"I don't remember it," Mitra said quite solemnly.
At the end of Sashi's narration of their first meeting, Mitra couldn't help but wonder why it was so special for him. She had no memory of it, the primary reason being her young age and the fact that she had counted him as one of the many neighbourhood kids she had played with, none of who had any impactful impression in her mind.
"You spoke to me first," Sashi said, a little pensively. "I was just standing there at a distance and you called me out first. You asked me to paint the wall with you, to run with you and to come visit you in the evening." He put out a strong face as he iterated, "You started it all, not me."
"None of which I remember," Mitra objected wearily. This was going nowhere. Sashi was repeating the same thing over and over again. "Honestly, Sashi, I don't care anymore. Let's say you knew me when I was a child and I befriended you. So, what, Sashi? How is it any more of a reason for why you would know about Lekha than why I am locked up here? I was a six-year-old kid. If you expected me to remember someone I interacted with momentarily at that age, then it would be foolishness."
Sashi blew out a lungful of air in frustration and shaking his head, reasoned, "It makes all the difference Mitra. You know how many years I went over to your house to catch a glimpse of you, to try to talk to you? I was living day to day just with your thoughts and yet..." He threw up his hands ending his statement with, "You didn't even look for me again, not even once."
"And so, you are angry with me and want to kill me?" Mitra said with ridicule.
"For that?" Sashi scoffed. "No, not for that. And I don't intend on killing you. I am furious with you, yes. But I wouldn't kill you."
Mitra countered, "Torturing me like this is eventually going to kill me in a few days. Besides, I don't have any intention of staying locked up like this forever. I will leave this place alive or dead in a few days." She jerked her head to point at the shard of glass still lying next to her on the bed.
Sashi realized she wasn't bluffing about her resolve to hurt herself if she didn't get what she wanted.
"You're not asking about what happened to me after we met," he prompted her, getting them back on topic.
Mitra was losing interest. She shrugged as she replied, "You seem to have decided on a flow of speech. Would my questioning anything help me fetch any answers?"
Sashi laughed in mockery. "Right. You're right. Okay then, I will speak what I have decided for today."
He settled back in his chair and continued, "Well, you know how our town is. Nothing can stay hidden for long when there's even one person watching you. People started noticing me after a point of time and wondered whose child I was. My neighbours caught me sneaking out of the house and asked my father about it. Rather, they ratted me out pretending to be concerned about me, when they all well knew that the man hit me every day. It would have been much better had they given me away to my mother. She would have just put a tighter lock on my windows rather than bloodying my face."
He paused in retrospective thoughts and sighed. "Anyways, the man titled as my father and the woman called as my mother had a big fight, which was physical to some extent, like it always was. He blamed her for not keeping a proper watch on me, and then the focus shifted to what she was doing when I was wandering on the streets. He didn't want to bear the hospital costs if I got sick again and abandoning me would be a waste in case I got healthier and started earning. He asked my mother if she was working behind his back. She wasn't supposed to work unless she gave away every rupee she earned to him for his expenses. I wasn't much interested in their drama. Neither of them cared about me and all I cared about was how to get out of the house again, to see you."
His expression changed as he dove deeper into his past. He was becoming more mellow and indrawn, his gaze unfocused as if he was seeing something much beyond Mitra's being.
"I thought it would end there. But when he started hitting her for the money she earned, I realized something would absolutely go wrong. And guess what? The next day, she ran off. After locking me up in my room so I couldn't follow her." Sashi scoffed as he spat, "She already had another man waiting for her, I heard. She ran away with him, leaving me as collateral damage with the man who wouldn't hesitate to kill me if there were no chances of a criminal case being filed against him."
He paused in deep thought and then continued, "I was a constant reminder to him of my mother who left him for another man. You can imagine how he treated me afterwards. He started sending me for work at a restaurant, as a day labourer, to do stuff like washing the dishes and cleaning the store. Of course, the purpose was to pinch off my earnings too. Thankfully, since it was a restaurant, I could get to eat properly on a regular basis and recovered from malnourishment. I didn't fall sick after that, but the abuse at home didn't stop. I still stayed at that hellhole, you know, just to be able to see you if you came back to the town again."
Mitra listened silently. It still wasn't answering her questions regarding his involvement in her life culminating to where she was at present. She did feel awful about Sashi's past; it was horrendous for a young soul to bear at the hands of the very people who were supposed to protect him.
"You didn't have to stay or look for me," she spoke without realizing it, her voice heavy.
Sashi studied her face which was shrouded in pity. "You don't understand, do you?" he asked solemnly. "You don't know why I was so hung up on you."
Mitra gave a small nod.
"You were the only one to smile at me," he replied quietly. "I loved the way you smiled at me. And I wanted to see that again. Every day if possible."
"Stalking me isn't the way to do that," Mitra reproached. "Stalking and kidnapping me isn't the way to being friends with me. Have you seen me smile at you at all in these past few days?"
"You will smile one day; when you find out what all I have done for your sake," Sashi affirmed.
"That's what I want to know the most. What is it that you have done?" Mitra asked again.
"Patience, my friend. I am tired now. Let's talk tomorrow," came the reply.