Back at desk, she quickly looked up the author of the book. A man who went by the name Anupam. Jumping on the internet, she tried to find his details and found it rather easily. His details were published on the internet by the publisher of his comics. But it was nothing more than a simple bio, with no way of contacting him. She now knew she had to take the long route.
It took a while, but she finally did manage to get hold of him or rather his editor. This included calling the publishing company, then to the editor, who asked her a plethora of questions before telling her that he would personally contact Anupam and get his permission. Monica was left to wait patiently for the editor to get back to her. She almost made up her mind that he would not respond, that was until three hours later when her phone rang. It was from a number she did not recognize.
“Hello?” said Monica.
“Is this Monica?” asked the voice.
“Yes.”
“My name is Anupam. You wanted to speak to me?”
Monica nearly jumped from her seat in joy. “Yes! I have read your latest comic and I have to say, I love your work.”
“Oh. Huh… Thank you…” He didn’t seem excited at all.
“I just wanted to share some details with you. Regarding the lady,” Monica tried very hard to not call her Arora.
“What details exactly?”
“I had a few details about her,” Monica whispered, “and I would like to keep it personal but also willing to share with you. I am sure you would be learning about them.”
There was no response from the other side. Monica waited patiently for a few seconds before she called out his name to check.
“Yes!” he responded, “Fine I will hear you out.”
“Great! When can we meet?”
“You want to meet?”
“Yes,” she replied without any hesitation.
“Fine. Today?”
“At seven?”
“It will do. Meet me in La Mira café in Abahara.”
“I will meet you there. Thank you.”
Monica breathed a sigh of relief just before Pritham shoved his big head into her personal space. “I thought you didn’t even meet the Lady?”
Monica exhaled yet again, this time out of annoyance. “Sorry, but I didn’t want to share it.”
“Why?”
“Just one of those things you don’t want other people to know.”
“Strange. If I meet a superhero, I would let the whole country know.”
“Yeah… I ain’t like that.”
“Fine. I will find out when you tell the author himself.”
Monica felt a burst of anger but quickly calmed down. “Why do you think I will take you with me?”
“Listen. The least you can do to a friend who found the comic for you in the first place is let him meet its author.”
Monica squeezed her face before answering, “Fine. But keep your mouth shut.”
***
Rain continued to pour as the time reached seven. Monica and Pritham reached the café half an hour early and had been patiently waiting for the author to arrive. The café was busy usual. It was nestled neatly into a row of buildings that ran along the street for a kilometre. The café itself was large with an additional floor on top. It was brimming with customers who had occupied all the tables. Monica had found them a table on the top floor balcony. Despite the heavy rain, the balcony was dry but cold. But the cold never bothered Monica, in fact, it made any hot beverage better. Monica went through the book once again while she quietly sipped on her tea. Meanwhile, Pritham sat across the table seemingly restless. His cup of tea was still full and slowly becoming cold.
“Drink your tea, it will become cold soon,” she said not looking away from the book.
“Could you like put the book down? How many times will you read it?” Pritham mocked.
“If I put the book down, you will start asking questions.”
“Fine. Let us talk about something else.”
Monica sighs and finally put the book down. She continued to gulp down the tea as Pritham finally took his first sip from his cup of tea.
“So, what have been watching or reading lately?” he asked.
“Nothing actually. Kinda lost track living with Geetha and Aarathi.”
Pritham wore a blank expression, but his lips twitched on hearing her say that. He was generally a very jolly person who had a very bad habit of poking into others’ business. But that was something Monica understood more than anyone for she too had the same bad habit. He was no taller than the girls but was much bulkier and fairer than any other men in the office. His shabby hair and loose clothing style often tricked people into thinking he was the aloof kind. But make no mistake, he was smarter than he showed off and even Monica was afraid of revealing too much to him.
She caught a quick glimpse of his twitching mouth. She knew very well that it was not what he wanted to hear but she couldn’t lie to him. Life took a different path ever since she started living with other people, especially when those people turn out to be extroverts. “But reading this did rejuvenate the interest a little. I shall see what next. Maybe you can recommend me something?” she said.
