Gowrigaatha - A love story [Completed](The story of Gowri)

8. A rainy night

Slightly mature

Gowri had debated in her mind whether to tell Anand about her mission to save the check dam. But then she realized how dangerous it will be for him, since he will be going against his own family. In the end, the only way to save everyone was to take matters into her own hands. As preparation for her mission, she wanted to dress in her jeans and t-shirt for ease, but if she gets caught she did not want her family to think she intended something else, so she stuck with a davani and skirt. After safely getting out of the house without alerting anyone, she reached the car which started with ease even though it was raining heavily. She drove the car near to the dam, but the final leg had to be completed on foot since the road had turned slushy and she was afraid that the car will get stuck. As she reached the dam using torchlight, it was difficult to see anything due to the rain, but she still managed to reach the first bunch of sticks. The wires were cut and the sticks were placed in a bag. Just as she was about to get up, a pair of hands grabbed her waist and pulled her back, towards the torso of the person. An involuntary shriek escaped from her lips and a hand immediately flew to her mouth silencing her.

"What the hell are you doing here?" It was Anand.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked him as he removed his hand.

"Saving the dam and your brother", he replied.

"Same", she said with a huff, angry at being startled.

"You idiot girl, why couldn't you inform me that you are coming. I would have told you to stay home. This is dangerous, look, even with the diversion the waters are flooding the dam. Besides, this is forest, there are dangerous animal and people here",

"But how did you know about this?" she asked.

"I had kept my eyes on Sreekumar since he kidnapped you, I did not want a repeat of the incident. He is taking revenge on all of us with just one move. Come on, lets get this over with", he replied.

They pulled out the second bunch of sticks, but by then the rain had intensified and water was rapidly rising.

"Gowri, I think something happened upstream, the water level is rising very fast. Lets go before it rises further" said Anand as he grabbed hold of the last bunch of sticks.

The dark waters were surrounding them and she could judge the sheer force of it if the water rose beyond the dam.

"But the wire is still stuck to the dam", she said.

"I have cut it at all the places, so there won't be any connections even if the replaced the sticks. But hurry to the side, babe, it seems that a flash flood is on its way", said Anand. He quickly put the last sticks into Gowri's bag and they ran across the dam to get to the side where their vehicles were parked.

"We can't carry this, let us leave it here somewhere. Switch on the lights of the car", said Anand.

Gowri tuned the ignition on and the headlights and Anand used his mundu to wipe all the prints from the sticks and tossed the bag containing them to the side of the road.

"Why did you do that?" she asked him.

"Your brother should know that there was an attempt against the dam. My jeep is parked there, I will start it and you follow me in your car", he said pointing to a distance.

He went and started the jeep and they drove in the rain before the roads also got flooded. But the rain was intense and they could barely see anything on the road. With no other choice, Anand diverted their route to the nearest safe haven, Paarakkal rubber estate. They stopped their vehicles near the lonely farm house which housed the machines for processing rubber sheets.