SHADOWS IN THE DARK

SANDIP C JAIN

BOOK SERIES

 The Phantom Passenger

 As he sped through the open highway with the cool wind blowing gently through the open window of his Pick-up truck, Chengba relaxed a bit. It had been a long day for him. Having started from Kalimpong before sunrise he had driven all the way to Alipurduar to pick up a consignment of fertilizers that the Agriculture department had ordered from a supplier in Alipurduar.

The day had been an unpleasant one for him and what he thought would be a routine trip had turned out to be a disaster. The two hundred kilometre, early morning drive, had been a fairly routine one except that he had been stopped by the Police near the town of Birpara who had fleeced him off a thousand rupees for the fact that the pollution certificate of his car had expired a few days earlier. But then such encounters with the so called law keepers was a routine affair for a professional driver and was an occupational hazard in his line of work.

Having reached Alipurduar a little after 10.30 on that wet Friday morning, he went straight to the supplier’s warehouse which was situated a little outside the town. He had been told 160 that the consignment would be ready at the warehouse and the delivery and loading would hardly take an hour. His plan was to load his pick-up and start back immediately. There was a mischievous intent behind not wanting to waste any time in Alipurduar, it being that he wanted to have lunch and spend a few hours at that small shack just outside the town of Hasimara which was owned by the very pretty and overtly friendly Geeta. Her shop was a very popular stop for many drivers plying the route.

Lady luck, though, was not in Chengba’s favour that day. The labours who were supposed to load the fertilizers on to his pick-up had gone to the masjid (Mosque), it being a Friday, and the warehouse owner requested him to wait till the second half of the day for the loading. He even graciously offered to buy Chengba lunch. The loading finally began at about 2.15 in the afternoon and it took an hour for the process to be complete.

Three boxes that could not fit into the back of the vehicle were loaded on to the seat beside him but he had no issues with it as he was driving alone without any co-passenger hence did not need the extra space besides him. Another hour was spent securing the load and covering it up with the plastic sheet Chengba always carried in the vehicle and the paperwork. By the time he started back for Kalimpong it was 4.15 in the afternoon. He still wasn’t too concerned as he estimated that even if he spent an hour at Geeta’s shack, he would still be home much before mid-night. As he drove out of Alipurduar and entered the highway he turned on the Car stereo and settled down for the long drive ahead. Having driven about 40 km from Alipurduar, he was confronted by a huge traffic jam on the highway, which had been caused by an accident. Cursing his luck he spent the next 45 minutes on the highway, waiting for the traffic to clear. It was already getting dark when he finally got moving and by the time he reached Geeta’s road side shop it was past 7.00 in the evening. He decided to stop for dinner there. It was too early for dinner yet the temptation to spend some time with Geeta was too overpowering.

After a break of over 45 minutes where he had his plate of hot chicken rice and a pleasant time flirting with Geeta and her other co-workers, he hit the highway again. By the time he reached the highway village of Damdi, it was already 9.15 PM and the weather had turned for the worse. It had started to rain and the distant thundering and lightning threatened a rough drive ahead. Here, he decided to travel to Kalimpong via Gorubathan and Lava rather than NH10, which was always so prone to landslides during this time of the year. Taking the right turn from Damdim, he continued towards Gorubathan, which was just about 15 km away, and although it had stopped raining, it was still very overcast and foggy. Crossing Gorubathan, he started the gradual climb towards Lava.

This beautiful road wound through a picture post card beautiful tea garden and lovely hills. Though fully dark, overcast conditions and the damp road he wasn’t too troubled as this was a road he had traveled dozens of times before. As he crossed Ambiok Tea Garden and started the gradual climb towards the village of Phaparkheti, he suddenly noticed someone on the road about a hundred meters ahead of him sitting on a parapet by the roadside. As his car neared the person, the person rose as if to ask for a ride. Chengba had no intention of stopping but as he neared the person, he instantly recognized the person as Zahid.

Zahid was a popular motor-bike mechanic who had his garage in the 13th Mile area of Kalimpong. As Chengba slowed his car to a stop, he was surprised to notice that Zahid had injuries all over his body. His face was bloodied and his cloths torn in several places. Zahid also appeared either intoxicated or too badly injured even just to balance his body properly. Chengba stopped and tried to talk to Zahid but the distance gaze and gibberish speech of Zahid alarmed Chengba. He tried asking Zahid what was wrong and tried to express his inability to offer Zahid a ride in his car pointing out to the packed space on the passenger side of his vehicle. Zahid murmured something as the panicked Chengba started his vehicle. Zahid at that moment did something which freaked out Chengba-Zahid with an ultra-quick movement climbed on to the back of the pick-up and placed himself on top of the loaded vehicle.

What surprised Chengba was Zahid’s supple movement despite the injury. Anyway, such free loading passengers were normal for Chengba and as his vehicle rushed past the villages of Phaparkheti then Kuapani, Chengba forgot about Zahid who was sitting atop the load on the carrier of his vehicle. He reached Lava a little past 10.30 and he decided to stop and check on Zahid. Stopping at Lava bazar he was shocked to see that Zahid was not on the vehicle. He called out his name and used a torch to see around the pick-up but there was no sign of Zahid.

Extremely worried that Zahid must have fallen off the carrier of his vehicle he decided to go to the Lava Police Station and report the matter but just then a truck which had been following him since Gorubathan appeared and Chengba stopped it to ask its driver if he had seen anyone on the road who resembled Zahid. When the truck driver answered in the negative and advised Chengba to forget the incident, Chengba got on to his vehicle and the two vehicles drove together towards Kalimpong.

He reached 13th Mile at about 15 minutes before midnight and he was surprised to see that there were several people outside Zahid’s garage and that the lights of his small shop was still open. He stopped his car wanting to inform the people of the incident with Zahid. He stepped out of his car and entered the garage and asked what was going on and even before anyone could answer Chengba let out a shrill cry and collapsed to the ground.

 Zahid’s dead body was wrapped in a shroud and was lying in the middle of the garage while his garage co-workers and friends were sitting around the body.

When he came back to his senses some minutes later, he was informed that Zahid had died in a motor bike accident early that morning near Gorubathan and after the formalities at the hospital, his body had been brought back to his garage awaiting cremation the next day.

Who then was the person who had stopped his vehicle and hopped on to the back of his truck? Breathless, scared and covered in sweat, Chengba narrated the entire incident to those present before collapsing again.

How could someone who had died early in the morning ask for a drive later the same night? The story may seem unbelievable to many but Chengba is not the type to lie nor to make up stories.

Readers are free to make their own deductions.

(This story is one of the seventeen stories that appear in the book SHADOWS IN THE DARK by Sandip C Jain. Image generated through AI)