Chapter 2

Vihaan, with exhausted short breaths continued running through the woods of the dense forest until he reached the railway station. The windpipe inside his throat was already choking because he hadn't eaten anything since morning. It was late afternoon and he had been pacing under the sun for long. The summer month of June and the scorching heat of the sun had exhausted him to much extent.

Half panting and half inhaling, he set his foot inside the platform. Rotating his eyes around the platform, he saw some food stalls. He felt the urge to eat something before boarding the train but then he knew he was already late. He quickly ran his hands through his pockets only to face an another disaster that day. He had misplaced his mobile and wallet during the encounter with the attackers. He heaved a sigh of relief upon realizing that his gun was yet safe with him in his underpocket.

"I don't know what more holds in my luck today! The day has really been bad and the worse is yet to come. I can't even buy any food for myself," Vihaan thought to himself and used the public tap for washing his face. He quenched his thirst with the water flowing through it and started waiting impatiently for the train to Ujjain.

He winced all of a sudden when the shirt he was wearing was pulled by a little boy of hardly twelve years of age. The boy was wearing ragged clothes and his skin looked very pale. He had a scar across his cheekbone and he stared up at Vihaan with the expression of hopes on his face. "My name is Chetan. Please buy a flower from me, brother. I need money for my mother's treatment."

The words of the little boy touched Vihaan's heart. Even though he was a tough and not-to-melt kind of a cop but he too possessed a heart, a heart as vast as the sky and as deep as the ocean. He did not like showing the softer side of his heart to anyone despite possessing a humble heart of gold. Strong persons like him were always bound to fall in intense love if ever he did!

Vihaan remembered the illness of his mother and tears filled the brim of his eyes. Trying to be strong, he inhaled deeply to forcefully let the water dry within the eyes instead of flowing outwards. He then spoke lowering his voice, "I'm sorry Chetan. I understand your pain because my mother is also very ill. I could have bought all the flowers from you but I've lost my wallet. I could not even buy any food for myself since morning. I really don't have a single penny to pay you."

Chetan thrust a fresh sunflower in between Vihaan's palms and said, "I'm sorry brother. I also do not have enough money to buy you food. Sometimes, I remain empty stomach throughout the days. I have to arrange so much of money for my mother, I can't waste it buying food for myself. She is suffering from cancer."

Chetan picked up his basket of flowers to shift to a different passenger to sell his flowers but he turned to Vihaan again. "It is alright brother. You can pay me later when you have money. You will always find me at the station daily. It's sad that your mother is also ill. You can keep this flower as a blessing for your mother. I pluck these flowers from a temple of the goddess Durga nearby."

Vihaan was hesitating at first but for the sake of welfare of his own mother, he accepted the flower as the blessings of the goddess, the goddess whose name was similar to his mother. And in the next moment, he unfixed his platinum bracelet and tossed it into Chetan's basket. "Use this in exchange for money to treat your mother but don't hesitate to buy yourself food. I've realized the consequences of staying empty stomach and refusing to eat the food cooked by my own mother!"

Chetan nodded vigorously and took out the bracelet to return it to Vihaan. "No brother, I can't accept this. I want to treat my mother with my own hard earned money. I can't take any favour."

Vihaan held his palm. "You are calling me a brother and can't accept this little help from me? You will always get ample of time to earn money in an honest way but your mother's treatment is urgent. If you really don't want to accept my help, you may always return me with some help in the future. You can find me at the Indore CBI bureau any time."

Chetan sighed before promising him. "You are a police! I will definitely help you if ever you need my help, brother. Thank you for your help to me. You can keep this basket full of flowers. You have given me more than enough today."

Vihaan smiled, most probably for the first time in so many bad months of his life. "Do you think I've given you the bracelet to take the whole of the basket? One flower is enough for me. I want you to buy proper food for yourself and for your mother after selling these flowers today."

The little boy jumped with joy and screamed energetically on the top of his voice, "Please give me ten minutes. I'll just sell some flowers to other passengers and buy you also some food."

Vihaan nodded his head with a beautiful smile plastered on his face as he saw the little boy running away in excitement to an another passenger for his next bidding. Vihaan was both satisfied and successful in bringing a smile to a needy little boy's innocent face.

*

|| The Next Train To Ujjain Will Arrive In Some Time. Please Get Ready With Your Luggage. Have A Safe Journey! ||

The announcement was made and Vihaan was all ready on his limbs to board the train. He knew he was about to travel by the train without the ticket and it was completely unethical. But doing something wrong for the welfare of the nation was acceptable to him.

As he waited with bated breaths for the train's arrival, he saw Chetan trying to convince an another middle aged man to buy flowers from him. The man was grumpy and restless, inattentive to Chetan's words and Vihaan became the silent listener to their conversation.

"Uncle, please buy at least one flower for me."

"Don't you see I'm hurrying to board the train. I don't have time for all these. Please go away," the man said sternly and picked his luggage.

"Uncle, there is still some time. The train will stop for an extra three minutes at the previous junction before arriving here," Chetan said anticipatorily.

