The Other Side Read online

  ‘So, do you drink?’ Sam asked.

  ‘I used to drink a lot. Now with the medications, I have limited my drinking to a glass of wine and that too occasionally. But I feel like drinking a little vodka, gin or a tequila tonight,’ she said, breaking the strain of Sam’s paranoid thoughts.

  ‘Oh, I forgot about your medications. You better stick to one glass of wine. That’s still safer than indulging in vodka or gin,’ Sam weighed in. Kavya felt it was a beautiful gesture on his part, especially from a stranger and in a part of the world away from her own. She felt safe with Sam.

  The Intrigue Nightclub is one of the best in Las Vegas. Kavya was thrilled as she entered the place. It featured cutting-edge lighting and sound designed by the famous John Lyons Systems. As Kavya entered, she was mesmerized and held Sam’s hand in excitement as they went towards the bar area. Sam too let her hold his hand tightly and followed wherever Kavya wandered inside the club. The patio enclosed with glass allowed year-round views of the club’s dramatic waterfall and dazzling fireworks. There was a different energy on their faces as they settled near the bar area. Sam ordered a glass of cognac for himself and a glass of wine for Kavya and some bitters. The contemporary party music of different genres created a high-energy dancing atmosphere. After the drinks, Kavya held Sam’s hand and dragged him towards the dance floor. Sam gave up his little hesitance and joined Kavya for a dance, losing himself to it. No, this time it was not because of Kavya that he went on to the dance floor, but it was the power of the music playing which pulled him into dancing. No one would have been able to tell that he was a victim of the Ashton Martinson scam and a worried man.

  Sam had almost seven shots of cognac and was on the verge of becoming drunk. Kavya had stuck to her glass of wine as Sam didn’t let her drink more than that. They were screaming and singing every time their favourite music played. And they were pathetic dancers. It looked like as if monkeys had been freed from a cage. Thank God for the lighting system that they did not become the laughing stock of the others on the dance floor. But they were having a gala time. And that is what mattered.

  Their energies spent, they exited the club, the effects of partying evident on their faces. Sam was not in his senses to drive back to the hotel, and Kavya didn’t have a US driving licence. They left their car in the parking lot of the club and Kavya asked for directions to their hotels. They were in different hotels in the same area. Both around twenty minutes away from the club. Kavya decided to walk down to the hotel as the nightlife atmosphere in Vegas was lively. You didn’t get to see as much in Mumbai.

  ‘Let’s call for a cab,’ Sam insisted.

  ‘Noo, can we just walk around till the hotel pleaaaase?’ Kavya’s childish way of requesting Sam gave him no option to tell her anything further. The atmosphere was also delightful with mild, breezy winds. In between their walk to the hotel, Rachel and Harvey called Sam several times. But Sam was not in his good senses and avoided answering the phone, putting it on voicemail. Kavya observed him while he did that.

  ‘What were you thinking of when you opened the account in that website? Are you not happy in your married life?’ asked Kavya, quite intrigued by his reckless act. She found Sam to be a decent person.

  ‘It’s not that I am unhappy or something, but it was out of curiosity and in a state of inebriation that I opened the account. I didn’t have any intentions to have any extramarital affairs, especially with the help of such websites. It was just a time pass, which backfired and is screwing me now.’

  ‘That’s sad. And your wife does not know about this at all? Why don’t you confess to her? Half of your stress will be over,’ Kavya suggested, to which Sam gave a very cold response. There was complete silence for some time. Kavya felt as if she had pressed the wrong buttons.

  ‘I am sorry for asking you personal questions. So what else do you love doing, Sam? Apart from losing money in casinos!’ Kavya enjoyed pulling his leg over and over again.

  ‘My wife may not trust me, Kavya. She had trusting issues earlier as well. It will only upset her more. I don’t want her to feel such pain for my stupidity. As of now, this is the only thing I think is right.’

  A drunk man can never lie, thought Kavya. They kept walking at a slow pace and exchanging notes on each other’s life. Meanwhile, Kabir had called Kavya twice, and she disconnected the phone. Sam too noticed and started teasing her.

