----- by Rajesh Meena Bujeta
It was 11th October.
The year was 2010. The first contingent of Canadian athletes just landed on the
Toronto international airport. This was the return journey from New Delhi after
their events in Common Wealth Games (CWG), 2010 had finished. There was a huge
excited crowd at the airport to welcome their winning heroes. Canada was
performing very well and was at fourth number in medals tally at that time
behind only Australia, England and India. Banners of congratulatory messages, bouquets
of beautiful roses and lilies, garlands, photographs and cameras were
ubiquitous in the waiting area. The family members were literally pushed aside
by the overpowering comments and photo seeking media persons. Canadian players
had particularly performed brilliant in aquatics, athletics and wrestling
events. The winning stars were being garlanded, hugged by family members,
kissed by loved ones and photographed by the cameramen. There was full hustle
bustle and excitement at the airport.
“Where is Brent?” suddenly one of the media men cried.
“Where is Brent Armstrong?” He repeated louder when his
voice was subdued in the commotion.
“Did he get down?” another person asked.
“Yes, he was with us.” One gold medal winning athlete
confirmed.
“The loser has run away”, cried some over enthusiastic
fans.
“The lusty Armstrong has fled stealthily.” cried another
fan.
“LOSER! LOSER!!” few fans started chanting while other
people again got back to their business.
He was staring out of the window, towards the cloudy
horizon above the Lake Ontario as the taxi drove past the city. Earlier he used
to love whenever he drove on Lakeshore Expressway along the famous lake. But
today he was lost. His head was reclining against the window pane. He closed
his eyes. But peace was far away. He could hear them loud and clear.
“The loser has run away.”
“The lusty Armstrong….”
“LOSER! LOSER!!”
He stayed back and took rear path to avoid the crowd at the
airport. He was donning a cap, black shades and a long woollen scarf to hide
his face as much as he could. Slowly, he slipped away unnoticed and without
wasting time hired a taxi for Hamilton, his hometown. It was going to be an
hour long ride to Hamilton before he could finally sleep peacefully. He sighed
heavily and shifted his posture. He sat straight and reclined his head against
the head rest so as to look upward towards the ceiling of car. The ceiling’s
fabric was light brown in colour. He sighed again and closed his eyes.
***
5th October. 11:00 am. At the whistle, all
participants knelt down in a crouching position. Brent twisted his head towards
his right. He could see her. She was standing there with her arms folded and
crossed. The light brown scarf was fluttering gently and so were few strands of
hair over her face.
The final whistle went up.
Splash!!
All the swimmers went down the pool and started gliding as
fast as they could. This was the first round heat for 100m freestyle at the
games. With less than one minute under his belt, Brent was the clear winner of
it. He had thus qualified for the semi-finals heat of
the same event which was to be held two days later. He came out of the pool, wrapped a towel and
moved towards her. She also kept staring at him.
“Hye! How was it?” he
asked her as he came close.
Water drops were still dribbling
down his face and wet hair. Brent Armstrong was one of the finest short
distance swimmers in the world. He was his country’s biggest hope in 100m
freestyle. And he was confident that he would pull it off.
“You were great!!” she
chuckled, “you are going to win the finals, I’m sure.”
He looked deep in her
eyes.
“I hope so.”
***
29th
September. Brent and other Canadian players had just reached the Sports
Village, on the outer skirts of Delhi towards Noida after a long ride from New
Delhi international airport. The famous Akshardham temple could be seen in the
background. He was in his room, settling down, when there was a knock at the
door.
“Coming!”
As he opened the door, he
saw his team’s manager Mr. Jackson standing there.
“Ya Jack! Come on in.”
“Are you settled down?”
asked Jackson as he moved in.
“Almost.”
“I want you to meet
somebody.” Jackson looked towards the door.
“Hey Sonia, come in!” he
called her in.
“Brent, this is Sonia and
she will be your Escort Lady.” Jackson introduced her to Brent.
“Hye there; how you doing?”
Brent asked still looking little curious.
“I’m fine Brent.” Sonia
said with a smile.
“She will be…” Jackson
started as he read Brent’s mind, “…helping you out with local people during the
Games and will be your guide for your stay in Delhi.”
“Oh that’s great, Jack!”
exclaimed Brent.
