After I hung up the call there was a long melancholy cry from the train while scuttling through the dark tunnel.
I was sipping my coffee till I turned the cup upside down with last drop lurching over my lips. The old man had climbed down. He was coiled up in the seat in front of my sullen eyes reading the newspaper. Others were still occupied in the deep sleep engrossed in their dreams.
The compartment was stinking with all sorts of unsavory smell so I opened the window to let the pleasant air nullify the smell. It was a clear blue sky with a serene breeze marauding the land. The muffling air was trespassing the window caressing my hair and fluttering the pages of the diary.
I was thinking about the riveting story of this red diary. So, I put my fingers on the page reading ‘The Narrow Shave‘.
It ran as follows.
9 November 2016
On a bright sunny day, we were occupied with gloomy clouds. Abhinav had thrown himself on his cosy bed rolling the joint while I was grinding the weed. He was a brisk roller and always used to leave me awestruck with his fine art. So as usual he had crafted a perfectly shaped joint in no time. He pressed the tip of the joint with his lips and the lights up the other side. Then he drew the smoke in, held it deep and then puffed out the dense cloud slowly. After carrying out this routine service he passed the stuff to me with white trembling fingers of his. In the next moment, we were high as a kite with red bloody eyes and a dizzy head. After the quick nap of an hour, I was all set to jerk off, surfing through the videos on Brazzers when the heavy rattles on the door were heard.
As I opened the door a big beefy guy holding 2 black bags was gazing at me.
“Yes, how can I help you”, I asked.
“Let me in first”, he replied with a nasty smile and barged me in.
He strolled in and put the bags on the table and rested himself on the chair. He was a barrel-chested man with wired hair on his domed head. He was moving his dark brown eyes around the room. His biceps were built like a brick shithouse that was nearly the size of my waist.“How you guys are doing”, he asked with some gravity in his tone.
“Fine”, I replied while gasping at our ominous host.
“I’m Joseph, the right hand of Peter”, he said with a grin.
The name had hit me like a tracer bullet. Peter was the big name in our area. He was a gang leader, a vicious one. The gang was notorious for drug peddling, kidnapping and extortion. It was the vile empire in the city with law and order in its pocket.
“Remember you borrowed some money from us”, the beefy guy said while casting his eagle eye on me.
We had borrowed 50k from the gang to bet on a cricket match but unfortunately, we had lost the sum. Our purple patch had ended too soon and dreams of making easy money had shattered.
“Yeah, but we have already paid the amount”, I said in a muffling tone.
“Yes, you did but before demonetization”, he replied with a cunning smile.
“Precisely”, I gasped.
“So now the boss wants you to replace these old notes with the new currency,” he said and pushed one of the bags towards me with his bulky arms.
“But that’s not pragmatic at all… I mean we will be questioned in banks and might land up in a trouble”, I said.
“Trouble you say…hmm??”, he said and took out his gun and gently placed it on the table.
Suddenly there was an adrenaline rush inside my pale body. My heart was pounding like someone is hammering inside my chest. Just then Abhinav walked in from his room. He was slumbering on his cozy bed but this little quarrel was enough to wake him up.
“What’s the matter”, he asked looking at our grave host.
I told Abhinav the whole story before he turned towards the beefy guy.“It’s not fair man, we have already paid you the sum. You can leave now we will talk to your boss”, the vexed Abhinav said.
“We had managed the money from our friends. So, it’s not possible to replace them now”, I said.
“Look at you guys, you are either dick heads or pretending to be ones. So let me be very clear about this. I’m not giving you guys the options here..okay ? It’s my order! And you know what it means when I say it’s the order”, he scorned at us.
“If this is a threat, then I have number 100 saved in my speed dial”, Abhinav said
The swarthy guy cast a grimace look.
“I didn’t expect this from you guys. Poor kids!!! Listen, you piece of shit the bullet inside the gun of mine can travel faster than the old jeeps of cops, wanna check?, he laughed and pointed his gun towards Abhinav.“Take it, easy man…, we can talk” I jumped in and persuaded the guy to put the gun down.
“So, you sound an intelligent one between the bunch of idiots”, the beefy guy said.
Abhinav was all heated up. He was mad as a hatter and especially in these intense situations he used to lose his cool.
“I’m sorry for his words, we will try to resolve the issue”, I said.
“It’s better if you do that in a week. Till then goodbye and yes fill his shallow head with some knowledge before the bullets of my gun fill it”, he said while casting a deadly look at Abhinav and walked off leaving the bag with old notes on the table.
Nishant is an engineering student who loves to read and write mystery thrillers.
