The Act

 

The odds were always that way, at least in between the two and that’s what the neighbors had always said. “An Unusual Family,” a regular remark which the neighbors often associated the two with. They were always seen as a busy family and never the one to be participating in the colony’s cultural events. Only one of them would once in a blue moon be present, but never together.

The Nakamura’s at Flat no 302 were always like that, at least since the time they had shifted to the small four building colony located on a silent street of the Japanese city of Kyoto. Hiroto Nakamura and Akira Nakamura, that was the name which were written on majority of the documents and even on the name plate of their flat. Never had anyone been inside their flat as both of them were working and were very busy. One had a day job and the other one had a night job and hence would never be together. Other residents perhaps suspected that they were not on talking terms and were living together to avoid unnecessary living costs.   

People who interacted with either one of them never had any complaints but did sense some emotional confusion when interacting with each one at different moments of time.  Both were similar in height and, surprisingly their looks were almost similar, except to the fact that one was a male and the other one was a female. Genetic resemblance or perhaps twins, that’s what was concluded by other residents.

But that day was indeed an unlucky one.  was away on his night shift and in his flat, there took place an accident. It was only two days to the new year and the firecrackers were in full swing. It was one of those rockets that landed inside Hiroto’s house that caused the fire and spread all over the apartment within a short period of time. By the time the fire authorities arrived, the house was burnt down. When Hiroto was informed about the accident, he rushed to the colony and was devastated.

The firemen recovered the fully burnt body of Akira. No one could have looked at the body for more than a second. It would send shivers to even the most courageous ones. The local Investigators had arrived and routine enquiry into the fire casualty begun. The local investigating team sought all the details about Hiroto and Akira and also recorded the statements of the witness to the event that night. It seemed to be a straight and simple case. A rocket accidently causing fire leading to the death of the only resident of the house. The only question that remained to be answered was why didn’t the girl try to escape? Why didn’t she just open the door and run out? Perhaps some part of the clothes must have caught fire which spread to the body. But still going by the statements of the witness they didn’t hear any screaming of any female from that floor. “Someone on fire can only do one thing. Scream!” said one of the investigators.

The post mortem of the dead body was completed subsequently and the investigators reviewed the report to find any inconsistencies which could be assumed as abnormal. The body was burnt and the cause of death was due to burning. There was nothing to be looked into other than only one information. The DNA Match.

Hiroto Nakamura was contacted by the investigators subsequently. There were tests required to be done on Hiroto as procedural formalities to close the case.  But three days later, investigators had a shocking revelation up their sleeve. The DNA of Hiroto and Akira didn’t match and now the case was hung.

It was during that time when a case of a missing dead body was lodged with the local investigators by a local hospital morgue. As per the complainant, the corpse of a girl had gone missing since last one week. The investigators didn’t want to take a chance. Was there a link between the missing dead body case and girl burnt in the fire exactly seven days ago?

Exactly seven days ago, the girl’s dead body had gone missing on that morning and that night in the same area a girl died due to burning and the body wasn’t recognizable.  The Investigators did a DNA matching of the complainant’s family members with the one that was mentioned in Akira’s report. The twist came when the reports matched and the revelation complicated the case to the next level. The investigating team which was about to close the Akira Nakamura accident case suddenly could sense something amiss in the entire story and events.

Hiroto was mapped to locations and was being tailed but there was nothing on him. Every day was the same, Hiroto would start for office, board a rickshaw and then get down in front of the office gate. In the evening he would return in the same manner. On a weekend, when Hiroto had an off, the local investigating team interrogated the security team of Hiroto’s office. This was when it was revealed that no one by the name of Hiroto Nakamura worked at that office. It was high time that Hiroto Nakamura was picked up but the investigators didn’t want to jump the gun. They decided to play the waiting game.

One day when Hiroto was not at home, the investigating team made a forced entry to his new flat which he had taken on rent in the same colony. They inspected each and every thing. Just when things were going nowhere, they found something which they could never have imagined.

Hiroto was contacted and taken into custody. It was indeed a complicated case but joining the various points of the puzzle was the only way forward to solve the case.

