Pearl Harbour

‘Pearl’, I heard someone call out my name. I was sitting in my place with my head down on the table. I was trying to catch a wink of sleep before i had to go for the much dreaded Hindi class.

Not that I didn’t like Hindi as a subject but it was just that the exceptional teacher and I had a misunderstanding.

Well not even that! Our opinions differed pretty much along with that our interpretation of the literary and hidden meanings of different subjects were poles apart.

I loved to sleep so i slowly pulled my head up to glare at the person who had dared to disturb my short siesta.

It was Kai. I sighed and said, ”Girl! What the heck do you need?”

She walked over to the middle of the classroom and said, “ Pearl!” She had a strange look on her face. She beckoned me to walk up to where she was standing and pointed towards the door. Yes! She beckoned to me. If it were anyone but her I am pretty sure they wouldn’t have any fingers left to point and ask me or rather order me to walk out.

But I did as she asked. I looked at her for a second and then and engulfed her in a  hug. Something was troubling her for she was shaking well more like vibrating. Slowly her breathing became a bit study and she calmed down a bit. I made her sit on a chair. “ I lost the CD” she said .

“ What CD?”,  I questioned her.  “The one that you gave me for my birthday” she said. I started laughing. She looked at me as if i was crazy.

“ It was just a CD” I said.

“Just a CD?” her eyebrows were raised.

then I realised what she had said. “Oh shit! You lost the CD?”  she nodded her head nervously, her head cast down. Her pale skin tone turned two shades more so. It contrasted with her raven black hair.

“I was using one of the computers in the lab to watch it. To be true I actually forgot it there” she mumbled. I nodded. my super fast brain had already started plotting things. I had a basic plan set.

“We would have to go to the computer lab and get it back”.

“But how can we just barge in there?”, she said

I gave her a deadpanned look.

“Of course we will have to sneak in!”

**

2 hours of Hindi and an hour after school closed.

**

“Did you get what I asked for?”

“ Yes I did ….” She said handing me two test tubes. One slightly bigger than the other. She continued “the bigger one is HCl and the shorter one has nitric acid.”

“Ahhaa!!” I said.

She is a science kid and I am the practical genius.

As you might have realised by now I have a huge superiority complex and tend to place my worth where it should be.

Along with that I may or maynot have ADHD. That is for me to know and you to find out.

I poured a bit of hydrochloric acid on the lock of the lab. Wow!

It sounds cool. But trust me it’s sizzling hot.  So much so that you can hear the hydrogen evaporate. In case you were wondering... the acid is concentrated. A few moments and we are in. Kai walked over to the computer she had been using, while I walked over to the main one to clear out the CCTV footage.

Well you might be wondering how I would do that and it might have a password. The fact that you have missed out is that I am well aware of what the password is. You see the school authorities don’t think that someone would dare to do what I am doing.

I ain’t smart and have over  average intelligence for nothing. Just like that when I see “over average” I am being pretty modest.

Done all clear. I turn towards Kai who is looking at me. I put out a thumbs up to show that I am done. She whisper yells at me “Pearl!”. I walk over to her. She was pointing towards something on the screen. It was a teacher’s account that was open.

Dr. Roy’s to be specific.

I sat beside Kai pulling a chair. I nudge her and she shifts. I ask her whether she managed to clean the history of usage and get her CD.

She nods to confirm and I turn my attention back to the Desktop screen.

I clicked the pop-up open. Some gibberish was written all over:

gxiy +abj = pzykix

It didn’t make any sense to me. There were more equations like that. I quickly printed all that was there and stuffed the pages in my backpack.

I tried to shut down everything from the main machine and it did.

It was dead silent. Kai was staring at me as if I was some oddity.

“What was that?” she asked

“None of your business!” I replied.

She shrugged and said “I don’t want you to get in trouble!”

“Babe! Trouble is my middle name!”

“You know curiosity killed the cat?”

“But satisfaction brought it back. Don’t leave the comment unfinished!” I retorted back to her statement.

**

That night when I got back to the room which I shared with a blonde girl named Nila. The first thing my dearest roomie told me was, “I am going to complain about you the next time you end up late… How many times have I told you…….” there she goes.

There is no stopping her from lecturing me so I freshen up in five minutes and I plug in my earphones.

With music blasting in my ears and laptop in my lap with my best friend google on. I looked at the papers that had wrinkled a bit due to my stuffing them in my backpack in a hurry.

A pen and a copy.

I look at the the series of alphabetical equations equivalent to lions or maybe ions.

Na Nah Na Nah

I let my brain do the work after my eyes scanned through the sheets.

The patterns clicked.

It translated to something like:

Soup + chicken = chicken soup

Strange. But not so much.

It was steganography

Chick / ken => ken barbie.

Soup => group or coup

Rest could easily be translated but then it was still weird

It seemed as if an organisation of someone important was being blackmailed to be overthrown or someone was going to be murdered.

I lay my head on the pillow behind me and set my phone to vibration and set my phone to vibration and dearest lappie on hibernation, and wondered at what stake was my nation.

The last clue was paperwicks and Cresthills with pills.

It hadn’t made any sense to me in the past 10 minutes which i had solely dedicated to it.

I closed my eyes and slowly but surely the fact dawned on me.

Someone or rather a family or a group called Cresthills would be drugging someone…. Or it could even be that the Cresthills were to be poisoned.