"Why does the train need to stop every now and then? How much I hate these stuttering things!" The man began to lose patience while Vihaan sighed upon realizing that there were more persons in the world possesing similar thoughts to him.

"Uncle, why do you hate stuttering things? These stuttering things are like the clock in the poetry I had read in my evening school's classes, the 'Hickory Dickory Dock'. All the three hands of a clock stutter for a fraction of a second or for a minute or for an hour before they march forward. But don't they show us the right time always? Hence, we are never scared of the hands of the clock but we are always scared of time. It is the bad times in our lives which we are scared of. All the stuttering things are never bad!"

The man stared at the little boy in amazement when Chetan continued, "Uncle, if you don't want to buy flowers from me, it is alright but please don't mock stuttering things. I don't like it. Have a safe journey." 

Chetan picked his basket to move to an another customer when the man beckoned him to stop. "How much does the full basket cost you? I'll buy all of it."

Chetan bulged his eyes and uttered the price of his sale. The man handed over the money to him. "Little boy, you are much mature in comparison to your age. Your way of explaining things is very impressive," the man said taking the basket from him.

The train to Ujjain approached in time and the man started picking all his gathered luggage.

"No uncle, my mother taught me so. Thank you for buying my flowers," Chetan completed his sentence and helped the man in boarding the train along with his luggage.

Vihaan, on the other hand whispered, "Hickory Dickory Dock! Some nice pieces of giving a clean chit to the stuttering things."

When Vihaan also proceeded to board the train, he heard Chetan's voice yelling behind him, "Wait brother, I've already sold my basket. I'll get you some food."

Vihaan yelled back at him as the train started rattling on it's track, "Some other day, Chetan. I don't have much time today."

Chetan dropped his jaw in disappointment but then he had realized the dilemma of emergency duties for the nation's cops. As the train picked speed and took it's exit from the platform, Chetan waved at Vihaan with a half smiling face and wished him luck for his upcoming endeavor.

***** 

Back at the mysterious mansion, Sanchi's distressed eyes gleamed with joy when she entered through the door and found herself in the room that was illuminated by the streaks of light. "A neatly clean-ed room in the mid-dle of so many dirty ones!"

Taking few steps ahead of her, she came abreast a huge teak cupboard that was left open. What surprised her more were the contents of it. The tall and old cupboard was loaded with so many cartons of false passports. The varieties of names with different strange identities and faces of persons were systematically mentioned in them.

Sanchi was intently analyzing the contents when certain whispering voices disturbed her concentration. She hid herself behind the cracked door and peeped silently. Her eyes fell on the shadows of two seated figures near the verandah, diagonally opposite to where she stood.

She muttered under her breath, "I was wonder-ing how the gate of the man-sion remained open when I enter-ed. They are al-ready here for the evening's mee-ting. Before they catch me or get these cartons out of here, I must do some-thing."

Sanchi locked the door behind her and texted Virendra for his next set of instructions. As according to his consent and optimum reply in the next minute, she unwrapped the matchstick box which was lying safely in her bag. Without even waiting for a second again, she set all the contents of the cartons ablaze leaving no room for recovery. Risking her life, she had undertaken the most suitable step and was waiting for the fire to put out by themselves after revealing the ashes of the false passports.

"This is it, I've comp-leted my task success-fully and it's time to sneak out of the mansion secret-ly before I'm caught." Sanchi chuckled for she was feeling proud of herself. She had tackled an another mission successfully.

Her happiness was short lived when she heard loud noises roaring outside the mansion and widened her eyes in fear. Her nervousness was draining her facial skin as she jittered in her position. As she took short and clumsy strides towards the locked door, she knew she was nearing her end and captivity very soon.

Her right palm rested on her perturbed chest as her raising heartbeats was shattering her confidence bit by bit.

"I'm stro-ng."

"I'm confi-dent."

"I can't get caught after reach-ing so near to my vic-tory."

She inhaled a deep breath once more before pulling the door open before her.

Lo and behold!

The corridor in front of her lay empty, even the two shadowed figures weren't seated at the verandah. A loud sigh escaped her mouth as she stepped out of the dark room inaudibly into a darker corridor.

With every forward step she took, the noises grew deeper and denser. The noises weren't ready to fade away with the passage of time and she couldn't afford to wait for it to subside. 

Sanchi paced awkwardly to reach the window of the very verandah where the persons were previously seated. Looking through the opening of the window, it gave her the view of the outer space round the mansion. The very source of the erupting noises was clearly evident to her dark brown eyes. The muscles of her eyeballs changed it's shape with a bang and a loud explosion.

A gunshot!

Before the situation could be handled or restored by her, the unavoidable circumstances had inevitably taken place. Vihaan Singh Bundela was lying on the floor in a pool of blood before her and she stood gaping at him in helplessness!

Words refused to escape her mouth as tears of horror and pain had already managed to expel from her eyes. She unexpectedly whimpered under her breath, "V-i-h-a-a-n!"

To be continued...

***Please vote, comment and share***