  ‘So, even you have some sort of problem with your husband. See how have you landed here. Without telling anyone, even your husband. You are just avoiding him as he might ask you to go back. He is not okay with you being all by yourself. And you know this fact very well. So you too are a victim of trusting issues,’ Sam bombarded in a taunting way.

  ‘Yes, you do have a point. We are the victims!’ laughed Kavya.

  They strolled for a while and sat outside a coffee shop. It was almost midnight, and they did not seem to be in any hurry to reach their respective hotels. This is what Vegas does to people. They kept talking, laughing and doing all sorts of crazy things for hours. They visited three casinos near their hotels. Though they played at small bets; Sam kept losing money and Kavya kept winning. Every time Sam had to pull Kavya to get out of the casino as he was only losing money. And Kavya wanted to play more and more.

  ‘Casinos are not a good place for me,’ he claimed.

  ‘How do you manage to lose every bet? You just don’t know how to play. Don’t worry, I will give you a book, just read that.’ Kavya pacified him every time they came out of the casino.

  It was 6 a.m. and now they were completely exhausted. They took a cab to their respective hotels. They had a flight in the evening for Los Angeles. And before that, Sam had to help Kavya transfer the money to her bank account.

  Chapter 9

  Kabir booked his tickets for Vegas. He was annoyed at the way Kavya was avoiding his calls. He was only worried about her and was trying to be protective. But Kavya always misunderstood his objective. She reacted to him as one would to a typical controlling husband. He had packed his bags and was about to leave for the airport when he got a phone call from the manager at the bank where Kavya held an account.

  ‘What! Are you serious?’ Kabir asked. The manager knew Kabir and Kavya very well and hence when the transfer of such a huge amount came into Kavya’s account all of a sudden, the manager thought of confirming it with Kabir. He was amazed as to how Kavya had got such a vast amount of money. He thought of all the possibilities. Casinos. It could only be the casinos, he thought. But dealing with such huge amounts, Kavya could have never done it overnight. He called Kavya again. And this time the phone was answered, to his surprise.

  ‘Hi, I know that you know I am in Vegas and not in Cambridge. Please don’t freak out, okay Kabir? I am safe and nice.’ Kavya spoke in a very soft voice. She knew that the manager would call Kabir as soon as the transfer was done. And then Kabir would call to discuss the money and would forget about her impromptu visit to Vegas.

  ‘You are too smart, my millionaire wife; so which treasure you have looted?’ Kabir asked. Kavya told how she had won the big amount at one shot in the casino. She spoke to her husband briefly about Sam, who had to lose the large amount to her in the game.

  Kabir asked Kavya about her plans to go to Cambridge and she said that she would, in a few days. She also told him about her plan to visit Los Angeles. Kabir cancelled his tickets for Vegas and booked for Los Angeles instead.

  * * *

  Sam and Kavya were enjoying each other’s company and were excited to travel to Los Angeles together. This way they had a chance to continue the conversation for a few more days and get to know each other better. Kavya was keen to meet Rachel, the lady about whom Sam kept talking when he was drunk. In a good way. It showed how much he loved her. And also Harvey, Sam’s detective friend.

  As Sam packed before he headed back to Los Angeles, he remembered about the missed calls from Rachel and Harvey. He also checked the voicemails he had received. The first was fro
m Rachel, ‘Sam, I am tired of calling you. It’s not working Sam. I need to talk to you. Let me know when you are heading back or else I will travel there.’ Sam feared for the moment, had she came to know anything about the scam? Or had she read his emails? He had forgotten that she had all his passwords. It only came to his mind now. She could also check the laptop and check all his messages and other details of his whereabouts. His Apple phone was set to sync with his laptop every time.

  The second voicemail was from Harvey, ‘Sam, where are you? Did you check the news? Those blackmailers are going to leak the full database publicly. Moreover, there are many cases coming up of suicides and those regarding the scam. I have worked on something to track your blackmailer. You better come soon and stop wandering around with Kavya.’

