Caged Read online

  “So what’s your favorite movie?” he asked very softly, grabbing my pinkie finger.

  “Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge” I replied very naturally. Many times people had asked me my favorite movie, and I had said exactly that. It came naturally to me. But obviously, no one had ever asked me what he did.

  “What does that mean?” he murmured.

  “What does what mean?” I mouthed back.

  “That name of the movie you just said. It's in Hindi right? What does that mean?”

  Alright, my romantic mood was already gone. I hated that I have to translate the name of my favorite movie to the love of my life and honestly I didn’t even know how to do it.

  “The guy with a heart takes away the bride, sort of. I mean it's a kind of you know... I mean it sounds better in Hindi.”

  “Yeah I’m sure it does,” he was laughing at me. And I was laughing too.

  “You know what Noor… I think I’m falling in love with you” he whispered fixing his eyes on mine. It was beautiful, so romant...

  Noor

  Wait, that was my name.

  No, that IS my name.

  I’m Noor, Noor Qureshi from New Delhi.

  I snapped back to the present again by his voice.

  “Why don’t you understand? I’M NOT THE ENEMY,” Daniel was yelling at him now.

  Yeah sure, you’re not the enemy. You’ve just tied that innocent man in a dark basement with tons of iron. How can you possibly be his enemy?

  He returned upstairs in some time, and I put up an act of not noticing him. He was in the bathroom when his phone rung. Months had passed since I was near a phone and the ringing was startling for me.

  A phone. Finally, a phone in the room, that I could use somehow to escape. I wanted to pick it up. I wanted to dial 911. Or just run away with that phone. But before I could move from my spot, he was out. He accepted the call and eyed me suspiciously. Its presence was still a little relieving, but then I assumed that he wouldn’t leave his phone unattended ever again.

  He picked it up and went to the library and closed the door from inside. He was talking to someone.

  I told you not to call me. I’ll call you if I have anything to say.

  What the hell? Does he have a girlfriend? I’m not jealous; I’m just disgusted.

  Don’t you think I’m trying Yousuf?

  He’s talking to a man, thank God. Yousuf? I know that name. I know it really, really well. It’s more than familiar. It feels like it’s my own name. But that can’t be. It has to be a man's name. A man very important in my life, probably a close friend. If that was true, why is he talking to that man? Is he in touch with people I know? How?

  Why can’t you understand? If you push things too much, they break, and I can’t…

  I don’t care. You’re running out of time.

  This time, I heard the voice from the other line too. I don’t care. You’re running out of time. I'll bet my hearing ability was getting magnified like hell. God, all this is so confusing. How on earth am I supposed to keep my mind right?

  Daniel came back, put his phone in his laptop bag and locked it. He locked the library door too.

  Alba came at one, left lunch and went away. The food always came on plastic plates and trays. So I couldn’t ever break them and use them as weapons. Not that there was a lot of scope for those weapons, but it still enraged me.

  I finished my food and started banging the tray on the wall. I was taking out the anger. The tray didn’t break or anything, but after a few strikes, I felt exhausted and a little lighter too.

  I turned a sad gaze over to the library door, and I was stupefied. There was no lock. I had seen him lock the door with a proper lock and key with my own naked eyes. That door didn't have any inbuilt lock. Yet I didn’t see a lock and when I tried I could open the door. My life was turning into a horror story now. The first thought that crossed my mind was that there are ghosts here trying to help me. He probably locks the door every day like he used to do before. But now I can go through it because there is something or rather someone that wants me to go in there.

  I was experiencing a lot of unnatural things these days, and I didn’t like them much. Unless of course, they could lead me out. Whatever this was, I could figure out later, but right now I had to go and see him. I had almost five hours before Alba returned with dinner. To talk to him. To talk him into helping me.

  I knew the way downstairs by heart, but this time, I was observing everything I crossed very carefully. I had a doubt that this could all be in my mind. I could be schizophrenic. I might be building this all up on my own in a desperate attempt to find a way out.

