Five-Thirty AM - VI

It was a grey day in cottage country. Rolling clouds obscured the tops of the hills, as they scurried along with the stiff breeze. The forests were a deeper green, almost black in the half-light. They seemed somehow more mysterious, more foreboding this morning. Small puffs of steam rose off the waters of the lake, creating a thin layer of mist just above the waterline. Sometime in the night, it had rained for a bit, and the damp smell of the earth wafted to his nostrils. Noel pushed open the doors on the deck to walk along the pier. It was already seven, but all he could see was a small band of the pink gold colors of dawn in the sky, just above the hills to the West. He sat at the end of the pier, his legs dangling off the end, sipping on his morning coffee, taking in the sights and sounds of the middle of nowhere. He’d never imagined Canada like this. This vastness, this openness, this peace and quiet. So far away from Mumbai that Mumbai seemed unreal. It was magical.

Back in the cottage everyone had already woken up, early nights leading to early mornings. Mr. Puri joined him at the pier with his mug in hand as well.

‘Good morning, Uncle,’ he said, respectfully.

‘Good morning, beta,’ Mr. Puri grunted as he too sat on the end of the pier. ‘Did you sleep well? I’m sorry you had to sleep in the den,’ he apologized.

‘Oh, don’t worry, Uncle,’ Noel shook his head. ‘I slept perfectly well.’

He sipped some more coffee and then asked, ‘what kind of animals are there in these woods?’

‘Deer, plenty of deer,’ Mr. Puri replied. ‘Elk and moose show up sometimes, wild rabbit, and of course, we do have a few black bears.’

Noel hesitated a second before saying, ‘I heard something last night.’

Mr. Puri raised his eyebrows, ‘what did you hear?’

Mitul had seen her uncle joining Noel, and the two of them seemed to be chatting. She walked out with her coffee, her aunt in tow reaching them just in time to hear Mr. Puri’s last question.

‘Yes, what did you hear, Noel?’ she asked, sitting down with her back to a thick wooden post, her legs stretched out in front of her, while her aunt settled herself on the flat end of another post.

He smiled at her and said, ‘nothing!’

‘But, Noel, beta,’ Mr. Puri protested. ‘You just said you heard something unusual.’

He looked down at his coffee cup before raising his gaze to Mitul. She was smirking into her cup.

‘Yes, I heard something,’ he said. ‘It was like a long cry, guttural, and then it sort of finished in a growl,’ his eyes challenged Mitul to deny what he’d heard. ‘Tinker Bell was disturbed, too. She sat up with her ears perked.’

Mr. Puri gazed out over the water, his voice quiet and said. ‘I’ve heard it, too. And its not like something I’ve ever heard since. Only once before.’

‘Me, too,’ said Mrs. Puri quietly, nodding her head. ‘One night. In all the years we’ve come here.’

‘Who knows, beta? These forests could’ve animals that we’ve never seen or heard of. They haven’t been explored very much, and there are many parts where humans have never set foot upon. So many things could live for thousands of years, without making human contact in this wilderness.’ The calm tones of Mr. Puri’s voice were almost hypnotic in their cadence. They all sat quietly for a while, sipping their coffee, till Mitul broke the silence with an uneasy laugh.

‘So you’re telling me that there’s Bigfoot or Sasquatch or something out there?’ she asked, waving her arm to point to the deep, mysterious woods across the lake.

The other three looked at her, not answering her question.

‘Mausa, I’ve read up on these, and seen the numerous videos people have taken of these. Almost always, its a hoax. Made up. There’s no such thing!’ she protested, looking from one to the other. ‘If there was, don’t you think there’d be some evidence, some physical signs of it’s existence? What does it eat? How does it reproduce? Even for that matter, some sign that it shits? Even that has proved elusive. For decades people have been searching, so how come not a single piece of evidence has come to light?’ she concluded.

‘Footprints have been found.’ said Noel.

‘Yeah. But they could easily be old prints, human prints, distorted by erosion and natural causes,’ she argued.

