This short story originally appeared in the magazine Eve's Touch

It was getting dark when Prabha walked out of the teacher’s lounge. Her driver was picking her up at 6 pm. There was no sign of him when she reached the college gate. She looked at her watch and turned a worried eye to the dark clouds gathering. An unusually strong wind was beginning to blow, making small eddies of fallen leaves. Prabha tried to hold back her sari ends from flying in all directions and still not drop the test papers she was carrying.

After waiting for nearly fifteen minutes she decided to call Anil at work. When she got her cell phone out of her purse it bleated and flashed “low battery”. ‘Can it get any worse?’ she muttered.

Earlier in the day a long phone call with her father-in-law had upset her.
“Beta, you never call me – even Anil has forgotten his father is still alive”.
“Papa, Anil tells me that he calls you every other day?”

Anil’s father belonged to the old school – daughters-in-law were meant to be seen, not heard. He never bothered to ask her if she could speak on the phone at that moment, insisted that she call him right away and began his litany of woes as soon as she phoned. The call had drained Prabha and her cell phone!
‘Anil, why is the driver not here? I’m running late – I’d promised Kriti to help her study for her mid term tests next week”. Prabha was impatient to reach home.
“I’ve sent him to the airport to pick up my boss – I’ll send you another car”. Anil was clearly irritated.
“Will you come home early today?” she persisted. “You’ve promised to help Kriti complete her science project”.
“You’ll have to do it – I have too much work here”.
Prabha resisted the urge to snap at him. By the time she gathered her thoughts the plaintive tones of her phone made her realize that Anil had hung up.

The wind had turned into a regular gale and was playing havoc with her sari. After the aborted phone call with Anil her thoughts were as tumultuous as the gusty winds. Stealing another look at her watch, Prabha dialed her best friend Rita. Her phone continued to bleat pathetically, while she waited for Rita to answer.

“Hey Prabha, what’s up?” Rita’s cheerful voice came crackling over the bleats.

“Oh, Rita it’s good to hear your voice. I’m waiting for my ride home and it looks like its going to pour.”

“How come so glum?” Rita was her usual perceptive self.

“Anil forgot to send the car,” she resisted adding the word again. “I’d promised to coach Kriti for her math test next week – I’m concerned about her grades, she’s not doing too well in this new school.”
“You worry too much Prabha – kids take some time to get used to a new school. Between Anil and you, I’m sure you can help her cope.”

“Hmm., I am not sure…”
“Why don’t you get Anil to help her? Last time you spoke you’d mentioned that things were not hunky dory between the two of you. And we never got to talk about it. Maybe this Kriti project will help”.
“I don’t know, Rita.” Prabha tried to keep anxiety out of her voice. “He seems distracted all the time – even when it’s just the two of us. When I try to talk about it, he becomes sullen. Sometimes I feel he’s turned into a stranger!” Prabha confided.

“Prabha I’m sure all the uncertainty at work for Anil is not helping. My cousin Sujay, who works in the finance department told me the other day that the company is facing a severe cash crunch – you may be reading too much into it” Rita’s thoughts seemed plausible. “Why don’t the two of you get away this weekend maybe to a resort? I’ll take care of Kriti. Both of you need a break and some quality time together”.
“You’re a gem, Rita. I’ll talk to Anil about a vacation when I get home today.”
“Prabha, make him earn this vacation – get him to study with Kriti!” Rita was on a roll. Still laughing, Prabha hung up feeling a little more buoyant after talking to her friend.

She saw the taxi approaching as the first few drops of rain began to fall. The driver stepped out and opened the door for her. She hadn’t seen him before. He was clean shaven chap with a well trimmed mustache and unusually big shoulders that looked incongruous in his white uniform.
“Madam, Sinha saab sent me from JB Road”.
“Yes, yes – let’s go, I’m already late!” She quickly got into the taxi and once he settled in behind the wheel, rattled off her address.
There was a grunt from the front seat and the taxi started moving.
“Slow down, you’re going too fast!”

