Superstar: Horn OK Please (14 page)

There was an uneasy calm in the room as everybody tried to deal with reality. Goose paused and spoke wisely, “Yes. And neither would Jenny’s Doppelganger nor Winston let Jenny leave the mansion now. They will unleash hell upon us all if we even tried to escape from this cursed place. Not only is Jenny doomed to die now, even we are trapped in here till that wicked warlock - Winston shreds us to smithereens. We can just watch. ”

“No flight can get us there and back in a day. And that too, when we don’t even know how to seek the Wolfman. And what about a sack of gold, eh? We don’t even know if he would accept credit cards…” said Derek, as reality sunk into his thick skull.

“That reminds me, I haven’t paid my installments for the internet bill”, I tried to lighten the atmosphere.” It’s all over, we must accept it, Cathy. Any ideas at your end, Lobsang?” said Hound, clenching his fists and ramming it onto the wooden door in exasperation.

The Wolfman – Jenny’s only chance:

Cathy and Lobsang looked at each other and Cathy whispered something in Lobsang’s ears. Lobsang nodded, took a deep breath and said, “Since when did you morons start whining like losers? I knew Jeremy was a bad influence. Maybe, I can help Jenny find the Wolfman at the blink of an eye. Bilocation? Remember? Know that the answers lie deep inside Jenny’s mind. She just needs to explore those dark corners”, said Lobsang, smiling, knowing she had us stumped.

“OK, if you’re a miracle worker, let’s believe that for a moment. I’ve experienced really strange things since we came here, so I believe you. But how? With what? Why would he meet her even if you bi-located her? We have no gold!” said Hound, visibly taken aback.

“No, she doesn’t need gold. Remember what Winston’s written in the diary. He says,
“When you carry a sack full of gold with you, the Wolfman shall seek you, you cannot seek him out with all the wealth in the world. He must consider you worthy enough!”
Right? Jenny just needs the urn and she has it. He shall seek her out…” said Cathy, as she looked at Lobsang as though seeking her approval.

“Yes, it is far bigger than just saving Jenny’s life now. It’s about stopping Winston from unleashing hell on earth. Remember, Jenny’s Doppelganger was born from the dark depths of Jenny’s mind. Only the Wolfman can tell her how to stop the calamity. If he is indeed the Devil, then he must know God well”, said Lobsang, aware that she was losing us now.

“So what’s the big plan? Explain please”, I said, as I tried to swat the imaginary question marks that formed around my head. I looked at others, they were equally confused. Derek had started yawning and Goose had started scratching his head. There was an information overdose.

“Right. So here’s how it works. I told you about bi-location. Before meeting you guys, Cathy helped me seek out the most probable location where the Wolfman could be. I let my spirit soar across the skies and felt the presence of the Wolfman near the ancient temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. And I came back into my body. That’s how it works. Now, thanks to Winston, I have these powers that he blessed me with when I first met him inside a deep crevice in the icy cold mountains. You remember that?” said Lobsang, leaning at the edge of the seat.

“Yes, we do”, said Goose, nodding continuously, “You told us what had happened when you tried to escape to India”.

“Great. Now, that’s exactly what I will do with Jenny. I shall make Jenny float out of her body, in spirit, and leave her in the ancient temple of Angkor Wat sometime tomorrow evening. I’m hoping, just like everybody, that the Wolfman shall seek out Jenny over there for she shall carry with her a tornado of souls in that urn. After that, it’s all up to Jenny and the Wolfman. She will know the answer. When she does, I shall know and bring her back into her body”, spoke Lobsang softly, making sure we were with her.

“What about the evil Winston? And that Doppelganger? Will they know when all this is happening?” said Hound, looking for loopholes in the plan as though he was seeking out buried treasure.

“No, they won’t. For Jenny will never leave the mansion. She will be right here with us, protected inside a ring of fire under our observation. All this will take place within a few minutes tomorrow evening between sunset and nightfall. At 6:00 PM sharp. They won’t be able to penetrate this wall of illusion at all!” said Lobsang, with an air of confidence around her.

Lobsang continued, “You will need to make everything seem normal for they are watching our every move. Only when I’m around, are you all safe. My span of protection will protect the estate. You know that even if the Doppelganger wants, she cannot kill you. Winston wants everybody to live till tomorrow midnight. We know that now.”

Derek seemed relieved at the prospect of a solution. This was our ace in the hole. He wasn’t the only one who felt that way. “So what should we do till then? Twiddle our thumbs?” said Derek, talking straight as usual. He secretly hoped the time to fly so that he could see his dear Jenny safe and sound.