‘Then why do these stories echo across the world? There’s the Yeti in the Himalayas. In Manipur and Nagaland, the Far East frontiers, they have something similar,’ Noel said before he could stop himself.

‘In Manipur?’ Mr. Puri was surprised.

‘Yes, Uncle,’ he said. In for a penny, in for a pound, he thought. ‘When I was in Manipur, we heard these stories among the tribesmen there. They talked about something similar. But no one had lived to tell the tale of real encounters. In Meghalaya they call it the Mande Burung.’

‘See? That’s what I mean,’ Mitul said. ‘No evidence, let alone hard evidence or even witnesses. Yet everyone is so ready to believe in the existence of the Sasquatch, Bigfoot, Yeti or whatever.’ She paused. ‘Mande Burung?’

‘It isn’t about hard evidence, and eye witnesses, Mitul,’ he looked directly at her. ‘There are some things, that don’t need any evidence, or eye witnesses. They just are. It’s a question of acknowledging that we may not know everything about everything or everybody. That the unseen may be the truth, rather than what lies in front of our eyes. And sometimes, it is our perception that colors the truth. Because the human mind measures everything by its own experiences, and tends to discard that which it hasn’t.’

He held her eyes as he spoke.

Why, she thought, does it feel like he’s not talking about Bigfoot or Sasquatch at all, but about something else altogether? Something he felt she ought to know about. The air between them was charged with electricity, and the Puris looked from one to the other curiously.

A few drops of rain fell and broke the tension.

‘It’s getting cold here,’ said Mrs. Puri. ‘Let’s go inside before we get soaked!’

****

Mitul sat in the den, typing up her notes on her laptop. Since the day was a wash out, she’d elected to work through it. She didn’t plan on baby-sitting Noel. He was a big boy, and he could handle himself with the family, she thought a little bit annoyed with him, for no reason whatsoever.

She plugged in the mobile internet USB card and accessed her email. Joyce wanted her to call, no surprises there. Her parents had sent her an email, general news. One email from her publisher asking her about the progress on her latest mushy romance. Nothing interesting at all.

She checked the time, and dialed Joyce. It was night time in India, but not that late. The phone rang but Joyce didn’t pick up. She left a voicemail and hung up.

There was a knock on the door before it opened and Noel walked in, two cups of coffee in his hand.

‘Hi,’ he said, huskily, holding out the cup like a peace offering.

Her lips automatically stretched into a smile, as the now familiar frisson traveled down her spine. ‘Thanks, I needed that,’ she said, accepting the coffee.

‘Are you online?’ he asked.

‘Yes, I am,’ she said. ‘Did you want to check email or something?’

‘Yeah, if you don’t mind,’ he said, sinking onto the daybed, and pulling out his laptop.

She pulled out the USB key and gave it to him, and watched as he plugged it in. ‘Let me set it up for you,’ she offered. He handed her the laptop and watched as she set it up and handed it to him.

He placed the laptop on the table across from her, and sat down, swiftly scrolling through the innumerable emails he had. Most were marked as “read”, indicating that Dev must have gone through them already. There was one email that had an attachment of a new story idea for him, that Dev had forwarded. He downloaded it and saved it. An email from Dev said that he wanted to talk to him and for him to call back. He scratched his forehead and read through the rest. His brother, Naval had sent one. Family stuff. He put it in a separate folder and opened one more email from his father, with an attachment. He opened the file and looked at the picture. He looked at Mitul sitting across from him, the light falling on her face, frowning in concentration, obviously engrossed in what she was writing. 

He hit Reply. ‘Not interested, Dad,’ he wrote, and hit Send.

He deleted the attachment, and for good measure, cleared out his Trash.

He sighed and logged off, pulling out the USB and handing it to her. ‘Thanks,’ he said, huskily.

She nodded absentmindedly, her fingers flying over the keyboard.

Mitul was putting together everything that had come out of Noel’s mouth so far. Everything pertaining to him, that is. This morning’s conversation about Bigfoot and Sasquatch, however, had unnerved her a little. Not so much by the topic itself, but the underlying message that he seemed to be sending her. So even while her fingers flew over the keyboards, her mind was racing. She didn’t know if she wanted to include this in the biography or not.

