Intrigue -Lekha2

Chapter 6

The taxi ride was completed in silence as Anil lost in thoughts looked outside while I kept covertly glancing towards him unable to decide on my emotions. I felt lonely at the orphanage but just like me, others were orphans too. But this was a different situation as everyone involved had somewhere to take shelter emotionally or physically, a place they could rightfully call their own. I felt like a tag-along burden to be rescued. We had had an adventure together and I had felt carefree, in fact in some places I would say I dominated the situation with my attitude but right then I felt like a charity case. I didn't want to stay at Mr. Jaswani's house but as we got closer to Anil's place it seemed like a bad idea too. I wished I had a place to call my own too.

As we stopped in front of a duplex house in a nice locality, all my previous thoughts caused me to freeze up. Anil opened the main gate but I stayed put, a strange sort of fear clamming up my heart

"What happened?... come, "said Anil gesturing towards his house.

It seemed as if my body had gone into a state of paralysis and my mind stopped working. He looked at me oddly and then retraced his steps back to where I stood.

"You don't like my home?" he teased.

"Can I go back to the orphanage?" I whispered.

"Vaishali... what happened?" he asked putting his hand on my shoulders shaking me lightly.

I looked up at him but could not see him properly as he looked a bit blurred.

"You are crying? "he questioned with concern, making me realize why things looked blurred.

I quickly put my hands over my eyes and turned my face away. I internally scolded myself for being such a crybaby. I had taught myself never to cry in front of others. Anil thankfully gave me space as I composed myself. I turned back towards him giving him a half-smile trying to act as if none of the above had happened.

"Look Anil ...I am grateful to you for your offer of shelter but I think I have imposed enough on you and I should return to the orphanage. I will handle whatever fate deems fit to dole out to me" I said with a determined shake of my head.

Anil kept silent for a long while, so when I couldn't bear the suspense I looked towards his face and found him staring intently at me.

"What?" I exclaimed in order to break the silence, and also because I felt vulnerable under his gaze as he gave the vibes of a mind reader.

"I was just thinking..." he said, as he turned to look up towards the night sky.

It made me look up too and out of the blue I observed the difference between our polluted sky with very few stars visible as compared to the other timeline's star-filled night.

"They look so dull..." I mumbled.

"That is there..." he mumbled back.

That got us looking back at each other and smiling the smile two people give each other when they share a common secrete.

"Vaishali... "hesitated Anil as if trying to formulate some difficult sentence.

"Look..." he started again. "we are in this mess together ... right... so if you go to the orphanage alone then you will be questioned ... and... I am not saying that you will mess it up... I am not saying that mind you" he raised his hands in surrender making me smile despite the situation.

"The thing is ... that they might construe something and ask you twisty questions ... and whatever you answer might be held over your head when ... I mean ...you have seen how they do in the Hollywood movies when the police read out the rights to the person arrested ... well that might mess up with the case, I mean ... if we are caught in one... so I believe we both should stick together till the thing is not resolved."