Now You See Me, Now You Don't Ch. 01

Zara looked through the window of her A380 aircraft. It was 10 in the morning. She could see the baggage handlers bring in large carts stuffed with luggage to be loaded onto her flight. The plane was parked right in front of the terminal, still attached to the airport with an aerobridge. Five minutes passed. Then 10. And then fifteen more. The aerobridge withdrew from the aircraft and the plane prepared for push-back. When it neared the runway, the captain announced the flight for take-off and suddenly Zara heard her heart give a loud thud, giving way for uneasy palpitations. They began to increase in frequency. Her throat was dry and the palms of her hands grew cold. Her dream was finally coming true. She was going to Mumbai to visit her boyfriend of one and a half years. Or that's what she'd thought of him as. She'd only met him online, and in a matter of only a few hours she would see him, for the first time, outside of the Skype window. But there was one problem. Manav had no idea she was going to be there. Zara thought she would surprise him---but she also thought her unannounced visit would be unwelcome and an inconvenience to say the least. She was still going to try though.

Dubai looked beautiful from above. It was always beautiful from any angle. The municipality made sure it did. They never let anything that looked remotely ugly be seen in public spaces. They cleaned even the garbage bins. And the places they didn't care for didn't make it to travel magazines or Instagram pictures. Zara's ears blocked as the aircraft climbed higher in altitude. Dubai disappeared through the white cottony clouds and then there was nothing except a clear, blue sky. Zara had soon fluttered her eyes shut.

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The plane landed with a screech. At the line at the immigration check, Zara grew impatient. She rehearsed the entire journey in her head. Flight. Immigration. Baggage claim. Taxi to her hotel in Bandra. Dump luggage in hotel. Cab to Lonavala, 96 kilometers south of Mumbai. Find Manav. Surprise him. Easy, no? No. It was going to be hard. She knew where he lived (he had told her) but he probably wouldn't be happy to see her. She was just a fling to him. He wouldn't appreciate serious stuff. But Zara was still going to try. The guy on Skype was hot. He was sexy. He was an intellectual. He was so real to her, like she had known him for years. And she wanted to meet him.

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Checklist done. She was on her way to Lonavala now. It was the monsoon season. Zara watched through the window of her cab as the rain lashed against the car. She lowered the shield of the window to let some water droplets fall on her face. She closed her eyes as she felt the water fall from her face to her neck, making her feel wet. Wet. She thought of that word over and over until scandalous images and sounds flooded her mind. Mouths kissing, clothes flying, hands touching, tongues dancing....lost in such delicious thoughts, Zara let out a small moan. When she heard her own voice and realised what she had done, she quickly opened her eyes and saw the cab driver staring at her through the rear view mirror. Embarrassed, she turned towards the other window and saw hills and greenery surround the region. She took her phone out and tried to click some photogenic pictures of the beautiful place. As her cab went uphill, she felt her ears block a little, and then she waited for her destination to arrive.

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When Zara got down, she found herself near a cozy three-star hotel. She walked around the hotel, and found an old yellow coloured house hidden behind it. Ancestral property, Zara thought. She thought that perhaps the house had been built by Manav's great-grandparents. It looked really old. Moss had been growing over it and creepers had woven themselves around neatly like a reel of thread. She walked towards it and knocked many times on the door. Nobody opened it. She then slowly pulled the handle down and found that the door was open.

She went in. Clothes had been lying about. She recognized some of Manav's clothes from Skype. His laptop was on too. There were some plates in the kitchen sink and a coffee mug on the table. It was afternoon, and Zara was sure that Manav would be home soon. But evening came, and then it was 11 PM, and there was no sign of the guy that Zara was crazy about.