The driver didn’t seem to hear her as the taxi swerved slightly to avoid hitting an errant cyclist. By now the weather had turned into a full fledged thunderstorm. Rain was coming down in thick sheets and small objects and even carts careened across the road even as the trees swayed precariously.
When Prabha looked out she could barely see the flyover.
“Arre, why are you taking this route? It will take too much time.”
The driver didn’t seem to hear her. He seemed to be in a race with cars she couldn’t see. The words “bat out of hell” rose in Prabha’s mind, as she tried to get him to slow down. A particularly nasty bump, made her reach for the handle on door - except that there was nothing there! A quick glance at the other door revealed itself to be as bereft of handles as her own.
Working woman kidnapped! All those articles on women’s safety that she had read flashed in her mind’s eye. She fought the urge to panic as she reached into her purse. The pepper spray in her purse seemed so useless – merely a pathetic attempt of bravado on her part. She remembered her cell phone and fished it out and with trembling fingers dialed Anil.
“Hello!” Anil’s voice, even distracted was a rush of adrenaline to her.
“Anil, thank God you’re there! I’m in danger - this taxi driver seems to be taking me somewhere, help me…”
“Speak up! Stop mumbling. I can barely hear you, the line’s bad”. Anil sounded brusque and she found her panic rising! She felt that he was going to hang up. “Please, Anil, do something...” When there was no response from his end, she knew that the call had dropped. She hit redial – static was the only sound that seemed to come out of her phone. Even as she tried calling Rita now, her phone went dead as the battery gave up its ghost.

As though this were a cue, the driver stopped the car and got outside. The violent rain had toned down to a steady drizzle and all around were tree branches fallen about like dead drunks. Prabha peered out to see where they had stopped - the car had pulled off the main road somewhere near the city reservoir. When the door opened, she aimed the pepper spray at him and pressed hard – nothing came of it! He laughed loudly at her foolhardy attempt at self defense. He reached with a ham-sized hand for her. The incongruous sound of a phone ringing distracted her just then. The driver grabbed her by the shoulders and yanked her out of the car. The phone continued to ring. Prabha tried kicking him and beating him with her fists. He hardly seemed to notice her blows and gave her a hard slap that knocked her to the ground.

“Aaah!” The pain was unbelievable. The phone rings seemed to grow louder. Somewhere deep down she realized it was the driver’s cell phone ringing. As she struggled to her knees, she heard him answer.
“Saab, I haven’t finished the job yet!”
The strident voice from the other end sounded so familiar…could it be?
‘No, No’ her mind furiously denied the truth staring in her face.
When the driver gave her a wolfish smile, she knew!

###

This article originally appeared in Sulekha as an entry for their romance story contest in 2001

When Jenny woke up, the room was still bright. For a moment she was disoriented. Then she recalled where she was -- in a remote cabin in the Sierras! As she lay there she found her thoughts turning to her conversation the previous day with her friend Suzy at work.

“Jenny, you look terrible! Is everything alright?” Suzy had blurted the moment she had walked into the office.

“You're working too hard!” Suzy continued without waiting for her to respond.

Jenny, who worked as a paralegal at Macabey and Associates, one of Sacramento's fastest growing law firms, just sighed. The shrinking number of paralegals in the firm had made her job more stressful. The news that the firm was bringing in yet another partner from New York was the proverbial last straw.

Suzy, whose nosiness knew no end, was aware that Jenny was trying to get over the recent breakup with her boyfriend. She had decided it was time for her to intervene and packed Jenny off to her brother's cabin in the Sierras with the threat that she was not to return until her two-week vacation was over. That was how Jenny found herself in a rustic cabin in the Sierra hills.

She had driven nearly three hours to get here from her apartment in Sacramento. She saw no other sign of life on the hill where the cabin perched. How on earth was she going to stay here for two weeks? Jenny had been tempted to turn back but eventually her natural curiosity got the better of her. The cabin had a large living room with a comfortable sofa and an enormous rug. Despite its rustic appearance, it had a modern kitchenette, and a cozy bedroom with an attached bathroom. The long drive and subsequent hike to the cabin had tired her more than she realized and Jenny had fallen asleep on the sofa.

Getting up, Jenny walked into the kitchen barefoot and started opening the cabinets looking for food. There were cans of soup, two boxes of cereal and what seemed like a year's supply of noodles. She quickly fixed herself some soup and noodles. It was then that she became aware of the silence that surrounded her. Jenny found herself relishing the peace while she ate.

With her meal done, Jenny stepped out of the cabin ready to take on the world. With a jaunty stride, she walked down the hill to the fire-trail she had earlier passed. The endless greenery and the beauty of the rolling hills took her breath away. She set off on a winding path from the fire-trail. The wide open spaces and the brisk wind gave Jenny a sense of exhilaration. She had rarely felt more alive. She walked for miles without pause and soon found herself on a ridge overlooking a verdant valley. It was there that she became aware of the growing darkness and realized that she ought to get back to the cabin soon.

