Questions pestered Monica all night long. She had found herself in a place where she never imagined she would find herself in and for some reason it was sombre yet comforting. Having received a reality check in knowing her place in this world, she had come to understand that she was no different from the average person. All her life, she felt she was somehow special; she was special. Every time she tried to be like a normal person, fate played its cruel tricks. But today, being the normal felt comforting. Like everyone around her, she was as helpless as two men she had saved. While her life was not disturbed by any measure, she couldn’t help but feel like she was just one among the others after a long time.

Yet, a part of her still remain unsatisfied. The part that always told her she was Arora. A hero. She often wondered who was crueller, fate or her own self. Never have her two sides ever agreed on anything and, on this occasion, they seemed to be once again on the opposite sides. Her heart would never be content playing the victim, even if that is all it wanted to pretend to be.

‘I am Arora! I am the one who saves the helpless!’ told her superego.

‘No. I am a normal woman. I am no one special!’ told her id.

The two sides always fought. They gave Monica many sleepless nights, just like today. However, today her superego seemed to be winning for she felt big hole in chest filled with coldness. It always happened whenever she didn’t do something that she knew could have and should have. Today was one such day. She should have played the hero not the victim. All she wanted to be was useful and yet, the more she thought about it, she began to realize how she had no idea how to be useful today.

What was it that she could have truly done today to make a change? Having found herself facing the enemy in the eye, she was powerless to put it down, to stop it from causing all the chaos and destruction that it had caused. Her strength was unmatched in the realm of men and even in cases beyond the living. Yet mother nature was on another level. Facing a tsunami was like nothing she had done before. In fact, she should have been proud to have survived the face off with so little lost. Men have caused more pain and misery than this. However, she has always managed beat her enemies. No matter how strong they were, they bend to her will. But today, she faced an enemy whom she couldn’t best, she had to just sit and watch it wreak havoc.

‘I must do something. I cannot stay quiet,’ Monica thought.

These questions continued to pick at her brain all night long. By the time there was light outside, she was still in bed but felt like she barely got any sleep. She languished on the bed for another two hours before being woken up by the ringing of her phone. She reached out to it with great difficulty as the bruise on her shoulder began to cry bloody Mary. She looked at the screen to see a call from an unknown number, but she guessed who it was.

She picked the call and responded with, “hello?”

“Hey! Where are you at?” the woman on the other end spoke.

“Shilpa? I am still in my room,” she answered with a low growl voice.

“Oh. Dinesh told you were injured. Are you doing okay? Do you want us to come over?”

“No. No. I am fine. It is just the medicine making me sleepy. Where are you guys at?”

“We are back in the office.”

Monica pulled her phone back and took a quick look at the time. It was nearing twelve. Returning to the call she replied, “I will need to rest some more. I will see you guys in the evening?”

“It is fine. You can rest for today. We shall see you tomorrow. But are you sure you don’t need help?” Shilpa asked again.

“I am doing fine. I will contact you if I need any.”

“Alright. Take rest Monica.”

“Thank you and I will.” She cut the call and tossed her phone onto the other side of her bed before burying her face back into the pillow.

***

Monica was right. When she took a look at the bruise, it had turned blue black and tender to touch. For some time, she considered visiting the doctor to get it treated, but then she thought she had become soft. To remedy this, she decided to get a set of exercises done while her injuries healed. This was something she discovered quite some time ago. However, it only applied to her, so she never mentioned to anyone who didn’t know about her qualities. Exercising while recovering was a great way for her to strengthen herself. The amount of power she gained doing this was incomparable to when she exercised regularly. But it is no joke to put oneself through extreme workout when their body is already under stress. She had puked, fainted, had seizures, and blanked out for hours doing this. But she never had any issues recovering and was indeed stronger and faster than before. She wasn’t sure why it worked the way it did, but she had a theory as to why. Doctors always found her healing ability fascinating. She healed twice or sometimes even thrice the speed of a normal human. She recovered from injuries that no human could. Her mind was her power, and it dominated her body, capable of making it do things normal humans might find impossible. When one exercises, they are pushing their body to the limit, breaking muscle so that the body repairs it and in process reinforcing it, making it stronger than before. A similar process might be happening with her, where in the extra stress over a period of time forced her body to recover by strengthening. Thus, making her stronger. All this was theory, of course.

It had been a while since she took daily exercise seriously. All this travelling had screwed up her daily routine severely. Eventually, she procrastinated much of her daily routine as laziness set into her bones. She felt it was time to develop a new routine, one that suited her new lifestyle better. She got onto the floor and proceeded to start with fifty push-ups, just to start with. Like she had predicted, even fifty was hard, especially with the bruise right on her shoulder blade. Yet, by the time she completed them, she was on to the next set. She went about doing a regular routine which she managed to complete in about an hour, by which time she was done all the sleep had left her and now she felt active and energized.

There was still light outside, but like yesterday, the weather made it impossible to tell by just looking out. She took a quick glance at her phone to see no calls or messages for her. It was close to five in the evening. She hadn’t eaten anything since morning, but hunger was yet to make its presence known. Usually she had a big appetite, but the shock of the incident and the medication had taken a toll on it. Nevertheless, she had to fill her belly. Walking over to the window, she peered out to see the rain had finally let up. Even if there was some drizzling, she couldn’t make it out. However, the thought of searching for a place to eat in this weather had waned her enthusiasm a little bit.

