Monday early morning flight home
She had completed her second semester of Masters in Health
Psychology and Cognition. It was a long break before she came back for the
final stint in the university. Nikitha decided to spend the 8 weeks holiday
with her mother back home in India. Bidding goodbye to the North Carolina
University campus was tough, for now. She had some wonderful time there and
over the past few months, learnt a lot of new things, grew to love the
university and the life in the campus. She had a new friend who really made her
feel at home.
Sarayu stayed 50 km from the University in a little suburb.
She was from Bangalore and was studying with Nikitha, they both were travelling
back together up to Mumbai on Monday. Over the weekend both went shopping for
gifts for their family, Sarayu bought a gift for her aunt who stayed in
Hyderabad and Nikitha volunteered to hand it over to her. After shopping, they
had dinner together at a Chinese restaurant and stayed overnight at Nikitha's
room, where they saw a spooky mystery movie that scared them to wits.
Sunday morning, Sarayu left for her home, the plan was for
Nikitha to pick her up at 11.00pm on her way to the airport for the 3.30 am
flight.
The day went by with packing her suitcases, cleaning up the
room, putting away her books and study material in the racks. Nikitha was tired
and it was 5 pm when she finished, she had coffee and slept for a while. A
couple of hours later, she woke up startled, images from the previous night's
movie haunted her, seemed more like a nightmare. There was eerie silence in the
room, which was dark. She switched on the lights and looked outside the window;
the streets were deserted. Suddenly she felt scared, a chill ran down her
spine. The loneliness was uncomfortable and she desperately wanted to have company.
Nikitha showered and hurriedly had sandwiches for dinner and
decided to leave early to meet her friend, and from there to the airport.
At 9 pm she booked a taxi and left for Sarayu's home. Her
mind was racing, she did a quick checklist of all the things she had packed and
the double checked her handbag for the flight tickets, passport and other
documents. they were all in place. A half hour later as she paid the taxi and
reached Sarayu's apartment on the 3rd floor, she was shocked to see the door
locked. She quickly dialled her mobile. It was switched off. There was a note
on the door which said, "Away for 8 weeks"!
Why did she leave two hours before she was to be picked up?
Why didn't she inform her? Hope everything was alright? Nikitha couldn't
control her thoughts. As she alighted the elevator and walked on to the porch,
she tripped on a flower pot and fell. She got up, grabbed her bags and
suitcases and ran towards the gate to a waiting taxi. "Airport"! she
screamed and hopped in with her luggage. It was over an hour's drive. Midway,
as the taxi pulled into a gas station for refuelling, she hopped out and
entered the convenience store. She bought a can of orange juice and as she
rummaged through her handbag to pay, she went pale. The passport was missing.
The shock didn't last long as the clerk at the payment
counter handed her passport and said "here, is this what you are
searching?" Nikitha stood dumbfounded. "How did it land with you”?
she asked. The lady said, "never mind, you have a good flight". She
was perplexed and a strange feeling encompassed her. She got back into the taxi
and felt the driver was smiling. Why was he smiling, did he know anything about
the passport? She didn't dare to ask and looked out of the window. The stars in
the dark sky were shining bright. Thoughts of going back home and meeting mom,
friends, coffee at her favourite joint momentarily brought a smile on her face.
She had hardly closed her eyes with the thoughts when the bright lights of the
airport ahead made her sit up.
She reached the airport around 10.45pm it was bustling with
passengers travelling to various parts of the world. At the entrance, the
security handed her a can of orange juice and said: "You forgot
this"? Nikitha stood in her tracks! What was happening? How did she leave
the can in the store? how did it get here? Was the taxi driver following her?
No, he left from quite a distance. This was no coincidence, she started
sweating and was lost in thought. "Hello! have a nice flight Ma'am,"
said the security guy with a beaming smile. She looked at him and vaguely
smiled back. What else was in store?
Walking down to the Baggage check-in, she felt she was being
followed, she constantly looked around for Sarayu, she was nowhere in sight. It
seemed surreal. The passport and the juice can be handed to her by strangers
who she didn't know. After she checked in her suitcases, she took her boarding
pass and proceeded to the immigration desk, a long line of international
travellers was ahead of her. She craned her head to see if her friend was
anywhere around. She couldn't spot one familiar face.
After the stamping of her passport and immigration, she went
through the security check and walked across the lounge towards her gate - the
flight was still almost 3 and a half hours away. She decided to walk into the
shopping arena and look for some mementoes. She bought some magnets and key
chains and moved to a book shop.
The long flight would need a nice book she thought and
browsed the stacks. She found a romantic thriller and picked it up, at the
payment counter she was handed a gift-wrapped box with a note ‘For You’.
"What's this?" she exclaimed. The salesgirl said, “it's for you”.
“Who gave it? Are you sure, it’s for me? I don’t know why I would want to take
it”?
"You will know when you get into the second room on the
left in the privilege lounge", the sales girl replied.
She was aghast. ‘Was this a trick? Is someone stalking me?’,
her thoughts meandered.
Nikitha started walking fast towards the lounge, less scared
and more inquisitive to find out the source of her gift and solve the puzzle
trailing her.
The privilege flyers' room was shut, she opened the door and
it was dark inside. She was about to leave the room when a tiny light flickered
in the middle of the room. She garnered courage and entered in. Just as she
approached the light, there was a loud roar and the room was washed in bright
light.
Holding a cake was Sarayu, as the airline staff, around her,
sang in chorus “Happy Birthday to you”! Nikitha had tears in her eyes and
checked her watch, which flashed 00:00!
She hugged Sarayu and punched her on the cheek. As tears ran
down her cheeks, she heaved a sigh of relief, for once it had nothing to with disappearing
people, haunting noises, knocking doors or staring billboards!
Nikitha dropped to her knees, blew the candle on the cake and
felt like a celebrity!
-------------------------------------------------------------
Ps: Nikitha later learnt that Sarayu was hiding behind the bushes as she tripped and dropped her passport, her friend picked it up and followed her closely in another
taxi.
Pic courtesy: Internet
