SIXTEEN | Part 2

At around' six-thiry in the evening, I pulled up the anchor and turned my fishing boat towards the shore. After an entire day of waiting on the creek fishing, I hardly managed to get any good amount of fish. "Bad day!", the fisherman in me murmured.

The sun went down silently, giving a hope for the next day's sunrise. I packed my fishing net and sat on the bench to row back to the shore. It was getting dark. I rowed a few miles towards the shore when I heard something falling into the water behind me. I looked up - the flyover over me shook as the cars passed over it but there was no sign of anyone throwing anything into the water below. I turned around to see a man helplessly drowning, but not uttering a cry for help. I rushed as soon as I could, grabbed him by his arms and pulled him onto the boat.

I was shaking as this man was breathing heavily and coughing out water. I had no clue what to do so asked his name. He replied in exasperation, "I did not rape Uma, I loved her" as he fainted.

I rowed back to the shore calling a few fisherfolks for help. Lodging a police complaint was out of the question for someone like me. I solely depended on days work and wasting work time for someone else's case in police station frightened me already. Selfish though, there was no other option than to take him to my place. The night passed watching him lay unconscious across me.

As the first ray of sun hit the window, he woke up and felt out of place. Scared and shattered he looked at me and soon broke into tears yelling "Why did you save me!?"
I was obviously speechless and angry but I kept calm to hear him out.

Pouring some tea in the cup, I broke my silence by asking who he was and why did he try to commit suicide.

Wiping his tears he whispered, ''Vitthal''. I gave him his time to answer as meanwhile some tea and biscuits built a sense of trust. Suddenly breaking into a puddle tears he narrated t to me what he had been through for the past three years. Vitthal was speaking the truth and I could see that in his eyes. The only emotion I could emote was grief. Furthermore, I asked him why didn't he open up before, in front of the judge. Recollecting his statement from  the previous night I asked, "Vitthal, Why did you not tell the court that you loved her and did not rape her?"

After that, what Vitthal told me was hard to believe but I had to sympathize for what he suvived and suffered.

Vitthal narrated...

To be continued...