A New Home For A New Friend - Chapter Four - An Abduction
Nisha makes a strange discovery in the parking lot near her house, after which her life turns upside down and she finds herself in the thick of an adventure
Tears began streaming from Nisha’s eyes as it dawned on her that her grandmother had been kidnapped by an evil man named Bob. She sat down heavily on the closest chair and sobbed quietly till she could no more. Then still in a haze, she decided she needed to confide in Sushmita akka and tell her about everything that had happened, despite that being against what she had learnt from television about kidnappers’ expectations of ransom givers.
Nisha sought Sushmita akka out, who by now had found an audience to theatrically describe her own adventures to, and then clutching her by the hand, led her out into the back of the building, which opened into a narrow, half empty parking lot. Tripping over her words, Nisha explained hurriedly all that had happened since they had arrived and handed her the note, waiting to see how she would react on reading it.
To her surprise, Sushmita akka’s only reaction was, in fact, a quick gasp from which she recovered fairly quickly, inhaling deeply a couple times to calm herself down. Then she wrapped Nisha in a tight embrace, assuring her that they would together, do whatever it took to rescue her grandmother from Mr Bob.
It was at that moment that Nisha realised what her grandmother saw in Sushmita akka - her ability to rise to the occasion and to take life as it came, unquestioning of fate. Nisha felt grateful. To her, it was almost as though even in her absence, her grandmother was still caring for her and protecting her.
Walking up and down the length of the hospital’s parking lot, Nisha launched into another explanation of all that had happened the night before and Sushmita akka listened patiently, interrupting only to ask important questions like, for example, if Nisha could remember any of the number plates of the cars that she had seen. Nisha couldn’t, and despite all they knew about her grandmother’s underground operation, it simply wasn’t enough for them to develop an action plan using.
“Well it's obvious what we must do then child,” said Sushmita akka, “I will have to use my knowledge of theatre to figure out from the parking attendants, who Bob is and what it is exactly, that he wants.”
“You go home and rest,” she said, continuing, “you’ve had a long night, I will come by your house when I have found out enough.” then pausing to nudge Nisha towards the road, she said, “ and in the meantime, try not to get yourself into trouble, will you?”
Nodding, Nisha began to walk back home, her head drooping while she brooded over the problem at hand. She wondered if Bob was someone she had met in real life and if, Sushmita akka would, as she had promised, actually be able to find out more about him from the parking attendants.
As her way of helping while also staying out of trouble, Nisha searched her grandmother’s cupboard, her bedside table drawers, her study table unit, other storage units in the living room, to no avail except for a box of rolled beedis and some highly visceral letters that she imagined had been written by her late grandfather to her grandmother when they were much younger. She was almost ready to give up, and had begun to make herself a bowl of porridge in the kitchen, when she spotted an old, leather bound phone book, propped up against some recipe books on a shelf above her head.
Stretching to reach it, she pushed it over the side of the shelf with the tips of her left hands’ fingers and caught it with her right hand, as a small cloud of dust rose into the air. She turned the pages quickly till she reached the letter ‘b’ and then scanned through the names to check for a Bob, which she found, scrawled in a corner under the heading ‘Bob Calcutta’. Her jaw dropped and she grabbed her phone, her hands shaking as she unthinkingly dialled the number and waited with bated breath, her heart beating so fast, it almost felt like it would up and run away at any moment!
Three telephone rings later, a hoarse voice answered the phone saying “hello”. Not knowing what to say or do when she heard the recipient’s voice, Nisha quickly hung up, flinging the phone out of her hand, to the other end of the room. She shuddered, then holding her face in her hands as she backed into the wall behind her, where she slowly knelt to the ground, her back in contact with the wall the whole time.
In the minutes that followed, Nisha went from being crouched on the floor to curled up in a ball on the mattress where her phone had landed. Even as she racked her brain to think and feel afraid, her eyes began to droop and she was fast asleep in no time, exhaustion over taking her other thoughts and instincts.
So deep was Nisha’s sleep that she didn't even stir when Sushmita akka returned some time later, found to her annoyance and yelped at, a fully burnt pan of porridge, smouldering on the stove, that Nisha had forgotten to turn off. As most good aunts would, she kindly cleaned up the mess, before laying down on a couch herself, to catch a few hours of sleep before the next day's adventures began.
Sushmita akka stared at the ceiling in pensive thoughts amidst which, she allowed herself a small smile at the idea of going to Goa, the land of sunlight and gorgeous beaches, where she could lie in a drunken stupor with a glass of delicious cashew Feni beside her.
Read ‘Chapter 5: A Journey & An Arrival’ in Amche Parking Magazine