  ‘Bloody detective, he knows I am out with Kavya since yesterday,’ Sam whispered.

  He looked more tense than yesterday. He was eager to go back and fix all his problems. His work in the office was also getting affected. Sam had re-scheduled Kavya’s tickets so that they could travel together. They had done the packing and were ready to bid goodbye to Vegas. Kavya still felt like staying back a few more days to win some more money in the casinos but was also scared of losing all the money, instead. More greed is of no good to anyone.

  While they moved to the airport, Sam asked her if she was fine. Kavya looked a little tired. They had hardly got a few hours of sleep. But it was worth it, thought Kavya.

  ‘You got affected with tuberculosis twice, right? How did you get affected for the first time?’ Sam asked out of curiosity.

  ‘In India people have a tendency to spit in and litter public places and municipal services are under pressure, anyway. Thus it becomes difficult to control virile bacteria like tuberculosis, which spreads easily. Moreover, the public health facilities are strained across the country. Thus, it has not been possible to eradicate tuberculosis. Persons with lower immunity get affected fast,’ Kavya sighed.

  ‘And how did a strong woman like you lose her immunity twice?’

  ‘Well, long story,’ said Kavya and told Sam how it happened.

  She didn’t like to discuss her health. As whenever she did, she felt frustrated about the conditions in her home country and the problems towards the eradication of TB. Her blood boiled when she saw people spitting in public places, and it hurt to see how public health was affected due to it. This was not the same when she was affected by TB the first time. The course was for just six months, and the side effects were far lesser. But this time the treatment was two years long and had taken much of Kavya’s peace of mind. It changed her completely.

  Sam understood she was deeply affected by her health. He didn’t ask any further questions; they had reached the airport by then. After checking in and clearing security, they still had an hour’s time for the flight to take off. They proceeded towards the Starbucks café lounge and enjoyed their last cup of coffee in Vegas.

  ‘So, was Vegas up to your expectations? Anything you still wanted to do in Vegas?’ Sam asked while sipping his latte.

  ‘Yes, much more fun and money than I ever expected. I had never thought I would have lovely company too,’ she smiled as she had her lemon loaf cake and cappuccino. ‘So what have you thought of now regarding your blackmailer? How are you going to get hold of her now?’ she asked.

  ‘Harvey has got the IP address of the computer from which the mail was sent. We could use that to track the blackmailer,’ answered Sam.

  ‘What will you do after you find your blackmailer? Will that help in deleting your account details from that website or will you just hand the culprit to the police?’ Kavya asked, inquisitively.

  ‘I had deleted my account the first time I came to know about the scam. It was later that I got the email from the blackmailer. So that means they have the data of the deleted accounts as well. Thus I need to make sure that they delete the account details permanently and to stop sending me emails.’

  Boarding had started by the time they finished their beverages. Sam got up to move, and Kavya brought out her post snacks dose of medicines. It took Kavya a while to gulp down the medicines and move towards the boarding. She felt a little uneasy. Kavya could never move quickly after her medicines. She needed a little time to settle. Sam observed this very keenly. He felt bad for her. As the queue started diminishing, Sam held Kavya’s handbag and held her hand to ask if she was feeling okay to move. They were the last passengers to board the flight. Kavya felt overwhelming gratitude towards Sam. Though she would have preferred not taking anyone’s help or sympathy for her condition. She wanted and was trying to be a strong girl by every means.

  Chapter 10

  A YEAR AND A HALF BACK.

  ‘Is anything serious to worry about? Will I need to undergo any surgery to remove the lump?’ Kavya asked the young doctor assisting Dr Zarir Udwadia, one of the best chest physicians of India.

  ‘Don’t worry. You are in the best hands now. You came to the right place. Dr Udwadia will check your reports and will give you the best treatment,’ assured Dr Shashank, the assistant doctor. Kavya thought of Harry Potter every time she saw Dr Shashank. Being affected the second time, Kavya wanted only the best doctor to her rescue.