“I’ll be in room only
this afternoon, so let’s meet tomorrow evening.” He offered Sonia.
“Yep, that will be good.
Goodbye then.” Sonia said and she left the room.
Sonia was a volunteer for
escorting the players so as to make their stay in Sport Village and Delhi in
general more comfortable. She was in final year of her graduation and was
staying in Delhi in a rented house. Since she was not so busy in the coming
month, she decided to be a volunteer for the Games. She was also joined by few of
her college friends. She had also undergone the five days training for that
purpose. Her work included many tasks like helping the players with any sorts
of small problems, help them interacting with local people, and most
importantly to act as brand ambassador for Indian tourism. It was going to be
fun and a learning opportunity for the volunteers.
On next day’s evening,
Brent was enjoying with his fellow team mates, when he saw Sonia coming towards
them. He looked at her intently. She was beautiful. She was in the white-red
official dress, with CWG logo on it, her light brown scarf was looking pretty
and her hair was hanging down on the shoulders.
“Hey how are you?”
inquired Brent as he welcomed her.
“I’m good, how you guys
are doing?” Sonia said happily as she shook hands with Brent and other players.
She also joined the party and they talked about games, Indian climate, Indian
food, movies, local restaurants and cinemas etc. She was very charming and
convincing in her talks. Brent was feeling little uncomfortable. He felt
jealous.
“Hey Sonia, let’s go for
a walk. I want to see the sports complex.”
“Ya sure! My pleasure.”
she chuckled.
They both slipped away
from the group. While walking around, they chatted a lot. This time it was more
personal, where do you live? What do you like? What are your hobbies? etc. etc.
The evening was good, the
weather was also good. Sonia liked this stuff quite a bit. Opportunity to
interact with sportsmen, time to hangout with her own college friends etc. Bret
also liked it in his own way. After about one hour long stroll around the complex,
they knew more about each-other than about the sport complex itself.
“Hey tomorrow is Sunday!
Do you mind if we go out to some restaurant for dinner?” Bret asked eagerly.
“Yeh, that will be cool,
I am in.” Sonia nodded, “I will get my car.”
“Good then, it was nice
knowing you today.” Brent said as he looked in her eyes.
“Same here.” said Sonia,
but she had to blush in order to avoid the gaze.
“Good bye, see u
tomorrow.”
“Ya, bye.”
***
Over the next couple of
days, they spent quite lot of time with each-other. Brent was visibly smitten
by her. Though she also liked him but it was no more than normal friendship. But
certainly their relationship grew beyond what was required. One afternoon,
Brent was practicing in the pool when Sonia reached there. He finished the lap
and came out.
“How is the timing?” she
asked.
“Going good. I’ll be
going for the gold.” Brent said confidently.
“That’s great.” she said
as she tilted her head a little and nodded charmingly.
Her smile and curly hair
were too enchanting. Brent continued to look at her face. She also didn’t
blush. He got aroused. She kept looking at him. He gently moved forward, bent
his head over her’s. His lips could fell the warmth of her lips. She too was
breathing heavily. Their lips were just few millimetres away. Brent closed his
eyes as he got ready for the kiss.
“Hey! Look!” Sonia shook
him by the shoulder, as she pointed towards the pool, “who is he? He has got
great speed too.”
Brent took some time to
come to the reality. His reverie was broken.
“What?” Sonia looked at him,
puzzled.
“Umm, nothing….” He
collected his thoughts, “He is Daniel, and he’ll be a tough nut to crack.”
***
7th October.
Morning. The Canadian players were enjoying their breakfast.
“What the hell is this?”
Jackson was almost shouting on Brent.
“What happened Jack?” a
surprised Brent asked.
Jackson pushed the
newspaper he was reading towards him. He looked at his photograph with Sonia in
a kissing position, with his arms on her waist. This was taken somewhere near Connaught
Place, the previous day.
“Today you have
semi-finals heat and you are doing things you weren’t supposed to do at this
time.”
“Jack, it’s not what
you’re thinking.” Brent was upset.
“We need to focus on
Gold, Brent. You are the best we have.” Jackson got up and went away.
Other players too heard
their conversation and the photo and accompanied article was for everyone to
savour.
That evening, Brent stood
second in the semi-finals heat. Though he qualified for the finals, his aim was
to win every race. Jackson too greeted him with a contemptuous smile. Sonia
watched all this. She came to Brent who was resting on a reclining chair.