He was obviously open to the idea of cryptozoological specimens - for all you knew, he’d start swearing by the Loch Ness monster, the Chupacabra or the MothMan! Really, she thought huffing in exasperation. An ex-army man with such ridiculous beliefs!

“It’s a question of acknowledging that we may not know everything about everything ... or everybody.” 

His words rang in her head as she quickly typed them in, and then stared at the words. The Zen-like wisdom of that statement hit her hard. She swallowed and sat back in her chair, going over all that she had written down so far.

Noel had been absorbed in the script that Dev had sent and it was some time before he realized that he could no longer hear the clacking of her typing. He looked up. She was lost in thought, a frown on her face as she stared at the screen.

‘Mitul?’ he reached out a hand, gently touching her hand. She jumped and looked at him wide-eyed. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked her, the low husky voice and the touch of his hand on hers, doing strange things to her stomach, his green eyes peering into hers.

She nodded her head. ‘I’m fine,’ she said, taking a deep breath. ‘Fine.’ She slowly withdrew her hand. He frowned holding her eyes still. A question in his. She swallowed and shook her head.

‘I’ll be right back,’ she said, getting up and walking out.

****

In the living room, the Puris, Rajan and Anuj had watched Noel walk into the den with the coffee and shut the door behind him.

Mrs. Puri raised her eyebrows and said, ‘should I be calling Kamini?’ referring to Mitul’s mother.

Mr. Puri chuckled. ‘I don’t think so. They said they would be working. He’s here on some work with Mitul. She’s writing his biography, so they need to work on it together. Obviously, they can’t do it here.’

The others looked at Mr. Puri as if he had just claimed that he also believed in fairies and elves, and pots of gold at the end of a rainbow.

‘Yeah, right,’ snorted Piya, while Anuj smirked at her.

‘What d’you mean, Piya?’ Rajan asked.

‘Did you see how he ... ,’ she stopped herself before blurting out how she’d seen them both look at each other yesterday on the boat. Neither could she talk about him spending the night at her place, when he’d stayed behind because of her headache! And, as cool as idea of having Noel James as her jijaji was, she couldn’t tell all this to her parents. It would reach her maasi’s ears and there’d be hell to pay. So she ended her statement with a lame, ‘he wrapped the towel around her when she was cold?’

‘Yes, he’s pretty caring about her,’ surprisingly, it was Jiya who added this. Everyone turned to her and she blushed. ‘See, even at lunch, he made sure that she had a drink before he got one for himself.’

Piya stared in open admiration at her sister! She had missed that, but her sister hadn’t.

‘And he helped her in and out of the boat, both times,’ added Jiya for good measure, feeling more confident as she spoke.

Rajan looked on admiringly at his fiancee. ‘But, Jiya, I do that for you also, isn’t it?’ he asked.

‘Exactly. You do it for me, Anuj does it for Piya, and Noel does it for Mitul,’ she concluded. ‘Q.E.D.’

‘I don’t think we can reach any such conclusion,’ said Anuj. ‘I mean, the guy is just being courteous!’

‘True. He’s being courteous. But have you seen how he looks at her?’ Piya poked her boyfriend. ‘Like he... ‘ whoops! she almost said, like he could eat her alive! ‘Like he is always searching for her, when we’re all together.’

‘Mitul does that, too,’ Jiya said. ‘Always searching for him.’

Mr. Puri laughed at that, ‘Jiya, if you are observing this, then it must be true. But,’ he turned serious all of a sudden. ‘He is a film star. Girls throw themselves at him all the time, and he must be used to it. The world he’s been brought up in, he has to be courteous to a woman. He’s a really nice person, but ... he’s also a film star!’ like that explained everything.

‘I just hope Mitul isn’t hurt,’ Mrs. Puri said quietly.

At that moment, the door to the den opened, and Mitul stepped out. She looked across at the group in the living room, all of whom had turned towards her. ‘What?’ she asked.

‘Nothing,’ said Piya quickly, too quickly.