  The stranger, it could’ve been the book; it could’ve been some memory, something in my subconscious that made me think like this. I had watched a lot of movies about such people who would build up a whole new world around them that satisfied them, made them feel better. This could be the result of my rage for getting out of here. I had no way to find out what’s true when an idea struck me.

  I’m going to ask his name. If his name turns out to be some name I’ve read or heard recently like Yousuf or Albert Camus, then it’s definitely Schizophrenia. Otherwise, it’s real.

  I went down there and sighed.

  “Is it you?” his voice sounded very shaky and weak. The energy I’d felt in him that night was gone.

  “Yeah, it’s me. How did you know?”

  “I guessed,” he murmured.

  I wanted to jump straight to business, but he seemed too damaged for that, so I asked, “How are you?”

  “What do you think?”

  I felt stupid to ask something like that. I felt very sorry for him, but I wasn’t going to show any sympathy. I didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. So I started to make small talk.

  “You ever heard about Kann Trichan?”

  “Is he in Game of Thrones?”

  I couldn’t help but smile, “no, he is a Thai Cook who scoops out pieces of chicken from burning-hot oil with his bare hands. He can sink his fingers into 480 degrees hot grease without getting so much as a blister on his hands. He’s very popular. People from all over the world come to his food stall to see him do it. LIVE. He’s got a world record you know.”

  “If you’re suggesting I become a chef, you can go right back where you came from.”

  “No, I didn’t mean that. I just…” I trailed off not knowing what to say.

  “So tell me, girl, why are you here? What do you want from me?” His voice was now a little stronger and sharper than before, so I decided to talk.

  “I want your help in getting out of here,” I said meekly and again I was speechless, what else do I say? What help? I didn’t even have a plan. No, wait, I have a plan, sort of a plan.

  “Only a fool would ask for my help seeing me like this.”

  His snide tone was taking a toll on my patience. But I managed to calm myself down again. Keep your mind right, I told myself. I had garnered up a plan in my mind in a matter of seconds. It’s ironic that I’d spent days uselessly trying to break window panes. Well, I got on with my plan.

  My voice was wobbly and nervous this time. I had almost forgotten that I had to sound strong and confident. “Listen, there is a window in my room, I mean in the library, and the library is in my room. I mean on the third floor. So I thought if you could jump out of the window you probably won’t even get hurt, and you’ll be free and…”

  He cut me off mid-sentence, “First of all, honey, I get what you mean. Secondly, my wounds get healed, but I’m no superman. It might be a little inconvenient for you, but I can’t fly. I’ll fall, and I’ll get hurt, and it’ll take a little time to recover. Just a little, though.”

  Okay, that was really inconvenient.

  “Yeah but you’ll be alright?”

  “Yep. I’ll be alright. That was me. How do you plan to free yourself?”

  “I was thinking I could climb your back and then you’d jump, so�
�” I didn’t need more words to convey what I meant.

  “So, I’m King Kong now. Girl, you’re crazy and so is your plan.”

  “I’m trying to help you here, and you’re behaving like a coward. Do you really love being held here in these chains and tortured?”

  “No, obviously I don’t. Alright, fine tell me. What do you plan to do with my chains?”

  “Well, I haven’t thought about it yet, but I’ll figure something out,” I tried to hide my sudden fear and confusion over his question.

  “OK, let me see, you are going to get these chains opened somehow and then you’ll take me to your room or library whatever it is. Then I’ll carry you on my back and jump down how many storeys?”

  “Three.”

  “Three storeys. And then what?”

  “That window is on the left side of the house, where there aren’t any more windows. No one will see us falling, jumping, I mean.”

  “But there’ll be a sound, a thud; we’re not teddy bears. Someone will hear it. There must be guards or someone in the house if not him. What’s his name by the way?”

  “Daniel.”