“Hey, you were good.” She
tried to cheer him up.
“Please don’t do that.”
Brent shook his head gloomily.
“I’m sorry if it’s
because of me.”
“No, No. Please! You’ve
done no wrong.”
Brent looked towards her.
She pressed his hand by her.
“When is the final?”
“Tommorrow, 11’o clock in
the morning.”
“Good! Let’s go out for a
ride. I will take you to a beautiful place. You will enjoy it.” She said.
“You’re right. Let’s go.”
***
Half an hour later, they were driving in Sonia’s car on a
road towards Gurgaon. She was driving through roads surrounded by natural
beauty. One hour later they reached Suraj Kund, an artificial lake site which
was recently opened for public. She stopped the car and they came out. The
ambience was soothing. It was around 8pm. The moon was out in the darkness of
night, but was playing hide and seek with the clouds. Cool breeze was
refreshing for them. The rippling sound of waves could be heard in distance and
the reflection of moon on lake water was mesmerising.
“Beautiful,” Brent was amazed, “this is perfect.”
“Yup! Let’s go.” Sonia said happily. She was actually happy
as she could make Brent happy.
They walked for some time along the road, with tall grass
on either side. Brent reached out for her hand. She looked at him and slid her
fingers into his. They continued to walk quietly on the sideways holding each
other’s hand. Sonia’s heart was pumping loud.
“Did you hear that?” enquired Brent.
“What?” Sonia was puzzled.
“Listen!” he put the index finger on his lips and
concentrated.
As the sound become audible, Sonia was startled. A streak
of horror ran through her spine.
Brent took her hand, with his finger of other hand still on
his lips; he started moving towards the sound. They reached an area surrounded
with tall grasses. As he pushed aside the grasses to peep, he and Sonia were dumbstruck
to see what was in front of them.
A teenage girl was gagged and being molested by three boys who
were in early twenties. Her clothes were completely torn and she was crying
madly. Her chocked voice was crying for help. Sonia was completely frozen. Her
legs began to tremble.
“Brent run!!” she whispered in almost tears.
“No, we can’t leave that girl like this.”
“Oh God!” Sonia hand covered her mouth. “But you have
finals tomorrow; you can’t risk your life. You may get in to some trouble.”
As the girl was shaking her head violently, she caught
sight of them. Suddenly she started resisting with all her energy and cried for
help with her one hand openly stretched out in their direction.
The boys turned back and saw them running. Two boys ran
after them while one guarded the wounded girl. As they came out of the tall
grasses, the first boy tumbled down. Brent was actually hiding in the grass and
stumbled him by kicking his feet from hiding. Then he jumped on him and smashed
his head with powerful blows. The boy’s jaw started bleeding and he went
unconscious. Thud!! Something struck Brent’s head and he cried in pain. He
reached for his head, blood was trickling. As he turned back to see; the other boy
was standing with a wooden log in his hand. The boy again got ready with a
deadly strike aimed at his head.
Sonia who was hiding in other bushes was terrified at this
scene. She searched around in darkness. Suddenly she got hold of some rusted iron
rod. Without wasting time, she leapt forward and as the boy raised his log to
strike, she hit him on his head. The boy got unbalanced and the wooden log fell
down. Brent picked it up and before the boy could regain balance, he hit him.
One! Two!! Three!!! Heavy blows of the log. This rendered the second boy too unconscious.
Both the boys were now in pools of blood. Sonia and Brent looked at each-other
and ran towards the girl.
The third boy just got up after tying the girl’s hands by
some cloth. He was coming to aid the other two boys, but on seeing Brent and
Sonia, he realised that the gravity of the situation. All of a sudden, he took
a left turn and sped away. With blood stained wooden log his hand, Brent gave
him a chase.
“Brent! Stop!” Sonia screamed, “the girl.”
Brent stopped as he saw the third boy vanishing in the
darkness of bushes.
When he came back, Sonia had untied the girl, removed her
gagging and gave her scarf to cover the girl’s body. Brent once again checked
the two unconscious boys and he came back.
“Are you all right?” Sonia asked, still holding her in her
arms.
The girl nodded, with a trickle of tears coming down her
cheeks.
“Don’t worry, you are safe now,” Brent assured her, “What’s
your name?”