As she headed back to the trail, she began to feel the first prickle of unease. Chiding herself for losing track of time, she was startled to see a man walking towards her on the trail. Where did he come from? She had been certain that there was no one else in this wilderness. As the man advanced steadily towards her, her body tensed and she fought an urge to flee. Yet as he neared her, she was surprised to find herself admiring his rugged looks and steady gait. The stranger was over 6 feet tall, with black hair and piercing eyes.

“Hi! Are you the woman renting the Hillview cabin?”

Jenny just blinked at him. She seemed to have lost her ability to speak.

“I'm Nathan, your neighbor,” the handsome stranger continued.

Even as Jenny tried to regain her composure, she wondered, 'What on earth was he talking about?She hadn't seen any other cabins here'.

Before she could say anything, Nathan explained, “My cabin is on the other side of the hill. There's a crooked path behind Hillview that leads to it. You can't see it from here.”

Jenny felt like a fool standing there silently and turned red at his direct gaze. It didn't help matters that her pulse was racing madly!

“I'm Jenny. I'm in a little bit of a hurry. I'll see you around,” she mumbled lamely before walking quickly to her cabin without turning back.

She could feel his eyes on her back as she muttered to herself, “Idiot! You're acting as though you're thirteen. He was just trying to be friendly and you blew it!”

The next morning as she toyed with her breakfast Jenny found herself thinking about Nathan. She decided that she needed to make amends for her behavior and set out in the direction of where she imagined his cabin to be. When she got there, nobody was home. She was surprised at how disappointed she felt.

The next two days she didn't see any sign of him despite several attempts on her part to “run into” Nathan. She wondered if he had already left the cabin. She was curious about him. Who was he? She didn't recall seeing a ring on his finger when she had met him the first time on the fire-trail -- but that had been such a brief meeting and practically in the dark.

She had been walking on the fire-trail for a while now when she felt the first few drops. It started drizzling and the sky with its dark clouds threatened a deluge. Soon it was raining heavily. She kept her head down and cursed herself for not bringing any rain gear. At a turn in the path, when she looked up she was surprised to see Nathan about fifty yards in front of her. She called out his name, not sure that he'd be able to hear her in the rain. He turned back and seeing her, ran towards her. Grabbing her forearm, he raced towards his cabin. Jenny had a hard time keeping up and by the time they entered his cabin and he'd shut the door, she was completely out of breath.

“Stay here,” he barked, leaving her dripping on the entryway.

In a moment he returned, tossed a towel at her and went back to the other room. She quickly dried herself and stood there like a zombie with the towel wrapped around her. She was still in shock. She could hear Nathan moving around on the other side of the wall and the smell of hot chocolate warmed her. Soon he walked back with two steaming mugs. She took one from him with a grateful smile and sat down on the nearest chair.

She watched him while he sat drinking his cocoa quietly. The companionable silence relaxed her and she noticed the neat layout of the cabin. It was spartan, but exuded coziness. There was a davenport and two straight-back chairs with a small table between them. Two tall bookcases against the far wall were stacked end to end with books. She stood up and walked over to the bookcases.

“Are you fan of N.D. Samson? You seem to have his entire collection.”

“Have you read his books?” he countered.

“I'm a big fan. I don't think I've missed any of his books. When I'm reading one of his books, I can't go to sleep until I finish it -- even if I have to stay up all night!” she laughed.

While she talked, he continued to stare at her as if he was trying to memorize the features on her face. It made Jenny feel self-conscious.

“When you smile, do you know your eyes light up your face -- there's a glow?” he said softly.

Jenny blushed.

“I've never seen any woman blush so prettily!” he laughed.

Jenny felt exposed. But this time she wasn't going to run. She walked over to the window.

“It's getting late and the rain's stopped. I'd better get going,” she declared.

“Would you care to have dinner with me?” His voice sounded hypnotic, almost coaxing her to agree.

She hesitated. Before she knew it, she was nodding her head and helping him start dinner.

They worked quietly together. Jenny felt her skin tingle any time Nathan brushed past her in the small kitchen or their fingers touched. During dinner, she discovered that they had a lot in common -- they liked opera, played tennis, loved Chinese food and camping. He was easy to talk to, he never dominated the conversation and seemed genuinely interested in her opinions.

After they cleared the table, Nathan put on some classical music and silently pulled her into his arms for a slow dance. The dinner, the wine, the music and the warmth of Nathan's hands as they danced made her feel she was in a dream. When she looked up at him, his warm gaze mesmerized her. And then he kissed her gently. She felt something exploding inside. Her legs turned to mush and she hung on limply to Nathan. Was this what it felt to be in love? She had scoffed at her friends who regularly fell in and out of love. Romance was over-rated, not for the likes of practical, sensible Jenny. Then why was her heart beating so loudly?

