shirt and handed it to her. She already knew from the way his clothes fit his body that he was extremely fit, but now as she looked at him, she realized that was an understatement. The broad muscular shoulders, corded arms, chest covered by matt of hair and his ridged abdomen made him look nothing less than -- magnificent.

Arnav climbed down slowly and was finally at the bottom of the well.

"What happened?" he asked the frightened girl.

The girl explained that she had come here on a dare by her friends. "The ghost won't let me go!" she wailed, "she has caught my leg. I think you shouldn’t have come here Anna."

"Are you sure it is a female ghost?" he quipped before diving into the water.

Just as he had suspected, her ankle was entangled in underwater weeds. As he tried to disentangle her foot from them, he realized that the vines had clasped her foot in an ironclad grip. They had probably tightened around her ankle more and more due to her desperate attempts to escape.

To Khushi immense relief, Arnav emerged from the water safe and sound. He looked up at her.

"Can you throw me a knife or something sharp?" he shouted, "ask around if anyone has it."

Soon Khushi was given a sickle that one of the farmers had with him. She looked down to see Arnav asking to throw it to him. She knew that wouldn’t work, quite sure that she was likely to throw it deeper into the well. She decided to go down with it.

"Khushi don’t you dare get down here!" Arnav yelled at her.

"Don’t worry!" she replied, "I can manage."

Gingerly she made her way down and handed the sickle to seething Arnav. "Why don’t you listen to me?" he asked her.

She gave him a mischievous smile. "What happened?" she enquired, "what do you need the knife for?"

He explained the problem and said, "Now, you go back."

Unable to convince him to let her stay she began her ascent and when she had climbed just a couple of steps she slipped on a loose stone and fell backward into the water, the sudden fall forcing her to gulp some water. But Arnav pulled her out of the water before she could go any deeper and soon she found herself wrapped up in his arms.

"F@#$!" he swore, "why don’t you listen to me? Now instead of one I have two damsels in distress!"

She coughed due to the intake of water. "I am okay!" she exclaimed as she clutched at his shoulder. Then she smiled, "May be there really is a ghost here or there was no way I could have slipped on my own like that."

She was breathing hard. There was water dripping her from her hair, her face, her neck and water had completely soaked into thin cotton top that stuck her like second skin. This was not the time for him to think of things that flashed in his mind with a young girl staring at them wide eyed.

He placed her on the step, "Stay right here until I get back." He said gruffly.

He picked up the sickle and dove into the water. He hooked his fingers in the weeds and sliced through them meticulously, carefully making sure not to nick her skin in the process. Soon the girl was free. When he emerged out of the water Khushi was already helping the young girl stand on her feet.

"I will go ahead with the girl" he told her. "After you slipped I don’t want to take the risk of all of us going together." He paused. "I will drop her there and come back for you with my t-shirt."

"Why?" she asked him.

He bent his making her heart skip a beat. "They may be villagers but they are still men," he murmured only for her ear, "I don’t want them to gape at your lacy bra."

Khushi looked at herself to see he was right. The outline of her bra was completely visible through her thin top. Her face going a deep shade of red, she covered herself with her arms.

Soon they were on their way back home, Khushi realized she needed a distraction from Arnav muscled back inches away from her face.

"Why do these people in this sort of superstition?" she leaned forward and asked him, "It's ridiculous, don’t you think?"

He turned sideways and spoke. "Well, some people believe in God and some in ghosts."

"How can you joke about this?"

"You saw what happened right? I told them the girl was caught in weeds," he said, "but they said that the weeds were just the medium for the spirit. They will also argue that it was why you fell."

"But –"

"Khushi, this is sort of the culture around here," he told her, "who are we to come here from outside and tell them otherwise? Around March every year, there is a ritual called Bhoota Kola – to appease spirits. The village people believe that these spirits protect their village from calamity and not doing the ritual will mean incurring their wrath."

"Is that why Ratna told me not to look back if I heard my name being called from behind me?"

"Yes, why do you think I came looking for you the other night?"

