The car slowed as they were approaching the police barricade. The man in khakis knocked on the car window. He asked him for his licence and registration.
“Where are you coming from, this late at night?”
“The movies.” The driver answered with practised confidence. The policeman was however skeptical and asked him to show the tickets for all four of them in the car.
The driver held out his phone to show the soft copy of the tickets. “Seat no. D-11,12,13, 14”
“Okay, you may go.”
The driver barreled the moment he was let go. After they covered a few hundred feet, they heard sirens. The boss yelled ” The cops are behind us, step on it!”
Adi never wanted to have a career in smuggling, nor this specific assignment of bringing gold biscuits stuffed in a woolen carpet. Yet here he was, yelling orders at his driver, absconding the police.
He needed to take a quick decision, so he threw out the carpet to the kerb as they sped past it.
The police finally caught up, and turns out the driver forgot to take the licence back. Well now the police won’t let them go without a thorough check of the vehicle and a speeding ticket.
After handling the police, they drove back to where they threw the carpet, only to find it missing.
“All your sons do is con people into giving them money, and you’re okay to live with that?” the old woman yelled through the thin walls of the apartment.
“I swear to god, you have been a menace ever since we were moved from the slums to the apartment. Stop eavesdropping!” the woman yelled back. She was in her 40s and had multiple ailments, untreated because of the only family heirloom she had inherited – poverty.
Her boys, a tall, dark and lanky one and the more bubbly older brother, entered the house where any claustrophobe would dread to. Each brother was holding an end of a thick woolen carpet. “Ma, you know that woman is not worth your energy.” the older brother advised as they set the carpet down.
“Where were you boys? Were you running another con?! Look what I have to put up with because of you two. This is all on me, I didn’t have the damn immunity I needed to earn enough money to make you kids stay in school!”
The older son spoke “Ma that’s enough, you’ve done so much for us, and we’re trying our best to take care of you, the best way we know. We have brought you a carpet. For your chills. We found this on the curb of the main road, it seems new.”
“Do I look like I was born yesterday? You clearly stole this from someone.”
“No ma, he’s not lying–” the younger one started as he was interrupted by his brother ” She’s never going to trust us.” he dismissed as he threw the carpet out the balcony. It landed in the junkyard that was promised to be cleared 10 years back, when the slum clearance project was complete.
He walked out with frustration, and his brother gave him a two second lead, gave an apologetic look to his mother and jogged out to catch up to his brother.
As the older brother walked out, with a million thoughts in his mind, he saw a wooden club coming at him, and wondered for a millisecond what was happening and then it hit him. He passed out.
The brothers were back at their house, the older one with a bruise on his head, the younger one sprinkled water on his face and slapped him gently in an attempt to wake him up.
He opened his eyes, his vision slowly coming back to focus, and in his view stood three men, two of them holding clubs and one of them taking gulps from a big bottle of water.
One could clearly see perplexity written all over the boy’s face as he had just regained consciousness only to find his mother and brother held hostage.
“Finally. My name is Adi. I asked around about you boys, quite notorious for your age I’d say, impressive. I believe you picked up a carpet that belongs to me. “
“That’s why you’re threatening us? We just threw that out in the junkyard!”
“Ah yes I was informed by your family. But we combed through every inch of the junkyard. The only thing we found was the fact that you all are liars. No harm in telling you, we are smugglers, and we have stuffed that carpet with ₹10 crore worth of gold. We threw it out on the curb to avoid getting arrested by the cops. Now where is the carpet.”
The whole family had an extensive range of reactions that were built around worry, fear and shock.
“We had no idea about the gold and we don’t want any trouble.” the older brother told, still not completely in his senses. “Our mother does not like the things we bring by unfair means, so just to pacify her, I pretend to throw it in the junkyard. I have a friend who collects whatever I throw. He lives 8 houses to the left of this apartment. If you don’t believe me, you will see that he has a proper vantage of the junkyard from the terrace of his house. He already has a criminal record in the local police station, so he will not want to get mixed up in smuggling. If you just explain about the smuggling, he will just hand the carpet over to you. “
“See, was that so hard, apply some ice on that, you’ll be okay. Sorry for the trouble. ” the goons started leaving as Adi was bidding farewell to the family.
Soon after they left, the older brother got up hastily and went next door and started rapping on the door. The nosy neighbor opened the door “What!”
“Can we please have the carpet back? I heard you head out the moment I threw the carpet. I know you heard everything, don’t make me call those goons back, I will give you half of the gold, worth 50 lakhs. “
The lady thought for a brief moment, “Fine, but I want 60% instead of 50%, finders keepers.”
He had to keep a straight face as he knew she miscalculated, and agreed reluctantly “You drive a hard bargain, but okay.”
She headed inside and fetched the carpet.
He carried the carpet back to his house.
The mother and brother watched with complete uncertainty.
“Wait so if the carpet is here, where did you send them?” the mother finally spoke up.
“Oh yeah, about that, the man who lives there is an undercover cop, I once saw him taking pictures of the two of us. Nothing to worry, we haven’t done anything explicitly illegal, he is trying to find something though. He is staying in that house only to keep an eye on us. ” the boy said cockily.
8 houses away…
“You just confessed to smuggling, you are under arrest. ” a 40 year old inspector finally had a shot at that assistant commissioner job. He was not going to go after the boys for the carpet as a mark of gratitude and of course he knows that they would have a backup plan for that as well.
He has been tailing them for two years now.
The faces of the goons were flush red.
“Sir, they must have the carpet!!” Adi shouted in vain.
“I do not have the proof for that, but you did just confess everything to me now. Backup will arrive in two minutes, so sit tight. “the cop said calmly.
Adi knew better than trying to attack the policeman and run. At least this was going to be the last two minutes of doing something he hated.
Left On Read 