Five-Thirty AM - XXI

The morning sun was high in the sky. Mumbai roared on, in muted voices below the window. The air conditioner tripped on in the silence of the room, a low hum adding to the white noise around.

Mitul stared at Noel’s profile as he sat turned away from her, looking into the distance, lost in thought. There was a pain, a physical ache in her chest at the thought of the agony he must have gone through. Had the bullet been a little more accurate, or the grenade a little closer, she wouldn’t have been sitting here today. He wouldn’t be in her life today, she thought. A screaming pain shot through her heart at that. The idea of not having Noel in her life was ... incomprehensible! She couldn’t breathe! She was unaware that she’d been crying till she felt a tear tickle her chin.

She lifted her hand, then, to wipe away the tears silently streaking her face, looking down at her notepad.

The slight movement distracted Noel.

He turned his head and looked across the table, seeing her wipe her cheeks, his heart constricting at the sight of them. He swallowed. He realized that Mitul in pain wasn’t something he wanted to see, ever. He closed his eyes. Why was she crying? Were those tears for him?

Or was they just a natural reaction of a person listening to a painful story? He didn’t know, and he cursed his male DNA for not being able to answer that.

Realizing he was looking towards her, Mitul ducked under the table, rummaging around uselessly at the bag at her feet, until she’d composed herself. She sat up straight, put her hands on the table, clasping them to hide the slight tremble, knuckles clenched tight.

He looked at her hands, trying to understand why she was stressed, before raising his gaze to her face.

She looked straight into his eyes and asked in a raw, tear-drenched voice, ‘What happened then?’

He turned away again, his profile to her. He swallowed, and her eyes followed the movement of his Adam’s apple. He frowned, trying to recollect the details.

‘I remember waking up screaming,’ he shook his head, ‘I don’t know how many times. There was a lot of pain.’ His voice dropped to almost a whisper, as though he was speaking to himself. ‘So much pain.’

*****

Noel finally came to, in a hospital in Delhi, Naveen and his mother beside him.

He looked around, feeling is lips parched. But the first words out of his mouth were, ‘Ma? Where am I?’

‘In Delhi, beta,’ his mother said, wiping the tears from her eyes, happy to see him finally lucid.

‘Water,’ he whispered.

Naveen raised the bed, so he wouldn’t have to move, while his mother held a glass of water to his lips. He drank thirstily and then took a look around.

‘Why am I in Delhi?’ he asked as he took stock of himself. The entire left side of his chest hurt. His arm was in a sling. His back hurt in a myriad places. An IV was taped into his right hand. Bruises along both his forearms indicated all the points where the IV had been inserted.

‘Naveen had you flown out here. You were badly injured,’ his mother said.

‘How long? How long have I been out of it?’

‘Three weeks,’ she replied, stroking his face, still unable to believe that her baby was okay.

‘You’ve had a lot of surgeries,’ Naveen added. ‘And you’ll need more.’

He just looked questioningly at his older brother, who continued, ‘the bullet caught you on an upward trajectory.’

‘Naveen! Do we have to tell him all this now?’ his mother interrupted.

‘No, Mom,’ Noel’s voice was still hoarse. ‘I need to know.’

Naveen sat on a stool on the other side of the bed. He gripped Noel’s fingers tightly, finally betraying how glad he was that his little brother was okay. He thanked God as he looked into the same green eyes as his and said, ‘the grenade missed you. The jeep protected most of your back, so only your upper back was injured. Even those are minor, and will leave you with tiny scars.’

‘So what did I have surgeries for?’ Noel asked.

‘The doctor will explain to you,’ Naveen’s voice was thick. ‘But the miracle is that you are alive!’ He wanted to hug his little brother and make sure he was back again.

He saw Noel start gasping and was alarmed, ‘Noel! Noel!! What’s wrong?’

The sudden flood of pain across his entire left side, made him sit up straight, almost retching with the intensity of it.

‘Lie down, Noel,’ his mother was frantic, as she helped him lie down. Naveen was jabbing his thumb on the call-button again and again.

A nurse came running in through the doors. ‘What’s wrong?’

Noel was lying there, his eyes screwed shut in pain, moaning.

‘He’s in pain, nurse,’ Naveen’s voice was frightened.

She took the IV in her hand and hit a button a couple of times on a small switch attached to it. In a little while they watched as Noel’s breathing evened out and his eyes became slightly glazed.

‘Noel. Look at me, Noel. Noel, look at me,’ the nurse tapped his cheek. He lifted his eyes to her, focusing on her words. She put the switch in his hand, ‘this button here. Whenever you feel pain, hit it, okay? It will release morphine into your system. You’ll be able to deal with the pain. Understood?’

He nodded.