  His name. Why is this guy so bothered about names? He was asking my name that day and now Daniel’s. He seems to worry about trivial things and doesn’t pay heed to the most paramount issue in his life; Escape.

  That reminded me I had to ask his name. Oh God, I should’ve started with that. But suddenly I didn’t want to do it. What if my suspicion about Schizophrenia is true? I’ll honestly lose everything. But that was something that I ought to do.

  “What’s your name by the way?”

  “Christian. But the irony of my life is that I’m an atheist.”

  I didn’t care about his faith and religion. I had nothing to do with it. I was happy to know that he was real.

  “So you were saying something Christian.”

  “Yeah, so when we fall down, someone might hear. You’ve thought of that?”

  What could I say; I hadn’t thought of anything, I had only managed to come up with this plan, right here in a few seconds.

  “This house isn't very strongly guarded, but anyway, that’s a little risk we’re going to have to take.”

  “Understood. And then what? Where do we go? Do you know where we are?”

  I was trying to form some sort of response in my mind when he continued, “I mean we’re definitely in Canada, but where exactly?”

  Canada.

  Valuable information; regardless of its usefulness.

  “I don’t know. We’ll find out when we go out.”

  “That is the best escape plan ever, you should be proud of yourself,” he laughed.

  “Laugh all you want but that’s all we’ve got.”

  “So when do we do it, Mademoiselle?”

  “Tomorrow, I'll come to get you after nine and we’ll have to get far away from here before one o’clock.”

  “Assuming that you’ll figure out how to open my chains. I’m in. If I could lift my hand, I’d even give you a high five.”

  I just rolled my eyes and went back upstairs. It wasn’t even five. But I felt weary and sleepy. I assumed I would be very active with adrenaline surging through my veins during all this planning and plotting. But I felt at peace instead. And I thought I’ll just go to sleep for a while. I needed rest. Very badly.

  Chapter 7

  “That man, that man, he’s in the...the hatch...he is in the hatch...I saw him...” I was screaming hysterically when I realized Daniel was holding me and saying something.

  “What are you talking about? What man?” his voice was unsteady, and he looked disturbed with my behavior. It took me a minute to come back to my senses, and I mirrored his look. I was very despondent. Had I said something that I shouldn’t have said? Did I reveal something about Christian?

  “What man were you talking about? Was it a dream?” he continued questioning frantically.

  “Yeah...” I murmured, “it was a dream.”

  “What did you see?”

  “A man in the hatch,” I murmured.

  He gave me a quizzical look, and before he could assume anything I managed to fling a proper response back at him, “That CD you got me, the TV show, it had ended on suspense, a sort of hatch. I was pretty anxious about what could be in the hatch. That’s probably why I dreamt of it.”

  “Oh God, you scared me,” Relief took over his features, and I calmed down too. “I’ll get you more episodes. Don’t worry yourself too much. I think you should take rest…and something, something, something…”

  He was still talking, but I couldn’t hear him, or I should say couldn’t comprehend anything. His necklace hanging around his chest was in action. It grabbed and held my attention. I had once thought of it as a heart in the ribs of its silver sequin. But today it was something else; it looked like a bloodied eye staring into my soul, trying to burn me up. The whole world was blurry. Here by the whole world I mean my room and my surroundings. It was just like they show in movies when someone is going to faint, and everything is a haze.

  I didn’t see anything, but I felt it’s trying to show me something. Nothing made sense, but God did it feel real. More than real.

  Even though everything around me was just a blur, that thing, it couldn’t be clearer. I had a feeling if I looked deeper into it, I’ll fall into it and will never be able to get out. I did not want to look at it, and after a lot of effort I forced myself out. It took every ounce of energy I had, but I did make it out.

  Daniel was shaking me like a rag doll and boy he was scared. In a few minutes, his face had turned white with fear. And he was still talking to me.

  “Talk to me, Noor… What’s wrong with you? What’s happening?” I had never seen him scared, so scared.

