Crumpled blue T – shirts with ‘CREW’ printed on their backs ran in to a huddle, at the base of the cliff, right where it all began. They hugged, laughed, smiled and sat down laughing in tears of varying texture and feel. Tears beaming in the joy of going back home, tears sulking in the thoughts of leaving this new found family and above all, the tears of hurrah! Of having been able to reach the final shot. This stage was a miracle which seemed impossible in the beginning with the turn of events since the last two years.
‘Really, huh? This lousy lot must be happy only about the paycheck and the booze party back in Mumbai. You don’t know these millennials.’ Amaal scowled.
‘Hey, wait for me!’ I was already there in the middle of the huddle.
‘Time for a selfie!’ Taasha held out her phone. Amaal turned his back on us. No one missed or mentioned him here.
‘So? You really are happy. You made his dream of shooting at this locale come true despite everything.’ Taasha whispered.
‘His dream? When did that happen?’ Suddenly I felt myself rising. A different me. She furrowed her eyebrows in a question.
‘Wasn’t this his idea? He roamed around here for months and all that?’
‘Hmmm, kind of!’ I could feel his scurrying eyes on my back. Did they have a choice?
‘I thought both of you wanted to relive your happy childhood memories. No?’ Her words came out with a certain uncertainty.
‘Memories? Yes! Happy? No!’
It took a force somewhere inside me to utter this for the first time. The air felt lighter. The words twittered around basking in their new found freedom. Meanwhile, his eyes crawling over me were gasping hapless, but not giving up.
The sky was still donning the veil of the twilight. The way it had when me and Amaal stood there years back. The kinds Ayaan must have cried to, standing on the edge of the cliff. Yes, it was the same sky. It wouldn’t lie to me. It looked the same. I don’t know whether it was warning me or came as a silent ally. I struggled to decipher but ominous it was! Definitely. I knew this sky.
‘I hope it does not rain midways.’ Taasha reacted to the change of light. ‘As it is, this project has always been jinxed.’
‘What jinxed?’ I shirked the thought off my head. ‘There was never any. Only I was not ready.’ I announced more to myself and the lurking eyes more than her.
‘We are going to finish everything today, believe me.’ I took out the yellow flower I had plucked out of her hair. My thick denims had not permitted even a drop of moisture in. It still carried her fragrance. I daintily poked it in her braid and smoothened her hair. The heat of the crawling eyes was pricking me meanwhile.
‘Aha! I love this new Angie! His coming back has done some good at least.’ Taasha chirped.
‘It’s high time. I can’t fail Papa, the promise I made to him, anymore.’ The lurking and also now burning eyes immediately hopped and sat next to us.
‘But who stopped you? Have I ever? You are as free as a bird even now. And what exactly are you planning to do with this freedom? Hasn’t it been exercised enough few weeks back, full throttle? I never even mentioned…, his eyes flinched, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know?’
I caught a thud in my heart. My eyes could not look up. They moved sideways to a visibly shaken Taasha. She shook her head pleading at me. And we never meant it that ways. She just wanted him out of our lives. No one could imagine what followed. I was not sure if Taasha could take it more.
‘Oh Amaal.’ I tried to divert. ‘Aren’t you happy this is finally happening. Look.’ I pointed smilingly at the cameras being adjusted at the cliff. ‘Oh, I wish if I could get to jump off there with Taasha in my arms.’
‘Angie!’ He grabbed my arms. ‘Who is putting these obnoxious ideas in your head?’ He looked at Taasha. ‘Only those who dare threaten our love are supposed to jump off from there, not you.’ He forced a wink the next moment to pass it as a joke. His venomous eyes met a gritty glint in mine. They simmered in retaliation. You were never trustworthy Amaal but your eyes were, which made me hang close, in hope. Now even they have been disrobed. Another good thing this coming back of yours did.
‘Yeah, let me jump off and get over with it, Angie. I am also sick of going through this vertigo bullshit every day.’ Taasha got up. ‘Good way to get rid of him.’ She whispered.
