Into the open

“Where is Nath Ji today?” He asked the canteen guy.

“I don’t know. He’s out with our owner.” He replied. Nath Ji was the guy who used to handle the canteen and he had developed a fondness for Nath ji over the past 5 months. Since, he wasn’t there, Varun had no option other than going out of the campus to eat something. He scanned his id at the gate and stepped out followed by two of his friends and with me, like always, on his wrist. Yes, I am his watch, Wrist watch, to be more precise. He stopped at the curb side, waiting for a break in the chain of vehicles so we could cross the road. Noticing that he was alone, he turned around to see where his friends were and why they were left behind. As he did that, a strange screeching voice filled the air around us. Before he could turn to look at its source, a strong hand grabbed his wrist just above me and pulled both of us inside.

As they pulled him in, the last thing that I saw was his friends’ horrified looks, as if they had seen a tiger hunting, live. Someone then slid the door and started binding his hands with jute ropes and hence, barring my sight. But the varying amount of tension in the muscles and the pulse rate in his wrist beneath me gave me the impression that he continued to struggle against the strong armed men trying to abduct him. And then a sudden rise in his body temperature followed by a total limpness of the body startled me. He went unconscious, maybe injected with some sedative, I couldn’t see. The fact that he hadn’t screamed even once throughout the whole duration of his struggle made it evident that they had covered his mouth before binding his limbs.

The pace with which they were driving made even me dizzy. Although, I couldn’t see it, I did feel their urgency. After about three hours of driving, they finally halted and got Varun out of the van. He was still out of his senses and for a while, I thought he was dead, but I could feel his pulse just beneath me. They finally unfastened the binds and I was finally able to see. I looked around, a high ceiling, damp room with no ventilation, just a single door and almost no light. They then handcuffed him to a pole. One of the cuffs was just above me. They’d taken all his possessions, his phone , wallet, id card, but had left me on his wrist, maybe as a taunting symbol of the time that he was going to spend in this dingy room of someplace. It was 4:32 p.m. (Yes! I could tell time).

They finally pulled the rag out of his mouth and left. As soon as they exited, Varun opened his eyelids slowly, apparently the drug wearing off. In about 15 minutes he was finally getting used to his status quo and surroundings. I’m a mere wrist watch and I don’t know anything about human emotions but I did recognize the look of gloom on his face with a pinch of helplessness as he looked at the cuffs and then meeting my eye.

About two hours after he gained consciousness, the door opened and someone slid a plate towards him with something that looked like food in it. He glanced, only to find some boiled rice and something like yellow water in a bowl. My mind journeyed back to the time when he and his sister used to make faces at such dishes and tagged them as food for cattle. Maybe he was thinking the same too. The memory of home brought a bout of tear to his eyes, and in that dark and stark room, he shed his first tear after getting kidnapped, and I knew that more were to come his way. He left the plate untouched for it seemed he had no mind to eat cattle food, even if he was a hostage.

At 10:30, when he finally was able to speak, he called out in a meek voice. “Someone, please! Water” The door opened without a noise, though I had expected it to make a long creaking noise, and two muscular silhouettes walked in. Their faces and hair were hidden by bandanas to the extent that only their eyes were visible and it gave them a very scary edge.

 “I see you’re not hungry” One of them looked at the plate and the untouched food and said in a deep throaty voice.

“I’m not going to eat that” Varun said and it looked like it took him a lot of courage to say this. The kidnapper’s wild eyes widened in anger. He came to him and held his jaw.

“You’re not our guest, do you get it? You’re a hostage and it would be better for you if you behave like one.” He said, his words hurting Varun more than his grip. He let go of his jaw and walked away. I noticed that the other guy had been silent all this while. He had the same muscular built except that he had softer eyes. “We’ve asked your father for ransom, as you must know happens in such cases” the wild eyed man continued in a calmer and icy tone.  He said it so casually that it seemed he had been doing this for a very long time. Well that explains the perfect timing in everything.

“He won’t pay you” Varun said. Now this must not be confused with courage. In fact, this was the reality of his miser dad. I can call him that since he wasn’t my dad. Although I was bought by his money but according to the legend, Varun had to convince his dad for three days. I looked up just in time to see the wild eyed kidnapper running angrily towards Varun. But the soft eyed guy stopped him, whispered something in his ears and then the wild eyed kidnapper left, banging the door shut behind him.

