3.
I didn’t go out for a few days. I was alarmed to be seen in the public after last Friday’s news. Maybe all the people walking on the road might have known what had happened but they were always as quiet as they have ever been. My confusions and doubts were supported by the silence of my neighborhood.
Public is always quiet until they are pushed to speak. I know that. But, for me the case was different.
I wish I could go to the café across and chat around with the people there. At any moment, I might encounter someone who could have seen the news and recognize me.
It was a gloomy Wednesday and I was sitting on a wooden chair in front of my closed bow windows. I could see a small portion of my garden followed by a narrow pitched road enclosed by two pale pavement across which was a warming cafe. The cafe was the closest to my house. I guessed if they know about my case. Maybe all my neighbors know it and are just pretending.
“Who cares!” a thought crossed.
I could hear my phone ringing since last Friday. Everyday at least two rings had become a tradition. Today, again, it rang at around 5 pm.
Maybe the person calling on the phone might have something for me, some information, as I had been guessing since the ring that I first encountered. I checked my caller id and dialed the recent one. It seemed that someone has been deliberately trying to be in touch.
At the second ring, a familiar voice picked up the receiver and sounded worried after uttering a few words. I was annoyed by the feeling that I don't remember the face even after several trials. I quit trying to remember his face when it started to kick me from inside my head.
The voice introduced himself as Braxton. I asked Braxton to meet me wherever and whenever possible as he sounded dearly intimate. He wanted to see me. I did not feel comfortable at first but after he forced me to believe that he was my old friend when he described my house in a better way than I could. I felt a little calm in my heart and, then, I agreed.
It was 8, when he gave a ring from outside the main gate. He was holding something in his hand, looked like a wine bottle and an extra box. I opened the door. I finally realized that, I could recognize that face even from a mile which was waiting for me outside the main gate.
He entered, congratulating me as I was alive and expressing his deep condolence to my wife. He described my wife with few fine words as if he was closest to my family. Tranquility I felt in my nerves after seeing a familiar face after so long made me feel careless for a while.
He opened the packet he brought in. It contained some grilled chicken and a bottle of white wine because I didn't like the red wine as my companion reminded me about myself. The conversation went on until I asked about the uncertainty I had with the news I saw. He paused for a while. Whatever followed after his clearing the throat was more appalling than what I had encountered on last Friday news reporting.
He came up with a narration after calming me down. He, hesitatingly, started by saying, I had shot a woman for some unknown reason that only I can recall. Few days after that, I had an accident that killed my wife.
He didn’t want to put a lot of pressure on me, I understood that by his gestures but he wanted to ask me if I intentionally planned the accident. Before he said anything else, I yelled out a few bad words at him for whatever he was thinking and going to say. He calmed me down and told me to take it easy. I told him, “I didn't kill anyone. Someone must be framing me up”. My head ached as if it was bleeding from inside and I told him to leave. It is not that I don't remember anything, a few things might have erased but I could still remember his face and a few things from my past.
He told me to calm down patting on my shoulder. I told him to leave immediately.
Following Friday, 14th December, 2012, I went to the place where my accident occurred. It wasn’t difficult for me to know which place it was because of the advancement of technology. The place where my accident occurred was none-other than the famous Lyell Highway of Tasmania. The residents were well aware of that accident which I knew when I asked one store guy from a convenience store while I was buying a pack of cigarettes.
The tricky part was, I don't belong to Tasmania. I took a flight to Tasmania from Sydney despite my doctor’s recommendation. How on earth my accident occurred here?
I didn’t tell Braxton that I was in Tasmania because my intuition doesn’t let me trust that guy anymore.
I was Googling the exact spot with my new mobile that I bought the day before. I went to the place that Google directed me. There were few deep marks as if someone took a quick turn. I assumed if it were made by my car just before the accident or maybe by some other vehicle. I am being more skeptical than ever, I realized. I walked further a while as I saw there was another turning.
“Let's suppose the first marks were made by my own car”. In the next turn, I again found the same type of deep and identical tire marks. I wondered why I was driving so fast. Also where was I going so fast? The highway was beyond the scope of my eyes so it was difficult where I was heading towards. After a while of walking, not a single house was visible, just a few trees and bushes.
I came up with my first conclusion. Maybe we were going to visit the Mountain and it suddenly rained and I had to drive quickly. But I am not that stupid to drive quickly in rain in those slippery roads. My conclusion failed for the first time.
Or maybe my brake failed when I was driving. That was more promising inference than the first one that led me to take the quick turns. My body started giving up as I wasn’t healed properly to walk for such a long hour but my curiosity persisted. For that moment I quenched my thirst trusting the conclusion I reached. I decided to stay there for a week in a nearby Hotel called Hotel Crossroad Epic.
I hadn’t visited the alley yet where the woman was shot, whether I did or someone else did, I don't know. “After this”, I said to myself.