Do you care to know? - first part

She was late leaving her workplace once again. How many times she had informed her manager that on the way back, crowds were thin and safety was a concern but the manager cared only about the facts and figures and monthly reports to be shown to the top bosses. She made the routine customary calls to her parents informing them of the delay. Aarti muttered some inexplicable expletives and moved on towards completion of the tasks ahead of her. She looked around and saw there were two more employees along with her. She waved at Amit and Raj and glimpsed back at her computer. 

Around 8:00 pm she felt a presence around her and saw the office boy with a cup of coffee in his hand. Happy to take a coffee break, she took the cup and glanced around. She saw Amit and Raj sipping their coffees with glee. She moved towards them and they struck a conversation where bitching about the organization seemed their strong focus. 

Five minutes later, she moved back to her desk and tried to complete the rest of the work but started feeling numb. Slowly the images blurred and she lost consciousness. She woke up around 10 pm with the incessant phone ringing and saw that she was all alone in the office. Her parents were concerned and were coming to pick her up. Slowly and steadily she walked down to the gate, saw her concerned parents and moved inside the car. On the way, she felt uneasy, her body was aching. Normally, she didn't feel so low. Something, somewhere was wrong. 

She watched her parents in front and contemplated whether to share her anxieties or not. She did not want to stress them out and at the same time needed a listening shoulder. 'They look so tired, forget it, maybe I am thinking too much' felt Aarti and let the matter go. 

Next day she was back to work and things seemed normal. Amit and Raj teased her off falling to sleep while working and the Manager gruntled about the unfinished task. Aarti went about the usual and was about to leave for home with her friend, Mona when unexpectedly Mona was called upon to complete extra work lined up for her. 

She rushed out soon as she did not want to be beckoned for extra work. ‘Every day someone was being made to wait back, prepare last minute reports and that was not fair. The Manager was not organized’ felt Aarti. The next day, she arrived and heard Amit and Raj teasing Mona on falling off to sleep while at work. Aarti felt something was amiss, everyone cannot be sleeping. She knew she had to act but whom to trust and how to go about it. 

At lunch, she struck a conversation with her female colleagues and asked if they all completed their given tasks. All were sceptical with their responses, some shared openly and some were reluctant. Each one cautious of treading the unknown ground, no one really wanted to delve deeper. The only common ground they arrived was to not stay back alone but always with other female company.  Aarti went to the manager with the request and he smiled at her and said, 'Great, now two employees working extra time than one. We are blessed'. Aarti felt like wiping the smile off but resisted, all of them needed the job and the company paid them better than other competitors. The perks were great too. 

That evening, Mona and she were to stay back. This time they refrained having the coffee and also saw that there was no Amit or Raj around. Nevertheless, around 8 pm they both started feeling drowsy and succumbed to the feeling. At around 9:30 pm they regained consciousness and took their bags and called for a rental car service. Apart from the watchman there was no one around. Once again Aarti felt that her body felt uneasy. She discussed this with Mona who felt there was nothing amiss. She felt Aarti was just blowing things out of proportion. They had been working for non-stop 12 hours and therefore they slept. 

Aarti dropped Mona off first and the car was moving towards her home. In another 10 minutes, she would be home and she planned to make few personal bodily investigations first. That very moment, she saw a huge truck crashing into her car and felt deep searing pain move through her body. She had to move out but in the next few seconds, fire engulfed the entire car. 

'I am going to die and I don't even know why? These were the last thoughts Aarti had before there was nothing left of her. 

The next day, the newspapers wrote of the ghastly accident, Aarti was a statistical figure in the number of road accidents per year. Her parents were grieving uncontrollably, they had lost their beautiful, young and educated girl. The manager represented the company at the funeral and spoke highly of her past two years contribution towards the institution and offered good compensation package. At one corner, Mona stood watching all this, lowered her eyes and grieved silently for her friend. This evening, she had been summoned for extra work.