But … paperwicks?

In the air filters,  paper wicks increase the efficiency of carbon dioxide absorption.

Oh… they are going to drain out the oxygen and drug the humans with pills.

There is another probability which is most probably not true.

A candle light dinner. Each candle has wicks.

Food drugged.

The first clue-- chicken soup.

The chicken soup would be drugged.

Pearly Coin, one of the other hints, maybe it was the name of a restaurant or something. I clicked open my lappie and googled Pearly Coin.

Results: Coin made of Pearl.

    “ The Coin “ on Pearl Beach… the harbour!!

Well not just any harbour but the one which is known as the entrance for smuggled goods in our town

Classy!

You pull drugs from there.

But what has Dr. Roy got to do with all this?

I opened my Facebook account and took a peek at Dr,Roy’s profile.

Nothing fishy. All black and white.

I scroll down.

A picture of Pearl Beach.

I zoomed in. I could see people dancing in the background. Dr. Roy was a gay, and it was well known. He was beside his boyfriend all happy and gay.

Note the pun.

A comment caught my eye. “Hey Geeky. Why did u go down hilly?”

“Hilly” I thought . Is this by any chance related to the Cresthills?

Well I had a day. Then I would have to visit the beach.

**

Next Day

**

Early morning, everyone was eating, when a glass shattering scream ensued. It was coming from the direction of the computer lab. I slid down from my chair and bolted out of the door, through the corridors towards the lab.

A few people were already there.

A sweeper had screamed. A body lay in the middle of the computer lab. Blood was splattered all around.

It was Dr. Roy’s.

**

Classes were cancelled for the day. Kai and I were in my room.

Kai’s eyes were red. She had been crying. Dr. Roy had been her favourite teacher. He taught Italian History, and loved the subject Mafia.

Connected. Now it seems.

I have to find out who the Cresthills are and save the person who is supposed to die.

But Dr, Roy is already dead.

I patted Kai’s head and rubbed her back to sooth her. She fell asleep within minutes and started to drool on my pillow.

A CD had fallen from her pocket. It was the same one. I loaded it on my laptop.

My screen turned black and after a few moments silver letters glistened on it.

“What you give is what you get!”

Aha. That’s strange I hadn’t put such things in here.

I checked up the last accessed time 2:30 pm Wednesday. That means an hour before Kai and I went to retrieve it. Someone had tampered with it. I opened it again in hopes of finding something else.

The writing was still the same. Only this time i noticed something else that I hadn’t earlier .. a few words written in black on black.. In a different shade obviously!. Almost invisible , behind the silver letters.

Beach. Wednesday &.

Simple and Plain for a change.

I looked at my watch. It was 5pm. It took an hour and a half to go there. So i had precisely half an hour to arm myself and dress like a party animal.

I put a knife in my boots and a blade in the waistband of my jeans.

A sharp pin went in my bun. At least I won’t be unarmed even if things don’t go as planned.

**

I headed inside the Coin.

People were eating peacefully. I chose a table in a corner where i could see everyone. Ordering myself some seafood. I proceeded to glance around.

Minutes later 3 men in black suits walked in. They were joined by 2 women who looked like they were neck deep into prostitution.

Well.. some things never change. My mouth fell open as Dr. Roy walked in. The one and only Dr. Roy who was supposed to be dead.

“How did it go?” One of the men asked him.

They were in the table next to me. My luck! I was within earshot.

I kept my eyes lowered on the food as Dr. Roy glanced around.

His eyes rested on me for a moment before he sat down and replied, “ Very well. Thanks to you Cresthill. “

“What would you recommend?”

“Aha.. for starters you may have chicken soup. Ken the Cook here makes the best ones!” replied Dr. Roy.

This was getting interesting.

**

With the first spoon of the soup everyone was dead or seemed to be so. Unconscious at least.

I gasped and covered my mouth. Dr. Roy who hadn’t tasted the soup turned towards me or where I was earlier. I had already slid down the chair and under the table. I held my breath as i sat crouched under the 2- seater.

The blade from my waist was already in my hand ready to be sprung forward.

I bent down and lifted the white linen table cloth to try and sneak a peek.

A face faced me and well it is obvious whose it was…

“ Why hello Pearl!” he said.

I screamed and tried to plunge the blade into him to save my pretty little self.

But alas he caught my hand and pulled me out.

“What do you want?” I said. I was surprised at my tone. I had managed to speak without even a shred of fear in it.

“Pearl …. Harbour” he replied.

The Harbour was my namesake.

He laughed hysterically at the pun he had made.

“ My most intelligent lady you shouldn’t have come here. “

“ No! You shouldn’t have come here.. “

He raised his eyebrows.

I plunged the knife into his stomach. I had had it in my other hand since he had caught one and dared to manhandle me by pulling me. And this time he was surely dead.

“ This was for poisoning my family. It’s not just Pearl Harbour. But pearl harbour Cresthill..”

I said… turning and walking out.

The unconscious ones regained their consciousness. They were all pretending for sure. They hadn’t come here for a decade but they surely knew this place’s history like the back of their hands.

It was my family. My father. My uncle. My small little brother, who is not so little but huge now.. And my  mother and my sister. No matter how much i don’t belong with them they are who they are and will be.

After all Family comes before everything else..

With that I walked on.. Till my feet touched the salty acqua… and the waves crashed… engulfing me.