“You have just tonight to live with her. Take her out; be in the estate, I will watch over you. Just make sure you don’t anger Jenny. It can tip the scales. Jenny’s mind is growing stronger as well. She is pyrokinetic; she can control fire at will. You’ve seen it. That will help her in fighting against her evil self. God forbid if you make her angry here, she will make stupid decisions…she will be edgy and overly emotional. He mood swings will be terrible”, said Lobsang, smiling, for she knew we’d like the idea.

“Take her out camping, I would say. Don’t make her angry at any cost. She needs to take a stand. The Wolfman will give her tough choices. She will not know about them herself till her sub-conscious mind has taken the decision on her behalf. That is when she will know what to do and should probably let us know. Give her a night to remember. Give her love; show her what it feels to be alive! You might just end up helping her when she’s with the Wolfman”, said Cathy, as she played with her hair.

“So we can camp out tonight in the estate and roam free?” I asked, happy that there may be a way out and we would have a good time.

“Freedom for you, yes. Maybe not for Jenny, she may have to pay with her life if she takes the wrong decision”, said Lobsang, getting up, “We all need some sleep now. It’s close to 6:00 AM and Jenny would be up shortly”.

My mind fought a clandestine battle carefully bludgeoning the words which it refused to believe. Maybe, Lobsang knew the outcome more than everybody else.

Everybody’s got a right to live. Especially Jenny. We all desperately wanted her to live.

I didn’t know what time had in store for her, for us. As I closed my eyes, I let the thought of goodness swirl in my mind. It would be a rough day ahead…

***
 

CHAPTER TEN

***

***

Roses are red and violets are blue,

The green monster of jealousy reared its ugly head anew;

The time had come for her to set things right,

Soon the deliverance would happen from darkness to light;

She’d learnt how to live with herself, she was trying hard,

She had her knight in shining armor, he would be her guard;

She felt no fear anymore; life was just a merry ball,

She had faith in love, with him, she would stand tall;

Her fears were deep-rooted, the monster was tearing her apart,

She knew she’d made a mistake, she knew it from the start;

Matters of the heart, in two worlds was she torn,

Her heart broke into a million pieces, she chose to walk alone;

The green-eyed monster can break the strongest bond, no lies,

She couldn’t help it, she was way too nice;

She’s the eye of the storm, she’s everyone’s desire,

She can’t have it all, she was playing with fire; 

Maybe it played on her soulmate’s mind, he didn’t say much,

Ironies of life, she can’t have it all, life is such;

But if smiles and Imagination makes you say ‘Cheese’

Drive on, that’s the spirit of Horn OK Please…

***

Golden drops of sunshine:

I woke up in the morning after a couple of hours. Goose, Derek and Hound were lazing around as Great White, an awesome retro, heavy metal band from days of spandex rock played a lilting ballad called ‘The Angel song’. Sunshine filled the room as someone had opened the huge balcony door and the shades had been neatly tucked away, tied to gold-rimmed hooks. The room looked sparkling clean. A shear curtain separated us from the world outside.

As I lazed around on the bed in quietude, I could see the rolling hills, the lush green meadows and the sheer abundance of beauty that surrounded us. Suddenly, it dawned upon me that the clouds of gloom may have disappeared. Jenny may have a chance to live. Maybe, we had been instrumental in bringing choices into her world. The soothing guitar sounds, coupled with the thudding drums and screeching vocals slowly nourished my soul as I felt a sense of contentment take over me. I wondered if others felt the same way.

I looked around to watch a chirpy little sparrow that simply refused to fly away. It seemed to like the balcony more than it liked the open skies. It had wings and yet it hopped around furiously, as though it didn’t know it could fly. “Story of our lives”, I said to myself.

I turned around to watch Hound looking beyond the coffee and tea plantations, at the misty mountains that seemed to form the boundaries of the estate. It was a beautiful resort indeed, had it not been for the freaks. Hound seemed to be lost in faraway lands. I wondered if he wished he could be in the ancient town of Angkor with Jenny. He sure wanted to be the wind beneath the wings of an angel we had all come to grow so fond of in just a few days. An angel called Jenny. Hound sure did love her and wasn’t ashamed to say so.

Goose was staring at the ceiling, as though wondering if it would open up and he could soar like an eagle. He may be called ‘Goose’, but he sure was a hawk. His intuition knew no bounds. He had more in him than he ever knew. I just hoped that he would, someday soon, figure out just exactly how he wanted to play his life instead of getting hammered by it all the time. A few years and he’d get there. He was the baby of the pack and Jenny was fond of him in a nice way. He wanted her to live.

Derek rocked his head to the music, whistling along with the vocalist. He was lost in the lyrics of ‘The Angel Song’. I wondered if he even realized how much Jenny loved him. He sure was the lucky one when it came to girls. It was ironic to see how little he seemed to care for Jenny. While Hound was crazy about Jenny, here was a Dude, whose only way of expressing love was by making it. He had touched Jenny’s soul with his raw, barbaric intensity. Maybe, she knew more about Derek than we probably did. 