Khushi clutched his shoulder unconsciously. "You didn’t tell me it was because of a spirit."

Arnav began to laugh. "If I knew this would scare you I would have told you that a long time back."

"I am not afraid of ghosts!" Khushi exclaimed, "Laugh all you like."

She had been so immersed in the conversation, and in a bid to hear him clearly, she had plastered herself to his bareback clutching his shoulder tight. Anyone who might have seen them might think they were a couple Khushi thought.

Once they reached home, Khushi quickly got off the bike and rushed away. "I have to get ready for college."

"I will give you a ride!" he called out after her.

That evening Khushi finished her chores in the kitchen, and walked up the stairs to rest and freshen up before dinner. Arnav hadn’t returned from his site yet. The stairway was dark as the bulb was out, and as the switch to the living room was at the far end she walked across to switch it on, surprised that the light still didn’t come on. Then she heard her name being whispered from behind her. Khushi.

She froze. Her hands shook and when she felt a breath at her neck she turned around and came face to face with a cloaked figure. Khushi rent a piercing scream and was about to break into a run when the cloaked figure caught her and in the tussle that followed, Khushi ended up falling, and landed on the figure. When she was about to scream again a hand clasped her mouth.

"Khushi – it's me. Arnav." Arnav had switched on the torch of his mobile phone.

Mrs. Rai had heard the commotion. "What happened Khushi?" she called out from downstairs.

"It's alright Ma," Arnav replied, "Khushi slipped and fell." He looked down at her angry face, mirth written all over him.

"Oh, my God! Is she alright?" she asked with concern.

"Luckily, something that broke her fall," he told her, "I will check to see if that object is alright."

"That's good." She said as she hopped back into her room with her walker.

Khushi shook off Arnav palm. "Are you frigging crazy?" she asked him, her face contorted in anger.

"It was a joke Khushi!" he exclaimed, laughing uncontrollably, "You said you weren’t afraid of ghosts."

She caught his collar in her hands but her anger vanished when she saw how the laughter had transformed his face. She stared at him in fascination. "You have no idea what I am going to do to you."

"I would like to know," he whispered, his face suddenly serious as he returned her stare.

As they continued to look at each other for long moments, Khushi licked her dry lips in an unconscious gesture and his eyes moved down. Khushi's heart began to beat like a runaway train and even though she knew she should move away from him, she felt like she was entrapped, hypnotized by his simmering eyes. His arm around her waist tightened a tad more making her aware she was pressed against him, their legs entangled with each other. Suddenly, their faces were just inches apart from each other. Had he moved closer, or had she? Just then the shrill ring of the phone filled the room.

Khushi raised herself quickly and stood up while Arnav answered his call.

"It's Rashmi," he told Khushi, "I am supposed to meet her."

 "It's almost dinner time."

"I am sorry I didn’t tell you earlier," he looked sheepish, "I will be having dinner with Rashmi."

Khushi shrugged nonchalantly. "That's alright, you don’t owe me any explanation." She walked to the door of her room. "Arnav –" she said looking back, and then she shook her head, "never mind."

He looked at her, "I won't go to the bar later – I will be back home."

Khushi felt an odd emotion tug at her. "I didn’t ask you --" She said defensively.

"I wanted to tell you anyway." He walked away toward his room.

A little later, Khushi tossed on the bed unable to sleep. What had happened in the living room earlier? Had he been about to kiss her or had she imagined it? It had to be the latter, because he had just casually walked away from her for a dinner date with Rashmi right after.

She walked to the window and looked at the darkness beyond.

He must have used his father's influence to hush up the case….

Rishabh words nagged at the back of her mind, but her heart was saying something else.

It was just a month since he had come into her life but she couldn’t deny any longer that she was extremely attracted to Arnav, something she hadn’t felt for anyone else before. But she knew that she couldn't let this attraction grow any more than it had, that she would have to nip it in the bud. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she thought of her dream about Payal. Was this attraction real or was it something that had risen out of a craving for the forbidden fruit?