  This time the tuberculosis had started with an on and off pain below her right armpit. Kavya had felt that for over two months. She had noticed the gentle swelling in that area. She had first thought it was a muscle ache, and that the pain would go away. But she had been reading of cases of breast cancer and was scared. She had read that when breast cancer occurs, the lymph nodes within the armpit can begin to swell as they filter cancer cells and try to neutralize them. She wanted to confirm and so visited a general physician. The doctor told her to have a painkiller and that it was only a swelling due to muscle stretching. The doctor checked her thoroughly and assured her that the lump would disappear with a painkiller. Kavya did that and indeed the pain disappeared for a good twenty days. But then it came back with a vengeance. This time she called her brother who was a doctor and told him everything over the phone. He suggested a sonography. The lumps were still growing under her right armpit, or the right axilla, as the doctors wrote out in the report later. She had cried the moment she saw the two swellings on the screen. It was clear. She knew something was wrong with her.

  Followed with sonography, she underwent FNAC to pinpoint the infection. Kavya used to be scared of all medical instruments, especially needles. Just uttering the word surgery gave her goose bumps. She had done FNAC earlier as well when she was first affected with tuberculosis. She remembered how painful it had been. To undergo it again on a sensitive part of the body, exposed in front of the doctors as they poked with a thick needle to remove the fluid, was scary.

  But Kavya did not delay it. She wanted to know what the lumps were. Without slowing a day more, she took an appointment and went for the FNAC all alone. Doctors were a little zapped as they would require someone to be with her after the procedure who could take her home safely, as the post-procedure pain would create discomfort. That was her first step to being strong. The reports came in to confirm the suspicion of TB, a multidrug-resistant TB.

  And that was the time when she decided that she would only consult Dr Zarir Udwadia for further treatment. During that time, the appointments of the doctor were reserved for three months. Kavya could not wait for so long. She had set her belief on the doctor, that only he could cure her. And even when there was no availability of appointment, Kavya was lucky to have landed an appointment within two days. She was destined to meet him, she felt, as she had wanted to see him and no one else.

  That day Kabir had accompanied her. He was fascinated to meet the well-known doctor. The positive vibes and charisma of the doctor was very welcome. The elegant ambience of the doctor’s small cabin gave an unusual warmth. It had neat wooden furniture with clean lines and appealing little flowers placed near the window. She expected a doctor who would just check reports, examine physically and discuss the proble
m and the treatment quickly and efficiently and be done with her. But as she entered, the doctor complimented her saying that she was the only patient he had ever seen with a charming smile like hers. She didn’t look like a patient, he said. This unexpected gesture brought instant warmth to the proceedings. She blushed.

  ‘So what do you do, Kavya?’ he asked with keen interest.

  ‘I am a freelance writer and a fashion designer. I used to write articles for websites and magazines, and I wish to write a novel soon,’ said Kavya.

  ‘That is great, I am sure you will write a bestseller. Let me write “Writer” on the top of your case paper, so I remember the next time you visit. So how’s it going? What do you write about?’ asked Dr Udwadia.

  Kavya was surprised by the way the doctor was taking an interest in her life. It made her feel special. If only she had a chance to talk to him daily, she would have got better and better. The Parsi doctor’s charismatic personality impressed her.

  ‘As of now I am also writing short stories,’ Kavya answered.

  ‘Let me suggest some short story collections for you to read. To start with, Alice Munro’s celebrated collection of stories Runaway, she is the best in this field. I will ask you questions on that book when I see you next,’ said Dr Udwadia while examining her simultaneously.

  ‘So moving to the problem, as from what I examined, it’s tuberculosis again, but this time it’s a multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). It will take two years of medication and six months of injections every day to treat properly. You will have to undergo a biopsy to carry on the drug susceptibility test. It’s a test to find out what all drugs you are resistant to,’ said the doctor, in a more serious tone than before.

  ‘Biopsy? Why biopsy? Will they remove the lump? I am petrified of a needle. I already have undergone FNAC, is that not enough?’ asked Kavya, a frown on her face. ‘And injections every day? Oh my God, are you kidding?’ Kavya said in a disappointed voice.