Madhu drove the car through the lonely night. The night was darker than usual, with the moon hidden behind dark clouds; there was a power outage in the area adding to the darkness. None of the streetlights were on, all the apartments and buildings on either side of the road had their lights turned off, and a few candles were visible here and there. The only light on the road was from her car's headlights. The raindrops hitting the windshields added to the melancholy of her situation. She turned on the wipers and pressed the gas, hoping to reach the destination quickly.

Madhu had the radio on, but the music was distorted, probably due to the rain. The GPS tracker app on her mobile blinked every now and then. She looked at the red dot on her screen, moving slowly and steadily away from her. She sped up, not allowing to be left behind.

She never thought a day like this would come, where she would have to place a tracker under her husband's car and follow him as he visits his mistress in the middle of the night. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and her mind was filled with uncontrollable anger. She saw the red light next to the railway crossing as she took the right. The metallic bars were descending across the road to allow the train to pass. She sped up further, trying to pass through it before it closed, but the bars clanged in finality, and she had to slow down and wait for the train to pass.

She looked around; not much was visible outside except two meters in front of the car. Due to the rain, she couldn't hear anything either, but the lack of other lights on the road made it clear that hers was the only vehicle on the road. She opened her glove box to reassure herself that the revolver she had recently bought from the black market was still in there. She wiped her tears away.

Tonight, she will die.

She could feel the vibration from the train approaching her, the slow and steady rumble that grew louder and louder. She could see the light from the inside of the train spilling out. As the train passed, everything around her became visible. She saw some commotion to the left. She turned to see an old woman being harassed by two people in hoodies in the alley between two old buildings. One of the men was trying to take away her purse, and the other man kept hitting her in the stomach to free her clutch from the purse. The bag of groceries had fallen on the wet floor, and the vegetables had spilled out and rolled on the floor.

Madhu was unsure where the courage came from. Maybe she was always like that, or the revolver gave her that extra push. She picked up the revolver, got out of the car, aimed it at the two thieves, and shouted as loud as she could to make herself audible amidst the rain and the train's sound.

"Leave her! Or I will shoot you!"

The hooded people turned to her; she could see their faces; they were just teenagers. One of them still held onto the old woman's purse. They stood frozen, probably wondering if Madhu had a real gun. Madhu cocked the hammer, raised the revolver, and pulled the trigger to make it clear that it was the real deal.

The boys let go of the old woman and ran into the darkness. The old woman fell down and held her stomach, her face showing that the pain was unbearable. Madhu returned the revolver to the glove box and rushed to help the old woman. The train passed, and complete darkness returned as the red light turned green and the bar was raised back to its vertical position.

"Are you okay, ma'am?" Madhu asked, checking to see if the old woman had been wounded.

The old woman looked up at Madhu, "I think I will be okay; it's just that they hit me quite a few times here," she said as she pointed to her stomach and waist.

"You should have shouted, ma'am, I could have helped you earlier."

Madhu felt sorry for her, and for a few minutes, she forgot about her problems and helped the old woman slowly get back on her feet. She was a small woman with a slight stoop, wearing a long gray cotton dress with a checkered pattern. Her white hair hung in disarray over her face, tousled and tangled due to the attack and the rain. Her face was covered with wrinkles, but her facial features indicated that she was not a localite. She had a slightly bent nose, a well-defined jawline, dark blue eyes, and a broad forehead. Blood clots had formed over her wrinkled right arm, which was kicked by the teenagers.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"I am close to eighty years old; I have no strength to shout," replied the old woman with a slight tremor.

Madhu went around collecting the fallen vegetables in the rain and putting them back in the bag.

"Don't worry; these should be as good as new after you wash them."

Madhu was a woman in her forties who had gained weight over the years. She wore comfortable loungewear, a soft cotton T-shirt, and comfortable leggings, both of which were drenched. She had fair skin, a kind face, chubby cheeks, and dark brown hair that stuck to her face.