There was a knock on the door and the door opened to reveal a ghastly sight that shattered my beautiful sense of contentment with life. In walked that witch of a Nanny, draped in a shocking pink skirt that seemed to be sparring violently with the shockingly pink lipstick painted on her wrinkled lips. A walking, talking fashion disaster, she looked like a battle zone of awful pink.

“Good morning, morons!” squawked Nanny cheerfully, “Rise and shine. It’s a beautiful day!”

I stared at her as the sparrow took flight. The poor thing must have been shocked senseless. The world around Goose seemed to crumble as he cringed at the sight of a withering bouquet of shocking pink that killed his dreams instantly. Maybe, his intuition had died last night for he hadn’t seen this coming. Hound turned around and saw the witch in pink. It seemed to take the wind out of him. How could a breathless Hound be the wind beneath Jenny’s wings? Derek saw matchstick Nanny and stopped whistling. The music died as the CD got stuck in the stereo.

“Jenny would be coming in shortly. I want to thank you for being so nice to Jenny. Tomorrow is her birthday, you see. I plan to bake her a pink, strawberry cake. Cathy and Lobsang told me that you had figured out a way to help Jenny. I so want to kiss you boys!” smiled Nanny as she stepped into the room.

“On the 30
th
of February if you please. You’re welcome”, said Derek wryly, staring at the studio.

Suicide seemed to be an option. Or maybe, I’d let Winston take me instead to complete his depressing collection of souls.

Jenny from the block:

“Good morning! Guess what?” said Jenny, as she walked into the room cheerfully. She smelled good, looked good and felt good. At least Derek knew that last part well.

“Angkor? That’s Wat!” said Hound, opening his arms wide as she walked into his arms and hugged him.

“That too”, said Jenny, hugging him tight, “But thank you, Hound, you kept your promise. Cathy and Lobsang told me everything. I’m so happy to have you in my life!” Derek glared at them as Goose sniggered. I felt awesome watching this cute, little butterfly play two men at the same time. She was surely a superstar.

“Ah! There you are, my knight in shining armor! So you’re taking me camping tonight. I’m so excited!” said Jenny, as she let go of Hound and sashayed sexily towards Derek.

“Yeah, we’re going camping. Don’t you worry about firewood, I’m on fire, baby”, said Derek, getting up as he swept Jenny off her feet, “You shall live a lifetime tonight”,

Campfire at the D’Silva Estate, the day before Jenny’s Birthday:

We spent the entire day making sure Jenny was happy. She had taken long walks with us showed us around the place. She’d walked us to secret waterfalls, her playgrounds and all the happy places she’d been to with her mom and dad when she was a child. It had rained in the afternoon and she loved getting wet in the rain. Broomstick Nanny had packed us a nice lunchbox and we’d spent the entire afternoon just listening to all her stories.

She told us about how her father used to treat her like a princess and how Father’s Day would be the most important day of her life, even more important than her birthday. She told us about how much her mother loved her before her Doppelganger took her away from all. We learnt how much Jeremy, Cathy and witch Nanny tried their best to fill her world with happiness. And just when her life seemed to be spiraling out of control with her Doppelganger, we walked into her life.

She told us all about her diary and said that she always made it a point to write the happiest and saddest moments of her life in that diary. Today would be a day that would be etched for eternity. She’d admitted that for the past four days, she had written about nothing else but Derek in her diary. She’d poured out her deepest feelings in there. They were her words, her thoughts and her feelings alone.

She was a bundle of energy, our friend Jenny - the girl was life personified. We were sure to miss her if she didn’t survive through her birthday.  Close to sundown, she professed her undying love for Derek and it was fun to watch her when she mockingly proposed to Derek and took him away to Motormouth. And then, suddenly she became very cranky, emotional and completely out of control. Some kind of sadness seemed to take over her as darkness fell.

It was a dark, moonless night. We were on our way to the sunset point on top of a hillock. We had stealthily made our way to a clearing in the thicket that surrounded the D’Silva mansion. The gentle chirrup of the cicadas mingled with the rustle of the leaves. The petrichor emanating from the damp earth brought in a comforting feeling.

Motormouth was parked at a lonely stretch at the edge of the clearing. Goose, Hound and myself had been very busy trying pitching a tent for the night. We were trying desperately to start a fire in the dark, foggy night. The awesome Canadian band,
Nickelback,
was playing in the background. Derek and Jenny sat close by watching us.