When the music stopped, she reluctantly pulled away and whispered, “It's getting late, Nathan. I'd like to get back.”

Without showing his disappointment, Nathan replied, “I'll walk back with you to your cabin.”

That night, Jenny couldn't sleep. She lay on the bed trying to get thoughts of Nathan out of her mind. Finally she got out of bed and plunked herself down on the couch with a Samson novel. The usually engrossing author failed to grip her, with his protagonist only reminding her further of Nathan. Throwing the book down in disgust she went back to bed. It took her a long time to fall asleep.

She woke up with a start. Someone was banging on her door. She cracked the door open gingerly and saw Nathan standing there with a brown bag in his hand.

“Rise and shine! Breakfast is here!” he beamed.

She opened the door and glowered at him. “Go away, I'm not a morning person. Anyway I don't eat breakfast!” she lied.

“You will today,” he said with that devastating smile of his.

“Bossy dictator,” she muttered while he set the table.

She was still in her knee-length nightshirt and felt naked under his gaze. She put on a robe and sat down for breakfast. The hot cereal tasted good and they ate in silence.

“What are we going to do today?” he asked with a smile.

“What do you mean we? I'm going for a walk, alone.”

Nathan continued smiling and headed for the door as if he hadn't heard her. “I'll wait outside for you.”

Jenny looked forward to spending the day with him but was also wary of her growing attraction towards him. She quickly changed into comfortable jeans and a polo shirt and joined Nathan outside.

The morning went by quickly and by the time they returned to her cabin, Jenny was practically walking on air. The next few days were a blur. It seemed to Jenny that she was spending every waking moment with Nathan. She realized that she was hopelessly in love with him -- she did not want this vacation to ever end!

“Why don't we go camping tonight?” asked Nathan.

“I'd love that,” Jenny replied.

“I'll get everything,” he said, squeezing her hand. “You just need to show up. I'll pick you up late this afternoon.”

The campsite was a postcard setting by a lake in the valley behind their cabins. That night after dinner, Jenny was in a contemplative mood.

As she stared silently into the campfire, Nathan tugged at her curls playfully, “A penny for your thoughts.”

“Oh Nathan, these last few days seem like a dream. I'm not sure I'm ready to return to reality and work.”

“We agreed that first day we met, actually on the second as you wouldn't talk to me on the first,” he teased, “that we won't talk about our work while in the mountains. Why spoil the magic now?” He gathered her in his arms. “I know that I'm lucky to have met you.”

When she turned her face towards him, he kissed her softly. “I love you, Jenny,” he whispered.

Even as Jenny seemed to lose herself in his arms she heard tiny alarm bells in her head. She was attracted to him, but did she really love him? They had known each other for only a week. It was happening too fast and she needed space.

She scrambled to her feet and breathlessly spoke, “Nathan, it's too soon. I'm very attracted to you but I don't know…”

She stood there looking over the water with her back to him. Time seemed to stand still as neither of them said anything.

Nathan walked up to her, put his hands on her shoulder and said quietly, “I'm sure of my feelings. I'm prepared to take this as slowly as you want. Let's enjoy our time together.”

That night Jenny couldn't sleep. She felt adrift unable to handle her turbulent thoughts. Wasn't this what she had longed for -- meeting the man of her dreams? What was she then afraid of?

The next morning while Nathan was still sleeping she ran. All the way back to her cabin and to Sacramento. She had to get away to sort out her feelings -- strong feelings she had not known she was capable of that Nathan had aroused in her. By the time she reached her apartment in Sacramento, she had only worked herself into knots. She felt she had made the biggest mistake in her life. Why had she run like a coward? She wanted to turn the clock back, ask Nathan for another chance.

The next morning, bleary-eyed from a sleepless night, Jenny dragged herself to work. Luckily Suzy was too busy to pay her any attention.

“The new man is already here.” she bubbled. “He's such a hunk!”

Jenny went about her work mechanically. When she got back to her desk with her morning coffee, she heard a low buzz over the cubicles. She realized that the new partner was being introduced to the staff. She willed herself to focus on the files that were waiting for her and didn't see Mr. Macabey, the senior partner approach her desk.

When she heard, “Ms. Ray, I'd like you to meet our newest partner...” she looked up with a polite smile.

She couldn't believe her eyes. It was Nathan! He put out his hand with that playful smile of his and said, “We've met -- I look forward to working closely with you.”

While she shook his hand enthusiastically Jenny had to fight the urge to kiss him right there. She felt like she had won the lottery!