Behind Sardar's Statue.

That day we kept on running and both of us dared not even to break the spell of silence untill we reached home. It was dark, much darker than usual. The air smelled fresh and every time I inhaled in hard, my nostrils quivered. At point, we would hasten up untill our panting grew so hard that we could even hear each other's heart beat. With clenched fist, pearls of sweat around our foreheads and murmuring prayers incessantly, that morning we ran as fast as we could, for the first time even during our morning jog.
It all started at around 4.30 o'clock in the morning. The mall road circumventing Gymkhana club glowed in with the newly installed streets lights. The black tarred road camouflaged in with the nocturnal darkness and the leaves rustled while a faint howling breezed passed by. The green bins labeled as recycle teemed with litters, plastics, dirt and in the meantime,as the prolonged silence creped up exhibiting the stillness and darkness of the night, the moon cheerfully played hide and seek with the dense ebony clouds oblivious that it was soon time to sleep. Its was a little chilly, frost had covered the grasses and while we exhaled out vapor, it seemed we puffed out smoke from a cigarette we shared without the odor. Armored against the chill in warm gloves, insulated jackets, knitted hats, we kept walking although we coined it as jogging. Earlier that morning when we left home, Tenwang valiantly jumped up the back gate, slipping hard with a thug and groaned. I stood there, fingers clenched with keys, and once i stepped out of the gate, I locked it again which took another couple of minutes before we start off. We jogged, walked and rested and during all this, he constantly rubbed his knees, rubbed it couple of times and then later morned. "Chocho, its your fault. Why didn't you stop me."
This was our daily routine, our daily jog that we had finally been successful to follow after diligently scheduling, when to be tapping down the alarm clock and heading out of bed. A year ago, when we primarily commenced it, every morning it turned out dad waking us up, while mom later that morning would grumble and rebuke us about the alarm clock that went on for 5 minutes before dad, reluctantly had to step out from his warm bed and tap us on our head.
The chill gripped me from behind as we jogged on. Our planned run was 3.4 Km, but we only jogged for few minutes,then walked on untill we got to Sardar's statue. Once there, we would stretch out a bit, talk about each other's mundane activities, then by the time the flush of morning began to tinge the sky above Kanchenjunga, we would turned back. In whole it would actually be 2 km, but we when return home we would ostentatiously declare it was 4km and start perspiring like pigs. and yes, at this we are adept. But that day, we ran all the away back home, we didn't even jog nor stop to stretch or rest.
It was what we saw in the bush that made us run. Actually, to be precise, we don't even know what we saw, but we clearly heard something growling at us. It was an infuriated growl, not even like a wrathful cat's meowing, but more like a screamingly pithed growl, something that sounded much more bigger that a cat, that stood behind the bush near Sardar's statue.
As usual traversing a hundred of paces and once we got to Sardar's statue, we start our stretching. It wasn't pitch dark yet the street lamps kept flickering. Flies, myriads of flies hovered around it like bees. They inquisitively buzzed, swamped around it and convulsively clashed against each other. I noticed Tenwang didn't enjoy his stretches as usual. He was tall, well built, and had a lithe body more like a amazon , yet after his queer landing earlier that day, seemed that he didn't really feel much for it. He just stretched for a while, and sat down. And while i kept on, he idly moved around and then said"Chocho, why don't you keep stretching for a while while i go water the plants. I didn't pee this morning." I gleamed at him,my heads sandwiched between my legs, and stopped. Everything positioned itself upside down. I nodded and said " Don't go to far away, go behind the bush there." And thats where he shouldn't have gone. The bushes were hemmed by pipe railings, very commonly found in most Indian hill stations. The British Raj's architectural adeptness still significantly lives on. I noticed Tenwang limped slightly heading there. He leaned against the railings, got under the first bar, and crossed into the perimeters. "I will be back in a minute" he said while proceeding on.I kept on with my counts, my saliva had started to thicken, and cool breeze passed between my legs .And then a sudden growl, a stentorian one made my hair stand up. "Chocho! Chocho! there's something here"shirked Tenwang. The next moment, something rustled through the bush. It moved in very fast, and i could feel the thumping of it against the ground. Tenwang, with his zippers wide open, had already got in through railing and was standing on my right. "Wha.. whaa.. what was that?"he stumblingly whispered while my hands and feet trembled. I kept quite and he slowly looked at me. "I was just peeing when all of the sudden i heard this sudden shrill. " he muttered. My heart pounded convulsively while my brother gripped my hands. He was trembling too. Everything was so quite, as if no one was there. The buzzing of flies was the only thing i could hear besides my short breaths. The bushes started rustling again but this time, it was stronger, it was breathing, taking short breathes and moving,moving towards the railing, but slowly, very slowly. Every second, my heart started pounding faster and faster. Heaved in with trepidation, I silently tapped my brother's hand and winked at him. Pearls of sweat dwelled on his forehead and he gasped at me. I nodded at him and timidly whispered again"back off , but slowly and start running while i tell you. Don't leave my hand." The rustling grew closer and then impulsively stopped. We stood there still. Only thing i could feel was my sweat dripping down, my heart pounding faster than before, my brother dipping his fingers in my hands and then 'Grrrrwww' a shrill drill from the bush and the next moment we sprang back. Within secs, we were running as fast as we could. Tenwang ran as if all the time he was pretending to be limping. We dared not looking behind but keeping on running, and running. All the while we sprang and run, we panted and we held each others hands tight, as tight as we could. For the first time since we started our morning running, we ran and we didn't jog or walk or stop. But we just ran. Hundreds of thoughts starting infiltrating in, hundreds of thoughts for which i didn't have an answer. Both of us dared not look back for we were too intimidated. We didn't hear any one following us but we keep on running. Soon, at a distance we could see our home. I gazed at my brother. His hair, which he always combed and gelled taking every intense care to keep it from falling below his forehead, was now completely messed up and he utterly even cared to wave it back. Our hearts were still pounding hard and we were both completely drenched in sweat. Gradually his grip over my hands loosened, and we started slowing down untill we stopped at the gate. I leaned forward, my hands placed on my legs and I kept panting while my brother stood straight still scrutinizing our back and drawing deep breaths. "How is your foot?" I inquired while leaning against the gate. "Fine, its better. Actually i don't feel the gnawing in my calf anymore. Its gone" He said that and sat down next to me. "But Chocho, what was that? he asked again, but this time he didn't stammer. I raised my head, look at him and I just kept quite. He got his answer. Indeed, even now,i didn't know what was it back there,behind the bushes that made us run, that made Tenwang get rid of his pain.
Later,I found out that i had lost my keys while we ran, and so we waited that morning untill mom saw us from the windows. Ya, Tenwang was immaculate of the blame. It was me. We did manage to get a dupicate set fixed after i received a sound scolding from dad. But that was fine, completely fine. Atleast I was glad I landed home.
Sometimes, i still do ponder what might have been behind the bushes. A wild cat, a wolf, or may be even a snow leopard. Yet what ever must have behind the bush, we both still laugh thinking of the fact that that was the first time we actually ran till home and we didn't lie that we ran 3km.