“Man….,” her lips stammered as she gathered some strength, “Manju.”
“OK Manju we need to move out from here.” Brent said as he
looked at his watch. It was 9’o clock.
Both helped Manju and they started walking carefully towards
the car. The two boys were still lying in the pool of blood. The second boy
appeared to be dead with his head bleeding heavily. The three crossed them and
reached the car.
***
It was almost half past eleven in the night, when they came
out of Manju’s home. They had described in detail about the culprits to her
parents. After consoling them and assisting in whatever way they could, they
returned.
Both were silent as Sonia drove the car off. They were now
far away from the Sports Village near Noida. Sonia looked at Brent with
admiration. He was a man of courage, he was a real hero.
“You OK?” she asked.
“Yeh, it’s not hurting too much,” Brent sigh and closed his
eyes, “where are we going?”
“To my home.”
“I have finals tomorrow.” Brent said heavily.
Sonia pressed his shoulder, “everything will be fine. Don’t
worry.”
They reached Sonia’s home around one in the night. Sonia
dressed Brent’s wound. After having some food, they prepared to go to bed. It
was around quarter to two in the morning when they finally slept.
“It’s frightening….I can’t sleep alone….”
Brent opened his eyes. Sonia was standing at the entrance
of his room. Silence.
“Can I sleep with you? I’m scared.” Sonia was still
standing. Her voice was shaking.
Brent looked at her for a while, “Come!” he signalled with
his hand.
Brent saw her as she slept just beside him. Within ten
minutes she was asleep. But he was not. He was staring at her sleeping face.
Finally after a long duel in his mind, he kissed gently on her cheek. She was
still asleep. But her body could sense the touch. She turned to his side; put
her arm over him and fell silent. Brent also put his arm around her, kissed her
on cheek again and slept peacefully.
***
It was almost half past nine in the morning when she woke
up. Actually it was the sun rays, coming through glass window that made her come
out of sleep. Suddenly, she turned towards Brent. He was not there. There was a
note, ‘I’ve taken your car’.
She looked at the watch.
‘Shit!’
She hurried quickly through her daily chores and without making
much delay, rushed towards Metro station. She was just in time to reach the
swimming pool in sports complex. The swimmers were at the starting point. She
took long breaths and calmed herself down. This was the final of 100m freestyle
and Brent’s image was being displayed on the big screen as he was the most
serious contender of gold.
Whistle!
All players got into the crouching position. Daniel and
Brent were in adjacent lanes. Brent’s legs were shaking. The image of those two
boys lying in blood was coming before his eyes. The second boy was staring at
him with his eyes wide open. Brent felt perturbed. He twisted his head in
search of something. He scanned the audience, but she was not there. As he was about
to look straight again, he caught her. She was sitting in the corner. She wore
the same red and white official dress for volunteers, with CWG logo on it. But today,
the scarf was missing. She also saw him. He was looking fatigued. He has
already won it. He is the real winner. She smiled and gave him thumbs up.
Whistle!!
And Spalsh!!
As he opened his eyes under water, the colour of the water
changed to red. The splashing sound of water was echoing as the cries of that
girl. He tried to focus and started the hand’s movement. But in the waves and
eddies of the water so created, he could see the image of those two boys. Staring
at him. Daniel sailed ahead of him. Sonia was watching all this. She felt
guilty of all that was happening with Brent.
When he crossed the 50m mark, he was sixth player to do so.
He was shocked. He couldn’t afford to lose. He had to fight. He started making
powerful strides. But it was only a 100m race. In spite of his best efforts
till the end, he could finish fourth only. Daniel has won the gold. Brent
remained frozen in the water. The winner had lost the race.
***
“Sir, we’ve reached.”
The loud voice of the car driver shattered his thought
process. He looked in front. The driver was watching him in the rear mirror. It
was Hamilton.
“Yeh, thanks.” he said and got down.
He threw away the newspaper he had on the seat. It also had
some spicy stories on him and Sonia. There well hell lot of questions raised on
him, on his moral and ethical values as well as on his scandalous character.
He carried his backpack, and walked towards the door with
heavy steps.
He was still unable to explain his defeat to himself. He was
sad, not because he couldn’t win gold, but because he lost something.
“You are the real winner!” Sonia’s voice still echoed his
mind.
***
