Читать книгу Another Heaven - Annu Subramanian - Страница 14

- 8 -

From Palace Hotel to The Express, Pennoor

The spacious foyer of Palace Hotel was nearly empty. Tina looked at the marble floor, the crystal chandelier, and the mix of artwork on the walls. How different it was from 19 Temple Street! She saw the friendly smile of the clerk at the front desk and promptly went to him.

“Yes, Madam, we have your room ready for you and,” the clerk turned towards a cluster of chairs where a few guests were lounging, “a gentleman is waiting for you.”

A young man approached Tina with an extended hand and said, “Miss Matthew?”

“Yes. Mr. Stevens?” Tina looked at her contact’s face again. He was not at all what she had expected to see. He was supposed to be an upcoming reporter, possibly in his late-twenties, but he had the appearance of a college student, with a shock of wavy hair and spectacles.

“Yes, I’m Stevens, but please call me Mark. I’m so happy to meet you at last, and I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Thank you. Mark, this is Dr. Neil Shaker. He is the one who has been helping me since yesterday.” Tina awkwardly introduced one gentleman to the other when she barely knew the psychologist and had just met the journalist.

“Shall we have a drink? Hope you had a chance to eat some breakfast.” Mark led the other two towards the large restaurant.

“We’ve eaten. Thank you. I could use a cup of tea, though,” Shaker replied absentmindedly, leading Tina to a comfortable chair.

As the waiter left with their order, Tina looked at Shaker again. A part of her, defiant and assertive, wondered why he was still there. The other ridiculous part, hanging on a tremulous and unknown vein, wished him to stay. Somehow, for a mysterious reason, he held the key to her peace of mind after the previous night. He was, after all, the only sane link during the recent, peculiar turn of events.

“I’m sorry about the confusion at the train station yesterday, Miss Matthew. I’m so glad you’re okay.” Mark tried to break the silence.

“Oh, please call me Tina. What happened at the train station?”

“There was a minor explosion, just a few minutes before your train arrived at the junction. Incidentally, there was a political rally near Tirupur, which is where I was stuck. In fact, I didn’t reach Pennoor until 5:00 this morning. The newspaper says that the blast occurred at one of the depots close to the station, not far from that platform.”

“A major explosion happened there only last month, not right there, but not very far from that station. A repetition so soon?” asked Shaker. “Any party claimed responsibility for it yet?”

Tina remembered the previous bombing incident very well, and the end of all means is the beginning momentarily visited her lingering fear. And she noticed an extraordinary agony touching the reporter’s expression. But it passed as quickly as it appeared.

“I’m not sure who is responsible. No deaths or injuries were reported. I guess it was a scare tactic. Anyway, that announcement must have been unnerving while you were about to get off the train. And I’m sorry you had to find accommodation in a strange place.”

“It was strange, but what is more unnerving is my adventure this morning,” said Tina, somewhat glad to recount the incident with the fugitive. “But I’m glad her family followed her promptly and took her to safety.”

“That can scare anybody. Again, I’m so sorry you had to go through what you did. Well, you’ll never forget this visit,” smiled Mark, refilling her teacup. “Are you ready to visit my office?”

d

Tina did not expect to see such a lush landscape surrounding The Express. The grounds looked like an amusement park, with clusters of graceful palm trees, meticulously cultivated hibiscus bushes, colorful borders of pansies and balsams, and gushing water fountains. She followed Mark into an air-conditioned foyer and noticed that the place was tightly guarded.

“Looks very serious, Tina, doesn’t it?” asked Mark, looking at the armed guards. “We’ve had a series of hate mail and some unpleasant incidents and threats from anonymous groups.”

“Islamic militants? I read about it recently.”

“Yes, mostly. They don’t approve of what we print in the paper, and we occasionally hear from some angry Hindu activists. We’ve got to be careful. Tina, I thought we could go to my room and prepare a bit before we join my team for lunch?” asked Mark, walking towards the elevator.

It was very crowded inside the elevator. Tina moved towards the back wall, or she was made to move by the milling crowd. Was Mark inside? She couldn’t see him. A couple of passengers smiled at her. Had she seen them before? She had seen so many new faces in the last two days. She was glad when the elevator finally reached the fifth floor.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you got pushed to the back,” apologized Mark, right outside the door.

“Thought you were already tired of me,” Tina replied jokingly, trying to conceal her anxiety.

One of the men in the elevator walked towards the window and called Naim Tailoring. In a couple of minutes, a call reached his phone from19 Temple Street. “That woman is in The Express office,” he informed his contact, and carefully listened to the flood of instructions.

After introducing Tina to a couple of his colleagues outside the elevator, Mark asked her to follow him to the end of the corridor and into a messy room. “Since you’re going to be here only for a few days, I’ve made a small workspace for you in my office. Is that enough?” he asked.

