DON

Creative Writing Competition TCS – Think Campus Dec 2006

There were four options you could choose from. The time given was 1 hour. The Options were:-

1)Write on Valentine’s day without using the words rose, flower, gift, girl/boy friend, cupid, love etc etc

2)Imagine yourself to be an ATM machine for a day

3)If you want to hijack a plane, how, why, where, when etc

4)Write a story using following words--- black, white, dog, lady, night, rain, car, moon, star, knife
I chose the last option and wrote my first fictional story
Here it goes ………

‘Don, come fast and have your dinner. I’ve got to go out’ I snapped wearing a raincoat over the suit. Don was my DOG, a BLACK one. He was my darling. I had named him so because of his super intelligence ,athletic and adventurous abilities. Yes, I had hated dogs, just years before when me and my wife found a puppy on the roadside shivering in cold. We had brought it home out of sympathy. Within few weeks he had grown so intimate that being childless, my wife adored him like her own son. But again happy days never last long; my wife expired two years back. Since then Don is like everything to me. My friend, my son, my soul and my family. I had told Don that his mistress hasn’t gone anywhere at all, she resides in the full MOON right in the sky. Don often used to sit in the rear window of the house and stare at the moon for hours. He missed her more than I did.

‘Hey Don, stop it and come and have food first. It’s already 10 now. I got to pick a guest up from the airport’ I yelled at him wearing my shoes. Don stopped his dribble with the ball, approached me wagging his tail, squatted down and licked my toes. I moved my hand over his back. Then he went and sat on his dinner plate. He raised his head at me with an inquisitive look.
‘Oh you wanna know whom I am picking from the airport tonight?’ I asked him getting his expression. I continued, ‘It’s the same WHITE LADY whose phone you had picked yesterday and had handed over to me. Remember?’
Don nodded his head in agreement. Yes, Don could do it. He could do anything. He could receive calls, dial numbers, set alarm clocks, switch on the lights, motors etc. His super intelligence had always amused me and I was his proud father. I had no wonder if he could learn cooking in few weeks.
‘Is that Mr. Kalmani?’ I voice of a lady from the other end had sounded
‘Yes. Speaking’ I had responded
‘I am Ms. Pauline from Armstrong Cancer foundation, basically a research institute’
‘Oh yeah, I remember your mail Ms. Pauline’
‘yes sir’ she had continued ‘I feel very sorry about your wife’s death. Our foundation is keen about your wife’s case. I would want to fly down to Bangalore and may be spend some time in your house, for a day or two and study the way your wife fought cancer and her activities in her last days’
‘Sure ma’am. My pleasure’ I had nodded calmly. It was decided that I would be picking her up at the airport at 12:00 AM tonight.

What an awkward time to arrive! I thought. I asked Don to keep at home and take rest and I stepped out of the home. I took my CAR out and headed toward the airport. It was a chill NIGHT, wind thumping right across the window panes. As I had expected it began to RAIN as well. ‘Dhoom machale Dhoom machale’ I was enjoying the radio mirchi number. I reached the air port and waited.
I saw a WHITE LADY approaching me waving hand.
‘Hi Mr. Kalmani’ She greeted me with a charming smile. She was wearing a black jacket and a pair of blue denim jeans. She had a perfectly slim body and a perfect beautiful face.‘Hi, glad to meet you’ I gave a warm reply and continued, ‘So, shall we head to home?’
She seemed thinking and asked ‘did you have your dinner?’I immediately realized that she was yet to have her dinner, I drove her to Holiday Inn for the food. Later we drove back to my house. Even though we didn’t speak much Pauline was a sweet lady. She kept telling me about how much she loved Bangalore weather and the hospitable people who live here. Most of my conversation was either a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ or seldom it used to be a one liner. While driving back somewhere on back of my mind I was asking myself a question Is everything alright? By the time we reached home it was 3 AM.

