The Tamil Nadu Express slowly chugged itself away, leaving behind Platform Number 3 of the Chennai Central Railway Station. Many people - some happily while some despondently - waved their hands to their near and dear ones travelling in the train. However, at the far end of the train, in the penultimate coach, sat two men facing each other, oblivious to what was happening outside. The AC first class ticket that they possessed would allow them to travel the train’s full distance – up to New Delhi.
As the train neared Basin Bridge, a few kilometres away from the source, a curly headed man with bespectacled eyes joined them at their seats. But for the black coat and name badge that man wore along with the list of names he carried, one could easily have mistaken him for a fellow passenger. The Train Ticket Examiner, after scanning through the railway tickets brought by the men at the ticket counter in Chennai Central Station, gave a nod of approval. The only passengers in the AC first class coach for the journey had valid tickets, he had verified.
Time was ticking. Only after a few minutes after the bespectacled man had left, did a conversation between the two lonely passengers get initiated. The taller of the two, who went by the codename K2, spoke first in a hushed tone, as if someone in the empty coach might overhear, “So, what stupid task you have done! If I had wanted, I could have reported you to the police as well. This is not the right way to deal with things. I mean, running away like this is not the solution. You have gotten me into the loop as well. Along with you, I also would be branded a fugitive, if not already, that too for no fault of mine.”
The shorter man now interjected both his arms up in the air sideways, “What wrong have I done?”
K2 continued, “As if you don’t know K1, you should not have put her to sleep and left her there. Now, it’s just a matter of time before all hell shall break loose.”
“What do you mean?” K1 eyed questioningly, beginning to sweat in the cool atmosphere around him. Has he come to know about it? If yes, how come?
The taller man nodded and took out the evidence that would well for sure incriminate K1. He inserted the pen drive in the laptop and opened the file. It was enough for K1. He quickly pulled out the pen drive and put it in his pocket.
K2 spoke, “I wanted to prove to you who I am. What you are thinking about me is wrong.
This was the first time in the past year since you had known me could I arrange a meeting between you and her. And what did you end up doing? Put her to sleep!”
His words were now echoing in K1’s ears. He felt strange. He felt weak. What had gone wrong? What does K2 want to prove to me? I had known him for the past one year. He was perhaps the best friend I could ever have had. I am so close to him, and perhaps we share everything with one another. Or perhaps not? For otherwise why would he speak so? Something was wrong, horribly wrong yet I know not what actually is wrong. Why he speaks of the police, tells me that I am a ‘fugitive’ and more so, if he knew everything, then why is he helping me run away. Eventually I have to get caught one day, but what was the point in him risking his life as well. This cannot continue. I have to put a full stop to this saga.
The sudden and distant honking of the train disturbed his reverie. But K1 felt the train moving at full throttle. He consulted his watch. It had been more than an hour since the journey began. The full moon outside the window shined brightly getting company from the innumerable stars that twinkled in the cloudless night sky. Trees were covering both sides of the train.
“Perhaps, we are moving through a forested area”, whispered K1. “I better stand outside the compartment to get some fresh air. I always feel comfortable with the night air hitting my face.”
“Why don’t you think we better sleep for some time and perhaps think our next plan fresh tomorrow morning. It’s nearly midnight now.” whispered back K2. “After all it has been a day to forget, and maybe once we really wake up, we can even get a feeling that this was all a dream.”
K1 snorted. ‘Tomorrow?’ He whispered. ‘You must remember K2 that tomorrow never comes.’
K1 spoke for one last time, ‘Dream? You might be thinking it was a dream. I know what a dream and a reality is. I know what to do now.’
Without another word, K1 got up from the seat, opened the cabin door, went out and stood near the vestibule. He unlocked the door of the coach to get some fresh air and leaned out into the air, out of the train moving at full throttle. Just as K2 joined behind him, he wanted to warn K1 being precariously balanced at the edge of the door. But before words could come out of his mouth; before his thought was converted into action, it had happened.
K1 jumped.
The howling wind silenced the momentary agonizing scream he would have let out, although K2 quickly got his act together and leaned out of the door. In the pitch dark night of the forested area, K2 could only feel the loneliness the corpse would experience and the feeling he experienced – horror, agony, shock.
Just then the bespectacled man joined him at the vestibule, standing right behind him. As K2 welcomed the Train Ticket Examiner to give him company as the only other witness to the suicide, he already knew that this lonely night is far from over.
Also he had realized the next moment.
The pen drive is not with me.