‘Taasha, I can’t put you in danger. I need to check with the instructor in this dicey weather’. I clenched my teeth to affirm.
‘Arre, she is a pro now? Let her go and if anything falters, I will get it fixed with VFX.’ Amaal roared.
‘Then why was the need to put her through all this trouble? Wasn’t the plan to keep it all authentic?’ I snapped.
‘Things change, Angie!’
‘Things or people?’ I stared in to him. ‘I can’t risk her!’
‘But I don’t have any time left.’
‘Wasn’t it 21 days?’
‘It was… but… leave all that, we have to finish it today. All would be fine after today, I promise.’
‘But what is wrong here? Isn’t all of this perfect?’ I rolled my eyes around.
‘So, my death, my going, never meant anything to you Angie.’ I knew that quiver of the nose and immediately looked the other side.
‘Taasha let’s go and check with the expert. You need to be along. I have risked many for someone’s whims but won’t now’.
‘No, not in any case today. And what for? It will be a perfect sun tomorrow. Can’t take a risk.’ The instructor placed a hand on my shoulder.
‘That he predicted for today too.’ Amaal stood transported next to us. ‘No point? Bloody jinxed movie!! And what kind of an expert is he? It is his job to get it done whichever way. Tell him again.’ He stood rambling at the far end of the cliff the next moment.
‘How did you jhelo this chap all your life, Angie?’ Taasha, who had been silently staring at the ground till now, burst up. ‘I was so happy that we finally got rid him of him but you, stupid girl, you fell for him again. And why is he thundering so much? Tell him we always could and still can finish this on our own, don’t need his roars? And what about that special connect he had up above that he claimed. Ask him to apply for an extension. I am damn sure he won’t get it. Like those guys who go mad on a parole and get hauled back. I will myself go and vouch for his madness even if I have to die for it. He made your life hell then and now, can’t you see? And if I could do it once, I can do it again?’ She was trembling with the naked force of what had exited just now from her mouth.
‘I always knew that.’ Amaal spoke emerging with a solemn. He was standing right under my breath. ‘My Angie would never do it to me.’
‘Your Angie???’ Taasha tore through him. Suddenly, a disheveled Ayaan, pushed back with a thump in chest, flashed in front of me. He smirked at Amaal.
‘Stop this nonsense, otherwise…….!’ Amaal threatened.
‘Otherwise, what will you do? Push me also off the cliff?’ Taasha howled. Ayaan’s face tightened. Amaal quivered. Amaal, the shadow, quivered. Everything from his head to toe suddenly turned in to a pale reflection. One of those 3D images formed by millions of pixels, how would it look if those pixels start vibrating, stirring apart one by one in a slow motion. Meanwhile, in tandem, don’t know if on cue by him or scared by what just happened, the sky began rolling up its veil. Bit by bit. The sun was ready to announce its appearance. Even the Sun wanted it to end.
‘Amaal?’ I called. Quickly the pixels ran in to a glue and straightened up.
‘Angie … are you with me?’ Taasha was already walking down to the middle of the ground without waiting for the reply, as if she did not need it. She called the expert and the hunk and began getting in to her gear.
‘Taasha don’t be stupid.’ I ran to her. ‘You can’t trust this weather.’ She did not bother to listen and continued with her gear. ‘Angie, are you with me or not?’
I looked at Amaal. The pixels were taut. They were shimmering in excitement.
‘Say, action, Angie! One of us has to go today. ‘Either him or me?’
‘All right, we can shoot now, all clear.’ The expert announced after fiddling through his gadgets, completely oblivious of the around. The crew got in to action.
‘Hold on.’ I held her hand with a firm. ‘I think Nawaz needs to go with you. I will handle the VFX later.’ Taasha's eyes were only focused ahead.
‘No. Not him.’ She asserted staring at Amaal and held out her hand towards me. I followed her gaze. The scintillating and piercing rays were drowning out every bit of the grey fluffy balls as they made their way to another sky. A sky they belonged to.