"Thank you," said the old woman as she smiled at Madhu, emphasizing her crow's feet. Something unsettling was about that smile and her dark blue eyes, which glinted in the corner. Madhu didn't give that much thought and parked her car to the side to help the old woman get back into her house.

The old woman, who introduced herself as Lekha, lived on the first floor of the building beside the railway crossing. The house wasn't big, but it was cozy, and Madhu was grateful to get out of the rain. She looked around the house; it had a kitchen on one side and a divider separating it from the main hall. The bedroom and the bathroom were on the other side. Opposite the main entrance was a small round table with two seats. Beyond that were several long open windows, and there was a small garden with exotic plants and flowers on the limited space on the other side of the window. They weren't the plants that you would find in the area.

A painting on one of the walls showed a muscular man steering a boat in a heavy storm with women and children behind him. The boat was very different in style and shape. On another wall, a wooden frame hung with some strange inscriptions. Lekha saw that Madhu was interested in the peculiarity of her house.

"I am from a different culture. Ashwagandha is a very different place compared to the rest of India."

"Where is this place?" asked Madhu out of curiosity.

"Let's get ourselves dried first, and I will turn on the stove to make some hot tea, and we can talk all about it."

The uniqueness of Lekha's culture had captivated Madhu, and she had forgotten that she had something important to finish. She sat on the table as Lekha served the tea and sat opposite Madhu with her own cup of tea. Lekha seemed to have recovered from the blows and spoke with great enthusiasm about herself and her village.

Madhu learned that Ashwagandha was a village on the city's outskirts, nestled snugly in the embrace of the mountains of the western ghats, just a two-hour ride from where they were. Still, she was surprised that she had just heard of this place today. Lekha told her that the village had only a hundred people. They do not interact with outsiders or people who have a different belief from them, which happened to be the entire country they were in. The village lacked basic amenities like schools, electricity, and hospitals. They lived in their own bubble, not allowing their kids to get out and teaching them only about their culture. The villagers relied on the medicinal herbs that grew in the mountains and relied on the forest animals for their nourishment, with very little agriculture going on.

"After persuading the village elders for thirty years, I finally got the opportunity to move out of the village and nestle in this city. I have lived here for almost forty years now. I am a changed person now. I have my own shop and am self-reliant, but the village is the same as it was."

"How are your people so different from the rest of India?" asked Madhu.

"That's a long tale. You see that painting over there?" said Lekha, pointing at the muscular man steering a boat full of women and children through a storm.

"That's Loki, our savior. He is an ancestor of mine and the people of Ashwagandha. He saved our dying culture from the clutches of a dominant culture and steered my ancestors across the three oceans to the western coast of India. From there, we walked and snuggled into Ashwagandha."

"Fascinating."

"What about you? What were you doing alone in a car on a lonely path?"

What was I doing?

That question brought Madhu back to the real world, where she had certain things to finish. She stood suddenly and said, "I am sorry, I have to leave." She chuckled, "I was so engrossed in your story I forgot my work. Thank you for the tea and the amazing tale, but I must leave now."

Madhu didn't want to tell her about her husband's affair and the agony she was going through, but somehow, this whole incident and this chat had cleared her mind, and she could see things clearly now. She would let her husband choose between her and the lover and live with the consequences of his decision. She felt that life would be alright even after the divorce, and she would be enough to keep Suraj happy.

As she was about to leave, Madhu remembered that the old woman might still not be entirely safe from those teenagers, "You should register a police complaint against those robbers."

Lekha nodded affirmatively at the suggestion and said, "I won't stop you; it's already late at night. However, as a gesture of appreciation for your help today, I will grant you two wishes, for saving me from two robbers, you can fulfill them whenever you want."

Madhu looked at Lekha; she had the same unsettling smile and eyes as she spoke about the wishes. Madhu didn't understand what Lekha was talking about when she meant wishes. Still, she had no interest in getting that clarified as she had to get back to tracking her husband. She dismissed that as a cultural or an age difference but was polite to Lekha.

"I will definitely come to you when I need those wishes fulfilled."

Madhu thanked Lekha for the tea again and left the house, back to her car, and back to her cheating husband.