“Where the hell are they taking me?!”
I thought to myself, as I followed, my four new friends as they took me out of the campus. I need to rephrase that, where is my girl friend and my three new friends taking me? It was kind of hard to decide upon the fact that Kavi was my girl friend, as she was totally a different person around her “friends”. For instance, why wasn’t she looking me in the eye? And why wasn’t she walking with me? But with her friends two paces ahead and I had to follow like an unwanted stray pup?
I was so preoccupied with these thoughts that I lost sight and stumbled, upon something on the ground; it was a solid cement block sticking out of the ground. I bent down to examine it, and realized it had projections on both sides, and the truth hit me in the face. I was being taken in to the ruined cemetery outside our college!!
“What are you looking for Sherlock Holmes?”
Josh’s voice came from ahead of me. I got up and followed without any comment or retort. It was normal for me to never stick up for myself, but why isn’t Kavi sticking up for me? And why not Gaurav or Aruna for that matter? I wondered. And why are they all rallying around a stupid bully like Josh?! And I thought of my grandma’s reaction if she ever came to know I stepped into a cemetery, she would start cutting deals with all gods offering to do this and that, and that would be only after bringing home a priest and exorcising me!! But this was my life, and the person who has unreasonably affected and started influencing it is walking right ahead, and I had to follow my dreams, rather my dream soul mate.
I was too lost in my own private talks that I didn’t realize that all four have stopped a few paces ahead of me. I reached them, and josh turned to me and said,
“Here is the grave of Charles”
in a matter-of-fact voice. I was scared out of my wits, yet, I didn’t want to show it in front of kavi, and it wasn’t like I have never seen a grave or anything. But standing next to a tomb and having a conversation about the person lying within it, definitely didn’t top my top ten favorite things of the day. I ignored the goose bumps travelling up my spine and calmly gave a “so what” kind of a questioning stare.
“We have contacted him through séance but we don’t know much about him, he killed himself due to grief, that’s all he would say. But he won’t tell us why. In order to make peace with him and invite him we need to give him offerings… and that is where you come in”
“So I need to deliver him a pizza or something?”
I thought to myself, and of course I didn’t voice it out. That wasn’t how I worked, I keep the insults and smarting answers within me. I managed to nod in a non committal manner. And Josh continued,
“Remember the bag that Kavi gave you? That contains the required items for you to conduct the ritual to contact, pacify and make him open up towards us. And this”, he held a paper, hand written, in front of my face, “contains the instructions on how to do it, so now it’s your final decision, you have to perform this to get into the group. What is your decision?”
I looked at Kavi, stupidly, hoping that she would laugh any minute now explaining it was all a joke from the beginning. But the few seconds stretching with absolute silence, proved me wrong. Kavi stood with her head bent down. If it was not the wind, it was definitely she who was making that sniffing sound. I thought about dad, mom and the painful past year which had no relevance to the scenario in front of me, yet, as those images flashed across my eyes, I became resolved, and decided what I had to do.
I stepped forward without uttering a word, and took the paper from josh’s hands, and gave a nod. And that solved everything; the group was back to normal. All except Kavi, who still found it hard to look me in the eye. Josh was the one, who had a complete reversal of mood,
“Good, you will have to do it on the coming full moon day man. That would be… Monday, so you have two more days to psych yourself to perform it. And personally… I think you will do it buddy”
And Gaurav came up and put his hands on my shoulder, and offered to drop me home as I had missed the bus. And all my polite refusals which I gave were of no use. We made our way to the bike stand near the college. And all the time, josh walking with a smirk on his face and Aruna animatedly talking to Gaurav. But Kavi still walked with her head bowed low. I had the urge to put my hands around her in a consoling way, asking her what was troubling her mind, and as though she read my mind, she came and held my hands and leaned against my shoulder and started walking along with me, in silence.
“What the heck… I could deliver 100 pizzas to all the dead guys here for this!!”
I thought to myself. And yet, as Kavi got on Aruna’s scooty pep, behind her, and I climbed the bulky apache and started off with Gaurav, in the opposite direction, I couldn’t help thinking,
“Have I landed myself in a whirlpool of unfathomable predicament?!”
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