Drive

Rohit pulled out his wallet from his pocket. He stared at it for a couple of seconds. He gave a little solemn smile and looked at Rajat. Rajat, through his peripheral eyes, saw Rohit looking at him directly. They had been quiet since Rajat offered a lift to the hitchhiking Rohit. He was not much of a talker himself, so he had rather enjoyed this silence.

But now, the way Rohit was looking at him was making him a little uncomfortable.

“Do you want something?” Rajat asked while keeping his eyes on the road.

“Na. I was just looking at my wife’s picture and reminiscing about the time we spent during all the years we’ve been married,” replied Rohit in a rather nonchalant way.

Being introverted, Rajat didn’t like talking about these kinds of things, especially with strangers. The words that came out of Rohit’s mouth indeed made him more uncomfortable. “Cool,” Rajat said just for the sake of it. “For how many years have you been married?” he added after a short silence.

Rohit smiled a little and replied, “4 years to be exact. Today is our anniversary.”

Rajat suddenly took his eyes off the road for a second after hearing this. “Oh. Happy Anniversary. So, are you going to meet her right now?” he asked rather curiously.

“No, I bade her farewell right before leaving. It was pretty hard, to be honest,” replied Rohit, while gazing at the surroundings.

Rajat was now starting to feel a little comfortable talking to Rohit. “I feel for you man. I’ve been on a business trip for the last 5 days and I’ve been dying to meet my wife,” Rajat said. He looked at the back seat and asked, “You would be returning home very soon, right? You don’t have any luggage with you though.”

“Not exactly. I told you I bade her farewell before leaving,” Rohit said.

Rajat was taken aback. His mind started to wonder as to what would have had happened between the two. He thought he should break the conversation, but he wanted to know the full story now. “So you are never going to see her again!” Rajat exclaimed.

Rohit was pleased with Rajat wanting to continue the conversation. “No,” replied Rohit. His smile had faded and it looked like he was fighting a battle within himself. “She’s no more. She died this morning,” Rohit added as tears trickled down his eyes.

As sorry as Rajat felt for Rohit, he didn’t want to continue the conversation now. He was never much of a consoler, and didn’t know where to take this conversation now. “I’m so sorry man,” he said in a low voice. He thought that he wouldn’t smile for the entire time while he was with Rohit. He wished he had never offered Rohit a ride.

There was a long silence. Rohit looked like he needed to vent his sorrow out, but since Rajat hadn’t spoken anything for a while, he thought he may not be the right person to narrate this story to. Finally, his urge took over him and he began, “You see, I didn’t even have a memorial service for her. She just died this morning and I left just after. And do you know the best part? She died in our very house—”

“What!” Rajat interjected, flabbergasted. “You just left her there! Did you have someone to take care of the things at least?” he demanded. It wasn’t like Rajat to flip out like that, but his emotions and love for his wife took over him and compelled him to find out the reason that a husband would possibly have for leaving his wife’s dead body lying in the house.

“No, I didn’t. I thought it wasn’t such a good idea of informing others about her death. It would have raised a plethora of questions. Police would’ve gotten involved and I would have been taken into custody for murdering her,” Rohit explained his side.

“Why would it have raised any questions if she died of a natural cause? How did she die exactly? And how come you thought just leaving her there and running out on her would not raise any sort of questions?” Rajat fired at Rohit and tried to instill some logic into his rather nonsensical explanation.

Rohit took a breath as tears started bellowing out of his eyes and replied, “Well, she was indeed murdered. Stabbed 4 times, to be honest. I didn’t mean to do it. I just don’t know what took over me.”

“You think I’m so stupid to believe all this bullshit, right?” blurted Rajat out after a pause, now a little indignant.

“I never expected you to believe me. That’s why I didn’t mention it up until now. But you were the one who asked the question about how she died,” said Rohit.

“Sure,” said Rajat as coldly as possible. He was sure that Rohit was making everything up. But there was a little part inside him that feared that he was telling the truth. Either way, Rajat thought that it would be wiser to not talk about it, so even if Rohit was not lying, he would believe that Rajat wouldn’t call the cops as he didn’t believe the story.

“You don’t look like you’re interested in my story,” said Rohit while giving Rajat a little smile.

“I don’t want to talk about anything man. We’ll reach your destination in about 10 minutes. Can we not talk until then?” demanded Rajat, who started to realize that it was better to fend off Rohit now.

He was starting to get scared of Rohit’s nonchalance and just wanted to get away from him without knowing anything about him.

