The drunken boy

That day me and my four friends were at peak of delight. Each of us have enjoyed the sight as much as an individual could. It was almost dark and I could hear the intensive sound of water striking the rocks. None of us had intention to leave that place, but it was darkness of late evening that had forced us to leave that great scene. And we begun to leave from “Angel fall” at Canaima National Park of Venezuela.

We all started walking toward the car parking ,
” What if we all make a camping for one more night.? We have enough equipment.” Lara said willingly.
“Sorry Lara , we can’t do it. We have already planned our tour. We can not spend more time here doing the same” James denied.
“Right,still we have lots of destination to look over ” I added
Deni was wet by the natural spray of fall and was vibrating with little cold. She had a smiling face full of life as always, but now it was overflowing with delight.

” Re…really.. it was a awesome water fall..,this one would be memorable for me. ” Deni said.

KD was packing and arranging all the camping tools we had established.As he finished with it he shut trunk of car and said loudly.

“Stop all your discussions and hurry up, we are getting late friends ”

Hurriedly we all settled down in our seats and KD started to drive up car along the highway. All were much tired but the enjoyment of tour had push up our potential to not to sleep.

“Friends, we have just returned from the highest water fall of the world.” I broke the silence.

” That’s why we are here for” KD said.

” Oh really ?, you are saying as if we are not aware of.Thanks for your kind information ” James started fun.
All giggled.

“When would we have the dinner? Anyone has some snacks?” Lara asked sitting in the middle seat.

I took out some packet of chips from the bag and replied from the last row of our SUV.

” We will make it some where at road side restaurant. Till then we’ll have to adjust with these packets of chips.” I said.

There were two reasons to ignore our discipline, one is that we all are friends and another was that we were there on tour, enjoying our vacation.It was obvious to have a intensive hunger after lots of swimming and river rafting.

Everyone stared at chips packets for a moment and at the immediate instant all huddle together in rear seat to snatch the chips packets.There was not time available to be casual.

” Wait, I will distribute it in equal five parts each for one. Otherwise KD would not have it as he is driving” Lara said.
” Thanks for taking care of my hunger “, KD replied with a glance in the rear view mirror.

We ate chips like a hell. Within a moment all the packet were over.That chips didn’t proved enough to satisfy our hunger.

KD have turn on the slow melody music to let others sleep.
“I will wake you up for the dinner, now you can rest for few hours.”
One bye one all fell asleep.

We had total run of 400 miles whole the night to our next destination.And the driving turn of KD, James and Me was pre-decided.After the dinner the next turn of driving was of James.

That was our first trip to a foreign country.All of us belongs to financially stable families.
There was nothing there that we can not afford to make our tour more joyful.But the James was an exception. James was the real gem. He was the son of reputed industrialist in our city and wealthiest among us.

Car stopped after 3 hours of run. And KD replace that melody music with rocking song and scrolled high volume, and each one awakened groggily.

“Hey , what is that..?, stop it.” I said.
” It’s a wakeup call.That is the way friends are treated. We are here.” KD said.
“Let’s have a dinner”
” I would stay here , my sleep is greater than hunger. I don’t want to eat” Deni said
“Ok !”

It was showing 11 p.m. in a Swiss wrist watch of Deni. She was asleep inside car securing our expensive things.We left her alone and went to the roadside restaurant.

We ate more than regular. Food was not of good quality but due to our extreme hunger we tested it delicious.After dinner we were talking, standing outside but James was not there.We were waiting for him.He came back after 20 minutes.

In the middle of all this, I noticed in the reflection on window glass of our car that a stranger was staring at us for a long. I started staring back him secretly. After a minute I moved back and forth to observe him closely.

I scanned him from bottom to top carefully.
He was standing beside his white sedan class car. More than Six feet with such a muscles that can’t build up sitting beside computer screen. He was seemed perfectly worked out .Small curly blackish hair hardly covering half of his head. His neck was covered by a thick gold chain. The silver revolver was hidden partially within his black leather jacket and low waist jeans. I supposed he might be in his early thirties.
“Why a person required such a lethal weapons in a scenic country like this?” I thought.By observing him unintentionally I’d made myself Sherlock Holmes.

Lara interrupted my thoughts.
“Where is James?” Lara asked.
“No idea” I replied.
” Here I am.” reply came from back of me.
“Where have you been?” I asked suspiciously.

He waited a moment and answered. ” Oh..Hmm ..nothing , just refreshment.”