  “You remember my name now,” I gave him back in a vexed tone. I had managed to compose myself and bring back the poison in my voice and also I didn’t want him to know what his necklace had just done to me. It would only make me look weaker.

  I went back to sleeping or pretending to sleep, but it took him some time to believe that what just happened had actually happened and then in a minute he was standing at the window staring at nothing. I managed to steal a tiny glance at the clock, and it was four in the morning.

  I was planning to leave today.

  There was just one problem. Christian’s chains. I had to open them or get someone to open them. The ghosts or whoever had helped me before to get down there, I needed that help again. It was still five hours to nine, so I decided I’ll keep praying to God and to those ghosts to help me one last time and open his chains.

  He/She/They/It had led me there, a step closer to my freedom. Then why not another step. I wanted to think of nothing but my escape nevertheless in the back of my mind, the necklace and the man in the hatch were still active. I couldn’t afford to give in to distractions. I had to keep my mind right. I had to throw these trivial things away. The necklace even if dangerous and mysterious cannot do me any harm once I’m gone. And the hatch, well, when I’m out in the world I’ll easily find out what was in the hatch.

  I was constantly convincing myself to forget about these things and concentrate on those chains. Daniel had tied Christian in huge chains. When I say that they are enough to tie a dinosaur, I’m not exaggerating. On the other hand, Christian says he has no such special power; in terms of physical strength. Maybe Daniel is just being safe. Or maybe Christian is lying.

  Again, that was a chance that I’ll have to take. Even if he is dangerous, we have one thing in common. We both want out. And once that is done, I’ll have nothing to do with him. He’ll be history, and I’ll be back at home with mommy and daddy and my little sister… Noya.

  Her name brought tears to my eyes. But I was happy that I could at least remember it. My beautiful little Noya.

  Daniel interrupted my chain of thought catching me off guard. He took me by my arm and asked me to sit up.

  “I know you’re not sleeping; I need to talk
to you. It’s umm… very important.”

  Important, my ass.

  “You are going to leave this place in a month,” he continued.

  Alright yes, important. I was stunned and couldn’t even blink. I wanted to leave this house today but this 'you’re leaving in a month’ thing was intriguing. Initially, I thought, he’d found out about my plan and is playing some kind of game. And later, well, let’s just say I stuck to the same idea.

  “I’m going to take you to France next month. My grandfather had a house there; I’ll write it in your name, and you can live there. Not like this, I mean live normally like any other free person.”

  Those words were hard to apprehend for me, like reading without reading glasses or listening to something in a foreign language which you’ve just started learning. I had to concentrate on each word and make out their meaning, not because English was foreign but what he said was hard to grasp. Hard to believe. Hard to even imagine.

  “There’s one thing that I want you to do for me in return.”

  It’s all him by the way. He did all the talking; I was in no position to breathe let alone speak.

  “YOU’LL NEVER REPORT ME OR CONTACT ANYONE FROM YOUR PAST.”

  He looked into my eyes and I into his. And that was his scary voice that I had heard downstairs, but his face was not how I had imagined it to be. It was soft and concerned.

  “Repeat it, Noor, YOU’LL NEVER REPORT ME OR CONTACT ANYONE FROM YOUR PAST.”

  “I’LL NEVER REPORT YOU OR CONTACT ANYONE FROM MY PAST.”

  “I know you hate me and I deserve that,” he resumed. “I promise that I’ll never show you my face again. And I’m not going to say sorry. Because I’m not good enough for forgiveness, I need to be punished.”

  He got up immediately and grabbed his shirt from the sofa. He put it over his head and turned to me saying, “Oh I almost forgot, I want to give you a little gift.”

  He handed me the necklace. That necklace.

  He leaned and kissed me, again catching me off guard. A kiss so full of love and passion that its burning intensity made me lose my hold in the real world. It wasn’t very long, but enough for me to forget everything including myself. It kind of wiped away the three months that I had so painfully endured in this house. It was just like the kiss three months back. It was this same room, same bed, same him and same me.