“Whatever you’ve arranged is fine,” replied Tina, hesitantly looking at the cramped office. The single four-drawer filing cabinet, bulging like a pregnant woman’s belly, added to the general claustrophobia.

“I’m sorry about the mess,” he smiled, guiltily resting his eyes on the clutter. “What do you want to do first? I’m sure you want to have a meeting with Varma?”

“Sure, I’d love to have a talk with your manager,” Tina replied eagerly. Varma could lead her to a very fruitful assignment in the future. “How long will you be in Pennoor?”

“A few weeks. I’m vacating my office in Hyderabad. I’ve been offered a position in Chennai, and I’m going to move there in a few weeks. So, Tina, what would you like to discuss first?”

“How about the October 15th explosion near Seloor station? I’ve read the news articles on it. I want to know what you think of it.”

“Oh, that!” His face twisted in pain.

“Mark, are you all right?” asked Tina, worried about his alarming expression.

“I lost someone very dear in that explosion.”

“I’m so sorry,” babbled Tina, acutely embarrassed and extremely sorry. “Let’s move on to something else. We don’t have to talk about that incident, Mark.”

He was silent for a few moments, absentmindedly smoothing his wavy hair with his nervous hands. “Yes. We must. As painful as it is to me, I must remember that it’s very painful for many—all those lives lost in the rubble!”

He began to explain the disaster, much similar to what she had heard and read earlier, but his narrative terrified her and took her erratically to the end of all means is the beginning. She wondered about the ‘someone very dear’ lost in that explosion, but she didn’t have the nerve to ask him.

“Tina, would you like to visit the scene of the disaster? I’m going there tomorrow.”

“Thank you. Yes,” Tina replied gratefully, eager to gather what she could by visiting the unfortunate location, deeply conscious of what her father might say at that very moment.

d

The taxi dropped off Tina by the circular drive in front of Palace Hotel just after 5:00 in the afternoon. The beautiful air-conditioned foyer was a balm to her tired eyes. She admiringly looked at the vast bronze bowl filled to the brim with water, a sprinkle of rose petals and jasmine swimming in it.

“I’d like to have a cup of tea. Should I call for room service?” Tina asked the manager standing behind the front desk.

“I’ll be glad to send a tray to your room, Ma’m, with some biscuits,” replied the young man politely, discreetly letting his eyes travel from her brown-black hair to her beautiful hazel eyes which were assuming a tinge of green in the fluorescent light. “Would you like anything else?”

“Nothing else, thank you. I’ll take a copy of the newspaper, if I may?”

While Tina was going through her wardrobe to choose an outfit for the evening, the doorbell rang. Room service was fast. After locking the door, she picked up her robe. Having more than two hours to kill, she decided to soak in the tub and turned on the faucet. Leaving the tea tray on the small table by the tub, she got into the scented water. As she blissfully breathed in the heavenly fragrance, her thoughts flew to the derelict bathroom in the hostel at 19 Temple Street. That address had a ring to it, and it tiptoed into the room and stole her peace of mind. Was it because it was the last thing she noticed as she left the dreadful building? She cursed the explosion by the railway station which somewhat forced her to stay at that strange hostel. When she was still trying to scrub away the end of all means is the beginning, the desolate hostel and the ghostly woman began to gnaw at her peace of mind. Was her visit to India jinxed?

Tina went to the wardrobe and chose a pair of off-white linen pants and a blue cotton kurti with white embroidery. She had become a fan of the comfortable tunics. When she got dressed and began to brush her hair, her cell phone rang.

“Tina, it’s Shaker. Would you like to have dinner with me?”

“Oh,” she hesitated, happy and surprised, “I’d love to, but Mark is picking me up soon. Actually, a couple of members from his team are joining us for dinner.”

“That’s quite all right. I should’ve made plans to meet you for dinner when I dropped you off at the hotel this morning. Tina,” he lingered, “did you get a chance to see the paper today?”

“No. I just picked up a copy of The Express. Why?”

“Look at Section A 5, about a missing young woman who has a mental illness. It’s on the left column.”

Tina read anxiously. “Is she the same woman I saw early this morning?”

“Very likely. It says she was rescued around Seloor.”

“Then she’s all right?” asked Tina, hopefully.

“Looks like it. How long are you planning to be in Pennoor?”

“I was planning to stay here only for a week, while working with Mark, but if I must begin my internship with you…”

“I’m going to work here for another two weeks at the trauma unit. If it doesn’t make any difference to you, why don’t you work here with me instead of returning to Chennai? Once it is time for me to leave, we can go to Chennai together and continue to work on the pending projects.”

“That’s fine. And thanks for calling.”

Tina looked at the clock. It would be 5:30 in the morning in Pittsburgh, and her parents would be asleep. She had to call them later. Yes, much later. She smiled in relief and looked at her reflection again before going to the foyer to wait for Mark.