365 DAYS 365 TALES

A Black Out - Part 2 of 3

 "What happened?" Nataraj asked as he saw the young man sitting in the back of the jeep who was looking listless. Completely and totally listless.

Karan was not listening to the constable. He was incapable of it. His mind was repeatedly playing that thud that he had heard in the hotel room.

Her beautiful black almond eyes...Her sparkling smile....Her beautifully well shaped eyebrows which always looked curious...Her beautiful dimpled cheek. Karan took a shuddering deep breath and realized that none of it was coming back.

That thud which he had heard. That was the end of it.

"You have to tell me son," Nataraj said in a serious tone as he was driving the jeep sitting in the front.

Inspector Varun and other three policemen were looking around the hotel. Nataraj was given the job of escorting the accused to the police station.

"You need to let us help you," Nataraj tried again. "You are in a very deep mess," Nataraj said quietly. "And you are not saying anything...." Nataraj's voice trailed away because he realized that the young man before him was really not listening to anything.

"How could he think I would hurt her?" Those were the first whispering words which Nataraj heard from the man inside the jeep. The anguish in the young man's face was horrible, almost making it look like the man was being burnt. "I wanted to marry her. I wanted to spend my whole life with her," Karan said chocking on the words unable to go on.

And that was when Nataraj realized why the man was silent. The young man was unable to accept the fact that a life was snuffed away, never to come back...A life which the young man had found precious.

"Did she call you here?" Nataraj asked willing that the man paid attention to him. The way Karan was speaking was actually scaring Nataraj.

Karan looked blankly at Nataraj and Nataraj for a few seconds wondered whether he had slipped into his own language, instead of the local one. And Nataraj was unnerved by the look in Karan's eyes.

Karan suddenly looked broken and shook his head miserably. "I do not remember," Karan whispered cutting back a sob. "I don't remember anything – of why I was in the hotel or how she was..." Karan stopped talking.

Nataraj stopped the jeep as Karan was fumbling and with great difficulty pulled out his cell phone from his front pant pocket, with trembling hands.

Nataraj came to the back of the jeep. Nataraj's training had taught him to take the cell phone away from the man. But Nataraj's heart was telling him that he was watching a broken man before him. A man who was struggling to make sense of something which was happening to him.

"She didn't call me," Karan said his voice shaking. "She did not send me any message." Karan looked at Nataraj shaking his head. "It does not make sense that we would have met in that hotel by chance." Karan looked at the man pathetically. "Please just take me to my newspaper office. Probably, she came to see me there. Probably someone would remember her. Please!" Karan was begging Nataraj.

Nataraj studied Karan for a long second. He pulled out the key from his pocket. "I am trusting you, son. Don't make me regret it." Nataraj said studying the tired brown eyes of the man before him.

"Thank you," Karan said as Nataraj gave the man a weak smile, wondering whether he really was going to regret it. Inspector's brother or not, Karan was younger and stronger than Nataraj on any given day. If the man really gave him a slip, Nataraj knew that there was very little he could do to stop the man from escaping.