My Creative Writing entry

Saarang is here and there are lots of girls and lots of noise and lots of wannabes and i just sometimes laugh at them ... hrrrmph . I am pretty irritated with it this time .. i do not know for what reason . Damn it .. Anyway , one of the main motivations for me to take part in the Creative Writing competition this time was the fact that i could post it all in my blog . Sounded like a good idea at that time ... *sigh* .


The Question : ACP Rathod is woken up at the middle of the night and informed about a dead body found in a deserted street . It is that of a woman and the only thing found along with her is a handbag with a note which says ' Do not exceed your welcome ' . Her left ring finger has been cut-off . Improvise .


My Answer :


The first time i saw him , I remember being filled with a strange kind of dread . You experience some feelings rarely and it is often these feelings that you do not forget . As I slump down to the floor in ACP Rathod's office ,I recall the events that lead to his tragic fate. It rains and thunders outside as his motionless silhouette sits by the window .

I was assigned to ACP Rathod about a month ago. He was one of the most brilliant officers ever to be on the force . He had single handedly cracked many ' unsolvables ' . I must say for myself that I was not bad either and the more I got to know him , the more i respected him . But ACP Rathod was a troubled man . He never drank and never smoked . He told me one day , ' I will never smoke because a rational man would not knowingly destroy his precious irreplaceable organs . I will never drink because I am trying damn hard to control my mind. I would not dare to let it loose. I fear its power . '

It was a night , three days ago , when he walked into the bar I frequent . I was surprised at that time but welcomed his company . He had a problem he said , as he drank his brandy .
I discovered that day , what a troubled man ACP Rathod was . His wife left him a year ago and had taken the only thing in his life which was more precious to him than his work , his daughter . He was 35 years old , single and confused but always extremely meticulous with his work . He never smiled and always looked stressed out . But he did not tell me what his problem was that day and I let it go at that . Some people just need somebody to talk to sometimes .


I was woken up at midnight by a call from my boss. He had recieved news of the dead body of a woman lying in a deserted part of the street .

12:20 AM : I reach the office and find that the light in Mr.Rathod's room is on . I grab a cup of coffee from the coffee machine to get my mind working and climb the stairs to his room . I see him twirling a pen in his hand in a characteristic fashion and trying to work out something on his pad.

12:30 AM : We reach the crime scene to find the body of a well dressed woman , about the age of 25. She had been strangled to death and her left ring finger had been cut-off . The police were already there on the scene before us , and had found a piece of paper in her handbag which said ' do not exceed your welcome ' .

01:00 AM : After convincing myself that there were no other clues around , I look around for Mr. Rathod. He was sitting on the other corner of the street and it looked like he had found something. It was a handkerchief and had a name ' Woody ' stitched on it and there were marks of blood . He had found the severed finger wrapped in it.
I remembered to have seen that name somewhere , but i was unable to place it . But what was more intriguing was the look on his face . He looked like he was about to cry , anguish and pain and uncertainty . Then , as he saw me next to him , his expression immediately changed to his usual frown .

01:20 AM : We leave the scene and bid each other goodbye . I go back to my room and feel very uncomfortable . I had seen the name Woody written somewhere. As i am unable to sleep , i get up to wash my face . As the cold water splattered on my face , I just remembered where i had seen it ! Mr. Rathod had written a poem and had shown it me

In heavens arms shall I sleep
For peace this world does not bring
To you , I need to come
Lord , execute me once

and it had been signed Woody !!!!


02:40 AM : I run like a madman to his office . I do not know what has taken me over . It was a feeling of something bad about to happen , something terrible . My gut feeling was never wrong and i ran . I ran to him . I ran because i did not know what else to do . And just as I was about to enter the building , I heard a loud BANG ! A gunshot ! The sound made me freeze on the spot.

0300 AM : I slowly climb the stairs and enter his room , my gun drawn to find him dead on his desk , gun in hand . He had blown his brains out . I was flabbergasted and did not know what to do . I found his scribbling pad in which the following had been scribbled .


DO NOT EXCEED YOUR WELCOME

LORD EXECUTE ME ONCE , WOODY


It was an anagram !!!!

The next day morning , I find out that the woman who had been killed was his wife . His kid had been killed in a car accident while playing outside her house and her mother was on the phone four days ago. That night at the bar , he had taken a few drinks and in a fit of insanity ,driven over to her place and killed her . He had been so taken over by rage that only after seeing her dead body ,three days later did he realise what he had done . She had taken away from him the only thing that mattered . As Red says in the Shawshank Redemption , " Every man has his breaking point " , and this was his .


PS : Junta , sorry if this leaves you a bit pained :) But this was written in 3 hours time , the first one hour of which went into figuring out the anagram .