Five Times
Chapter 8

May 15, 2018

Intelina promptly opened her eyes and straightened her head, when she heard heavy footsteps nearing her. She was so sure that it was Whalros. And yeah…she was right.

The moment Whalros stepped into the room Intelina’s fear rose to heights. Intelina saw an unusual joy in his face.

“He looks excited today! Did he hurt someone? Why is he here now?” her heart ached with lots of imaginations. Her thoughts halted when she heard Whalros voice echoing the room.

“Halo my dear Intelina!”

“Don’t ever call me ‘dear’. I hate you to the core”. She was fuming with anger and snapped at him right away.

But Whalros looked so cool and said, “But I love you, DEAR”. He deliberately said the word again to irritate her.

“Shut up!” she screamed in anger and abruptly turned her head to the left refusing to see him.

“Okay cool! I just want to tell you something” Whalros said and passed for a while to have a look at Intelina. The streaks of lines in her forehead and her furrowed eyebrows said that she was totally confused.

“Be strong to here the bad news Intelina. God! Where are you?”

On the other hand, Whalros felt glad when he saw her eyes rolling in fear, breathing heavily and feeling uncomfortable.

“You know, we, the whales, had a great feast today”

“What?” Intelina turned again to see him straight through his eye. Her blue eyes which were furious a second before was now widened in shock”

“Yes, we had. She tasted so good. Mmm…..mmm….mmm”

“Stop it!! What are you saying? I can’t get anything!” shouted Intelina.

“Well! You are so eager to hear everything. So let me tell you” said Whalros with a sarcastic smile.

When Whalros narrated everything that had happened back with Anne, Intelina couldn’t control her tears and she burst out. She twisted her body on all sides vehemently in a hope to get out of the ropes. She knew that she couldn’t come out those magical ropes. Yet she somehow wanted to escape the ropes to just kick him out of the world. She finally got tired and saddled back on the chair. Her heart throbbed in pain. She gritted her teeth with tears pouring down her cheeks.

Whalros at the same time let out a tremulous laugh that made Intelina froze in her chair. His laugh carried a you-can’t-escape-from-me tag.

Intelina was grieving for the loss of Anne. Being the queen of the ocean, she could do nothing to help the poor girl than to shed tears for Anne. She felt ashamed of herself. Now, her anger towards Whalros hiked and she stared at him with the threatening look along with tears gushing down.

“Why did you…do this? Why are you so….heartless?” she busted at Whalros in between her sobs. She felt a lump in her throat which sealed her mouth from uttering another word. But she had a lot more to ask him. She took a deep breath and shouted at him with full throat.

“Tell me bastard! You bitch! You fool! Can’t you be alive without hurting anyone? Such a……….”

Slap…

Intelina’s right side of the head banged right at the floor making her screen in pain. It took some minutes to recall what had happened. God! Her left cheek had turned red and flamed like fire. She had just realized that Whalros had hit her and as a result of his force she fell down on the floor along with the chair. She couldn’t tolerate the pain in her head. And thank god, she fainted.

Whalros was satisfied when he saw her lying collapsed on the floor. He toddled off the room leaving her as she was.

Once the scanning process in the Port Blair airport was over, Lara rushed to the lawyer, Srinivas, who was waiting for her arrival. The instant she saw the lawyer, she fastened towards him, dragging her bag along.

“Lara, how was your journey?”

“What about James? Have you got the permit to see him?” Lara didn’t like to beat around the bush. So she went straight to the topic about James.

“I am sorry Lara. You have to wait for one more day” said Srinivas in a gloomy tone. “But don’t worry. I promise that you will meet him for sure”.

Lara just bowed her head and nodded. She fluttered her eyelashes as fast as she could to hold her tears back. Both of them headed towards the car silently.

