The Mechanic Strikes Again: Chapter 5 - A Brush with Death
Suddenly she found a pair of hands grab her head and pull her out of the water. Almost immediately the darkness all around her was expelled by a powerful beam of light from above. 'Good heavens. A minute later and you would've drowned yourself in the bathtub Mrs. Ghosh. Shivangi found that an electrician had been fetched and the fuse box repaired. 'What happened ? How did you fall asleep ? Are you Ok ? She could feel her heartbeats racing as Arunava came closer. She had changed and taken rest for sometime by then.
'You must've been stressed out. You've had a lot on yourself since last night. What you need now is complete rest for a couple of hours. Your husband is away, you said. Are there no one at your home .. a maid .. any relative ? Well bring in a friend if that's the case, but please don't stay alone. And don't worry. We're looking after the case and will keep you apprised of any developments. File an RTI anytime and you can keep a check on the efforts being made to find your missing sister that way'.
Shivangi smiled in her mind. She knew she had what was known as 'Narcolepsy' in medical terms. All of it had started when she was in class three. Suddenly one morning there was guardian call and the class teacher had complained her father about his daughter's inattentiveness and falling asleep in class. Later one night she had woken up screaming. That was when she had her first nightmare. She found it impossible to move her limbs when she woke up.
And things had only worsened further since then. The symptoms came up on her sister about a year later. Her father had consulted a number of doctors but to no avail. Referring to quacks, priests, even occultists had continued unabatedly and it wasn't long before the neighbours and relatives had labelled them as bananas - often sharing a laugh behind their back.
Psychological diseases are still considered a taboo in the society in which they had been brought up. It took a great deal of concealing and cajoling on the part of Shivangi's parents to convince her in-laws that their daughter-in-law was perfectly all right. Still the air couldn't be cleared. On their wedding night when she had left him unsatiated at the peak of his desire, Upendra had charged at her directly 'Your father has deliberately married off a sickly daughter'.
Shivangi knew there was no cure for Narcolepsy yet. Formal medications not being of much help, healthy sleep patterns and reducing stress in daily routine were the key to keep well - all of which were difficult to practice in today's hectic life where one had to survive the fierce rat race, everyday . Besides, one had to learn to keep one's emotions in control as well - those which triggered the sleep disorder.
Shivangi had tried to be as concise as possible. But now it seemed everything she had tried to hide from Upendra .. from the world .. from herself would be surfacing one by one. If the police sought Suparna's medical reports they'd also come to know that besides Narcolepsy she had Post-Traumatic -Stress-Disorder (PTSD) too since her parents' deaths. Her marriage would be on the rocks when Upendra comes to know of it all. Even the police would stop looking actively for Suparna once they come to know that she had psychological disease. They'd soon infer that Suparna had gone missing all by herself and there was no foul play involved. And who was not aware of the fact that the thousands of people who went missing in the city by themselves never came back, and their names were written off the records in no time ?
'Ok. Go home now Mrs. Ghosh. Just remember what I've said and if you need any help you have my number'. As he came closer and looked into her eyes Shivangi could feel the butterflies again. 'Are you sure you can drive of your own ?' Shivangi tried to smile, but actually blushed.
The last time she had got a ring from her sister she had been pulled into the flat by some mysterious force, and now hours after that there was something which stopped her from leaving. Suparna's memories thrived in every room, every corner of the flat and it seemed they won't leave her until she found out what happened to her. As Shivangi looked at her sister's smiling face from a photo frame in her bedroom, it seemed Suparna was hiding somewhere, waiting to spring upon her sister and shake her up from her reverie. Inadvertently her eyes fell on the bed-side table and it sent a shiver down her spines. This time she was sure it wasn't her hallucination.
'Officer just look at the glass over there'. Arunava Sarkar looked in the direction of Shivangi's shaking finger and walked up to the bed side table briskly. 'What do you see Sir ?' 'Your sister had her last sip of beer in her flat before she disappeared'. Arunava shrugged his shoulders. 'I can bet I found it to be filled a couple of hours ago when I first visited the flat'.