The soft eyed guy turned to look at Varun with a look of deep pain, and then did something totally unexpected. He removed his bandana to show his face. Wait! He looks familiar. “Nath JI! You!” Varun exclaimed. Wait! This was Nath? And he had kidnapped Varun? Was this the sole reason of extending a friendly hand? The look on Varun’s face showed his utter displeasure and disgust totally unabridged. “You backstabbing son of a b….”

“It is not how you think it is” Nath cut him off. “My friendship to you always was, still is and always will remain loyal.” His lines seemed funny to me, given the situation. Time was a witness of what he had done. And since I kept time, I was equally disgusted by his presence in the room. “He is the owner of the canteen. He has done such things before, kidnapping and ransom. But I’m not his apprentice or acquaintance.”

“Nothing of what you say can justify what you did” Varun said gritting his teeth.

“I have a dying mother back home, Varun Sahab. I don’t know if you’ll understand or not. He is the owner of the canteen, my boss. He noticed how close you were to me, and taking advantage of my condition and our rapport, he made me do it. He has done it before, but this time, I have been forced to do so.” Nath tried to explain. Since I was made of some metals, I melted quicker than Varun did. I totally believed whatever the guy said, but Varun remained reluctant. Instead, he tried like mad to get up and hit him but all the chains prevented him from doing it. Nath left and all that remained in the room was the clinking of the chains and the sound of Varun’s ragged breath.

As I mentioned before, I don’t know much about human emotions, but as Varun sank to the floor near the pole, the disappointment on his face was as clear as the ocean water. This was the second time he had cried, the hurt of being backstabbed taking over the feeling of helplessness of the situation.

After about two hours of continuous crying, he finally stopped, maybe because the water was all dried up. He looked like he had something going on in his mind. He stood up, and without any warning, started shouting at the top his voice. “Bastards! You think I’ll let you guys live after you let me go? I won’t. I’ll chase you till the end. You’ll pay for this. I swear to g….” before he could finish, the door banged open and the wild eyed kidnapper barged in. Varun looked like he had seen a ghost, but after a while he steadied himself. “You’ll pay” he added.

The kidnapper put his hand into his pocket and brought out Varun’s phone. He switched it on and looked at Varun. “Let’s give your parents a message” he said in the same icy cold voice. He dialled the number, turned it to speaker and placed the phone on the floor.

“Hello, Varun?” his dad almost cried

Had I been a human, I would’ve cried. A drop did leave Varun’s eye. “Dad!” he said and sobbed. And it was followed by a deafening roar of a gun. Varun’s phone lay on the ground with a hole through it and the wild eyed kidnapper standing over it. “Scream all you want. No one’s going to hear you.” He said and left. Varun remained fixed where he was with eyes wide open and tears running out like an open tap. Reminding you again, I have no knowledge of emotions, but the look of fear on my owner’s face was totally unmistakable. To think that your parents just heard a gunshot at your side on a call can give anyone Goosebumps. I don’t know what was he thinking but what I do know is that he was surely broken.

Sleep would be the last thing anyone could ever get in such a situation, obviously except the kidnappers. And me? I was made to work 24 hours a day because that’s my job and workplace, 24 hours. Varun couldn’t sleep that night, images of his crying dad, mom and siblings disturbing him, haunting his dreams. He kept checking his cuffs for a weak point or something, but like Nath told him, his boss had done it before. In short, he was a professional, so the probability of silly overlooking of precautions were pretty rare, to be modest. But then, around 5 in the morning, I don’t know what got into him suddenly, he got up and started pulling on the pole to which he was tied to.  It didn’t budge. But after about 10 minutes of continuous efforts, the pole came out of the ground and the chains were free. And apparently, so was he. He kept looking at his hands in amazement, which now only had cuffs on them. And wait! Me too.

He knew he didn’t have much time and so got out of the door. Thanks to god it didn’t creak while opening. There was this long corridor with 4 doors. And the one at the far end seemed to be the way out but the way to the door contained the other two doors. Without wasting much time and making as less noise as possible, Varun slowly got to the door. The latch made a screeching sound but Varun covered it with a cloth to mask the noise. And then, the door finally opened and the first rays of dawn hit our faces.

For the last time, I don’t know about emotions, but the smile that spread across his face surely had to be one of relief. Taking his first step towards freedom he looked at me, smiling. And his smile widened. Maybe because the time had changed and I was with him through that change. I was at his side. Time was at his side. He had finally made it out of all troubles, fears and (inexplicable, for me) variation of emotions. He had finally made it out of captivity into the open.