At exactly 11 PM, the TTE came in. Mahesh was still wide awake. The thought that, by the end of his train journey, 1 Lakh of his hard-earned money would be gone forever was daunting on him. He had to do a better job of massaging her feet. The simplest thing to do was to check YouTube videos on massaging. However, he couldn't do that since his phone was locked away. The thought of searching how to give foot massage to a complete stranger while in his underwear was humiliating. But, he had no choice. He had to get his clothes back. And his ids. And, he knew, looking at Kalpana's body, that he could never take her in a physical fight. And, inspite of all this, he still sent sideways glances at her open legs which further disgusted him.
The TTE, Chitra was taken aback. She was a 40-year old woman. Over 16 years as TTE, she had dealt with all sorts of offenders. Ticketless travellers were very common here and most of the ticket less travellers, were clad in just dirty lungis. Many of them had tried to flash her, thinking it would somehow scare her into not doing her job. She had physically dragged them and thrown them out of trains right into the RPF. There was one particular station in which the RPF chief was an old female friend which she favoured. However, most of those incidents happened in general compartments. Here, she was shocked to see this man, clad only in his underwear that too in an AC compartment.
"Well, well well, What do we have here?" She asked with a sing-song voice which woke up Kalpana. Kalpana rummaged into her handbag for her tickets. Mahesh, watching, realised with horror that his ticket was in his pant pocket as well.
"Let's just say he is getting punished."
Chitra sat on his berth. "Wait a minute. Did he try to molest you?"
Kalpana laughed out loud. "If he had, he wouldn't be wearing underwear either." She handed her ticket to Chitra. Chitra smiled as she thought of how she could torment this hapless buffoon. She turned to him.
"Anyway, I need to see your ticket."
Mahesh turned to Kalpana. "Madam, can I have my tickets. They are in my pants."
"You should have thought about it before you did such a bad job."
Mahesh fell at her feet. Chitra, watching it, laughed her head off. "If you don't give me the tickets, you have to pay the fine or get down at the next station. With only your luggage."