EPISODE 11 THE ACT

“I’ll tell you my part of the play first”

He said and started,

“The rumor you started hit our entire class in no time, it kept passing on, People were talking behind our back but we didn’t understand why till it came to our own ears. It was difficult to trace who the source was. As days passed people started developing the rumor and took it to a whole new level. We both were in love, You and other classmates knew only till this, But you didn’t know our parents knew about us being together, Generally, no parent would accept when their child comes and says to them that they are in love. But our parents were different, they did not look at the society, they looked at our happiness. But of course they also told us that we were too small to decide who our life partner should be, they asked us to live apart from each other for a while until we both got to that age where we could decide about our life partners, If after so many years of living apart we were still in love with each other, then they promised that they wouldn’t restrict our love. They didn’t mind gossips about us because they knew us more than anyone. They knew we wouldn’t do such a thing, but still, our parents had to take steps to correct the false rumors. We had to find the source, One day I met Her(Pointing towards his love) we were trying to narrow down and trace the source of the rumor, We started with the last person who heard it before us, We also requested that person not to talk about this in school, We hoped they wouldn’t and we kept on doing this and finally we ended up with you, I called you to ask about this, But you were scared when you heard from me, I knew you since childhood Kunal, I know how you would react when you do something wrong, You stumbled to talk, You couldn’t respond properly, You were afraid of getting caught, I knew you were the who started the rumor, I didn’t get angry at you Kunal, I

disappointed. The Kunal I knew was a loving person, But the Kunal I saw the other day was not him. I don’t know what changed you but you changed a lot. When I told her (Again pointing towards His love) about this, She got angry, she wanted to give back what you gave us, But I didn’t want that, It took me hours to convince her. I told her if we did the same, there wouldn’t be any difference between us and you, so we both decided to teach you a lesson. This is the point where the entire plan started, I knew you very well Kunal, I knew what would hurt you, I then asked her to spread rumors around school that I had moved to New York and that my parents forced me into this. No one would think that she was lying about her own love. I asked my parents to support me with this, they did. I then asked my parents to tell your parents about us moving to New York, We moved, but we didn’t move to New York, My father got a new job in Chennai, We moved here. I knew my death would break you. So days after we moved she started another rumor that I had  committed                     

suicide. But someone had to be near you but also had to be out of your sight, she (his love) had to change her school, she couldn’t go to a school that thought she was wasted. So she moved to another school in another area, but she was not far from you, she used her friends to know how you were in school, our plan was to give you a vibrant push towards the truth make you feel bad for it and then show up and explain the reason. Our intension was not to break you, but a few things in life have to be learned the hard way. Our plan went perfectly until Kriti showed up in school.”

He turned towards Kriti, Kriti looked at him, Smiled and looked at me. He then started again,

“You were depressed, you felt bad about yourself, but after she came to school, everything changed, you started enjoying life again, and it was something we didn’t plan for. So one day we called her and told her the entire story about you and that we wanted to teach you a lesson. She was shocked to hear about you.”

“I thought she wouldn’t agree with us and she would tell you about us, but surprisingly she was ready to help! We asked her what made her take this decision, She said she loved you with all her heart, She wanted to spend her lifetime with you, But she couldn’t do it with a person with that kind of an attitude. She didn’t want to give up on you, none of us did, which is why all of us came back to help you. You mattered to us Kunal. A friend is a person who supports you and helps you live a better life, Mere laughing and hanging out in bars is not friendship. So while we were discussing the plan further as to how to take it forward, Kriti suggested that she had to die, to correct what she faulted. It came as a surprise to us, We did not agree, We told her that another death would kill you completely and that we were risking your life, But she was confident about you, She told us you were not like that and you wouldn’t do that to the people who loved you. My part of the play ends here.”

“Here is where my play started” Kriti smiled, Looked at me and started,

“First of Kunal, Sorry for what I put you through, for every lie that happened to you, my love for you was never a lie, and I loved you with all my heart. Remember the day we proposed each other, or shall I put it like, Remember the day I died?”

She said this and laughed, she thought she was being funny, but it was not so funny, she didn’t have good timing sense, she never did. She then changed the look from a smiley face to serious one and continued,

“That day in the park, after we met our surprise guest and after you told me about your past, I shouted at you and walked away, pretending to be angry at you, you fell on the ground with your head down, I walked out and a car hit me”

I interrupted her and said,

“Please don’t elaborate, I remember what happened there”

She then continued,

“So actually the car never hit me, your friend was inside that car, we knew that you meeting her (my friend’s love) after such a long time would trigger your past. The plan was that I will shout at you and after you get depressed, I will walk out and your friend's car will hit me and I will pretend to be unconscious. Luckily no one actually saw what happened there that day clearly, the car never hit me, it came near me and stopped, I pretended to have been hit and I fell down. As planned everyone gathered around and made a big fuss, your friend got away immediately to make it look like a realistic accident. We also set up a person to make a fake call asking for help from an ambulance. We couldn’t afford the risk of being taken in an ambulance and being checked by an actual doctor, so your best friend’s love asked her uncle who was a doctor to play a small part. He would come and take me in his car to the hospital in which he was a dean, and after creating a series of tension around you inside the hospital, he would come to you and inform you about my death.”

