Nge Michu, Chapter 11

No matter how much Khandu asks her by showing different degree of anger, Tshoki does not speak a word as if she has become dumb. Not knowing what to do, Khandu stands up and looks at Tshoki, who stands in front of him wearing an innocent face. He cannot force her to speak by beating as he is worried what if she blackmails him again.

“Tshoki, just tell me the truth?”

He requests going in front of her but she is silent. Getting mad by her silence, he shouts, “I am going now. If you want to tell me, just text me.”

Banging the door, he walks out. Getting inside the car, he calls Tencho immediately. But he is not responding the call. Driving for a few minutes, he says to himself, “What am I doing?”

Before heading back to Motithang, driving through the town, he parks in front of a restaurant and gets inside while his phone rings from the car. Going back to the car, he gets the phone.

“Tencho, come to Deki Restaurant.”

Getting inside the restaurant, sitting at a table, he waits for Tencho. Placing coffee on the table, a beautiful waitress asks, “Anything, sir?”

“Umm, chicken fried rice.”

As she walks away from the table, he looks at her back, taking him back to the moment when he met Tshoki for the first time. It was then in mid-May, one evening, he was driving towards Taba, when he saw a girl in school dress, sitting at the Indian House junction in Langjuphakha, drenched in the heavy rain. There were many taxis speeding in front of his car but she did not stop them. Thinking that she had no money to pay taxi fare, he stopped his car in front of her. Lowering the window glass, he asked, “Waiting for someone? Get inside, rain is heavy.”

Surprised by that, looking at him thoughtfully for a while, Tshoki said, “It’s okay. I am waiting for the city bus.”

“Please, get in. You will fall sick.”

Since that evening, he always travelled to Taba picking up Tshoki from that junction. Days after days, weeks after weeks, then he fell for her and proposed her one evening, while she said, “I will think it over.”

The next day, she said, “Okay.”

“Khandu?”

“Oh, Tencho?”

Dressed in gho, the smell of perfume circling round his body, Tencho sits down on a chair opposite to him. The waitress walks to the table with the fried rice, when Tencho asks him, “What’s the emergency?”

Wearing a beautiful smile and innocence glowing from her cheek, the waitress keeps the plate on the table, meanwhile Tencho says, “Coffee for me, please!”

He says in a teasing tone. Taking the plate, observing the rice carefully, Khandu says, “I am in trouble.”

Telling Tencho everything about Tshoki and Dorji, he takes a spoonful of rice into in his mouth, when Tencho speaks softly, “Just leave her.”

Munching the rice, he takes a sip from the cup and raises his eyebrows at Tencho, “She still has the footage. She will blackmail me again. What if she tells Yangchen?”

“Didn’t you delete the footage when she was asleep?”

“Her phone is coded. I don’t know the password,” says Khandu, looking desperate for the ideas.

“Don’t worry, I will help you with that.”

“How?”

“I will let you know.”

At the same time, at Motithang, Yangchen keeps the plates into the wash basin gently after the breakfast. Going to the rice cooker, she keeps the light on thinking that Khandu will be back for breakfast. Walking back to the sitting room, looking at her mother, she says, “Ama, can you keep the child on the bed and help Yuden to wear kira?”

Holding the child in her arms, her mother stands up, when Yuden shouts from the bedroom, “Ama, where is my kera?”

“Angay is coming to help you,” replies Yangchen and walks towards the bathroom. Pushing the door gently, she says, “Apa, let me help with your back.”

Taking a jug, she fills it up with water and pours it down on her father’s back. Rubbing his back with a scrub, she pours water. Having finished washing his head, her father walks out back to the sitting room when the doorbell rings. Closing the tap, she gets out and goes directly to the door with water dripping on the floor from her wet hands. Catching the door knob, she pulls the door gently when a woman, unknown to her, stands at the door wearing a lost expression.

She greets her, “Hi, how can I help you?”

The woman looks hesitant and looking at other doors, she asks, “Is this Khandu’s quarter?”

“Yes, it’s.”

As the woman mentions Khandu’s name, thinking that she is known to Khandu, Yangchen says, “Please, come in.”

The woman waits for a while and then she walks inside. Sitting down on the sofa, the woman observes the room carefully, making a suspicious face and finally, she says, “I am here to seek help from you and your husband. Is he here?”

“Umm, he is not here. Please, tell me.”

“I am Tshoki’s sister.”

Story by: Phurpa Dorji (PJIKKS)

Chapter 12 Tomorrow @9PM