Story 8 The accident

The shock

Kunal had wanted to throttle his older brother when the NGO ladies first told him that Abir had gone out in the storm. Why couldn't he, for once in his lifetime, stop thinking he was superman and also stop putting everyone else's safety before his own?? Abir had neither let the ladies go back home in the bad weather nor had he wanted to call anyone else in to bring the food it, in the storm. How exactly was it okay for HIM to go, Kunal did not understand. These days there was plenty he did not understand about his brother, he thought as he sped down the road he knew Abir would take if he was going to the town centre.

The winds had intensified although the rain was still intermittent. At least, Bhai had taken the car and not decided that this was a great time for a nature walk or a bicycle ride, Kunal thought wryly. Sometimes he really did not get his brother at all.

His musings were brought to an abrupt stop when he turned into the last stretch of the road from the town centre end and encountered complete devastation. Trees had been uprooted, electric cables lay on the ground- it was utter chaos. The tendrils of fear that had been unfurling steadily in his heart as his 12 calls to Abir went unanswered now exploded into full blown terror. He had not expected this. He had had no idea the road was this bad. Bhai had been driving in THIS????!!! This was an accident waiting to happen.

Kunal's foot eased off the accelerator reflexively as he maneuvered the ruined expanse as best as he could, his eyes flitting between the road immediately ahead and the vicinity, straining to catch sight of Abir's silver car. When he finally did, he wished he hadn't.

The wreck was bad, Kunal could see that much even from the distance. Slamming the brakes on, he flung the door open and ran towards the crash site just as the first flames began to lick at the vehicle. Even as he looked on in horror, the flames quickly enveloped the car entirely in mere seconds, ominously silent before he heard a sudden whooshing sound and then a heart stopping BOOM! The petrol tank had exploded, creating a blazing inferno where moments before there had been a car. Abir's car. Bhai's car...

Kunal fell to his knees on the road, unable to believe what his eyes were telling him. That was his brother's car he was seeing, being devoured by flames along with everything inside it. Along with.....

The shock faded slightly and a blinding grief pierced through Kunal's heart. Tears welled up and ran unchecked down his face.

Bhai! No. No, this can't be happening, this can't be true. I can't lose you, not like this...

An insane, unrealistic hope that he might be able to get Abir out of the flaming wreck suddenly drove Kunal to his feet.

"BHAI!" he screamed out, staggering a few steps towards the fire. "Bhai, please.." the shout ended in a plea for his brother to be miraculously alive, somehow, in some way that even he could not fathom right now. The logical side of his brain kicked in and told him that there was no way his brother could have survived that explosion or the blazing fire that now engulfed the car whole.

Kunal sank down to the road again, numbed, trying to process the truth that his eyes told him- His brother was gone. Forever!

Behind the upturned cart, Mishti had just reached for her phone when the explosion happened. They were still too close to the wreckage and while the cart kept them shielded from the worst of it, the debris that had been thrown out rained down on them both. She instinctively reacted, throwing herself over Abir, covering his body with her own. Superheated lumps of metal fell on her back but luckily she was not seriously hurt. She did not even notice the minor burns that were left. As she straightened, she heard something- a heart rending "BHAI".

It took her a minute to comprehend what she had heard and then recognition flooded in. "KUNAL!" she nearly sobbed in relief. She had NEVER been so glad to hear Kunal's voice.

She leaned in quickly towards Abir, her fingers pressing down on his "Abir, Kunal is here. KUNAL is here, Abir. You are going to be okay. Just... just hang in there, okay. You are going to be okay...".

And then she quickly scrambled to her feet, her hand sliding out of Abir's.

"Mish...ti" the weak whisper went unheard in the roar of the fire. As the warmth of her fingers vanished, Abir had nothing left to stop him from giving in to the waiting darkness.  

To be contd...