I thought to myself,

“Stupid Kunal,”

I then said with some clarity,

“Now everything makes sense. The improbable coincidences, your parents, Death of the people I loved. But I still don’t understand, how did you manage to convince your parents to help me by killing yourself? How did they accept to this?”

My friend said,

“Kunal that was a very difficult job, let’s not get into that, Just take the fact that they agreed to it”

He sighed.

I then asked him,

“What if I had actually killed myself?”

“If you people hadn’t done this to me I might have even passed my board exam with flying colors. I might have even got a Rank”

Then he replied in a sarcastic tone,

“Come on Kunal… we all know you wouldn’t have got a rank either way”

I laughed and said

“Yeah, that’s right”.

I then turned towards Preethi and said,

“I think I know how you came into this whole act, I’ll say tell me if I’m right. Ok?”

She smiled and said,

“Okay.”

107

I then started,

“You must have acquainted with Kriti after college started, she would have told you about my entire past, you would have been disappointed but still you agreed to be a part of the plan. They had to have somebody near me, they also had to see if my attitude for alternatives had changed after Kriti’s death so they would have asked you to get close to me and try and get me to fall in love with you. After that day, where you changed all your looks you would have started to see signs that I was developing a liking for you. So you had to give me something that would bring back my thoughts about Kriti, while you were wondering about how possibly you could do this, you would have heard about our singer being absent in that cultural, So you decided to use that opportunity so you gave my name instead of the singer. Then before going to stage you indirectly motivated me to think about Kriti and then after the cultural you called me so many times not because you were worried about me but you wanted to know if I was alive. Then after I told you about my past and Kriti, you cried not because you were in love with me but because your plan paid off well. After that you called me to this restaurant, you informed Kriti that you believe I had changed, Then again after coming here, you had to ensure that I realized my mistake in full, so you brought up Kriti’s death again. After you realized that I changed from all my heart you cried in a sigh of relief, and called these people.”

She laughed replied,

“That was easy wasn’t it?”

I then looked at my friend and said,

“I have a few more questions.”

He replied,

“How many questions will you have Kunal?”

“I’m sorry, you would know if you were played by three dead people all this while and all of a sudden all three show up like nothing happened,” I said.

He replied smiling,

“Fair enough, but I’m tired and hungry. I’m going to get something to eat, so you can ask all your questions to Kriti. Do you guys need anything to eat?” He asked

I said I wanted a sandwich, Kriti wanted a lemonade, Preethi wanted Cold coffee and best friends love wanted Coke. After this, I looked at Kriti and asked her,

“So when your parents came and told my parents that you passed away, your parents knew about the play right?”

-“Yeah, After I asked the doctor to tell you that I was dead, I also asked him to call my parents and say that I was perfectly alright and there wasn’t a scratch on my body. The first thing I did after agreeing to be a part of this act was that I told my parents about our love and the play that we were planning on you. I had a hard time convincing my parents about the play part. So yeah, they were part of this too.”

I was now able to combine the fragments, I told her again,

“So that’s why they weren’t so surprised to hear about your death, that doctor informed your parents that you were alright before I informed them of your death.”

She replied,

“Yes, maybe that’s why”

I then turned to Preethi,

“Preethi, were you a part of this before college started?

She replied,

“No. I got a call from Kriti only a few days before that cultural event.”

I then asked her,

“So that convincing saying you knew me more than I knew myself and that motivation to make me sing about the first thing that comes to my mind after I close my eyes, you said all that to bring back Kriti’s thoughts in my mind,?”

She said,

“No Kunal, all those words came from my heart, but I hoped that Kriti was the one to come to your mind first”

My friend came with our orders, He sat down and then asked me,

“So Kunal, have you cleared all your doubts?”

I said,

“No, not the ones I have to ask you”

He took a big bite of the sandwich and said with that sandwich filled mouth

“Shoot me”

I then asked,

That part where you didn’t come out your house for days and you were crying day and night were all a lie? “

He replied,

“Absolutely. I was playing my PS4 all that while”

I laughed and replied looking down,

“You son of a gun”

We all laughed, then I turned towards my friend’s love and asked her,

“You knew I was responsible for the rumor before the day I came and apologized to you right?”

“Yes Kunal, You are getting good”

She laughed said sarcastically.

I told them,

“I was being played all this while. You all played with my emotions, Even though it was for my good, what you did was wrong. “

My friend dropped the sandwich that he picked to have another bite, He said,

“Yes Kunal what we did was wrong and we are really sorry for that. A sorry will not take everything back but that’s the most we could do now”

I replied,

“That’s all I wanted. Thank you, you guys mean a lot me.”