THE UNEXPECTED
JOE and Lisa walked through the woods, making their way through the knee high shrubs. It was evening, almost sunset. The sunlight made its way through the thick canopy. And once again in two days Joe didn’t have a clue where they were going. He was just following Lisa’s lead. She had promised him to show her special place in the wilderness.
“Are we there yet?” Asked Joe, who is not exactly used to hanging out in the wilderness.
“Will ‘be. Patience, Joe, patience”
“Why do you like to keep me in the dark so much? I thought we agreed that it would be for the benefit of both of us, if we didn’t keep any secrets from each other”
“Yeah we did and that’s why I am taking you to this special place of mine.”
“Why do you call this your special place?” Asked Joe making double inverted commas in the air as he said special place.
“Because this is the only place that brought me some happiness, some peace or relief after….. My parents went away”
Lisa still couldn’t talk about her parents without watery eyes. Joe felt bad for making that question he was in fact trying to take her mind away from her parents for some time, to make her happy. But it just backfired.
“We’re here Joe.”
Joe found himself in a relatively treeless area covered with short grass and tiny yellow flowers. It was at the edge of a mountain so high that if you fall from there can be no hope even finding your body. There was a fallen tree trunk which was covered with moss all over except for a small area where it looked like the moss was scrapped off.
“I come and sit on this tree trunk when I feel sad. This place gives me some relief. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“It sure is. This place, that shortcut. How do find these places? “
“I like to go on long walks through uncharted places without the knowledge of where I will end up”
“Don’t you fear getting lost?”
“I never got lost. I have a good sense of direction. Come sit.” Said Lisa scrapping off some more moss that covered the tree and sat on it. Joe sat beside her.
“Great view. Reminds me of a movie I saw recently”
“Hmm, it’s been a while since I have seen a movie”
“I can understand Lisa. But, you know what? Life is like a chess board and we are the pawns on it. Like the black and white columns on the chess board, there is a mixture of joy and sorrow. We may lose important people, but all what we can do is move forward and hope to reach our destiny”
“Wow, when did you become a philosopher?”
“I don’t know”
That night, Joe had another dream about Lisa. It was night. They were walking by the road hand in hand. The road was practically empty. Lisa seemed happy. Suddenly her parents called out her name from across the road.
“Lisa, sweety come to us”
She couldn’t resist their call. She broke off his hold and rushed across the road to her parents. Suddenly, out of the blue, there came a truck with a persistent horn and it sent her flying across the street Joe cried out, “Lisa”.
He opened his eyes to realize it was only a dream .He tried to convince himself that he had that dream because he thought of her and her parents before he went to bed. There was heavy rain outside It was then he heard a faint roaring of bike engines.
Though not an expert on bikes he could recognize the sound of one anywhere, anytime. He jumped off the bed and rushed to the large white window and peeked through the hole in the curtain. It was indeed bikes. Two of them. He couldn’t make out the face of the riders. But he could understand they were not friends. He switched on the Lights in the room to let them know someone’s awake. When the lights came on, the bikers turned off and went back in a hurry as if they didn’t want to be seen. But it wasn’t a panic run. It seemed they were not afraid of being spotted, but they didn’t want a confrontation.
Joe walked to Lisa’s room after using the bathroom. He knocked on the door. There was no answer. It was when he raised his hand to knock for a third time that door opened. Lisa came out rubbing her eyes.
“What is it Joe?” Asked Lisa with half opened eyes.
“Get fresh. Something important came up. We need to talk”
“Okay, Just a minute” Lisa seemed to understand that it was serious.
When she came out in less than a minute, she seemed ready to hear what he had to say. She put up her hair which was all over her face.
“Okay, tell me”
Lisa listened calmly and carefully as he filled her in what had seen, but only to remain speechless when he had finished. It was clear she had not heard or seen anything that day or before that.
“From your silence, I gather that you were of any such activity in the nights before”
She still didn’t say anything but only nodded.
“They were not here for a direct confrontation. They were just watching us. Why?”
Lisa finally opened her mouth, “Do you remember what I said about someone searching this place? What if they didn’t get what they wanted?”
