Chapter 2 Kiara

The alarm rang. I parted my eyelids effortfully and looked at the time.

It was eight in the morning. I needed to be at the office by nine. I rolled over on my bed, wishing if only it was a Sunday. But a while later I found myself getting up, tidying the bed, brushing my teeth, preparing breakfast and getting ready—as though I was on autopilot.

A few minutes later I locked the door of my house. It wasn’t really ‘my’ house. It belonged to the organization I worked for. The entire colony I lived in was owned by the organization and accommodated its employees. It was a governmental establishment which dealt with the production of rubber.

I sighed. I just worked a desk job, nothing exciting, but I was still thankful for it. At least, I was no longer drowning in student debt. Life was peaceful without loan headaches, and I better appreciate it.

I waved at the father of one of my co-workers who lived in the house to my right. The employees were allowed to bring their family members to live with them.

“You are getting late!” the seventy year old told me with a toothy smile, reclined on a basket chair. “My son left half an hour ago!”

“Don’t worry, I will get to the office in no time,” I replied with a breezy laugh.

It was then that I noticed that there were some sandals outside the door of the house to my left. The house had been lying empty for a while. I recalled that yesterday night I had heard the rumble of some vehicle engine. New neighbor?

I hoped they would be nicer than the divorced lady who had lived before. She had a foul mouth and kept throwing insulting puns at people. Thankfully she retired and left the colony.

To get to the main office building I needed to march a kilometer from my home. I preferred going on foot to the office, since once I was in my cubicle there would be little physical activity. I enjoyed the morning sun along the way and appreciated the scenery of the hilly region in which the organization was situated.

I stepped into my department wing in a matter of minutes. As usual my boss had not come yet. He was a notorious latecomer, and he sometimes got scolded by his seniors, but never took any shame in that. It did ensure that I needn't come to the office as early as some of the other employees.

I got to work, analyzing the numbers of diseased plants from last season. A few minutes went by before I became aware that there was a young girl, around my age, empty faced, sitting in a nearby cubicle with her desktop home screen on, a dotted scarf around her neck below her strong chin. A new employee? I recalled that some time ago my boss had talked about a new interview and recruitments since some of the senior employees had retired in our department. For a while I kept unintentionally gawking at the girl.

I thought she had rather large eyes which I found very beautiful. Just then she turned her head and our gaze met. I felt my face flush and instantly looked back at my computer screen. I kept working for a few minutes, before I glanced at her again. She was still sitting with a somewhat bored and confused expression like she wasn’t sure what to do.

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After a while my boss finally arrived. A large man with a massive stomach. People seldom saw his bald head, thanks to his permanent fedora hat. His real name was Pandey, but everyone including his seniors called him ‘Boss’ because of his uncanny resemblance with a popular TV comic, who played a villain inspired by gangster Al Capone.

Boss came panting, a customary habit of his. I had never since him arriving with a relaxed face except on the rarest occasion.

“My car was refusing to start this morning,” he told me. He always had some reason or the other for arriving late. I never knew if any one of them was real, or if he just couldn't wake up early in the mornings. “Ah, Miss Kiara, isn’t it?” Boss said when he saw the new girl.

The girl smiled meekly and nodded. She looked tired.

“When did you arrive at the campus?” Boss asked.

“Yesterday night,” the girl said.

“Like late yesterday night?”

“Yes, it was probably 1 a. m when I got to my residential quarter.”

Boss made a face of pity.

“Ah, then you needn’t have come to the office today! You must be tired!”

“I was supposed to join today,” she told him.

“Well, well,” Boss said. “Doesn’t matter. We never hurry in our office!” Boss laughed and I inwardly thought that we never hurried until it was the last week of meeting a deadline, when we worked for twenty hours a day. “But anyway, since you have come already, you can get introduced to the office staff and accustom yourself with the work that you will have to do.” Boss turned to me. “Vicky, I trust you are not overburdened today?”

I shook my head. Except for deadline weeks I was never overburdened.

“Then you must be able to give an overview of our work to Miss Kiara, I hope?”

I shrugged.

“Sure,” I said.

The next couple of hours were spent telling office stuff to Kiara. She turned out to be a likable girl and a fast learner.

“We are probably neighbors,” I told her.

“Are we?” she asked, raising a brow.

“Probably,” I said. “There are many empty houses in the campus, but yesterday in the dead of night I thought I heard a taxi.” Kiara would be a great change for the acidic lady who lived in the house before her.

“So you live here with your family?” she asked me.

I laughed.

“I am pretty much my only family,” I said to her. “I just have a brother and nobody else. And he is a crazy guy. The last I heard from him was a while back. But I know he is okay and probably enjoying himself. Worrying about him is kind of pointless.”

My brother Sam—short for Sameer— was one of those rare anomalies in society that do whatever they want to. He didn’t seem to fear anything, and his motto was to throw shit at every wall in the room.

Sam traveled all the time, always calling me from some new place. He was a quick learner, picking up new skills with ease which allowed him to keep changing professions. He told me he had a lot of money but wouldn't reveal all his income sources, though he had assured me on multiple occasions that he would never touch anything outside the law.

“Tell me about yourself,” I said. “Who do you have for a family?”

“Uh, I live alone,” Kiara said, not meeting my eyes.

An uneasy silence lingered for a few moments. Did she really have nobody?

“Well you don’t have any boyfriend?” I asked her. “You are a pretty girl.”

Kiara’s eyes widened when I said this, and I wondered if I had gone too far in asking that. I had only met her today after all. But she answered in a calm tone.

“No,” she replied. “Never had one.” She chuckled somewhat artificially. "I always thought couples looked miserable."

I decided not to bother her with such questions and instead focused on showing her work stuff. The day breezed by and soon it was the end of work hours. Later on it was confirmed that we were indeed neighbors.

That night when I went to bed, I had a fuzzy feeling about me. It had been one of those perfect days, which come once in a blue moon and totally blow you away. My thoughts kept wandering to Kiara. I couldn’t remember thinking so much about a girl ever in my life before.

***