Her neighbourhood looked intact except for the heavy downpour. Small pools of water covered the street, which had to hop over as she made her way to the closest tiffin centre. The populous didn’t seem to have changed much as people went about their business as usual. The tiffin centre was tucked into a corner two blocks away. Up on entering, it looked as busy as usual. She got herself a hot meal with a small tumbler of hot coffee before retreating to a corner where she ate in peace.

***

She slowly walked down the street as she made her way to the office. The closer she got to the office, the more of the city had been destroyed. The office sat two blocks away from the coast and it was one of the few complexes that had got away with minimum damage.

“Monica!” Shilpa greeted her with a big smile. “You okay?”

Monica replied with an equally big smile, “I am alright, just a light bruise on my shoulder.”

“We were so worried when we heard the news, well I was at least,” Shilpa said.

The office looked the same as when she last saw. Shilpa was her desk when she entered but left immediately on seeing Monica enter. She held on to her shoulders and began to observe her for any visible wounds.

“I am fine… but where is Mohan?” Monica asked.

“Here,” a voice spoke from behind her. Mohan walked in, squeezing between Monica and the door. He had a big can in his hand which he set it down on the table, next to their coffee machine. “Just went to get some water. You alright?”

“I am doing just fine,” she replied, politely.

“Where were you when the wave hit?” Mohan asked.

“Mohan!” Shilpa interrupted, “you don’t ask such questions.”

“Why? I just wanted to know where she was,” Mohan defended himself.

“It is alright,” Monica said and then proceeded to spin a story. “I was halfway through when I noticed something weird on the beach. The water had receded way too far, and I somewhat remembered the sea being much closer. Unsure of what was happening, I ran inland where I found a few people working on the farm. It was then we saw the wave and rushed to the nearest tree. It happened to be a giant banyan tree. They helped me climb and we watch the tsunami smash through the farms and everything around us.”

“Oh my god!” Shilpa shrieked.

“Yeah…” Monica continued, “it gave us a bit of a beating, but we got away thanks to the tree standing through.”

The two listened to her story with wide eyes. They found themselves lucky but wondered how they would have fared in such situation. They now saw Monica as the cool girl, more so than before. They were also happy to have found a story to tell their friends, though much of it would change to suit their taste in stories.

“You got lucky…” Mohan commented.

“Very lucky,” Monica replied as she recalled the events.

Mohan went on and talked about how difficult it was to get access to the building. The basement was flooded, and the emergency workers did not know if the building had suffered any structural damage. They took the entire morning to pump the water out from the basement and only after confirming that the building was safe, did they allow him and Shilpa to enter the office

Monica was back at the seat before the window. The beautiful cityscape she had witnessed was now partially in ruin. The sea now looked a lot more intimidating than before. Though she wasn’t traumatized by yesterday’s events, she still felt unease staring into the deep blue sea.

Shilpa appeared beside her and said, “It doesn’t look the same anymore, does it?”

“Eventually they will recover. Nothing stays in ruin forever,” Monica replied.

“The sea must intimidate you now, doesn’t it?” Mohan asked, as was shifting through a cabinet of files before shutting it close.

“Not really. Even then, like the city I will get over it,” she replied.

“You are brave. If it were me, I would never come close to sea for a long time,” Mohan responded.

“Even now I feel somewhat scared of it. Like what if another one happens while my husband and I were at the beach? The thought scares me,” Shilpa said.

Monica knew that feeling very well. However, she got over it through brute force, something she could do because of her powers. She couldn’t advise her to do the same, instead tried to come up with some other answer. But she felt far removed from normal life to answer such questions anymore. The way she dealt with life was much different than others. In the end, she remained quiet.

“I am not sure if you guys would like to hear this, but the warehouse in Shantinagar is in ruin,” Mohan said. He looked anxious as he was delivering this news, knowing well they might not take it well.

“What about the workers there?” Monica asked immediately.

He took a second to respond and when he did, his voice had sunk low. “Four of them drowned. Others have severe injuries.”

“Oh god,” Shilpa said in response, shutting her eyes trying to hold onto her nerves. Monica, meanwhile, remained quiet, looking down at the floor with no expression on her face. She was upset but didn’t want to show.

“We will need to pay their families. But before that we need to claim some insurance money,” Mohan continued.

“I will come with you,” Monica said.

“Sure. We will go there first thing tomorrow morning.”

***

When they arrived at the bank, which went by the name Vihari Bank, it was already overflowing with customers who were now filling up the street in front of it. The bank itself sat in a fairly quiet corner of the city, away from the traffic infested streets, making easier for the people rest on the street without worrying about vehicles jamming the road. It was still midday and the weather seemed to have lightened up a bit. While there was still overcast, there was no rain for now.

Mohan and Monica tried to squeeze their way through the crowd, into the building, but were blocked by the watchmen. “Stand in the queue,” the watchman on the right ordered.

