going places

Piku heard the news late that night around 3 am. It was hard to believe at first but the moment he regained his consciousness, he had already stuffed all of his shirts and jeans to his green, dirty old back pack and ready to head off to Kuala Lumpur to meet her. The call was unusual he thought. Maybe because of the fact that he and Eve had broken up last year and the last call he received from her was 9 months ago but he knew before that this day will come. The warmth feeling of joy somehow crept slowly inside through his vain. She finally did it…she did, he thought with a smile carved on his face.

As he walked rapidly to his black, shinning and well cared Honda car around the corner of his two-storey house, he kept on thinking how his life has changed in the past three months. He had just been fired from his 2 years job at the prestigious Keller- Howard Publishing Company where he worked as their copy writer. It was a mistake he thought. His boss Mr. Keller had wanted to secure the biggest contract from the nation’s top organization and hand sent him to secure the deal. It was an easy job he thought at first but soon when he arrived at the meeting room of the organization’s building, he couldn’t believe his own eyes when he saw the very person who’s in charge with the contract was Daniel, his arch-enemy during their years in the university.

Daniel was with Eve for four years before they broke up. According to Eve, Daniel had had an affair with some girls at his economics class. Since Eve was so heart broken, he thought maybe it’s best for him to console her and since three of them were such good friends, he thought maybe he can help them to get together back. Unfortunately, it never happens since two months after that he and Eve became a couple. He remembered that it was all very confusing. He and Eve had spent the time almost every day since she broke up with Daniel. All the time he had asked Eve to try and forgive Daniel for he was sure that Daniel was fully regretted and heart broken by their break up. He even lied to Eve by saying that the affair was only a rumor and someone was ought to scam Daniel because Daniel was a very bright and handsome boy. It sounded like a very lame lie the minute he said it and at certain time it was almost sounded very gay to him but since he truly loved them to get together back, he thought perhaps he could forgive himself for saying that. Everyday, he tried to bring Eve to her right mind so she could realize how important Daniel was to him.

One day, one month after that, He and Eve was out picnic together at the famous waterfall near his grandad’s house. The waterfall was amazing since it had not been commercialized before. In fact not many people know its existence. It was surrounded by the most greenish elements they were both had seen in their life and they were surprised to see that no one except them was there. He remembered that Eve looked very lovely that day. She wore a blue Prada shirt and a long wavy cashmere blouse and she let her smooth and bouncy long hair free. Eve was always a very beautiful girl. She has the prettiest eyes in the whole wide world and a heaven’s smile that every woman wants. She was the tallest girl in their class and on top of that she possessed the body of a super model. They had so much fun that day and before the day was over, he had been on top of Eve, stroking and penetrating her.

Daniel couldn’t accept the news that his best friend had snatched his girlfriend right under his nose. He told Daniel that they had never planned it to happen and he and she deserve a chance. He even told that Eve was not his girlfriend anymore and the moment he said the word affair to Daniel after that, the only thing he remembered was Daniel’s big and muscular right hand had reached his face. Since then they had never spoken to each other anymore. Eve was furious when she saw his nose was bleeding and she couldn’t stop saying that Daniel was being so childish and mental. He watched Eve cleaning up his bloodied nose with her white handkerchief that he had bought her before with an overwhelming feeling that they will end up with marriage when the day has come. He never saw Daniel much after that and when once in a while they bumped to each other on their way to classes, Daniel usually gave him the looked of a predator waiting the right time to end his prey’s life. As for Eve and him, they became the most lovable, romantic and popular couple of the century.

He was sure that after all the years they had left the university, Daniel still had his grudge on him because the moment he saw him in the meeting room, Daniel couldn’t stopped grinding him with insults and unbelievable questions like “ If I don’t give you the contract, will you steal it?” He tried to keep his composure over the in coming non-stop insult that he received by his former best friend. He tried to be as much professional and kept on suggesting that they should proceed with the discussion but it was impossible to do it with Daniel. The insult became nastier after 30 minutes of their time together and when he decided he couldn’t take t anymore, it was a little too late because his hand had already landed on Daniel’s face. The surge of his blood that went to his brain was nothing like he had ever felt before and at that instant moment he knew that the feeling Daniel’s had when he punched him years ago.

Later that day, after been escorted by two bulky Indian guards off from Daniel’s building, he was at Mr. Keller’s room listening his boss throw his fury at him. He tried to explain the insult that he received over the meeting but instead of at least try to understand his position, Mr. Keller fired him.

One week after his sudden retirement at Howard and Keller’s he received a visit from four strangers at his house. He never saw them before but he knew that he was not lucky that day. He remembered they were bigger than him. All very muscular, clean looking and well dressed. At the first sight, they might look like secret agents or something. Before he could ask them a question, he had been beaten up by those guys. It was very painful to him. He felt like every piece of his bones was shattered to a million tiny pieces. He could felt blood running down bathing all over his face and the thumping sounds of something hard were like sweet music of jazz to him. At that time all he could think of was the government must either made a mistake in identifying a possible terrorist or must be crazy to send these guys to beat him. For almost 10 minutes he had to endure the pain and the unbearable shame for wetting himself down below, the four brutish guys finally stopped. Perhaps they were too tired to go on or thought that he was too weak to breathe. Before they got out and left him to death, he one of he men turned to him and said “Daniel sends his regards to you”.

As he laid on the floor of his house, face swollen and unable to keep pace from his own breathe, he kept on praying that someone will get to him and save him for he might have died that day but no one was there to help him. He spent a night with stinking blood covering his whole face, body too weak to move, mind too confused to reach God. Finally he managed to muster back his strength and crawled out from his house and gets some help from his neighbor.

He had to spent two weeks in the intensive care unit and another two weeks in the hospital wing before the doctor satisfied and let him go home. The moment he spent at the hospital was horrible. The nurses, most of them too old and too stressed out to handle a patient had nurtured him like a pesticide. They cleaned up his cuts roughly and he swears to God that they might even strangle him while bandaging his hand and head. At nights, he couldn’t fell asleep because it seemed to him that every 30 minutes, someone will scream their throat out and on top of that he could hear someone, probably a woman was crying near his bed but it was impossible since he stayed in a wing full of men. The day he got out from the hospital, he made a promise to himself that he will never get sick again…

He is about 10 minutes to reach Eve’s house and he could feel the feeling of sensational euphoria surging up to his brain. He knew that Eve will make the right choice and call him back. He decided that she deserves her second chance and they should forget everything that had happened between them before. He could see Eve smiling to him with the tears of joy streaming down from her eyes. He missed her so much and the thought of looking at her dazzling eyes and majestic smile make him want to sing his heart out…