"I spy you!" - 1

She looked shockingly at the man who sat in front of her. He was looking a shadow of his earlier self. How could anyone look so bad? That too in a span of just ten years?  Whom she thought had left her forever!

She asked him the same question. He smiled with a tinge of naughtiness and replied, “Time has taken its toll”

She had to grudgingly agree. Yes, time played a very crucial role in bringing them together, separating them cruelly and bringing them again under strange circumstances and at a much unknown place.

He was the last person she thought she will see at that place.

The darkness fell all of a sudden and it started raining very heavily. She was driving a car. She had no choice but to stop. She could not open the windows as she had a sick youth in the car. But due to the heavy rains the front glass became very hazy and she could not go any further.

She decided to take shelter somewhere nearby coffee estate and start the next day morning before the break of the dawn. It was imperative that she goes away from that place before anyone traces her path and tracks her.

And she had the sick boy!

She felt that the distance of the hill roads are longer than on flat and straight roads. Each kilometer takes more time to cover.

After what seemed like a long time, the car’s headlight picked up an arch. She peered at the top of the arch. It said Jannat. Oh, a good name for an estate! She thought.

She got down the car and ran to the gates and pushed them open. She was totally wet in those few seconds. She returned to the car, started it, went inside the compound, stopped it and ran back to close the gate when it happened!

The car was not in its place where she had left. It had started rolling downwards since there was a down gradient. She gasped and ran towards the car to stop it. But the down gradient was quite steep. She was contemplating what could be the next step when suddenly a dark figure from nowhere ran towards the car, overtook it and pushed a big log to slow the car speed. The next moment the figure jumped inside the car by opening the driver’s seat. The car which was pushing the log now stopped.

She ran near the car now. The figure came out. She could make out that it was a man. She wanted to thank him. But he was gone!