Lara found alcoholic odor near somewhere.
There was no reason to doubt anyone of us because none was any kind of addicted.

“For development of tourism this country had given liberty for alcohol and now they don’t have even control on its selling,I heard about cases of smuggling here” KD said.
“Yeah , I think so”, I replied.

Now that was the turn of James to drive the car. KD passed key to him. He hurried toward car lonely.Turn on the engine and accelerated it very hardly. The front wheel was rounded three turns at a same place. Dust from the ground was lift up around.He dragged the car one round in parking compound making the neat restaurant dusty.He stopped the car extreme nearer to us by pushing brakes short. Just like a hero of action movie.

He forgot that Deni didn’t come for the dinner and was resting in back sit.
“What the hell you are doing ?” Deni suddenly awake and shouted.
James ignore her in excitement and said to us “Get inside for an actual ride..!”

The man was still staring our movements.
I made a last the glance in order to ignore that stranger and then noticed name plate of his car
” ZX 0013.”
I felt something sinister about him.

We got inside the car and resumed our journey. It seemed that James was excited. He was driving beyond limit. Speedometer indicating 95 miles per hour.The road was very deserted. Not a single vehicle have seen since last half an hour.

When I was about to fell a sleep, I felt a strong jerk.My body was thrown toward front glass but didn’t touched due to seat belt. It was a pig crossing the road that James had hit.All were widely awaken and screamed aloud. At a high speed James lost the control and our car got off the road.I stretched hand brakes, still it crossed 100 meters before it stopped.As it was stopped we all leaned back and quickly look over each other to ensure all are safe or not.

” Thank god none have injured ! ” Deni said, she opened the door and got out of the car for a change.

Yet the irony was not actually begin…….

I saw two head lights in rear view mirror.A car was nearing us.When it passed to us I noticed name plate.”ZX 0013…!” The car went a little far but withing my sight range.Suddenly it stopped. The man made a U turn violating traffic rules.The car stopped to us and the same man I saw at restaurant stepped out of it.As he approached Deni, I stepped out of car holding bottle of lemon juice opened.

” If there is anything I could help you – -” The man said awkwardly.

“No thanks, It’s all right” Deni simply broke the talk.
I was staring at him observing each of his movement.
” Then I want you to help myself..” he said.

That was the alarming moment.
My heart skipped a beat and eyes were open widely.That scene made me grip my lemon juice bottle stronger.

At the same time he approached his revolver and I covered Deni to my back. He held out and pointed gun to both of us unsure of target.
All the color of her face drained.She was just paralyzed by fear.

” Don’t shoot ,take whatever you want.. but please don’t shoot..!” I made my voice such it seem a request for our life.But actually it was’t.My mind was racing and heart was pounding.

KD got out of car to save us.The man pointed to KD to resist him. Lara and James was terrified inside the car.She was watching us without a blink.

“One step forward will worth your life.Don’t be foolish..! I would not hesitate to wipe you out.If you really want to live,Do as I direct” He threatened.

His only motive was to rob us.

” Fool you are to have a fight with me..” KD challenged with a step forward.

“Please, KD. Do as he ordered.” I looked to KD from corner of eyes.
And instantly I threw the juice on his face……

The gun felt down and he cover his eyes pressing hardly with his hands.He was sobbing, unable to stop his tears.Juice in her eyes had made his sight blurred, he could’t see anything.After a minute he fell on ground with unbearable pain in eyes.

We all moved fast …

KD hurriedly kicked revolver,getting it out of his reach.

Deni stepped backward, her eyes were tightly shut but unable to stop visualizing what was actually happening.
She got inside in a moment.

I turned back toward car,at that moment what I seen was out of my perception.

James was lonely sitting in mid of the road, was murmuring something meaningless.I supposed that he was shocked by incident.But he wasn’t.
I gave him my arm and help him to get up.I got his arm around my shoulder,lift him up and set him in back seat.His murmuring was not stopped yet.During this I smelled sharp odor of alcohol from his mouth.
Unbelievable fact was that James had alcohol before driving.

“Where have you been?” ,
“Nothing, just refreshment”. What a lie it was!, I recalled.

I was driving, my sight was on road but mind wasn’t.
I thought about James. ” How much a wealth could worth if a person can not digest it ? “.

The effect of that incident was our silence during the reaming hours of journey.All had gradually made themselves to get out of shock.It was not possible to have a sleep after that incident. I drive for next four hours and we safely reach to our hotel.

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