Kanyaka [Sequel to Durga] | ✓

13. The Safe

As the cars started moving, Durga looked out of the window. She saw a very familiar bank near their house. Prajapati National Bank.

Rudra took a left turn and she turned back to look at the bank. Why this sounds so familiar? Have I visited this place? Her heartbeat increased. Why don't I remember? A searing pain surrounded her head. What if I faint again?

Rudra noticed her increased breathing rate. “Durga, are you okay?”

“Durga, if you need answers to the questions you can't find at Durga Nilaya, then remember this bank,” said Akshad, pointing towards the bank.

“What sort of questions, Appa?”

“I will tell when time comes. But if I am not there with you, you need to find answers all by yourself.”

She opened her eyes and took a deep breath. How did Appa know that I might need answers in future?

“Durga! Are you okay?”

“I am fine,” she answered.

“Thank God you answered. I was asking the same question from past five minutes.”

“Rudra, I am fine,” she assured.

*

“Durga, we will make a call to Abhilash. We will tell him to take us to Sahasyabhumi expedition and only then we will hand over the map to him,” Rudra proposed.

“But we still don't know where the map is.”

“That thing is known to us. Abhilash doesn't know that.”

“Are you sure?”

“Kanna, I am sure about this. Think, he wants us only for the map. Once he has map, he won't even look at us. We are experiencing dreams about that era. It is necessary for us to stay there and understand why this is happening.”

“What if breaks his promise after we give him the map?”

“Silly! We are going to get proper legal documents readied.”

She gave a sly smile. “Sometimes, you're smart.”

“Sometimes?”

“Sometimes, ashte,” she replied, moving to the other corner of room. Rudra slowly came near her like a tiger ready to leap. Her breath increased as he was a few inches away from her. As he raised both his hands, her were about to pop.

“No Rudra! Please, don't do this,” she pleaded. He started tickling her and she giggled.

“That's a lesson for telling me I am smart, only sometimes.”

He left the room to make a call.

***

Abhilash gave a defeated smile. He walked across the hotel room. “Raghavendra, these couple, they're too smart. They want me to take them to the resurfaced island. Else they won't give me the map.”

His son switched the channels on the television. “Appa, mobiles and televisions have become smart but you are still the same.”

He snatched the remote and flared his nose. “Come again, come again! You don't have basic etiquettes to talk to your father!”

“You never taught me,” he said.

“The important matter is not what I didn't taught; it is what do we do?”