Monica turned around to leave, without uttering a word, but Mohan caught her by her shoulder and pulled her in. “I am sure you can make exception,” Mohan said and tucked five hundred Rupai into the watchman’s chest pocket. The watchman simply remained quiet while Mohan dragged Monica in, whose jaw was on the floor.

“You bribed him?” she asked.

“Did I now?” Mohan retorted.

Monica wanted to argue but knew that was pointless. Trying to argue meant nothing more than wasted breath. The inside of the building was free of crowd. Although the benches were filled, queue in front of each teller was long, and a few had to be seated on the ground, the place had enough room for them to walk around and get from one teller to another and that is exactly what they did for almost half an hour.

They waited for almost ten minutes in each queue only to be redirected to another queue where they waited yet again. After waiting for fifteen minutes in the fourth queue, Monica finally lost her patience. “This is going nowhere,” Monica commented.

“Welcome to bureaucracy,” Mohan replied.

“This is insane. We have been here for half an hour. And I am pretty sure others here have not left either!”

“There isn’t much we can do. They are in power.”

Monica grunted before falling quiet. She knew he was right. “I am going to go sit down,” she said to Mohan.

“No problem. Now that I think about it, I really should not have got you here. You should be resting.”

“Yeah… I will be resting there,” she replied, pointing to an empty place on the floor. Mohan simply gave her a thumbs up. As she trotted over to the place, a familiar person called out to her.

“Madam… Monica!” the voice called.

She looked around to see one of the customers, on the floor, waving his hands. It was Gowtham. She walked over to him, waving back.

“What coincidence,” Gowtham remarked.

“Yes. It is,” she replied with a smile.

Gowtham quickly pushed himself to his right, making a small place for her. She happily took the place, sitting with her legs folded up.

“So, what are you here for?” Monica asked.

“Insurance claim. Lost my house, farm. Hoping to get something back.”

“Wait. You got insured for all that?”

“Actually, I didn’t even know there was such a thing,” Monica too wasn’t aware of such policies, “but two years the government started a scheme to help farmers in case of a disaster. Many of us thought it would be flood or drought, not a tsunami.”

Monica quietly nodded; she was impressed with farmers getting such protections. Ever since she was little, she had heard countless stories about farmers and their predicament. So, anytime she heard even a small positive thing about them, it made her day much brighter. There was, however, something she wanted to ask Gowtham and others but was afraid of not knowing what the answer for it would be. She had found herself in an opportunity to ask and decided to take it, “speaking of which, what about your… you know. Family?”

“They are actually fine. I was living with my father; mother was at my brother’s place. Dad had gone to the village for work where he found shelter. We got away with our lives.”

Monica felt a little relived, though it wasn’t for long.

“As for the others,” he continued, “they weren’t so lucky.”

She felt cold weight drag her shoulders down as she thought about the countless people who might have lost their lives. The thought continued to prick her brain for two days. “I can’t even start to imagine that kind of pain this would have caused.”

“I don’t try to. Sometimes you are caught up in your own world,” he remained quiet for a few seconds before letting out a dull sigh, “whatever. If I am able to get this money, I can at least survive for another year.”

The two fell quiet as they got lost in their own thoughts. However, they weren’t left to themselves for that long. Soon, argument erupted at a counter though neither knew the context of it.

“Sir, please stay calm,” the female teller told the customer.

The customer meanwhile kept pointing to his phone and asked, “is this true or not?”

Soon everyone in the hall got on their phones and started looking up at the news. Monica was confused for a moment but overheard someone mention about news of the manager fleeing the city. She too quickly took her phone out and opened the news app and what she saw made her chest cold.

“What happened?” Gowtham asked.

“We need to get out of here,” Monica replied. She looked at Mohan, who was still in the queue. He too had his phone in his hand and was looking at Monica with an anxious look.

The three of them fled the scene as quickly as they could along with many others. As predicted, soon violence erupted in the bank as police filled the area to calm the citizens down. The three of them stood on the footpath at the end of the street that connected to the main road. Just a few feet away was a bus stop which was already filled with people.

“It was bound to happen,” Mohan replied, “they were giving away these packages for so cheap.”

“Cheap?” Gowtham retorted, “do you know much we have to earn to pay them.”

“That may be true. But think about it. They selling these are a quarter of what is being sold on the market. When one person comes to claim at a time, they can send them in circles but when a disaster like these strikes, the house of cards falls apart,” Mohan explained.

Gowtham fell quiet, unable to answer his question. Monica, on the other hand, had a different thought. “No. There has to be something more,” she said, “the government is involved in all of this. Was there any other bank involved in that government scheme?”

”I don’t think so,” Mohan replied.

“My guess is that the CEO is on the run, not just from people but the government as well,” Monica said.

“That doesn’t really help me much,” Gowtham said.

“There is not really much we can do right now. Just wait and see what our dear government has to say about all this,” Mohan said.

“That is of no use me,” Gowtham replied in anger. He was already stressed out, but now he was on the verge of breaking down.

“Gowtham, I think it is best you return home,” Monica requested.

“Yeah… home… nothing more than a pile of rubble now.”