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