I parked the car in the shed and got down. I saw couple of flower vases fell broken outside my house door. I panicked and opened the door. Meanwhile I didn’t forget to invite Ms Pauline into the house. When I rushed in I saw everything shattered inside the house.‘Is everything fine?’ Pauline asked.‘Let me check’ I said switching on the light. My heart was pounding.When the lights were turned on, I saw the most horrific moment of my life. There were droplets of blood all across the living room. Don was lying on the floor drenched in blood and a KNIFE was stabbed into his abdomen. He laid there lifeless. But his head was facing the same window where he used to sit everyday, as if gazing at the full moon that reflected bright light on his face. I couldn’t control my emotions and broke down holding the dog tightly‘How could all this happen? How could my son?’ I was shivering out of the sudden shock I had got there.
‘I am really sorry for all this’ Pauling tried to pacify me.
May be some thief had broken in, I thought and immediately went and checked my locker. It was untouched. I felt proud. Proud about my Don. He had gambled his life with the thief to make sure that he safeguarded my locker. I love you my Son I sat on the sofa. Heaved a gasp and had a glass of water. Pauline seated next to me gave a sympathetic look. I stretched my feet and relaxed. It was then that my brain tissues started tickling me. I gave it a rational thought to know what actually happened. I got up and again went to the dead body of the dog to see if I get any clues. As I was inspecting diligently, I saw that Don was lying over the phone and his right paw was resting on the STAR (asterisk) dial button of the telephone. I looked at it for a while and my face brightened. I got it, I said to myself. I got to know what Don is trying to tell me. I got to know what exactly happened after I left home in the night. My reverie continued, the thief broke into the home after I left, Don saw him and fought with him there by his blood drops were shed in the house. Don made sure that the thief did not touch the locker. The thief stabbed the dog and before returning back disappointed, he made a call from my home may be to his boss saying that he couldn’t succeed. And now Don is asking me to redial by pointing his paw at the star button. If I redial I could easily find the number to whom the thief had called. Yes.

Immediately I jumped, took the phone and dialed the star button. I was eager and anxious too. The phone connected and it rang. It was Pauline’s cell which was ringing who was sitting right behind me. I never had Pauline’s number and nor had I called her even once. Oh my goodness, I realized and looked at her in disbelief. Pauline stood up and suddenly pulled out the revolver from her coat and I was at the point blank Before both of us knew what had happened I had already leapt high and kicked her hand which made her fall apart, thanks to my judo training at school. I slapped her hard and yelled ‘who are you bloody? Tell me’
‘leave me’ she pleaded trying to break loose from my seize.
‘Tell me who you are?’ I shouted at her with a hard punch on her back.
Finally she surrendered. ‘My name is Griffith. I run a computer hacking agency. The guy who broke your house is my agent’ Then I sensed everything. Why she asked me to pick her up at 12 AM in the night, why she made us spend time at the restaurant for dinner and why she was being so over sweet to me all the time.
‘how do you know that I have my company’s security info in my locker at home?’ I was curious.‘I already told you we are a hacking company. We kept every information about you being a security tech designer, your company audit and the deal we fetch by smuggling your security codes to the rival companies. But tough luck. I got caught’ she told.
I couldn’t believe all this could happen right in front of me. I handed her over to the police and shifted all the important information I had at home to my bank safe. I donated all my property to an orphanage for dogs.

Next day I was missing my wife for the first time as my Don had gone. He had fought his every drop of blood for me, had sacrificed his life for myself and had left me all alone in this horrible world.
I went and sat on the same rear window of the house where Don sat. I peeked from the window and saw the full MOON. It was 10th month of the lunar calendar year and that was the month when the brightest star in the sky is such close to the moon. And there he was. My Don, riding on the star. I understood. The star had neared the moon. Don had neared his mistress, his mother. A streak of smile crossed my face and I think it’s after hours that I took my head away from staring at the sky
------------------------------------ END -------------------------------

This was given the first prize.