“More than happy to,” he said, now wearing a big smile on his face. Pritham found it hard to be a nerd. He often found himself alone when it came to the topic of common interests. So, finding a kindred spirit in someone like Monica was like finding an oasis in the middle of the desert.
Monica, on the other hand, was able to relate to his struggles. Her roots in the comic book culture ran deep, going back to when she was only ten. Her parents had once bought her a comic book that depicted a story from the mythology of their culture. This one book soon turned into a few and the few then turned to a bookcase. Monica’s heart and soul was groomed by the stories she read all these years and it was what sparked the yearning to do something more. That feeling of something more grew brighter and brighter and exploded into a beautiful flame that many now call the lady in white.
Their conversation was a lot more engaging than Pritham expected it to be. Though they had spoken at length about their interest during the first few weeks after they meet, Monica seemed to slowly drift away, leaving him feeling alone once again. But it seemed like he had managed to rekindle the spark in her. “You know, it is a good thing he came here. I know of a shop here, just a few blocks down this road. They have everything from comics to novels to even merchandise,” he said.
Monica smiled softly seeing him bounce in his chair with excitement. “Sure. We can go once we are done.”
***
It was soon going to be eight in the night but there was no sign of Anupam anywhere. The rain continued to beat down on the city, but the city life continued to go about its business as per usual. They had talked and talked and now were running dry of topics to discuss. The short breaks of silence between each talk began to grow longer and longer.
“Call him,” Pritham said finally.
“I called him when we arrived here. He said he was on his way.”
“Call him again. We have been here for over an hour.”
She spun her phone back and forth between her thumb and index finger as she tried to make up her mind. She knew she had to call him eventually, but the question was how long should she wait? Their patience grew thin and hunger slowly crept in. “Fine,” she said and proceeded to twiddle on her phone.
The phone rang on the other end and immediately following that she heard the ring of a stranger’s phone in the café. She looked to her left and towards the inside of the café to see a tall thin man, drenched in rain, and looking around the café for someone. “Anupam?” she called out.
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The man, who was about to pull out his phone from his jacket, stopped mid-motion and turned towards Monica. He nodded before quickly hopping over to them. “Monica?” he asked to confirm.
She nodded and said, “please take a seat.”
He took the last one that faced the outside. They quickly went about introducing each other and getting the formalities aside. “Sorry about that. Heavy rain caused a massive jam. Took a while for it to clear up.”
“It’s no problem,” Monica replied. “Do you want something to drink?”
“I ordered it. They should bring it up. What about you guys?”
“We already had our drinks.”
“Great. So then, what is it you wanted to tell me?” he asked finally.
“Yes. So… we got a copy of your book,” she began as she tapped on the book that aid before her, “loved it! I mean, I loved it…”
“I did too,” Pritham interrupted.
“Exactly. Love what you did with the villain and fantastic art! Also liked how you portrayed the heroine as well…” she explained as she stammered and stuttered as she tried to get to the point.
Anupam smiled softly. Though she was nervous, he knew she was being genuine. “Well thank you very much. There is not a lot I could refer to for her character.”
“ I guess it was all up to your imagination now. Doubt anyone who knows her will show up now,” Pritham said with his eyes fixed on Monica. Monica looked back at him sceptically.
“I guess that is true. Not like talking about the dead will bring them any closure,” Anupam replied.
“Did you meet her?” she asked him.
He remained quiet, taking a moment to ponder before asking, “Why do you want to know?”
“Because I met her too,” Monica replied.
Anupam knew she did, or at least that’s what she told him. At first, he guessed it was a lie, he expected her to be just another stranger who wanted to cash in a made-up story. But now, the straight face with which she just said, either meant she was really telling the truth or was a very good liar. “Where?” he asked.
“I lived my entire life in Kollum. Still remember the time when I used to watch her on news. Never thought I would actually run into her,” Monica said. Even Pritham was looking at her curiously.
“But first. Your story. I doubt it had anything to do with a mastermind illusionist.”
He snickered at her sarcastic comment. He rubbed his hands to warm them up before placing them on the desk. He remained quiet, seemingly deep in thought before speaking up suddenly, “Before you tell me anything. You should know. Your story is worthless to me.”
This caught Monica off guard. She looked at him, confused and asked, “Why?”
“Because what you have there will be the first and last book from the series,” he replied with a straight face.
