She banged on the door "knock-knock-bang-bang". Her husband opened the door and asked, "Where were you? Its 8 p.m. and whats with the banging?". She ran into the apartment, sat on the mahogany sofa and said, "Nothing happened, as usual, the eve teasing of those pathetic college boys". He handed her a glass of water, sat down on the sofa, caressed her shoulder and said, "How many times I have told you if you want to teach those slum children, go there in the morning or in the early afternoon but you never listen to me". She drank the water, sighed and said, "I can't, they don't feel comfortable in the heat and nor do I. I don't know what to do, I really love those kids. How would you know". He sighed, he knew where it was going. They were trying to have a child for the last couple of years but their hope was dying now. He stood up and went into the store room, after 5 minutes he found what he was looking for.
A wooden chest, worn off but heavy. He sat down on the sofa and handed it over to her. She opened the chest, lazily. Her eyes grew wide open when she saw what was inside it. It was a .32" pistol. She said angrily, "What the hell is it for?". She never knew he had a pistol. He said softly, "It is for your safety, next time if anything goes wrong then you have to use it. I don't want any phone call informing me that you have been raped. I am not that strong but you are. I won't be able to live without you". She gasped and said, "Honey, I don't think its such a good idea". He said, "I don't know but you must take it. Just put it in your purse. But remember, while taking an aim, point it lower so that the bullet hits the goon on the thigh or lower. I don't want you to blow his brains out." She said, "Okay. If you say so. Now lets have the dinner".
It was 5:30 p.m. already and her kinetic was punctured. She ran towards the main road and caught an auto towards the slum area. The autowala adjusted the mirror so that he could see her and drove slowly. She said, "Bhaiya please hurry up. I'm already late." He accelerated a bit. Half an hour after she reached there. She paid him 80 bucks and went to the small grocery shop. She thought some chocolates might come in handy to silence those kids because she was late today and they will shout that today she is the one who is late. She told the pot-bellied shopkeeper to give her 50 eclairs and a rat kill. He said eyeing her, "Rat Kill to nahi hai madamji, chaklet hi hai. Aapka kaam chal jayega?" She said, " Yes, jaldi se de do." She paid him, took the polybag full of chocolates and ran towards the education centre.
As she entered her noisy classroom, the children started making more noise-"late, late, late". She showed them the polybag and told them to be silent. She counted the children and said, "19 only 19 today, whats the matter?" One of the boys said, "It'll rain today so most of us didn't came." She thought it was unlikely to rain in December but most of the time these children were right about the weather. Then she a chocolate to each one of them and put down the polybag with rest of the chocolates near the door. She started teaching- "Today we'll learn about multiplication...."
"Kadadaboom", she startled when she heard the thunder and looked into her wristwatch. It was 7:15 p.m. She thought it is better to end the lecture now as it was already very dark outside. She told them to do their homework, collected her purse and the polybag and locked the door after children left the classroom. She looked into the sky, it was dark but she can see that it may rain tonight. She thought it is better to take the short route today because getting an auto in this weather and at this place was almost impossible. As she hurried towards the short route the power supply of the area shut off. "Fuck", she said.
She tried to walk as fast as she can in the empty street. After a couple of minutes she heard some footsteps following her. She was afraid and was panting now. She turned around but she couldn't see anything in the dark. She thought it is better to resume walking now. She heard it again and now she was sure that someone was following her. Her hand reached into her purse and she grabbed the pistol. The footsteps were approaching her even faster now. She turned around, lowered the pistol a bit and -"bang-bang", she fired 2 shots straight with her quivering hands.
She heard a light thud. She tried to walk again but she couldn't. She turned back and started walking towards the unknown body. Something hit her in the foot. AS she lowered her body and a deafening thunder followed the lightning. She was horror-struck as she saw the face of the person. It was her own student, an 8 years old poor boy who used to live in the old city. She screamed helplessly and took his head into her lap. It started raining and the power came back on. She saw some chocolates near the body and some in his hand. Then she looked into the polybag. There were a few chocolates in there and there was a hole made by a rat in the polybag. She wept and lay there with the body. Someone called the police. She fainted as she heard the police siren approaching. Some policemen came out of the jeep. One of them whacked her. She opened her eyes as she saw them taking the body away. They made her to sit in the jeep. She tried to cry but she couldn't.
She never spoke again.
