Tamara opened her eyes and glanced at the dashboard clock. Ice blue digits said 3.21 AM. It barely registered in her mind. It was cold. The windows were down and cold breeze rushed in. Her father was in the driver’s seat, his forehead wrinkled with worry, with beads of sweat slowly making their way down his temples despite the chill. The narrow road in front of them was illuminated by the headlights and the white lane marker was being gobbled up by the car as it sped ahead. On either side were tall, formidable-looking trees. Tamara sat up straighter in the passenger seat. Her dad had carried her to the car while she was asleep, and now her shoulders and legs hurt. “Where are we going, Daddy?” she asked groggily.“Sleep, sweetie! We’ll be there soon!” the words tumbled out in a hurry, with a high pitched nervous tremor in his voice.“Where’s mom?”“Safe, honey! Daddy won’t let anything happen to her! I promise!” the words sounded unreal, too coated with anxiety to calm Tamara.“I wanna go home, Daddy. Please,” the eight year old begged, an undertone of fear in her little voice.“No!” Rakesh snapped, then collected himself. “I mean, honey, we’ll be out of these woods in a bit. Go back to sleep now.”Tamara was quiet after that, but did not sleep. She maintained the expression of concentration that she sometimes wore while pretending to study. She stared straight ahead. Sometimes she nodded, at nothing in particular, and Rakesh wondered why she did that.Up ahead, Rakesh found what he was looking for – an unmarked lane on the right that led directly into the woods. He took the exit; this seemed to throw Tamara into a panic, as there were no markings on the lane, they were surrounded by trees on all sides, and they were plunged into total darkness. “Daddy! –“ Tamara cried“Shush! Keep quiet!” Rakesh snapped.After driving for a short distance, they reached a clearing, and Rakesh stopped the car.“Tamara,” he began, his voice eerily quiet and cold, “I am going to have a word with your mom. Don’t go anywhere. Sit inside the car.” “But where is – ““QUIET!”
---End of Part 1. Part 2 will be published shortly--- Copyright Petrichor and Clouds 2013 at petrichorandclouds.blogspot.com Please do not reproduce the material published here.