“It’s cancelled?” Pritham asked. He looked more concerned than Monica was.
“The publisher thinks it is too controversial. Basing it on a real-life figure, people started asking questions about how ethical it was.”
“Oh man…,” Pritham said nodding in disappointment. The frown on his face deepened.
“Then why did you want to meet me?” asked Monica.
He sighed, looking at book in front of Monica. “Maybe it is selfish of me… but it was for some kind of closure. Ever since the day I saw her, I tried to strike up a conversation with anyone to discuss what I saw. But I couldn’t, not without bringing a myriad of controversial subjects. There was no one who was willing to just listen what I had to say. Which is why I decided to start the comic. It was a way to tell to world what I saw. But before I could do that, the publisher backed off for even the slightest criticism.” He snickered unexpectedly saying, “there was no way they were going to let me tell the story I wanted to.” He paused for a moment before continuing, “When my editor called me up, I thought for hours. Maybe someone who had a close encounter like I did could help me… get this off my chest…”
“Excuse me,” the waitress interrupted as she placed his cup of coffee on the table before leaving the way she came.
“Anyways, now you know the truth. If you wish to end the conversation here, I completely understand,” he said.
Monica looked at Pritham, whose frown had disappeared and instead looked at her expressionless. He nodded slightly and it was enough for Monica to say, “tell us. We are willing to listen to you.”
Anupam’s lips twisted a little, almost like he was hiding a grin. “Alright,” he said nodding his head. He began to twirl the spoon around the edge of the cup whose white froth swirled at the centre. “When she first came on the scene, I thought it was too good to be true. Thought it was hoax, an elaborate prank. But day after day, seeing her do what did… save lives and stuff… I did have to confront the fact we had an actual superhero running around our cities like it was straight out of a comic book. But I had no stake in any of this. For me, she was just news. An interesting story and nothing more.” He paused before continuing, “Then the three months passed and then came the wave of violence. And I, like everyone else, began to question her for something she probably didn’t intend.”
“I remember those days,” Monica interrupted, “We lived on the third floor of our building. We were so scared to even leave the house. Father had bought all the supplies we needed when there were signs of peace and hunkered down in our house praying it all passed.” She was, of course, lying.
“Yeah, those were pretty rough times…” Anupam commented.
“You said she didn’t intend. What did you mean by that?” Pritham, who had been silently listening to his story wanted to pitch in some way.
“I mean… we all assumed she was directly responsible for all the problems the mobs were creating, or at least that is how the media portrayed it. And I fell for it. I thought she should have been responsible or her actions or what she was causing.”
“Yes, but there was violence being caused by so many people with various reasons. Many were just fanatics who wanted to pretend like the mayhem they were causing was somehow for the greater good…” Pritham said.
“Some were just using the mayhem to their own benefit, adding fuel to the fire,” Monica added.
“Also…” Anupam interrupted, “whoever this hero was. She was probably scared by all this too. I mean… dressing up in a costume, running around in the night, doesn’t seem like the type to be addressing a crowd. I always felt she was afraid of the mob as much as we were.”
Monica felt a strange sense of euphoria erupt within her. She final saw that someone understood how she felt back then.
“Anyways, back to the story,” Anupam began, ”a friend of mine and I were returning home from a long journey and our route took us right through the land of chaos. It was late night, and we hadn’t heard much news about the violence, so we thought it had died down. It hadn’t. We cut through one of the towns late at night and we didn’t even make it halfway through when we were swarmed by a mob that seemingly came out of nowhere. Like any sane person, we tried to flee. We took a detour; not sure if it would even take us out of the town. And then we got stuck in a traffic jam. The mob shifted and swarmed the street we were in. It was chaos everywhere. Trapped in our car, we were terrified looking at people destroying whatever they found. They were even setting fire to the vehicles. We really thought it was the end for us, but the mob never reached us. Because you see the mob was chasing someone. That someone was in a vehicle in front of us. A police vehicle. The police in the van ran. They didn’t give a shit about the person inside. They broke in and dragged him out onto the street. We watched in horror as they proceeded to tie him up and…” he hesitated to continue, looking for another way of explaining what he had seen, “well let’s just say they tried to use the streetlight as a replacement for the gallows.
