The Blind Alley

(1)

It was getting darker by the minute. Was it the time or were the rain gods playing havoc with the city’s weather again? The alley was small, and there was hardly enough space for any passerby to walk, especially if there was someone else coming from the opposite direction. Traces of dirt and grime were visible on every inch of the yellowed walls. There was the odor of piss coming from some corner. And then there was the smell of food- garlic, onion fried in oil-giving out a pungent odor. With the wind blowing it stung her nostrils. Her stomach revolted. She felt sick and felt like she would puke. Droplets of sweat were now forming in her forehead.

She started walking fast. Her clothes were covered in sweat now. And the sweat was more from fear rather than the hot and the humid. There was hardly anyone to be seen on the streets now. These streets were known to be unsafe even on a good day. And of all the days, she had zeroed in on today to come here. But then she had no way of knowing the weather would suddenly change its tide.

The phone-call the day before had changed everything. And it served her right for not keeping to her own and always poking her nose into others problems. She had realized that her brother had been under certain pressure. But she had not realized things had turned so bad, till she had picked up the phone extension by mistake the day earlier.

(2)

The phone had been ringing for quite sometime, and since she knew her brother was near the phone she had not bothered picking it up. But then it had continued its shrill ring, so she had moved to the other room and done the needful. She should not have bothered, since by then her brother had already picked up the phone. She was about to keep it down when the voice on the other side, presumably of the loan-shark had come in blasting, threatening her brother to return the money by the end of the week or else “be ready to face the consequences”.

She steeled herself and went to her brother’s room. She knocked and waited. “Come in” she heard him say after a few seconds. She looked at his face. He had his mask on already and gave her a smile. “Are you okay kid?” he asked. She nodded her head. “Well, what is it? Did you manage to land into some trouble again? Come on spit up,” he said. She looked at him and asked, “Are you hiding something from me?” He did a double take but he had managed to recover within a few seconds. “No, what do you have in mind?” So he doesn’t want to say, she thought. She said, “It’s just that I think I might have caught you day-dreaming/thinking quite a number of times. I was worried there is something in your mind.” She smiled, “but since you say there is nothing, I am obviously wrong.” “Oh! Just a little more pressure than usual at work, kid. Nothing to worry about.” He smiled at her reassuringly. She took the cue, smiled at him and left the room.

(3)

She slept badly and had woken up with the sun itself. She tried reading, but she could hardly focus on the words. She then decided to go out for a quick jog. That would at-least steady her nerves. So, she changed into her jogging gear and started towards the park. She did a few rounds, and by the time she was done she could hear her own heartbeat, but her nerves had still not steadied. But by then she had already come to a decision. She had remembered the address that had come out for the other end of the phone yesterday. In fact she remembered the whole conversation going to and fro from both ends. It has been imprinted in her memory forever.

She walked back home and sat in the bed. The decision that she had so impulsively taken just a few moments ago, now in retrospect seemed really stupid. She went into the bathroom and took a shower. Usually she takes a long, lazy shower, but today was not usual. She went in and took a quick shower, and came out smelling like lavender. Lavender!! Lavender, always calms her down. Even that was unable to steel her nerves today. She dressed quickly and conservatively in a pair of jeans and a white shirt, dabbed some more lavender perfume in her pulse points and then tied her hair in a pony tail, applying just a hint of nude lip balm on her lips. Vain though, today was not a day to bathe in vanity.

She picked up her bag and sat down for breakfast with her brother as usual. He nibbled on a piece of the toasted bread. And he did seem to be under a lot of pressure today. For a voracious eater he was chewing on one bite of the bread for a long time. “Aren’t you going to eat, or are you bored with the same break-fast that I rustle up every-day?” she managed. “Well I am not that hungry, and anyway I am supposed to meet a client in the café in a while, so maybe I will order something substantial then,” he smiled. She felt a little guilty then, he had after all taken the loan for her education. But it was hardly her fault, a part of her said. She had asked him to go to authorized agencies.

When she had gotten admission into the prestigious university he was so sure she would be able to land a plush job with a fat pay package. He had not listened to her arguments then. But then recession had struck, and many big companies had crumbled like cookies. And the ones who had managed to stay afloat had undergone a lot of downsizing and pay-cuts for its employees. She was lucky she had a job at-least. Most of her friends were still sitting at home without a job.

She slung her bag on her shoulder and was about to leave for office as usual, when the phone rang again. Her brother ran towards the phone, and his expression said it all. She came to a decision then. She chucked her plan to go to office and took the opposite road. This time her mind was fully made up. And nothing was going to change her tracks.

(4)

And now here she was. The loan shark and the meeting with him was nothing like what she had expected. She had no idea what she had expected when she went in. The alley was dark and dingy, she had regretted coming into that part of the city as soon as she had entered its threshold. She must have been followed by all kinds of men right from the time she had set foot in the area. One guy had looked at her lecherously and had made a sign with this tongue, and then stuck his finger on his lips and had then pointed the same finger towards her. And another had managed to come in close to her, and then brought his face near her ears and then when he was satisfied she was scared enough, he looked deep into her eyes, laughed on her face, mouth smelling of stale cigarette and then left her with a “Be careful honey”. She did not know whether to laugh or to cry.  There was no other woman to be seen in the vicinity, and the one or two she had seen are what we refer to as street-walkers. She had a difficult time finding the direction to the loan-sharks office. It just made matters worse that she had made up her mind to not ask for directions from the leather clad- Harley driving druggies. When she finally found the small office in the dilapidated building in a corner of the street it was not what she had expected. Just as she was about to enter, she noticed a man with a sunglass coming out from the building. He was fumbling a little and looked a little out of place in there. Perhaps it was the fact that he did not have leather all over him, nor was he dressed in grunge like every other man on that street.

