Chapter 8: The Plan

Tarun’s ability to lay out several scenarios and potential solutions were useful, but he had blind spots. He usually missed something quite obvious such as, how the anonymity of his letter to Richa wasn’t foolproof. In the new circumstances, his former adversary’s astute skill of being a keen observer helped discover loopholes of his plans. The complementary nature of their skills had a synergistic impact on the simplicity and effectiveness of their plan. The plan was simple. Richa will keep an eye on Priti’s movements outside the school, while Tarun will do the same in the school. They both agreed that this is what made the most sense. As Richa and Priti lived in the same gated community, following Priti to and from the school would not be that hard for Richa. Moreover, they both went to the same evening mathematics tuition class. Apart from this, Priti did not have any routine activity on weekdays outside the school. Tarun’s duty was not very different. The idea was to keep an eye on Priti at all times during school hours. As he shared the desk with Priti, it was not difficult. The only challenge was to be around Priti during lunch hours, game hours and during Priti’s badminton practice just after school hours without raising suspicion. During lunch and game hours, he just had to be careful, but being around her during badminton practice required good excuse. It was planned that Tarun will mention it to Priti that he is suppose to wait an hour before he goes home as his mom is out of town and his dad only returns from office an hour later. His sister who attended the school was sick with chickenpox and her misery became a nice cover for him as she wasn’t going to come to school for a couple of weeks.

The plan was decided on a Wednesday and followed through from the next day onward. It was Thursday of the next week. Every morning Richa got ready sooner than usual and hid near Priti’s home, waited for Priti to begin cycling towards school before following her at a distance. She did something similar after school, as well as preceding and following their mathematics tuition. None of it resulted in anything concrete. Once Priti stopped midway towards school when she saw a girl, Richa did not know. The conversation seemed pleasant from distance, apart from this nothing else. During the tuition in the evening, Priti largely remained quiet and left as soon as the class ended. She rarely talked to anybody there. Nothing suspicious there either. Richa was getting frustrated. Tarun’s luck was no better. He kept keeping an eye on her during the school and during the badminton practice, but he did not find anything suspicious at all. To be able to communicate better, both Richa and Tarun had started meeting at Richa’s house at the pretense of doing a science project together. With each passing day, their meetings were more and more depressing. Both of them were getting frustrated and losing faith in their plan.

Last night, Richa asked Tarun why is he not trying to do what she asked him to do. Tarun hesitated and said, “You know, I do not want to sneak into her diary again.” Richa interrupted and said, “Do you see any other way, you dumb wit”. Over the period of last week, their joint venture had brought both of them together and a friendship had evolved. Tarun was no longer hesitant around Richa and made fun of Richa’s messy room all the time. Richa reciprocated by being herself and calling Tarun names which he did not really mind. A friendship was blossoming during this time of crisis. You are right, the way things are going, there is no other way, Tarun said thoughtfully.

On this Thursday, more than a week after there plan was put in place, Tarun was determined to sneak into Priti’s diary. It is ironic how it was so easy to do that when he didn’t intend to. But today, Priti was glued to her seat. Even during the lunch period, she decided to eat lunch in the classroom. Both Richa and Tarun exchanged exasperated looks. While he was sad about the almost certainty of another day lost, he couldn’t but notice that Priti eating her lunch at the desk looked even sadder. It pained him. “Maybe only way left is to confront Priti, he will talk to Richa about it tonight”, he thought.

After the last bell rang, Priti began walking towards the badminton court. Tarun followed. Priti’s walk seemed so sluggish today, unlike any other day. He may be imagining it, he wondered. As usual, Tarun sat in the viewing gallery from where he could see the badminton court. He opened his notebook pretending to do homework while keeping an eye on all that was happening on the court below. Everything seemed usual, except for the absence of their usual badminton coach. Instead, he saw a girl maybe in her twenties, instructing girls what to do. Why is Priti standing far behind today? Tarun murmured to himself. He reasoned that she is not herself today. It must mean the impending doom that awaited her must be near. She is just depressed and scared. He kept watching and thinking about what Richa will say when he tells her that he is going to talk to Priti tomorrow. He assumed Richa will like that. He realized that Richa always wanted him to do that from the very beginning, but respected his insecurities. He smiled a bit. The practice was over now. Everyone was packing their bags, Priti seemed to be in a hurry when today’s instructor approached her. No one was around them. Tarun could not make anything out from the distance, but Priti seemed visibly distressed by it. This meeting only lasted for a few minutes and then Priti ran out with her gears and school bag. Tarun followed. Outside the school, Richa was waiting on her bicycle hiding behind the side gate of school waiting for Priti to come out so that she could follow her. Tarun saw Richa as well, their eyes met. Richa knew today was different. When Priti had already crossed the school’s main gate, Richa followed.

Tarun stood there gasping for air. He could not understand what he had seen. Is he reading too much into it? After all, what exactly had he seen? Priti’s substitute instructor berating her. Wasn’t it a normal thing? Maybe! Priti was clearly not playing that well today. But why does this feel uncomfortable? He kept thinking until he arrived at a reason. This instructor was a girl. That was the reason why it felt so uneasy. Didn’t Priti’s letter indicated that it was a girl who is blackmailing her. But an instructor, could that be possible?

Later that evening, when he told all this to Richa, she was more surprised. After few minutes of pondering, she said, I see that there is a far stretched chance that your suspicions are correct,  but I think we are just getting desperate now. As you said, she is her instructor and Priti wasn’t putting up her "A" game today. I don’t think we should get distracted by this. I know Priti is in pain and I can’t bear to see it, but I think we will have to wait till we see that transaction happening. Priti is getting more and more panicky and that is a sign that it will happen soon. We must be patient and not get distracted. If there is really anything that can help us at this point, it is her diary. And you are the only one who can potentially do this.

Tarun did not say anything, he just nodded and said, “Tomorrow!”. As he walked back from Richa’s house to his own, two things kept appearing in his mind, Richa’s reasons to not follow this apparently dead lead and Priti’s sad face. The uneasy feeling that he had been feeling ever since this evening, he just couldn’t shake it off. No, he will act on it, whether Richa agrees with it or not.