“And that is when I first saw her. In the darkness of the night, her white costume shined like the moon. She fought off the entire mob in a spectacular fashion before… running away with the convict. The mob was angry as ever, but also tired and broken. They dispersed soon, while still making things hell. When I got home the next day, I looked into him, the convict. He was a serial rapist. Someone who deserved to die a horrible death. It infuriated me; I cannot lie. For a long while I wondered why she would even try to save someone like him. I never got my answer. Days following her death, this question continued to itch my brain. And to be honest, even to this day it does. But it made me think more than anything else. Morality is a complicated thing, isn’t it? Any other day I would have told you to stone that son of bitch to death, but now I wonder if it is the right thing. And it was something I wanted others to feel too.”
There was a moment of silence after he completed his story. Each person at the table was left to ponder the question by themself. Anupam was simply smiling while Pritham was staring at his cup with wide eyes and hands clasped. Monica, meanwhile, smiled as she reflected on his experience. Those were days she wanted to forget but the past always comes back. Often such experiences leave behind scars, and it is always an ugly sight to behold. So, it came as a complete surprise when even in those dark times someone finds a ray of hope.
“Anyways, that is my story,” he said, “I… really. Thank you.”
Her eyes were still on the lady on the cover of the book. “My experience isn’t so life-changing,” she began suddenly, “Well… it depends, I guess.”
Pritham and Anupam fell quiet, keen to hear what Monica had to say.
“It was before the violence. Back when the lady was shining bright… I guess. I had lost someone very dear to me and was struggling to make sense of things. One evening, I hid on the terrace of our home. Hiding from my family. All I can remember was crying. A lot of crying. I could not tell you what was going through my mind, nor would I want to recall it. It was then I heard someone land on the roof. At first, I thought it was someone from the building, but they made no noise, I just heard footsteps. Looking up, I saw a white-masked woman staring at me with a soft smile.
‘Hello there,’ she greeted me. I didn’t know what to say. Words were stuck in my throat and all that came out were gibberish. She put her hand on my shoulder before sitting down beside me. ‘It’s alright. I am here. What is troubling you?’ she asked. I was afraid… or just nervous. I can’t say for sure. There was this feeling of lightness in my heart seeing her sitting beside me… talking to me and words just flowed out of my mouth. And she listened. She actually did. I don’t know if it meant anything to her. But that didn’t matter to me. At the end of it… before she left, she said, ‘It is okay to feel sad for what is lost but it is only making way for something new. Cherish the memories of it for tears can only do so much for it.’”
She fell silent but her lips widened into a smile. Her eyes still fixated on the lady, “It took a while to understand. But it is something I will carry on for life.”
“That… that is something…” Anupam said nodding.
“I know it doesn’t do much…” Monica replied, her smile had vanished.
“No,” Anupam interjected, “It is something that adds to my own experience. Thank you. I really needed it.” He looked back at her with a smile. “She was one of us, but revered by all of us.”
Monica never had any trouble lying. As a matter of fact, one can say that she had almost mastered the art of it. But nobody could lie as beautifully as her, for her lies, sometimes, weren’t simple white lies but a story within themselves. She replied with a smile and said, “You know, the lady doesn’t have to be in white or be without a name.”
***
The rain had finally subsided, for the moment at least. The footpath on either side of the road was filling up with pedestrians. Monica and Pritham quietly walked along when she asked, “Where to? Someplace to eat? Or store?”
“Let’s eat first. Shopping on empty stomach is not healthy.”
“Doing anything on empty stomach is not healthy,” Monica replied with a grin.
Pritham, who had been quiet as mouse since Anupam left, finally asked a question that been itching him for long, “Say if you were in the lady’s super shoes… would you save the convict?”
Monica took a moment to answer, pretending to think before saying, “Don’t know. I don’t really like to think about such things. What about you?”
“If you asked me today morning, my answer would be no. I would say he deserved it and he still does. But now, I am having second thoughts. Maybe he does but who are we to decide that on a whim?”
“Exactly why I hate such questions. There is never an easy answer,” she said. But the truth is, Monica always had an answer for such questions. She always pretended to be in two minds about such things, but the truth is, she always valued life over everything else.