Short Story: Man Standing in the Dark (Part Two)
Part Two
He had bought a
mini-whiteboard and was drawing something. I went near the whiteboard and took
a close look at it. It had random names scribbled on it and some sentences like
– “Met in a Fair” and “Rich Man with Unsatisfying Relationship”. I was
perplexed. I didn’t know what it meant. My father looked at me and smiled. I
thought of asking him, but did not. I was aware of his habit of acting
suspicious. I knew he wouldn’t say, so I did not question him and departed from
our drawing room. Rest of the day I kept thinking of what I saw in the drawing
room. This unexpected change in my father’s behavior left me baffled, searching
for an answer that only he had. After a few hours, my parents went out to do
essential shopping and I had a chance to know what was actually going on in
my father’s mind.
I looked at the mini-whiteboard and
saw it was filled with almost 10 or more sentences. It had no title or subtitle
to it on the top. I started reading:
- It starts with an unplanned meeting of three people.
- The protagonist (of the story) has difficulty in breathing during the trek and other two helps him.
- Three of them are unaware that a number of problems are waiting ahead for them.
- One night, something unexpected happens (fire in tent) and they all get separated.
- The place they’re in is not safe, they face a challenge each.
- Soon they find out – it is not an ordinary trip, but a trap!
- One of those three are behind this whole trap.
(PLOT IS COPYRIGHTED)
“WTF!” I exclaimed
and sat with the white board in my hand. I read all the sentences again. It
looked like a rough outline of a story. The sentences made considerable amount
of sense to me; they were in a sequence, in order to develop a story out of it.
Stories were not new to me, but I did not expect my father to plan anything
related to any story. I went inside my room, deciding that I’ll ask my father
about the sentences he had written on the whiteboard. And I secretly hoped he
would disclose what’s going on in his mind.
My parents returned late at night
around 11 .P.M. I knew my father would come in my room and pick up a book to
read. I was working on my laptop when he came in my room. As I predicted, he
picked up a book and started reading. I remained quiet, waiting for my mother to
go to her room and sleep. Once she went inside her room, I went out and came
with the whiteboard. My father saw me bringing it, was going to speak
something, but stopped himself.
“Papa, may I ask you something?”
“Yes?”
“What is all this?”
“This is the plot of the book I am
planning to write.”
My guess was correctly. “From when
did you develop interest in writing?”
He smiled and asked me to pull a
chair and sit with him.
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
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