She took the stairs and walked up towards the loan-sharks office. The stairs creaked, there were cobwebs all around. The dust entered her lungs and she coughed. The walls had turned almost black and every piece of wood had traces of termites. Stench of stale alcohol and cigarette reeked from every corner. There were what looked like traces of spit and vomit on the walls. Her throat was perched and she was almost gasping for breath. ‘If there is hell on earth, this had to be it,’ she thought. Finally after what looked like ages she reached the top, and then the office.

(5)

She knocked meekly and then was asked to wait. The office had just two rooms, one infact, with a partition in between to make it into two rooms. She could hear muffled voices and then sounds of laughter coming from the other part of the room. After what looked like an eternity she was called in. She would have burst out laughing if she were any other place. She had imagined the loan shark to be a big framed man with rippling muscles, tattoos and perhaps a teeth of gold. But the man sitting opposite her was a small, frail looking bespectacled man with kind eyes. He must not be over five feet in height and he wore a black tee shirt. She could not see the rest, as a table covered the length below.

“Young lady, what brings you here?” She looked the other way for a moment not placing the voice with the same man. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. The man smiled at her and offered her some water. She took a sip, and then took a breath. She explained to the man about the phone call to her brother the day before. The man looked at her and then his eyes rested on her throat. He loved looking at the way it moved up and down every time she said something. And then it skimmed down to her chest, it rested at the opening of her shirt and then fixed at that point for the rest of the discussion. But it wasn’t on her flesh he was looking at, but rather the diamond solitaire that she had hung in there along with a small thread of gold. She ended with, “If you could give us some time we would return the amount with interest in full. What I am asking from you is just a little more time.” He looked into her eyes then and gave her a genuine smile. “Sure, how much time?” he added. “Till I get a better job than the one I have at present, which might take a few months at max,” she responded. He took the gum that he was chewing out from mouth and then stuck it underneath the table. He spat and then pointed to her throat.

“I will take that as a security. It is a big perfect diamond.” That was her only memory of her mothers and she had never taken it off since her sixteenth birthday when she had inherited it. But she took it off and handed it over to him. He smiled and brought his sweaty palms forward. He then smelled it before kissing it and putting it inside his filthy drawer. She got off then and ran out of the building. A stray tear found its way to her cheek.

(6)

But she atleast had managed to buy her brother some time. At least there was something to cheer about. She had been lucky then, but since the last few minutes she could feel someone following her.  “Damn” she said silently. Whatever had possessed her to come into this area known for drugs, mafias and contract killers all by herself. She tried increasing her pace and then she could hear the pace behind her increasing too.

The place was a maze and try as hard; she was unable to find the main road. She was stuck, and the more she went around, the more she felt like she was going in circles. She once looked back and saw him- lean, tall and muscular, she could not make out his face properly. But he was definitely that same man who she had chanced upon when entering the loan-sharks building. The loan shark and his loonies dress up like normal humans unlike most other gangs here she thought. “Definitely, a rapist” and as soon as the thought crossed her mind she cursed herself.

The alleys were getting smaller, and the stench of all things ugly getting stronger. Notorious looking men ogled at her from every corner. She heard someone whistle and then a tall, heavily muscular man with dread locks, black tooth and a holster slung around his waist came in and stood in front of her. He looked down at her running his eyes down the whole length of her, gave her a crooked smile, gestured towards a motor bike and said, “Care for a ride honey?” She turned away without a glance and then felt a hard slap and a pinch in her butts and then heard the sounds of laughter coming in from behind her. She could feel those men virtually taking each piece of her cloth off her in their minds. She flushed and then took another turn, and entered deeper into the alleys.

Empty, broken bottles of alcohol, cigarette butts and used condoms lined every inch of the alley. The place was strewn with half eaten food particles. She could feel something crawl near her feet and looked down to see a rat. The stink was unbearable; she held her breath. Suddenly something came with a force and hit her hard on her shoulder, and then she felt her shoulder getting wet. She touched her shoulder and found a rubbery substance stuck on her shirt. She jerked it off when she realized someone had thrown a condom filled with water at her. Her shoulder hurt, and tears had started forming in her eyes. She closed her mouth shut and willed herself not to cry. Her jaw had become numb by then. Cats and dogs were feeding themselves from the junk and she could feel her own stomach turning in revolt now.

The pace behind her kept on increasing. She prayed to the almighty and kept on with the pace. She had heard really scary stories of how loan sharks are known to snatch valuables from their creditors and then, they were at times beaten up. Since she was of the fairer sex, she her mind somehow came up with the idea that the man was now out to feast on her flesh. Sounds of laughter and hooting followed her like a shadow. And then suddenly she came out of the maze and found the main street. She breathed in relief and then looked back once again.

She was about to cross the road, when she heard him say, “Wait!” she looked back and saw the man. “Can you please help me cross the road?” he asked. “What?” she repeated. “Well, inside there for a moment I thought you were lost yourself. You were walking so fast and gave me a hard time trying to keep pace with you. All I had was the trail of your lavender perfume, to keep up with you.” She gave him a strange look and was about to leave, when he removed his sunglass. She gaped then.