Mistakenly had set the alarm for 23:45 in the place of 00:45. Got up an hour early, bullied myself to sleep and got up exactly at 00:45. Stepped out of the room to see if Pa was up and getting ready. It was spookily silent and dark. I stepped out, opened the fridge (I needed to stay awake, don't judge me) took a quick scan for any ice-cream, candy or soda, closed it in a hush and looked at my left where there is a door to the third bedroom.
Thought I'll peep a little and see if Ma is awake. Before I could see through the door, I thought to myself, what if she sees me first and gets scared that someone is looking at her in the dark? So I stepped back and quietly got into my room which is diagonal to this room, the lights still not turned on allowing the eeriness to expand.
Sat on my bed for a moment or two, then opened the room door and hit down the door stopper, switched on the corridor light adjacent to which is the room where Pa is sleeping. I was basically trying to be awake when Pa was leaving. Anyway, 5 -10 - 15 mins. passed, no sign of anyone getting up, or alarms ringing, lights going up, nothing. I began to think if Pa was indeed leaving tonight or am I plainly wrong? Why hasn't the cab driver called yet? May be he needs to Check-in at 4am uh? May be I gave my hubby wrong info on Pa's travel? Or wait, did Pa oversleep? What if he misses the flight? I was getting a little freaked out nonetheless the clock kept ticking without any concern and it was 1:00am and still I was the only one awake.
Should I wake them up.., later to know there was still time for the flight? So let me check for his flight details I thought to myself. Now how do I do it without going into his room and checking through his files and draws? Mmm, easy and quick way, hack open Pa's Gmail account and I started looking through recent mails. No trace of job related conversations or travel plans whatsoever. Wait a second, is Pa lying to us and going somewhere else? :O Alright now it's high time, either I need to know whether Pa's leaving today or am I just sitting up foolishly and panicking about situations I am not even sure of.. just when I was concluding my thoughts, the old classic ring of the saving alarm rang! Phew! Welcome reality, I thought to myself.
Ma walked up to my room, her face twice the size and she looked uncomfortably at me and said 'you got up early huh?' I thought to myself yeah, way too early even before the beginning of the day! Meanwhile Pa's alarm rang, I got comfortable and straightened my thoughts. Walked up to the balcony, took some haphazard pics of the moon amidst barren branches for #instagram :P
Peeped down to see couple of cabs waiting. Good these guys are already here, I said to myself. Pa was in the shower. Ma was ironing Pa's pants mumbling under her breath he's gonna scold why is it hot while wearing it and I was walking up and down like I had to decide between Rahul and Modi. Anyway, Pa came out and asked me why did you get up ma..? I thought to myself, good koshtin!! ;) then dragged his bag out and started removing the cabin luggage labels of his previous travel still stuck on his bags.
Ma made coffee, I had to have one by that time coz of all the needless, unproductive and exhaustive thinking I did in the past one hour. Finally Ma prayed (we always pray before stepping out of the house), we exchanged anbin muthangal ( holy kisses) and each of us took a travel bag. Me: suitcase; Pa: hand luggage Ma: carton box with the uniform, helmet and safety shoes. Scrambled through the hallway and off the lift we went down from the 3rd floor, not bothering to shut doors or turn off the light. Exited the lift to find Ramu (the night watchman) in rags. Tried to overlook him and went to open the wooden door which is the main door to the building leading us from the parking to the apartment. Ramu came forward with a sheepish grin to get the suitcase and other bags as we stepped into the parking area and on to the main gate to find our cab. Apparently the cabs I looked down from the balcony were not the ones we had called for. Secondly, the cab we called for was nowhere in the vicinity. As impulsive as Pa is, he jumped into a random cab and asked the driver to take him to the airport. Bewildered by the sudden savaari (ride), the driver who lay asleep got dressed up in a jiffy and began loading the luggage in the boot. Me startled at the turn of events took Pa's phone to find the driver details sent to us by Hola Cabs which we originally booked. Pa said its late and I got no time to look for the cab I booked, so I am good in this cab and he took off.
We were like okay, as far as he reaches safely and we turned back into the building after waving him from the sidewalks, just to realise the wooden door was closed & locked, intercoms down and the Video doorbells not working! And the real tragedy is none of us had our phones. I begin to inappropriately smile and show my teeth when we are in a terrible fix/ordeal and I was just doing that but a little too much this time. The only person that can be contacted for help is Pa and he is already gone and how do we reach Pa, we hadn't figured that out yet.
Three of us stood there looking at each other thinking to ourselves, damn it.. It was around 1:45am now, I took a small stroll surrounding the building making Rose Jackson noises, Help! Is someone there? Can you help us, (looking upward to the houses.) Knowing it's of no avail, me and Ma went to the police booth two blocks away to find help and alas the furious Hola cab fellow was waiting. Oopsie!!
Moved passed him innocently and told the policeman the story of Pa's-airport-and-ladies-lockout, he was kind enough to give his phone so we can contact Pa. Ma took the phone to call Pa so he can call someone in the Apartment but Ma forgot Pa's number in the recklessness of the situation and I stood there with my eyes popping out and the uncomfortable teeth showing began. She panicked a bit trying to remove the cloud of hopelessness and thankfully remembered his number. She informed Pa to call Mehta sir, the secretary of the building to open the door for us. We thanked the policeman and got into the parking area with a sense of Yeah-we-figured-this-out and told Ramu, nothing to worry.. Mehta sir will open, let's wait here. He said Mehta sir is out of station from last week madam. Waow what a waow!!
My spirit sank into my deepest spot and my eyes started to look for a place to spoon in the basement, but trying to stay upbeat and controlling my lips from showing the teeth, I was thinking of alternatives. Thanks to Captain aka Pa, he called our neighbour Rupal who was at her mother's place for the weekend. Seeing a call at 2am, she was petrified not knowing if her husband was alright. Pa explained and she called her husband who was in the building, His heart failed seeing a call from his wife at such an hour in the night from 600 kms away and frantically answered hoping to hear nothing was wrong with her or the kids. She explained and he came down and rescued us.
After disturbing half a dozen people's sleep and giving each of them mini-heart attacks, we went into our house, turned off the lights, shut the door behind us and latched it while I opened my laptop to record the insanity of that night.
The End.
May 12, 3:05