Free ride

Abhilash stood under the bus shelter,shivering. The power had gone out in the neighborhood. He cursed Shiva under his breath. Son of a gun had flicked his bike in the last minute. "Dude, Sarika just loves Matt Damon, dude. Please understand".

If she was so fond of Matt Damon, why did she pick this kanjoos, he wondered. Anyway, pointless now. He huddled to a corner. He was alone. He'd tried to hitch a rickshaw an hour ago in vain. "Two hundred," the ricky had blunty asked, like it were two rupees. And he had just a fifty in his blasted wallet, and the remaining had been pulled out of his hands by Shiva, courtesy Matt Damon's lover. A second rickshaw was yet to make the grand entry. So then - bus. The paan bidi bloke a hundred meters away had signalled '10' with his hands (his mouth was full of what he sold for a living. Pan). Now Abhilash wondered whether he meant 10 minutes or hours. He didn't have the patience to walk back to confirm.

Well. He huddled some more and looked around. Nothing much to look except it was some godforsaken area. The only proof of civilization was a huge apartment complex coming up at a distance, with a few small shop-like establishments thrown in as garnish. The complex showed itself large once a while when the lightning struck. Looking at the surrounding, he wondered what lightning was going to strike the occupants, or what had already struck them in case they'd booked flats there. He was thankful for the bus shelter.

The lightning flashed again, bathing the building in white. He would've almost turned away, had he not seen something. It looked like someone had jumped from atop.

Shit. Must've been seven or eight floors up. He kept looking at the building blankly for a minute.

Then, someone sobbed behind him.


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