On the Run

Chapter 12: Wrong Turn...Right Instincts?

5:00pm, Bangalore-Goa Highway, near Karwar.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?" Nandini screamed.

"What now?" I asked, annoyed.

I had been driving for a long time...but because of my injury, I had refrained from going too fast. Consequently, the driving time to Goa had increased-that meant spending even more time with Nandini, which I didn't know if I was happy or sad about.

"Why are you veering towards the right side? We have to take a left from this road!" She said.

"No! I think we have to take a right, so I'm taking a right!" I said. The left side looked like an abandoned and unkempt forest. There was no way that was the main road!

"Manik, we have to take a left! I've been to Goa before! I know the way!" She exclaimed.

"What? You think I haven't been there before? Fab Five's played there so many times." I replied.

"And may I ask, how did you get from Mumbai to Goa?" She asked sarcastically.

"On my dad's private jet..." I said guiltily.

"Exactly! You might have gone there multiple times but you don't know the way, do you? I've been to Goa before on a school trip and my class went by bus, so we used this route itself. Trust me! We have to take a left!" She said, irritated.

"Listen! I don't trust women's sense of direction...they're horrible drivers themselves and they're awful with directions too! Nope, there's absolutely no way I'm going into some dense forest just because you think you know the way!" I argued.

"Fine! You won't listen, right? Get ready to drive for a number of extra hours! Anyway, you don't care if your wound is infected, right? I thought we'd get some medicines after reaching Goa in the next few hours...but why would you listen to me?" She said angrily.

It felt good to see that she still cared about my well-being but I was upset with her because she questioned me about my father's death. How do I explain it to her? How do I tell her what a sociopath Nyonika is? Would someone as simple and innocent as her ever understand the dysfunctional nature of my family? No! It was better this way! The less she knew, the better.

I took a right turn at the fork, but within five minutes I regretted my decision. The road was narrow, untarred and didn't look like the main highway at all! Shit! I should have listened to her!

I still drove along maintaining a confident countenance, but all of a sudden I heard a loud sound and the car came to a screeching halt. I tried to restart the car, but it refused.

"Wow Mr. Malhotra mujhe nahin pata tha ki highway ka raasta itna achcha hota hain!" She chuckled. "I told you to take a left!"

I opened the car door and stepped outside to have a look at what had gone wrong.

"If you can't help out then don't talk! I don't need this right now! We are in enough of a pickle as it is!" I shouted at her.

I bent down to have a look at the tires and found all of them to be in perfect condition.

Shit! Don't tell me something has gone wrong with the engine!

As soon as I opened the bonnet of the car to check the engine, there was a huge cloud of smoke and I started coughing as a result. It looked like the engine was failing and I didn't have the first clue as to how to fix it.

Nandini came out of the car as she saw this and said, "Manik, let me have a look!"

What? What would she even do after looking at the engine? Even I was out of my depth here.