Neither was the man Hiroto and nor did he have any sister by the name of Akira. In fact, he didn’t have a sister and there was no actual female in the story. It was all about a wannabe actor. He didn’t have a name because he didn’t have one as he couldn’t recollect who he was. The only thing which he knew was the fact that he was performing. Since childhood, the only thing he did was act. Frustrated that the world couldn’t recognize his talent, he had decided to play the act with the world itself.

Thus, was born Hiroto and Akira. Same person with different personalities. The entire get up and make up was done by Hiroto himself.  He rented a flat and enjoyed his story in the colony in which he resided.

Every time people interacted with him as Hiroto or Akira he enjoyed the moment. It was the triumph for him as an actor. Then he had decided that it was perhaps time to change the story, so he decided to finish off Akira’s character. He needed a dead body and this was when he planned to contact a local hospital clerk who would help him get a dead body and keep it in his flat. Of course, he was the only one who had thrown the rocket in his own house. He made sure that no one was aware of his existence.

The investigating team was shocked. They sensed that it couldn’t have been the first one. Surely the guy must have committed more of such psychopathic acts, guessed the investigators.

Once he had informed about all his misdeeds which he had committed, he had only one thing to say as his final statement on which he signed:

“I am an actor, sir. An actor with no name. I don’t exist anywhere. No one knows me. I always act and everything I say is already written by me, rehearsed by me and then I perform it. I enjoy it.”

“I am an actor, sir!”  

The world never heard of him after that.

Gossip circles said that perhaps he was kept under a close guard in a remote location away from the maddening world…… but many years later someone also said that perhaps, he is still performing somewhere and his best act is yet to come, on the silver screen or outside it, that only time will tell!

 

The above story is a complete work of Fiction.

The Name : The Detective boys - Short story 1

 

It was late at night, may be around two in the night when they heard some sounds from outside. A commotion of some people perhaps trying to take away something. When Vimal Babu got suspicious, he had immediately got up and walked near to the window to peak outside. He could see shadows of two people and one person in body. By the time he raised an alarm, the two shadows ran while the third person could be seen taking away the particular steal for which they had come.

The only thing which Vimal Babu could hear was a voice, “Golok, chol palaa. (Golok, Come on Run)”. Vimal Babu couldn’t have a better view of that person. The only thing which he had known was perhaps a name “Golok”. They had taken away Vimal Babu’s most precious asset, his Bicycle.

Vimal Babu who was a resident of Kolkata since his birth, stayed in one of the houses which was located at Babu Bagan Lane, Dhakuria. He had been a teacher in one of the local schools. Now retired, he took tuition classes at his home. All his life, to commute to the school he had used a Bicycle which his wife had gifted him. The Bicycle was very special to him as not only did it last a life long but he felt an emotional attachment of nostalgic memory whenever he would ride it Though lately, the bicycle was not used much, but the Bicycle had seen better days and Vimal Babu never forgot to clean the bicycle every Sunday morning to make it look as fresh as it had been many years ago. Locals would tell Vimal Babu to sell off the antique so that they could use the space used for accommodating the bicycle for some other purpose. Once news about the theft of the Bicycle reached the neighbours, they visited Vimal babu to console him on his loss. Apart from his son, and daughter in law, Vimal babu also had a Grandson, who was referred to as “Poltu” He was fifteen years old and was studying in the final year of school.

Poltu was sad for the loss of the Bicycle. Priceless memories of his growing up years were attached with it. Though Poltu had consoled Vimal Babu, but he himself was not among the ones to keep quiet on the same. He knew his locality very well and would try to find out the culprit behind it, but the only clue which he had was a name, “Golok”.

Poltu since his growing up years cherished challenges, and if it was in the nature of a puzzle then it would turn out to be the cream over the cake. Poltu loved puzzles and his sharp mind had been tested with unlimited number of puzzles. Though what he was out to achieve was nowhere near a puzzle, but it challenged his investigative mind. Poltu loved asking questions. He was thought by his grandfather that you can learn the best by asking questions and subsequently introspecting the answers.

The year was 1994. There were numerous complains about theft and robbery in the nearby areas and also at Babu Bagan Lane, but those had been about money, jewellery and household accessories. The theft of a bicycle was the first of its kind.