Mitul gazed from one expectant face to the next, shrugged, and headed upstairs. They all waited till they heard her walk to the bathroom, the creaking boards a giveaway to her location.

‘Wonder what happened?’ said the ever-curious Piya.

******

Noel picked up his phone and called Dev, pacing as he heard the phone ringing at the other end.

‘Dev,’ he said. ‘What’s up?’

‘The shit has hit the fan,’ said Dev quietly.

‘What?! What d’you mean?’

‘You and Ms Author. You’ve officially made the gossip pages,’ was Dev’s response. ‘Pics of the two of you are floating on the net.’

‘How did that happen?’ he was shocked.

‘You tell me,’ exasperated. ‘This morning, I see these pictures of you and I am presuming, Mitul, on Twitter. Nakul called back. They wanted the location of the film kept quiet, but now there’s a lot of speculation going on, mostly in Page 3 and the gossip rags and channels - never mind Twitter and Facebook and random forums. People are spotting you all over town, it seems. Speculation about what you’re doing in Toronto - the skyline behind you is a dead giveaway, and who is the woman with you. The chatter is snowballing, buddy. Parda Faash has already aired one segment with it. I’m working to put a lid on it, but the lid won’t be completely closed, Noel,’ he warned. ‘Unless something better comes along,’ he said after a pause.

He sat on the bed, one hand in his hair, the other holding the phone, trying to think of damage control. His life was public property, he was aware of that. But not hers, not without her consent, and he’d already seen how fiercely she guarded her privacy.

‘Dev, send me the pics or links, whatever you have, and I’ll call you back,’ he said quietly. He needed to see for himself just how bad it was.

‘Sure,’ Dev had calmed down, too. ‘Where are you now?’

‘Up in cottage country. So things should be okay’

‘What’s cottage country?’

‘North of Toronto, about five hours drive, in the middle of nowhere, with only one road as an approach. Totally isolated. You can’t hear a thing at night except animals and birds.’

‘Good,’ said Dev. ‘Stay there until you have to leave for New Foundland. When do you get back to Toronto?’

‘Monday. I leave for New Foundland on Wednesday morning.’

‘Can you stay somewhere else for those two days?’ Dev asked.

‘Book me into another hotel then, Dev. There’s barely wireless here, and no phones, and definitely no television. I’m really cut-off here,’ Noel said.

‘Perfect,’ said Dev. ‘I’ll call you Monday with the details of your hotel, okie? Meantime, I’ll handle the shit here.’

‘How bad is it? The pics I mean,’ he asked.

‘To be honest, there’s only two or three of them that are doing the rounds, that’re being picked up. The quality isn’t that good, but you’re easily recognizable.’

‘What about her?’

‘Can barely make out her face, she’s got a hat on that’s covered most of it,’ Dev replied. Noel closed his eyes in relief. Deniability was easy when the facts were so smudged, all puns intended, he thought.

‘Send me the links,’ he said grimly.

‘Okay,’ Dev said before ending the call. ‘I’ll let Joyce know.’

Noel’s phone beeped, low battery. He plugged it into the charger and walked into the living room.

****

That night, Noel lay in bed wide awake. He’d finally got the pictures from Dev, and he was right. While Noel was easily recognizable, Mitul’s face was mostly turned away or blurred. Whoever had taken the pictures had probably been focusing entirely on him, missing his companion, for which he was grateful. He hadn’t shown them to Mitul. There was no point. She would just be stressed over something that couldn’t be handled from here. It was better that he told her once they were back in Toronto. For now they would enjoy the days they had here, and work through his story.

He liked the Puris and their two additional members, and he didn’t want any of this to hurt them. None of them. He’d have to have a talk with them also, he decided. Tomorrow. Time enough.

He could hear the rain starting up again. Tonight there were no sounds. Tinker Bell slept deeply, lost in doggy dreams. The pitter-patter of the rain drops finally lulled Noel, and his eyelids drooped as he fell into a deep dreamless sleep as well. Neither he nor Tinker Bell woke up when a lone cry came from across the lake, drowned out by the falling rain on the roof and the window panes.

*****