Episode 40

“Eaf ee!” Leave me, Mishti tries to say, struggling in the man’s hold but the man doesn’t deter until he doesn’t reach behind the cell wall, the same place her brother had discovered.

“Shhh, it’s me.” The man keeps on saying from behind, but Mishti isn’t able to recognise the voice, the only constant in her ears is static and the only thing that she wants to be is free.

“Fud ee own!” Put me down, she shrieks behind the man's hand covering her mouth.

“Mishti!”

That shuts her up. Not because there is no way that the constable would know her name because he does, but because finally she recognises the voice, realises who is holding her.

Mishti wants to run away from the hold even more.

Though she doesn’t have a chance to struggle anymore because the next thing she knows, her feet are touching the ground, a grip around her shoulders pushing her so that her back is rest against the wall, a hand still covering her mouth, but her eyes now able to see her kidnapper.

Samrat gulps, his gaze flitting around all her face, from her panic-filled eyes to the labyrinth of tresses that adorns her temple, sticking on it from the excursion. Her covered mouth and bare eyes making him remember a face that he isn’t able to put a name on.

Mishti shakes her head under his hand, making him jump into the present, quickly removing his hand from her mouth.

It’s a mistake.

“How dare y-”

Samrat quickly covers her mouth again, eyes wide and brows helplessly curling against each other.

“Shh! Don't.” Panicked, he warns and the girl glares at her.

“Eaf ee!” She demands.

“Please, Mishti. Trust me.” He says and suddenly Mishti muffled words halt under his hand, a bitter glint shining in her eyes.

She forces out her hands from where they were stuck between the wall and her back, pulling away his from her mouth.

“Trust me, he says,” Mishti mumbles inaudibly before levelling the man with a harsh glare. She doesn’t bother pushing back the cynical emotions that seep into her voice.

“What are you doing here? How did you even find me?” she asks instead of saying something that she may or may not would regret later.

A relief washes over Samrat’s face when Mishti asks him that, talks to him.

“I have been trying to find you for a long time, Mishti.” He says truthfully but Mishti only replies to him with a grim chuckle.

“Don’t make me laugh now. The same man who wanted me here in this place, gone from his sight…was looking for me?”

“No, Mish-”

“Will you stop repeating my name? It’s making me uncomfortable.” Mishti says sharply and this time it is Samrat who is left tongue-tied, a hurt look washing over his face. Mishti averts her gaze.

“I – I never wanted you here. That day, Mishti –”

“Why are you here?” she interrupts but doesn’t give him a chance to answer. “Did you want to see me suffering? Wanted to see if I’m getting punished enough to make up for all the lies I told you?” she scoffs bitterly. “But don’t you worry, they are treating me in the worst way possible here. Just like you would wan –”

“Mishti!” he whisper yells, a frustrated frown evident between his brows, not bothering to separate the desperation from his voice. “Stop it, please. I don’t want to see you here, never wanted to. I – I want to get you out of here.” He says, holding her by her arms that she harshly pulls away from.

“Funny how I was taken to this place right in front of you.” Mishti doesn’t give him the time to let the guilt surface before she adds, “On the orders given by your mother. Charging me for things that I didn’t even do. Couldn’t even dream of doing.”

The words have Samrat looking at her in alarm, eyes wide.

“Wh-what? What has she done? And for what duration have you b-been convicted?” he asks cluelessly, one that Mishti finds far from cute.

“Drugs. She made the police charge me for selling drugs. I’m supposed to rot in this place for five years, and that too because they couldn’t find any trace of drugs in my body otherwise your mother wanted to keep me here for ten!” Mishti reveals, hostile.

“What?” Samrat looks taken aback at the statement, eyes freakily wide and mouth agape. “What are you s-saying, Mishti –”

“Not only that, whatever your ex-wife had said about your mother, written in that report – it was all true,” Mishti says and Samrat’s face pales. And despite herself, Mishti’s heart aches for the man.

“I wanted to –”

“H-How’s that possible…” Samrat counter asks and once again any ounce of pity that Mishti had been feeling for the man rushes away.

He still isn’t letting her speak.

An embittered smile grows on her face at that. She shakes her head. “Oh, please don’t worry. I’m not going to tell you to trust me. I just wished that I could have told you this sooner, but you don’t seem keen on listening to what others have to say. You never did.”

Silence follows the sentence, but Mishti doesn’t mind it. She wasn’t expecting any answer from him in the first place. A moment later though, she still gets one. It comes out in a quiet voice.

“I do,” Samrat says, nervousness flashing through his face as he blinks his eyes a few times as if to focus on her better.

“What?”

“I do want to listen to you.” He says then, making her look up at him, eyes wide in disbelief.