It was Joe who completed her sentence, “And when I came here, they probably thought you found something. But that would mean they always had eyes on you”
“Good Lord! What were Papa and mama into? May be these are the people that she wrote about in her diary”. Joe had thought she would freak out. On the contrary, she saw it appeared as if she saw it as an opportunity to pursue her parents’ killer. Hiding the amazement, Joe suggested.
“Only one way to find out. We find what they are looking for before them. “
“And how are we going to do that?” Lisa was serious like never before.
“How about we start by searching this place?”
Lisa was not at all pleased by the idea.” Joe, I practically put everything back in order here and I didn’t find anything that could get my parents killed. So I don’t think there is anything”
“May be you missed something”
That gave way to an argument between the two. Finally, seeing that Joe wasn’t going to back out, Lisa agreed to search the villa. She also complied with his suggestion that they should leave the place, whether they find something or not as it was dangerous to stay there anymore.
Just as they stood up, there was lighting, so bright that for a moment it looked like it was daytime. Followed by the lighting came the obvious, the thunder. But it was so loud that it left even Joe a little shaken. Lisa had already covered her ear with her hands shortly after the lighting. That very moment the Lights went off with sparks coming out of many.
“Oh Great “cried out Joe, with sheer disappointment.
“So I guess we’ll have to call it a night and do whatever we have to do tomorrow. I don’t think the electricity is coming back tonight”. Lisa spoke from somewhere in the dark.
“Okay, but first thing tomorrow morning”
“Sure thing”. Joe felt a brief hug from the back, which faded away before he could respond.
The next morning, both Joe and Lisa woke up late owing to the late night discussions. After all waking up early would not have done them any good as the electricity was still out. Lisa didn’t go to church that morning. When Joe asked her about it, she said that it was not because she had overslept. She had already decided not to go to church as she did feel the journey through the forest was safe anymore after yesterday’s incident. . Joe didn’t ask her about last day’s hug, thinking she might not want to talk about it .It could have been an overflow of emotion. After having some coffee made from Lisa’s favourite brand of milk powder and a bread and butter breakfast, they started their work. Not being able to find anything after searching for some time Joe asked
“Did you check for false panels?”
“False panels? Why would they have false panels in a villa that is in such a stranded location?”
“I don’t think I am the one you should be asking that question. Just look. Let’s not ignore any possibility”. Saying this Joe pulled out a drawer and tried to move the base. Nothing happened. With a teasing smile, Lisa pulled out the next drawer, only to be startled.
“Oh my God! Joe “
Joe turned towards her. She was moving away from the drawer with her hands covering her mouth and nose.
“What happened?”
Joe looked in the drawer and saw a gun. It was not the first time that he had seen a gun for real. There was a 45 mm Swiss made back in his home, perks of being rich. No one had ever used it though. So he wasn’t so terrified like Lisa to see a gun, but he never expected to find one there. He picked it up to see whether it was loaded. It was fully loaded. He put the gun back in its place and looked for Lisa. She was sitting at the dining table with an emotion less face. He sat opposite to her.
“You okay?”
“Am I okay? I thought my parents were school teachers. What kind of school teachers has a gun? It turns out my parents were not what not what I thought them to be. Am I okay?” Saying this Lisa pounded the table hard. Right after that they heard a sound, Like Plastic hitting the floor. It came from under the table. Both of them peeked under the table. They were both surprised to see it. And that too under the dining table, of all the places.
“Okay, what do we have here? A Floppy?” Said Joe while taking out the floppy from under the table, which had a piece of double tape on it.
“Seriously! Who uses floppies now –a-days? Lisa couldn’t help wondering. “Even the computers don’t have floppy drives now. How are going to find out what’s on this”
“Well, we can find an old computer. Not like that’s going to be easy. Or….”.It just popped into his mind and his face lit up. “Or we could buy a portable Floppy drive. It can be connected to the USB port. I’ll order it online right away” Joe took out his phone to see something that had rarely came across.
“What the hell is this?”
“Let me guess .No coverage?”
“Not even a single bar.”
“There is no coverage here, ever”
“Oh great”
“You know I called my special place ‘special place’” Lisa made inverted commas in the air with her fingers.” Not only because it gave me relief, but also there is full coverage there. Thanks to the service provider for placing a tower on the hill right across it “
“Then that’s where we are going” said Joe
“I’ll stay here .You go”
“Not at all. I am not leaving you alone. We go together or not at all”.
“Okay.”