Prasanth and Bharat family were super excited to see Andaman. They took two taxis to reach the destination. Abi with her family boarded a taxi and Adhi’s family took a separate one. Before getting into the car, Abi checked with Adhi through the corner of her eye. He was busy arranging the luggage in the boot. Her lips unknowingly extended on seeing him. When Adhi closed the boot, a pang of warning rushed all over her body. She suddenly got on the car and slammed the door rapidly.

All through the way to the hotel, Abi and Diya enjoyed the Andaman city, having their heads out of the window. Diya was literally standing on her seat that Ahana had to grip her tightly by her waist.

“Is this the first time to Andaman sir?” asked the driver politely.

“I had been here before. But as a family trip, this is the first time” said Prasanth smiling at the driver.

“Fine sir…Here are lot many places to visit. You will have a great time for sure sir”

Prasanth smiled and nodded in approval.

“Uncle, Can we breathe under water? Because I am scared to step into it” Diya asked with a childish grin that made everyone laugh, including the driver.

“Yes, baby. You can breathe. That’s a beautiful world there. But I am afraid. You can’t enjoy it this time”

“What? Why? What happened?” series of questions came from everyone.

“A trainer was missing from today morning. There are rumors that whales are at the snorkeling site. So, snorkeling and scuba diving is restricted as of now.”

“God! Trainer missing! Did they go for a search?” Abinaya clamored in shock. She couldn’t believe what the driver had just said.

“Yes. The search operation is going on, but till now there is no news about her. The divers and the boatmen who accompanied her said that she was fighting to come up to the boat. They fear that there must be something (probably whales) pulling her inside”

Ahana and Abinaya gasped and looked at each other with their mouth wide open. Everyone was stunned to hear this breaking news.

“Please cancel all the beach programs. We should not go near the beach” said Saritha whose face had turned pale.

“Madam… No issues in getting into the beach. It is fully safe” assured the driver.

“No…Whales may…”

“Ma… Relax… Are you going to spend a week sleeping in the same room?”

“No. We can go somewhere else in Andaman”

Everyone laughed at her ignorance. “Ma…what else can we have in an Island other than beaches? Even if there is one, will that entertain us for a week?”

“___________”

Diya slowly turned to look at Saritha. Then she cupped her palms around Saritha’s face and said, “Don’t be scared granny. I will kill the whale and save you”

Saritha laughed instantly at her granddaughter’s vow. She made Diya sit in her lap and wrapped her arms around her. “Hmm… how will you kill the whale cutie?”

“Wait, I will show you,” said Diya and swung into action all of a sudden. She took her Barbie doll bag and began searching for something.

Everyone was curious to know what she was searching for.

Soon she took out a pocket knife and displayed it to everyone. The instant she took it out everyone started giggling.

“Are you going to kill the whale with this pocket knife?” asked Ahana with a mocking grin.

“Hmm….Yes, mummy.”

(Laughs and giggles)

“But Diya, How did you get this knife? Your mom gave you this?” enquired Saritha and waited for her reply. Abinaya felt a little uncomfortable.

“No…Abi only gave me this. If any boy tries to attack me, then I should defend myself right?” replied Diya looking at Abi for confirmation. Abi meekly smiled at Diya and rolled her eyes to check with Ahana and Saritha.

Everyone’s glance was now at Abi. Saritha and Ahana shook their head sideways not knowing what else to tell her.

There was an awkward silence that filled the car. Abi somehow enjoyed the silence and peeped out of the window again.

The cab halted in front of Peerless Resort. Everyone took their luggage out and escorted towards the resort. They had their rooms already booked. So they didn’t spend much time at the reception than to ask for the way to their room.

They were heading towards the elevator while talking to each other about the plans for that day. So neither Ahana nor Abinaya did notice Lara who had just disappeared in the elevator with Srinivas. Even Lara was busy talking to Srinivas about James and she too didn’t notice the familiar faces approaching the elevator.

Srinivas took Lara to the room, handed her the key and left. Lara slid the key to the hole and opened the door with no idea of what might follow.