“My mother – It’s not because I am aware of her nature even though it’s true, neither is it because she has lied to me. Many have.” Samrat says, and Mishti looks averts her gaze, guilty. His hands yet again hold her from her elbows, shaking them in an attempt to bring her focus back on him. “It’s because I trust you.” He says, voice quiet and sincere.

The look adorning his face making Mishti’s walls come crashing down.

“You were a thief. You were there to con me, to hurt me and yet…. yet I don’t remember a single day when I had been hurt by you. And even if I was, there wasn't a single day where you hadn't made up for it somehow. I – I don’t know why my mother did what she did, but I believe you. And I know you probably hate me now, of course, you do, must think of me as someone audacious for standing in front of you after three long months but I had my reasons, I swear I did.” He says, the desperation in his voice making Mishti gulp, immediately breaking the eye contact.

“I – I think you should go. I’ll be in trouble if someone sees me here.” She says shifting on her feet but not actually making a move to go. Her feet seems stuck in place.

“Mishti –” Samrat calls her by her name once again, but she is too preoccupied by the tightness in her chest to reply to the man with something legible. “I need to see you again. I need to tell you things that you don’t know and need you to tell me things that I don’t. I need to talk to you…. you will, right?”

Mishti looks away, blinking back the pain that stings behind her eyes.

“I’ve to go.”

*

“Mishti Doi!”

“Aisha.” For obvious reasons, Mishti isn't able to put much excitement in her voice but still willing goes into the hug that her friend pulls her into, sighing in contentment.

The guard behind them clears his throat to warn them, Aisha mainly to lower her voice. She complies.

“How are you, Mishti? Are you – are you feeling alright? They aren’t doing anything bad to you, right?”

Mishti shakes her head, pushing back any negative thoughts plaguing her mind and conjuring up a smile.

“No, everything’s fine. It’s better than ever. I – I met Bhai, Aisha. He found me.” Mishti whisper shrieks the last few words in Aisha’s ear but Aisha full-on yells in reply.

“What?!”

“Oi, what’s happening there?” the guard asks, his face frowning and Aisha facepalms.

“Nothing. She just told me that she couldn’t get to eat dinner last night, I was worried for my friend. Don’t you guys give food to all the inmates?” Aisha asks the guard, efficiently shutting him up before turning to Mishti, her eyes wide, a bright smile on her face?

“Really?” she mouths and Mishti nods.

“Oh, I’m so glad, I’m so happy for you, my love. I always knew your brother is one talented man.” Aisha says and Mishti chuckles.

“Are you praising my brother right now? The same one because of whom you didn’t get chocolates on my birthday? Ah, everyone is behind my bhai these days.” Mishti teases, finding in herself this ease after a long time.

Aisha hits her arms with a mock disgusted face. “Ew, I call him Mihir ‘Bhaiya’ in my head and I am just appreciating him because he made my best friend and his sister so happy. Also, I’ll be the first one to congratulate him once he proposes to Ruhi.”

Mishti gapes, eyes comically wide. “You know about that as well?”

“Those two were the celebrity couple of the orphanage, of course, I do!” Aisha grins. “And anyway I’m taken too. And very loyal for that matter.” Aisha quips with a proud smile and Mishti hums.

“So where is your loyalty card? Can’t see him.”

The question makes Aisha’s smile dim on her lips, a slightly forced smile replacing the previous one.

“He – He went to Samrat. He had to take him to the hospital. Again.”

Mishti’s brow furrow as soon as she hears that, a conflicted expression washing over her face, wanting to run away from the spot after hearing Samrat’s name and wanting to know about him more listening to ‘hospital’ in the same sentence.

She had just seen him yesterday.

She goes with the latter. “Hospital?”

Aisha nods, forsaking the forced smile in favour of heaving a sigh. “Lot of things happened in the past three months, Mishti. Things that you don’t have any idea about, but you should. Samrat… he has a lot to tell you. Listen to him, give him a chance.” Aisha coaxes but Mishti gulps, looking away to let the sheen in her eyes die down.

She knows that she should listen, knows that she owes him much more than just an apology and that she should be the one seeking him out, knows that she doesn’t deserve to feel the betrayal that is simmering in her heart. But, she isn't able to help it because even though he had told her that he would listen to her, he didn’t.

He too had lied.

“But he didn’t give me a chance… didn’t listen to me,” she mumbles out honestly, her hands fiddling with each other to control the quiver in her voice.

Aisha turns her face to herself. “He didn’t, Mishti, and that was his mistake. He knows it, he saw the consequence but.... do you want to repeat the same mistake?”

Mishti doesn’t say anything. Aisha takes it as a reply, bringing her friend into a small hug one last time before the time gets over.

“Listen to him, love. Don’t do what he did.”