Rohit was looking at peace now. He gazed at Rajat for a few seconds and finally said, “You’ve probably deemed it a lie already. I won’t blame you. I know it’s better to live in a comforting lie than a harsh truth. Why, oh why would a murderer on the run tell his story to a complete stranger who offered him a lift and knows where he’d be going. See, no one knows my wife is dead. I killed her before dawn and buried her immediately. I packed the bags with both of our luggage and buried them with her, just to make it seem like we had —”

“I don’t want to hear it. Please just stop talking,” interjected Rajat, who was trying hard to control his tears. He just wanted to kick Rohit out of his car, but the thought of Rohit telling the truth mortified him. He couldn’t fathom the consequences of him ordering “murderer” Rohit to get out of his car. Scenes from all the movies he could remember where someone was in the similar situation flashed before him, but he knew better than that. He didn’t have the guts to pull those kinds of stunts, and even if he pulled one of them, he would fail miserably and Rohit could end up killing him too.

“What harm can a little story possibly do if you don’t believe it! Consider it as an icebreaker. Now, umm.. Yeah. I wanted to make it seem like we had gone someplace; like on a trip or something. I washed all the blood before leaving, so I don’t think anyone will suspect anything, for a few days at least. I’ve even messaged our friends that through her phone and I have the SIM card with me. I don’t know how useful that’ll be though,” said Rohit with a grimace on his face.

The ease and remorse with which Rohit was narrating the incident made Rajat jump to two inferences- Rohit was lying or he was a psychopath- for one doesn’t simply murder someone and be so calm about it. Rajat could only hope he was lying, because if he was telling the truth, he’d probably not want to leave any trace of evidence behind. Rajat was persistent on staying quiet for the remainder of the trip.

“I believe you must be having doubts bubbling in your mind- whether I am actually telling the truth or not. Why am I narrating my transgression to you? How could I be so calm after the whole ordeal?” Rohit said in a rather evil way.

Rajat’s heart skipped a beat. He believed Rohit could read his mind. He had to say something to divert the topic. “Na man, I’m just tired of having driven for 6 continuous hours,” said Rajat.

“Oh. Do you want me to drive? I could drop you off to your place and find a ride from there. I’m in no hurry. Where do you live exactly?” asked Rohit.

“No No, you don’t need to worry. I live pretty far from your destination. It’ll be rather troublesome for you to come this far back. I’m fine,” said Rajat, now regretting having said the last thing.

“Yeah yeah. In a galaxy far far away. I get it. What I conclude from this is that you are scared of telling me where you live. You’d probably kick me out of your car if you weren’t shit scared, right? So, why am I telling you all this? I’m not a serial killer, you know. It was my first one. It was an exhilarating experience. I just wanted to talk to someone about it. Who better than a stranger who just wants to mind his own business! You know I had already taken two more rides before you. Those people were pretty talkative, so I kept my mouth shut. You, on the other hand, I like. I believe you’d already figured out that Rohit is a fake name, you don’t know my address, hell you don’t even know if I’m messing with you. You can’t turn me in,” said Rohit.

He added, “Man it feels good to share. You see, I was in a very bad relationship. As I said, I didn’t mean to kill her. It just happened. It’s true that I’m on the run, but I don’t care if I’m caught in due time. I hated her. It’s probably how much I hated her that I’m not freaking out. She deserved to die. I did this world a favor. Maybe I am a psychopath in the making.”

“There’s your destination. Should I drop you off here?” asked Rajat. His heart was beating so fast that he was afraid of it failing. He was petrified of what Rohit would do to him now that the time had come for them to part ways. Rajat looked around for any heavy or sharp object that he could get his hands on in case Rohit tried something. He had his eyes on the keys to stab Rohit right in the eyes. He knew it wouldn’t go as planned, but he would have to try something. He had one eye on the door’s lock as well in case he would have to escape.

“Yeah, stop right here. I’ll get off here; relieve you off your misery,” said Rohit with a smile.

Rajat stopped the car; his heart throbbing like a child jumping by the sight of his father being back from tour after a year.

“Thanks for the lift. I really enjoyed the ride,” said Rohit, smiling. Rohit got off the car and closed the door.

Rajat hurried off from there as soon as the door was closed; tears bellowing out of his eyes. He didn’t even look back at Rohit. He could hardly wait to reach home. He decided to sell this car and purchase a new one immediately.

After an hour, he began laughing maniacally about the whole ordeal. He deemed the story as fake and was cursing himself to be so weak to fall into the trap.

Rajat reached home 5 hours after dropping Rohit. He had almost forgotten about Rohit now, and vowed to not tell his wife about him either. At night, he turned on the T.V. to watch while having dinner. He was flipping through the channels when a familiar face struck his eyes. Apparently, one of the neighbors saw Rohit burying his wife.