The music changed and it was her favorite band that came up on the stereo. The
Cranberries
came alive with a track called
‘Zombie’
, a song that had kept her warm many nights before Derek had walked into her life. It had always been her favorite track when she felt lonely and cold. Her mind drifted away as the images of the recent going-ons conjured inside her head and Jenny’s mood suddenly changed.

She turned her attention to see what the other morons were doing. They seemed to be struggling to start the campfire. Since it had rained that afternoon, the firewood had been very stubborn and with these clowns, starting a fire was anyway a problem. Not for Jenny though, for she loved to play with fire. This element seemed to listen to her. Fire was her friend.

She shifted her gaze to Hound. He had always been nice to her, the good, dependable guy who always seemed to sense her moods. In his late thirties, he seemed to have seen much of the world than the others put together. His emotional quotient, not his intelligence, had drawn her to him in particular. He always knew how to make her smile. He briefly looked in her direction and their eyes met before he quickly looked away, keeping his focus on the firewood.

Goose was busy pouring kerosene over the wet lump of wood. He was the baby, the cutie-pie among them all. For her, he bordered somewhere in the disputed region of friendship and love. He had always treated her with respect, ever understanding of her needs. He made her coffee, just the way she liked it, made sure she always had a blanket when it was cold. He was cute, the teddy bear fantasy of any little girl once she reached adolescence. He seemed to be the perfect guy any girl would love to take home to meet her parents. Though now, he seemed to be extremely clumsy with the can of flammable liquid.

Chief was trying to put all his thoughts together to light the fire. He was just another selfish guy who couldn't care a rat's ass about what she wanted as long as she didn't whine about the music he played when he was driving. He was a jerk on whom she didn't want to waste time trying to fathom. He was too complicated and beyond her comprehension. For some reason, he seemed to hate her since the night they all met. He was barking out orders to Hound and Goose. The bastard. No wonder the fire wouldn’t start. Maybe, they would do a lot better if they burnt his trashy books.

But Derek, the moron she was madly in love with was the most uncaring, dumb and downright crude. He was human garbage. But maybe, these were exactly those qualities that had made her fall for him.

Jenny wondered why she couldn't have fallen for Hound or Goose, but no! Of all the morons in the whole wide world, she had to fall for the most insensitive being known to mankind. Her heart had been her biggest weakness till she met Derek. And then, he had become her biggest weakness when she needed a pillar of strength. She was hooked.

"Wake up, woman! Where are you lost? It’s been almost four hours since we made out last. I am craving, aren’t you, baby? Let’s do it! You are the most wonderful thing that's happened to me this week! I so love your body, your skin, your hair, your mouth…Oh! God! I so love it!" Derek was excited and he suddenly clutched Jenny in his arms. She resisted violently and screamed as she tried to break free from Derek's strong grip. "Get away, you bastard! I'm getting' out of here! To hell with you!" snapped Jenny, wriggling away from Derek's strong clutch. The stream of tears that seemed to have swollen inside of her suddenly gushed out of her deep, dark eyes. All Derek could care about was her body…

She had reached her breaking point. She got up with tears streaming down her cheeks. She felt cheap and used. Jenny struggled to hold back her tears but they wouldn’t stop. "Bastard! I loved you the way no one could ever love", whimpered Jenny. Her eyes and face were a mess but she didn't care. She ran straight to Hound who was taken off-guard and off balance.

"Holy cow! I just lost out, here I go into the friendship Laguna from the love zone!" exclaimed Hound as he locked her in tight embrace, trying to calm her down.

"What the hell happened? You chickened out?" said Goose wryly, still staring at the fire, amidst his puffs as he tried to poke the embers. The constipated fire refused to start.

Just when Jenny hugged Hound tightly, there was a sudden crackling of firewood that made my head turn. As if by magic, the fire came to life. I swear I did nothing. I stared at the fire in utter disbelief as the flames leapt higher and filled the air around us with warmth. Everyone was busy with the drama queen’s whimpering and had ignored the fire. It was uncanny.

The flames seemed to dance to an inaudible, bizarre ditty as they leapt toward Jenny. Hound looked at the fire as the flames of passion ricocheted in his soul. . The embers of suppressed emotions were now turning into a raging inferno as he held her tight. He was in love with Jenny and made no bones about it. It was a pity that Jenny was in love with that crass – Derek.

Goose put his hand on Jenny's shoulders as he fished out a bar of chocolate from his pocket. "Hush! The tears don't suit you, angel, here, take a bite, you'll feel a lot better!" his deep voice had a sense of comfort. He tore open the wrapper and touched the chocolate to Jenny's lips. Jenny turned her head to the other side, still locked in Hound's embrace. She was crying uncontrollably.

This shouldn’t have happened. We had been given specific instructions not to make Jenny get upset tonight at any cost. I shuddered, wondering what the consequences might be. I tried to swallow it as a bitter pill.