THE RUNAWAYS: CHAPTER 1

There was only one person in the village cart who heard the sound that was rolling in across the plain.Reverberating through the hard tranquil rocks of the galgibaga beach, the sound broke the comatose slumber of the sea creatures around.His name was Koi, a velip by caste and not by nature. A fourteen year old, not much of an authority to be relied upon. The cart had limited space with two people packed against each other with their bottoms kissing one another like newly married couple in their honeymoon.And bearing the two middle aged men in their ironed shirts and rebok shoes, our dear little koi had sweat beads decorated beautifully all over his forehead.He was a rich kid, living in his thatched broken place with the name of a cottage, where he got the facility of running water from his leaking roof.It was chance alone that made him stay alive for fourteen years. He lost his father in the 2004 Tsunami.But that wasn't the end of the happy tale. The sweet flavor of an unknown disease spread through the air of the village of Gaodongri.He lost his mother when he was three. His memory of his mother was very inexplicit with only the pangs of his mother addressing lullabies through the halo of mosquitoes above her head, making a deep mark on his reminiscence.You can't blame him for growing up with the spirit of a misanthropist deep in his bones, for abandoning the thin veneer of social construct and living his life on his own terms.His armful of tattoos, his bouffant dreadlocks and his premature beard, all somehow couldn't sum up the soft nature that he had.He was a velip.The people of this community are considered as aborigines of Goa who inhabit the eastern margin along the
foothills of the Sahyadris that constitute the forested and major mining zones.Nevertheless, he had no interest to till the land like his father did and bought an old cart from the local trader for four hundred rupees that he got from his work as a guide for tourists who come to visit the galgibaga beach.

One night, Koi woke suddenly to the sound of a rhythmic creaking around his place, along with urgent drawings of breath. He hurried out in the open and saw a Jeep standing out of his home. He could get the astringent
smell crawling up his nose like a lion entering it's den. It was an odor mixed with sweat and the fresh herbs that one sows under the crescent moon.Koi thought it must be the farmers working in the paddy field. But why in the middle of the night? Why outside his house?The mystery remains.