She said, ‘Good. Use it. You’ll need it to be able to sleep. The more you sleep, the faster you‘ll heal.’ She smiled at him and stroked back his hair.

He nodded again, before his head slipped to one side, and he fell into another drug-induced sleep, thankfully, free of pain.

The next morning, he was awake when the doctor came to see him.

‘So tell me, doctor, what’s the extent of my injuries?’ he asked. The pain was starting as a dull thud now, but he wouldn’t take that morphine until he’d heard about this.

The doctor searched his face and then decided he could take the news. ‘The bullet was fired from a lower point, the trajectory was upward. It entered close to your armpit, ricocheted against your rib, and then exited through your chest. It didn’t touch any major organs or blood vessels. That, in itself, is a miracle. But it did do damage to your internal muscles and tissues. The rib was nicked, a piece flying into the exit path. Your uniform actually saved you, it slowed the bullet down a little.

‘The main issue was that the wound had become infected. We had to work really hard to kill that. It’s good that your brother decided to fly you out to Delhi. We have better facilities here.’

Noel frowned. ‘So why was I in multiple surgeries?’

‘Internal bleeding, inside the wound. We were unable to locate it, until we found the bone shard. All that is fixed now. But the healing process will take a long time, especially to get full mobility in that arm back - at least months. You might never get back full strength in it again, probably not even full mobility’ he said soberly.

Something was nagging Noel. ‘What does that mean? Can I go back to active duty?’

The doctor shook his head. ‘I’m afraid not,’ he said, gently. ‘You wouldn’t be able to go back to the field. You can, however, go back to administrative services,’ he added. He knew, however, that his patient would not be satisfied with that. He would want to be out on the field, fighting next to his comrades. Then again, that was a choice he had to make.

Noel nodded quietly. The full magnitude of the impact of this news on his life, had yet to hit him. That night, the pains came again, and he depressed the morphine drip, glad of the release that it brought.

The next time Noel woke up, the entire family was there. Naveen, Naval, Shelley, Naveen’s wife, his nephews, Rohan and Rollie. He felt much better, but also a little disoriented, as he was missing three weeks of his life!

One more thing was bugging him. ‘Naval, where’s Papa?’ he asked amidst the excitement of everybody else in seeing him awake finally.

Naval smiled and said, ‘Papa was here all morning. We are the evening shift!’

Noel laughed, but then grimaced, more at the stiffness in the shoulder, than the dull pain underlying it.

*****

The door to the conference room opened after a soft tap. Dev popped his head in.

‘Noel,’ he tapped his watch. ‘It’s almost 1:30. Do you folks want to go eat?’

Noel shook himself off from the memories of those days. Dev had brought him back to today. To Mitul sitting in front of him, sitting with pain writ large in her eyes.

She swung around to look at Dev and said, ‘I should get going, I guess.’

‘Have lunch with us before you go, Mitul,’ Dev suggested. ‘It’s late enough already.’

‘Dev’s right. Why don’t you have lunch with us?’ Noel stood up and asked.

She looked uncertainly from one to the other and then said, ‘all right. I’ll join you,’ smiling politely.
They waited till she’d gathered all her things, before leaving together.

Over lunch, Dev wanted to know how it was going.

‘It’s going well, I think,’ Mitul’s voice was low.

The corner of his lip lifted in a sardonic smile. ‘You think?’

‘It’s ...’ she stopped unable to go further. The revelations had her still her reeling. She looked at Noel and asked, ‘does it bother you, still?’

He knew what she was referring to and smiled, shook his head and said, ‘only when it’s cold. Which never happens in Mumbai,’ effectively lightening her mood. He was happy to see the light come back in her eyes, as she smiled. He was glad he was able to make her smile.

None of his thoughts, however, showed on his face.

*****

Mitul spent the rest of the day with Joyce, going over what she’d learnt and how she wanted present it.

Joyce was as shocked as Mitul to learn about the revelations of Noel’s life.

‘I had no idea!’ she sounded as stunned as she looked.

‘Neither did I, Joyce,’ Mitul said softly. ‘If these were to become public knowledge, who knows what the fall out of it would be,’ she paused. ‘Especially for him,’ her voice had softened.

Joyce narrowed her eyes. She’d known about Mitul’s fascination about Noel for a long time. She’d always put it down to adulation. But Mitul had been interacting with him on a regular basis for the past few months. It seems like she had known that there was a story to be told there.

She just hoped that Noel wasn’t taking advantage of the girl’s idealism.

She liked Mitul.

Because, despite the fact that she’d established herself as a bona-fide writer, despite her keen appetite for knowing all there was to know about the world around her, despite the fact that she was a smart, strong, independent woman, there was still a large stubborn streak of romanticism and naivete in her.

Joyce was aware of this, uncomfortably so.

