Arhi FF: Jungle tales- Note on pg 63 - Page 6

Kushi, Anjali and Payal clutched eachother in fear as they were made to walk admist a weird crowd with pointed spears. A shiver ran down their spine as the crowd let out frightening shouts and screams as they were taken to a clearing which looked like their village admist the jungle. This one looked more wilder than the other clan in whose place they had set up the medical camp.

"I told you this is a different clan" Anjali whispered to her friends

"Yeah.. we shouldn't have tried to help that kid Kushi" Payal told her friend

Kushi looked at her friend

"And let him bleed to death? He was bleeding Payal' You think it was wrong to help him?"

"He wouldn't bleed to death Kushi" Anjali corrected her "They are used to this"

"He was rubbing his wound in the mud" Kushi continued as if Anjali had never interrupted

"Yeah we know' may be they are immune to all these practices'" Payal told her but Kushi kept talking not heeding to her friend's words

"and we are supposed to be doctors' we have to save'"

"Save and not get caught ourselves" Anjali snapped at her

Kushi felt bad. Her eyes brimmed with sudden tears

"My mistake, You both got caught as well because of me"

"Don't be silly" Payal said Kushi "Don't blame yourself"

"Shutup'. Another time you tell this, I will kill u.. we are supposed to be friends' Not mean idiots.. If you felt that you needed to save that fellow.. that's absolutely fine- It shows how just you are" Anjali told Kushi

"and we are proud of you Kushi'" Payal told her

"and will always stand by you" Anjali added

"Ok stop this friendship dialogues'" Kushi giggled "We are at a very bad situation now'"

"Probably worser situation'" Payal told as she saw the clan getting crowded around them. They seemed to be waiting for the head to join them. The ones who had caught them stood beside the three doing some odd sort of dance while the crowd cheered for them

"I feel like laughing" Anjali said "That's a funny dance"

Then the man who seemed to be the head of the clan came up along with two others. One of them looked like his right hand man or a advisor of some sort'and another was a weirdly dressed lady. She had white paint on her lips and blackened stretch of kajal on her eyes, which looked scary. She carried a big chart and some pebble stones in her hand. As soon as the head man settled down, the lady stretched the chart on the floor near him, and threw the stones on it calculating something

"She seems to be a fortune teller of some sort" Anjali whispered to her friends.

The lady told something to the chief man and then all of a sudden the crowd cheered at the news.

"What happened?" Anjali hushed looking around

"Look" Kushi stepped forward and removed the stethoscope from her bag. "We are doctors' we came to treat the Jerowa tribes. You know them? They live on the other side" Kushi told them as they all looked at her weirdly ' not understanding a word of hers. Kushi tired to gesture her message through actions, that did not get the things moving as well. Fed up she sighed

"Is there no one else who speak hindi? Punjabi? Gujarati, Bengali, English? Anything?" Kushi asked around.

The Head man told something in his language and they all laughed.

"Kushi, They would heed you even if they understood' I am scared that they are going to cook us alive" Payal told her friend.

Anjali shivered next to Payal

"Don't scare me"

The men who caught the girls moved aside and gave way to some elderly ladies who came to the girls. The prompted the girls to follow them. Having no choice, the girls followed the ladies into one of the cottages nearby.

"Why do they take us here?" Anjali asked

"No idea" Kushi whispered back clutching Payal who came behind her

"I feel something is wrong Payal. I feel we are in a more dangerous situation' " Kushi told them

"I feel that too' I thought we would be tied upside down and fire would be lit up below us" Payal replied back

"I thought our fingers would be cut and added to their soup" Anjali croaked nearby

"but why are we asked to enter this cottage and wait here?" Kushi asked them all as they saw the two ladies who had entered with them were doing something in the other room

"Probably to marinate us before cooking" Anjali suggested

"Shut up Anjali' You are scaring me to wits end" Payal told her friend

The ladies came back into the area where they were standing, they took or rather dragged Anjali inside the other room

"Where are you taking her?" Kushi shouted to those two ladies'

"We will come with you too Anjali" Payal said as she intended to follow them but she and Kushi were held by the other ladies who came in from outside and stood beside the other two girls.

Soon they heard Anjali's screams

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU BOTH DOING TO ME?" Anjali's screams reached Kushi and Payal who rushed towards the closed room

"ANJALI"

"ANJALI.. What happened? OPEN UP"

"ANJALI'COME OUT"

"HEY Take us in aswell"

The girls kept shouting as they kept hearing things being thrown around inside and then Anjali's muffled voice as if she was being kept from not shouting

Then all of a sudden there was a noise as if something heavy fell down and a wild swear.

