Operation Getaway

Kindly read the chapter titled The Thing first. Thank you.

A sparkly red lehenga disappeared off the back wall. Bare feet shuffled away as fast as they could under the bulk of the heavy garment. She climbed up the blue lorry parked outside as the driver busily berated someone on the other end of the phone call. With a dark woolen shawl wrapped around, she creeped up cargo filled yellow chrysanthemums, and sat against the boxes. She could over hear the guy on the driver's seat argue about the stringed flowers that the lorry was drowning under.

"What do you mean you don't do refunds?"

...

"Listen dude, the groom-. The marriage is off. We'd like the money back."

...

"No you won't have to wait till tomorrow, I'll drive the truck there myself, we can handle the money there," he ended, starting the truck.

The figure in the lehenga held her hand over her mouth, as the lorry jolted to a start and was on its way. She tapped in a couple messages and sent her location to someone, someone she knew would be there for her no matter who wasn't. The voice at the driver's seat was engaged in another phone call when she was done. 

"Stay with the family. I need them to still pay us. It's not a day or two that we've spent on this thing, it's been over a month. They should give us our due."

...

"I don't need you to tell me that. I've left that in the past and that's where it'll stay. You just need to stick by the family, and make sure they don't get out of paying."

People back at home must've noticed her missing, because her phone rang just then. She silenced it as soon as it piqued up, but not before he heard it too. The vehicle slowed to a stop. 

"Ma'am is that you?"

She knew who he meant by that question. And he, Kabir knew that she was exactly who he thought she was, he'd recognize the Maneskin ringtone anywhere. Just as he was about to hang up, his secretary on the other spoke again.

"Wait is the bride with you?"

"I think so. I am going to check."

"Her family is looking at the security footage and saw her sneaking away too. They are sending someone to come pick her up. Hold on to her for a minute please."

Shabnam could hear him switch the vehicle off and open the door. She looked about, where to now? It was pitch black outside, the street lights flickering a faint and dull yellow. Flies swarmed below it warmly, but it did little to shed light and definitely not enough for her to attempt a get away. She squirmed resolutely, she was not going to move. 

Kabir undid the latches at the rear of the lorry and lowered the bottom down. As he lowered it he could see the figure seated at the corner be revealed, slowly. He didn't let go of her eyes as he did, not that he intended to. He could just not look away. As Kabir set about planning this wedding over the past couple of months ago, he had known she was too good for that guy. And that she didn't really want to go through with it. Was she happy or mad about the way things ended he wondered. To be dissed the night before your wedding isn't the glamorous thing he could think of. 

She looked every bit mad. Mad in an ecstatic way. He wondered if he should be worried. The shawl she had wrapped around slipped over the top of her head, and she grinned at him. 

"Don't take me back. I don't want to go."

He sighed into a smile, brushing his hair off his forehead. As much of a disaster as this is for his business he had felt bad for her. This was a relief whether he wanted to admit it or not. 

"You know I can't do that. I need to tell them where we are," he said opening up his phone. "I think we should wait for them here, rather than me drop you off in a lorry," he said.

She nodded, barely listening, furiously typing into her phone. 

He looked at her, paused, before he said, "You should call home... I can imagine you must be bitter about how it all ended but-" 

Before he could complete that sentence a bike skidded to a stop in front of him. The rider lifted the glass covering of her helmet and looked at her seated in the lorry, before speaking into his earphone, "She's here sir."

He held out his hand to her and she took it. He helped her down, and led her to the limo that had noiselessly rolled up beside the lorry.

"Who the hell are you," was all Kabir could manage. 

"Thanks for everything Kabir, I hope your business takes off, and I'm really sorry about this," she yelled out, getting into the limo, bundling up whatever she can of the lehenga. 

There was still some of it sticking out when she shut the door. The rider opened the door and helped her pull them in. 

The limo rolled away, and the rider started his bike as Kabir tried to ask the car and then the rider in vain as to where they are going. The rider shot him a mock salute and took off. Kabir can't say he tried very hard, she a full grown woman and could decide where she wanted to go, who was he to stop her. 

But not everyone shared his views, because at that moment his phone rang, her angry dad asking where they were so he can come pick her up. And when he related the same story to her, it was decided. 

He was going to chase the girl in the red lehenga in his blue lorry, chrysanthemums and all.