Now where did those earrings go?
I was frantically searching for them, sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of my ground level locker in the vault of my bank. The entire contents
of the locker were lying in a heap on my lap – I couldn’t risk placing them anywhere else. And I was checking each and every item before putting it back in the locker.
There were big and small necklaces, bracelets, bangles, other earrings, nose rings, finger rings and a myriad variety of jewellery that I had accumulated over the years for my daughters’
marriage. And now the first one was getting married and the diamond earrings I had made specially for her, were nowhere to be seen.
I had completely forgotten that I had arrived at the bank only half an hour before closing time. I was simply frantic. Where were those earrings?
“Nanditaji..”
The sweet, mellow voice in the silence of the vault made me jump.
I turned my head and saw a young woman standing right behind me.
When did she enter the vault? No one is
supposed to come in when a customer is using her locker.
But I was unable to get angry at the sweet face with an even sweeter smile. She wore a beautiful red saree and had fresh jasmine flowers in her
long, plaited hair. She looked like that perfectly dolled up heroine in those daily soaps, except that she was beautiful even without makeup.
She was a staff member. I stole a glance at the ID around her neck.
Jilly Varghese
“Nanditaji,” she continued, “do you know it’s closing time and the lights have already been switched off upstairs? Madam, please hurry and leave, else you may get locked in.”
“But don’t they know I’m here?”
Jilly didn’t seem to hear. She had already ascended the stairs to the main banking hall.
The reason for my panic moved from my earrings to the fear of being locked in. I quickly dumped everything back into the locker, checked to make sure nothing was left, locked it and ran up the stairs.
Jilly was right. There was no one in the bank. The security guard was outside. He had locked the front door and was about to pull down the shutters.
I reached the front door and banged on it like crazy. The bewildered guard opened it.
I screamed at him. He just stared blankly and muttered an apology.
I left, planning to complain to the branch manager the next day.
The next morning, I entered the BM’s cabin, fuming and narrated everything.
“….and that boy, who looks nothing like a security guard, should be sacked!! Who would have been responsible if something had happened to me? Thank God for her – what’s her name – your staff – ah, Jilly – Jilly Varghese. She came in and warned me.”
The BM sat up straight. “Who?”
“Madam Jilly Varghese. Where is she? I want to thank her.”
The BM continued staring at me. Finally, he said in a polite, professional tone, “Please sit down.”
I sat down, wondering.
He ordered two cups of tea and continued, “Nandita Madam, I’m sorry about what happened yesterday. I will see to it that appropriate action is
taken against the staff member who took you inside the vault as well as the security guard. Now please continue. Who called you yesterday?”
“Jilly Varghese. Your staff member. She was wearing a red saree and had a smiling face. And she looked fresh, even after a hard day’s work.”
The substaff brought in two cups of tea and left.
“Please have your tea, Nanditaji.”
The BM took a long, noisy sip from his cup, lost in thought. Finally, he spoke.
“Three years ago, Jilly was in charge of the safe deposit vaults here. She was the most sincere and most popular staff member I’ve ever seen.”
My relationship with this bank had begun only two years ago.
“One evening, Jilly suddenly got high fever, so high that she was delirious. We called in a doctor and then took her home. In the confusion, nobody knew that she had sent a woman and her three year old daughter into the vault. On top of that, our CCTV cameras were not functioning since a week.
“We later got a rap for neglecting the cameras. But what happened that evening as a result of it was dreadful.
The next day was a holiday, followed by the weekend. When we returned after three days, we found the mother and daughter in the vault. It
was too late.
“The bank suspended Jilly for negligence. The police arrested her. She was eventually released on bail and reinstated by the bank, but her family did not realise how much she had been traumatised by the whole thing.
“This is why Jilly came to warn you. So that such incidents are not repeated.”
I was overcome with sympathy for this girl. I replied, “I admire her. After all that had happened, she still manages a wonderful smile.”
“Nanditaji,” the BM looked at me with a weird expression on his face.
“Yes, Sir?”
“Jilly was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her bedroom two and a half years ago.”
Author’s note: This is a work of fiction.
This story was first published on 11.11.2020 as part of FlashNano – November 2020. It was later published on Momspresso as well.
Photo courtesy: Shutterstock