The first thing that a medium heighted and rather healthy Poltu did was that he took a close look at the place of theft to identify any clue or belongings which the robbers may have dropped off. Standing at the spot where the Bicycle once stood, Poltu looked up towards his grandfather’s room’s window. Their house was surrounded by three more houses which had big gates. So, there was a chance that anyone from those houses may have seen anything. Poltu inquired with those houses but couldn’t get any more information. 

Poltu had a childhood friend who resided in the by lane behind their house. His name was Deep Das. They were friends since fifth standard. Though it couldn’t be said that Deep Das had any quality of being an intelligent boy, but he tried his best to match his friend Poltu.

“What would anyone achieve by stealing an old Bicycle which not even a scrap dealer would purchase?” This one question had kept Poltu busy over the next evening.

He wrote down the possible reasons for which a robbery takes place. Money, Jewellery, household items or personal envy. An old bicycle cannot fetch any good money. So, he wrote off all other motives and circled the personal envy point. Poltu didn’t want his grandfather to know that he was silently investigating the theft of the Bicycle.

Poltu was aware of Vimal Babu’s schedule for the last many years. Vimal Babu was majorly busy with his tuition classes and a walk in the park in the morning and in the evening. Apart from this, he hardly went out of the house. So, if there was any personal envy, then it had to be somewhere in the park or, in the tuition classes, thought Poltu.

Over the next few days, Poltu closely watched all the students who came for tuition classes to Vimal Babu. None of them matched the description which Vimal babu had given, though the description had been very sketchy. He had already inquired at the park whether there had been any scuffle involving his grandfather with anyone. So, his last option came down to the students at the tuition classes.

“Perhaps, one of them may have arranged for the robbery,” said a confident Deep Das to Poltu.

“Or perhaps, three of them may have personally carried out the robbery?” said a more confident Poltu.

In the meantime, Poltu gave Deep Das a task of inquiring with the scrap dealers in and around the Dhakuria area about a Bicycle.

Over the next week, Poltu personally spoke to many students from the tuition class on the pretext of some academic subject and tried to get some information. It was only during one of such session, when Poltu came to know that three students had stopped coming to the class.

“Since when?” asked an excited Poltu.

The boy informed that it was since some days that those three students had stopped coming. The boy further informed that Vimal Babu was not happy with their academic performance and had complained to their parents.

Poltu had a sweet smile on his face. He noted down the names of the students. Hiren Kumar Roy, Ashish Chaudhary and Omung Gupta. To his disappointment, there was no Golok in those names.

That night Poltu looked at the ceiling and was in deep thought. After continuously thinking deeply, suddenly he sat up and had a smile on his face.

Next day, Poltu and Deep Das went to the local school which was located near Dhakuria Railway station. The three boys studied at that school in the tenth standard. Both of them waited near an ice cream selling shop. As the last class got over, the school bell rang. This alerted Poltu and Deep Das. As they waited, the three students came out. It seemed that the three of them were good friends. As they started to walk, Poltu and Deep Das started to follow them. It was afternoon around 3.30 and in the by lane where they were walking was almost deserted.

Poltu asked Deep Das to do one act while he hid behind the nearby building pillar.

Deep Das shouted in a loud voice “Ae Golok,”. As he shouted, Hiren Kumar Roy turned around to find Deep Das. Poltu finally had a smile on face. So that night the third person who took the Bicycle away was Hiren Kumar Roy and two others were his friends.

Poltu didn’t go to the police. Rather he straight went to Hiren’s house and told the entire chain of events to Hiren’s parents. Hiren’s parents were enraged. Hiren finally revealed where he had hidden the Bicycle.

 That Night the old Bicycle stood its ground and Vimal Babu was a happy man.

“How did you guess that those three were behind the act?” asked a confused Deep Das.

“Initially when I came to know their names, I was disappointed as there was no Golok. But after giving a thought, I actually took me own example. Everyone knows me by my “daak naam” (unofficial) name, Poltu, while my actual name is Shoumik. So, it wasn’t difficult for me to guess that Golok was a pet name and not the actual name. In Kolkata everyone has two names, one is the “daak naam” i.e... unofficial name and the other one their actual registered named.”

Deep Das could only look at Poltu with wide open eyes.

Poltu looked at Deep and said “Stop staring with those bog eyes, we have more cases to solve dear.”