Friendship Tales ✔

Part Four

Part Four

As Shravana, aka Pradyuman, sat under a banyan tree, cross-legged, and his eyes profoundly closed, Nuru and his folks had released both Daya and Abhijit from the fetters of ropes around their bodies.

"Now that we have released your loyal disciples, please let us know who the culprit is, who is residing amongst us and trying to do more harm to the community than good."

Purvi appeared on the scene, pulling Mayam with her. The little child was nestled closer to Pankaj, who followed them from behind. He was holding his crutch under his arms so firmly as if it would vanish if at all he didn't.

"Here is your culprit, Mr. Nuru." Purvi spoke in a raised voice, gripping Mayam solidly by her wrists. "She is the one who has brought down the curse upon all of you."

"How?" Nuru was dumbstruck. "We all knew that she married someone from the city, but is our foreboding all because of this one reason?"

"Marrying someone from the city is not wrong, but kidnapping and killing is." Abhijit narrowed his eyes at Mayam, stepping ahead. "To avenge the death of her own husband, this woman took Solanki's life and kidnapped Solanki's little nephew, Rohan."

The little child stiffened as Sayani ran towards him and engulfed him in her embrace. "He is my brother Rohan, who has been missing for so many days. How did you all find him?"

Nuru scratched his beard as he turned to Abhijit. "You, as Peshwa, were introduced as her husband by Mayam. Why do you say that her husband has died?"

"It is a very long story, Nuru, but I will cut it short." Abhijit softened his voice as he began to narrate, "Your daughter Mayam was married to Peshwa, who was a drug dealer in Mumbai. I was not a lookalike of him; in fact, the late Peshwa was drastically different from me."

"How did Peshwa die?" Nuru knitted his eyebrows together. "I never met him in person. Mayam did not fetch him to our village even once."

"Samar, the son of Solanki, was a drug addict. We had earlier discovered it from the traces of saliva on his toothbrush. Peshwa used to supply him drugs and extract huge amounts of money from him." Abhijit added with a wiff. "Recently, when Samar could not give him more of the money, they got into a very violent brawl where Samar shot Peshwa."

Pankaj now spoke, "Samar also went to the extent of getting his father Solanki killed by hiring a conman, but Mayam was not aware of this. She thought of spoiling Samar's plan of acquiring his father's properties by poisoning his razor and stealing the papers from the locker herself. Not only this, she also went to the extent of kidnapping their youngest son Rohan so that she could blackmail Samar and his family."

"When we were on the cliff to meet the kidnapper that unfortunate day, I  was the first to notice Mayam with Rohan. When she saw me hurrying towards her to catch her red-handed, she pushed Rohan to the edge of the cliff. Rohan was wounded badly and his left leg was injured severely in the accident, and I had a heated conversation where Mayam disclosed to me every bit of her harsh crimes." Abhijit took a deep breath. "By then, Rohan had tripped off, and I jumped to save him. But before I could, Mayam had already grabbed the child, warned me of killing him if I let others know about her, and immediately disappeared from the place. In an act of exposing her, I slipped down the cliff, and Daya came over to lend me his hand. I was the only one who knew about Mayam's motives, so I chose to release myself from Daya's grip and fake my own death for the noble cause."

"So it was all a drama, Abhijit!" Daya's mouth was widely opened, as if he would catch flies. "I was really under the misconception that I had lost you to the accident."