The mole

I could tell he was a bitter man. He sat across me as the train roared on, looking out of the window at the lush green fields and the swaying palms with his mouth turned down in distaste, as if he resented the sight of so much beauty. His eyes wore a hunted look, and a queer anger burned in them.

We were the only ones in the compartment, and he turned to look insolently at me, appraising me, my expensive attire, with his eyes. I did not cast my eyes down demurely, but stared back at him. Caught by surprise upon meeting my eyes, he stammered a greeting.

Nodding in reply, I made some inconsequential remark about the weather. He did not answer me. We sat in silence for a while, and I decided I would finish reading the report I was supposed to. I pulled out my file, and there was an exclamation of surprise. I looked up, and saw that he was white and shaking. He pointed to my file, with my company’s name emblazoned boldly across the top.

“Do you…do you work…there?” he asked. “Yes”, I replied shortly. I bent my head down to resume reading, but a bitter laugh escaped him. His eyes were burning with hatred again.

“What a small world! It is strange that I should meet someone who works there, on the very day that I have finally been…” and he stopped short. I looked inquiringly at him. “The day that you…?” I prompted gently. It was as if a dam holding back all the hatred, all the resentment was broken. The words poured out as if he had been dying to say them.

“The day that I have finally been released. I have been in jail for the past five years. For a crime I never committed. And to see that the company that was the cause of it all still prospering, to know that the true culprit still roams free! While I, I who have never lied, who have never stolen a pin, who have always been faithful to my country, to my employers, am left impoverished, without money, without a hope of ever getting another job again!”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Six years ago... I worked in a small firm that was working on a new, top-secret project. Only the most trusted employees were in the core team, the technology we were developing was valuable, extremely so, and potentially dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands. At this time, a merger was signed with this company, the one you are working for, as our funds were running desperately low.

The new company imposed a lot of rules, and set higher security levels to protect the project. I was one of the three who alone know the code to open the system’s most secure areas.

Suddenly one day, everything turned upside down. We had developed just one sample of the end product, and it was to be tested. It disappeared.

In the search that followed, records of enormous amounts of unaccountable cash that I supposedly withdrew came up. I had no idea as to where it had all come from, and no one believed in my innocence despite the fact that I had an alibi all that day, my secretary. But she was just a fat, dumb-looking girl with nothing remarkable about her except a strange pattern of moles on her hands. Everyone thought she had stepped out a minute and forgotten.

What followed was endless visits to the court, and I was found guilty of betrayal.

Even now, after my release, everyone believes I am corrupt and untrustworthy, I’ll never get a job again.” He ended, bitterly.

“There, there. It’s a jungle out there, but you’ll survive, you can find a job somehow”, I murmured encouragingly. He gave me a grateful look.

The train shuddered to a stop. “I get off here”, I said, and smiled goodbye. I carefully held my bags so I could not wave to him.

Strange that he remembered the moles on my hands all these years. I wonder if he’ll ever realize it was me, that fat, shapeless creature with a perpetually bewildered expression on her face. Even if he does, he’ll never realize that that helpless girl was the one who actually took all the money and sold that sample.

I smile to myself. Small world, indeed.