"LET ME GO.. NO NO' DON'T TOUCH ME" Anjali kept shouting and then they saw her rushing out of the room as the two ladies came out chasing her too'

"What Happened" Kushi and Payal asked her as soon as she came running out

"HEY, these women are checking if I am a virgin" Anjali told in a panicked voice

"Holy crap" Kushi muttered "We are gonna be screwed!"

Then the women started to speak all at the same time' and the three girls stood there in frightened silence not understanding a word of what they were telling them.

***

Arnav stood in front of the officer who was incharge of the search squad which was being sent to search for the three missing girls.

"I want to go in" Arnav told the officer.

"Sorry sir, we cant let this" The officer told him

"Why?"

"The girls are already missing, and it has made to the news' there are reporters here asking us what happened' the local government pressure and on top of this' If you and your friends go in along with the team and get lost'"

"Your search expedition is extremely slow' I want to go and help them.."

"But if you get lost"

"That's my sister who has been lost in there Dammit" Arnav shouted to the officer "Three girls who don't know the ways of the jungle or the tribes there' there are cannibals out there and you want us to sit here and hatch eggs?"

"Sir please understand"

"I am going- If you let me, I shall go with the search team- otherwise, I am going alone" Arnav told the officer

"I can't let you go sir" The man told finally "We will be questioned for your safety as well"

"Fine then" Arnav turned back and walked across the lane, crossing and ignoring numerous reporters who asked him for updates and reached his friends

"He is not letting us"

"What do we do now?" NK asked him

"We will get into the jungle by ourselves" Arnav told determinedly

On the other side of the lane, the Officer incharge called a young constable.

"Keep an eye on those men, they might try to get into the jungle. If they try to attempt entry sluethly, Arrest them." The man instructed.

"Yes sir"

"Safety is my first priority-  I cannot get into more headache now. The missing girls have become a nation's news now' and I don't want any more missing cases" The officer muttered.

***

"Let us go"

"Don't any of you understand English? Not even one word? Hindi?"

The girls kept probing the women in front of them' hoping to find atleast one who can understand their position or to atleast understand their weird language' Why would they want to check if they were virgins?

Then finally it happened. Amongst all that chaos a woman came to the front .

"Stay calm" the woman said much to the girls relief

"You know English?"

"Where were you all this time"

"Thank god' tell them.. tell them that we are doctors' we need to go back to our camp"

"Calm down" the woman told again and tried to calm down the others. She told something to them and then the girls noticed that all the ladies were going out. The woman who could speak English sent the other women out and closed the door.

She then turned to them

"No one is going to listen if you tell them those things. No one would bother" The woman told

"How do you know English?" Anjali asked the lady

"Because that is my native tongue" the lady answered her

They were all surprised with this news... Then they noticed that she looked different from the rest of them though she was dressed the same way. She had painted her skin dark.

"Yes"

The lady looked at her and then the other girls

"May be" she told them noncommittally

There was a brief silence

"What is your name?"

"Jeane"

"British?"

"American"

"No one came in search of you?"

"Probably they came, I don't know- No one found me' I am a foreign national- They should have tried to search ' but failed"

"That's sad"

"You didn't try to escape?"

"Numerous times"

"But you didn't succeed?"

She shook her head.

"I was married to one of the men here' and then every time I tried to escape, I was punished' and then I had a baby and it was difficult to escape after that' I had to take my son too.. it all became so complicated'"

There was silence again

"Why do they want to check for our virginity?" Kushi asked the lady, she had a feeling what was going to come' and she dreaded the answer

"Is it something like they won't kill us if we are not virgins or something?" Anjali asked innocently "These people are cannibals right?"

"They are"

"So they are going to kill us?"

"Not for now' they are trying to see if you can be owned- They own you if you are a virgin" Jeane told them

"What? In what sense?"

"Like- a man owns a woman"

"You mean there is going to be three weddings?"

The woman nodded

"Who the hell are they to choose men for us?"

"They won't choose for you' they fight for all of you' the one who wins gets to keep all the three of you"

"Shit"

"Cheee.."

"Yuck"

"God please save us"

"Devimaiyya"

"Bhagwaanji' "

To be continued