She’d never seen Noel and Mitul interact. But she hoped that Mitul had kept her pragmatic self in control, and not gone and done anything stupid like falling in love with the man. Falling in love with an actor was a straight ride down a slippery slope to Heartbreak Hotel, in her opinion.

Joyce kept all these thoughts to herself. She never interfered in her writers’ personal lives, preferring not to get too involved in them. That way, she never felt bad when she had to criticize someone or call something out as pure drivel or as she called it - crap!

‘So,’ she pulled herself out of her thoughts. ‘What do you want to do?’

Mitul had thought this over very carefully. What she said was, ‘I think we should get the whole story, but let him decide what he wants to keep in, and what he wants to rule out,’ she said firmly. ‘It’s his story - how much he chooses to tell or not should be up to him.’

‘He’s already told you all this. It’s on record, there’s no reason for him to back out now,’ Joyce pointed out.

‘True,’ Mitul agreed.

Why on earth was she protecting him? Hadn’t been this the very reason that she’d started on this journey in the first place? So why was she hesitating now?

‘But I still think, we let him know what our doubts or issues are. This is more than just Noel James. There are larger, more sensitive issues here. This could easily affect his career and ...’ she stopped. She really was protesting too much, she thought. But she had to give this chance to Noel.

Joyce looked at her thoughtfully, her face giving little away. She seemed to be weighing something on her mind. Finally, she nodded and said, ‘okay. We’ll do it your way. Finish the book and we’ll let his legal team decide on the final release.’

Mitul didn’t realize she had been holding her breath. She sighed in relief, closing her eyes. Then opening them once again when Joyce continued.

‘I’d like a first draft by ...’ she quoted a day in four weeks.

‘Joyce, my cousins, both of them are getting married in six weeks - it’s a double wedding. I’ll barely have time to breathe, once they come down from Canada. So you have to give me a little more time,’ she pleaded.

‘Oh! Well,’ her lips pursed, Joyce did not look pleased. ‘how much longer do you need?’

‘Seven weeks. The week after the wedding, I can have it ready for review,’ she promised, mentally making a note to call Dev and ask for more time from Noel.

Joyce nodded. ‘Seven weeks it is. And not a moment more,’ she smiled.

Mitul grinned at her, and impulsively hugged her, ‘Thanks, Joyce.’

Joyce was startled, and pulled back.

Mitul laughed. ‘And don’t forget. You’re coming for the wedding, too!’

Joyce laughed before starting to discuss her weekly assignment. After all, she still had to earn her salary!

*****

Mitul called Dev on the way home. She felt much better after this chat with Joyce. But she also had to keep to her schedule. Hence the call to Dev.

‘Mitul, hi!’ he answered.

‘Dev, I need some time with Noel this week again. Do you think it would be possible?’ she asked.

Dev was silent. Then he said, ‘let me call you back and let you know. It’s Wednesday already.’

‘I know, and I really appreciate it. Thanks, Dev,’ she said.

*****

Dev turned off the phone and turned to Noel, who was busy checking his hair in the mirror, seemingly unaffected by the call. They were in Noel’s vanity at the outdoor location.

‘That was Mitul,’ he said.

‘I gathered as much,’ Noel replied.

Dev waited for him to ask the obvious question, but he didn’t. ‘She wants more time with you this week,’ he finally told Noel’s back.

Noel stilled. He turned around and looked at his friend, his green eyes narrowed.

‘Why?’ he asked.

Dev shook his head. ‘She didn’t say why, just that she wanted to continue.’

Noel took a deep breath and then said, ‘no.’

‘No?’

‘No.’

Dev was baffled. ‘Why no? why now? You agreed to do this biography thing, and now, you want to back out?’

Noel’s jaws clenched. He visibly controlled some strong emotion within him that Dev couldn’t understand and then said very quietly, ‘I don’t think I can talk to her any more. We reached the point right after I got injured. I don’t want to talk about what followed, not that nor what happened with my first serial.’

Dev was shocked, mouth open, jaws slack, shocked. ‘You can’t tell her this now? You agreed to this, Noel. You knew the point would come when you would have to do this. So why back off now?’ He was breathing heavily, frustrated with Noel.

‘Or is it something to do with the fact that it’s Mitul who will hear about this part of your life?’

‘That’s ... got nothing to do with it!’ Noel snapped in a low voice. ‘I don’t want to expose myself that much.’ Especially, not to her, he added to himself.

Dev looked at him, exasperated, but stepped back, letting Noel think for himself. ‘Your choice, Noel.’ he put a hand on his shoulder. ‘Let me know, I need to call her today.’ He turned around and walked out of the vanity.

Ten minutes later, he got the call.

‘Tell her I’ll meet her tomorrow. You set up the time and place.’

Dev smiled grimly as he hung up.

****