A matter of Luck - 2

But after a sheer matter of luck, things had changed overnight for us... It had been 7 months since the incident...
Today, however, was a special day... It was exactly on this date, 27th Aug, that Sam and I had met for the first time... And 7 years later, today, we were still together...
‘I wonder if he remembers’ I thought to myself...
I opened his cupboard to pull out a fresh pair of boxers for him... I pulled open the drawer where he kept his briefs and boxers... The drawer, which normally opened quite smoothly, seemed a little jammed today... I tugged at it... But it refused to yield...
“Honey... What’s wrong with this drawer?” I yelled...
“What drawer, baby?” he asked, as he walked out of the bathroom... He already had a pair of boxers on...
“Oh... I thought you would need a pair of shorts... But never mind...” I shrugged my shoulders...
He came and hugged me from the behind... And playfully kissed my shoulder...
“I have something very important to tell you...” he said...
“And that would be?” I asked...
“I love you...” he said and planted a kiss on my lips... “I love you too” I replied...


We walked into Hawaiian Shack at 15 minutes past 11... “It’s not me... It was the traffic...” I pleaded with a flustered Angy...
“It’s a Saturday night... What did you expect???” she replied angrily...
“Hey Clifford...”
“Hey Jo... You look fabulous...” said Clifford as he bent over to hug me...
“She already has a boyfriend... You’re mine...” Angy joked while she pulled Clifford towards him...
Sam joined in the laughter...
Two drinks later, I was getting into the groove of things... I was enjoying the music and my feet were moving without any help from my brain...
Sam pulled me in close to him, he bent over until his chin rested on my shoulder; and he whispered in my ear, “So you wanted to know why that drawer was locked, right? This was why...”
The music changed to a slow romantic song... “You look wonderful tonight...” I gasped in delight as I recognized the song playing in the background... This was ‘our song’... The ‘Jo n Sam’ song...
Sam went down on one knee, and from his pocket he pulled out a small box... He flicked it open...
“That’s the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen... You’re so lucky, girl...” I could hear Angy squeal...
“Joanna Machado, will you do me the favour of marrying me?” Sam asked...
“Of course... I mean yes...” I replied, the tears not seeming to stop as he slipped the ring over my finger...

Today, we seem so happy together... But this wasn’t how things had been until 9 months back... The distance had begun getting to us... I seemed cranky whenever he called... I used to miss him a lot... And I felt very lost without him... He would reprimand me for going out to a lot of work parties... And said that I could go out all I liked when he was here with me... His insecurity was getting to me... Did he doubt me??
Angy told me that all of this was normal; and men are used to getting a tad over-possessive when they were away from their women... She told me not to pay attention to it...
I started praying in all earnestness... I hoped for some way where he could come back from the ship safely and never have to go back...
Sam, however, wouldn’t be happy with a normal 9-5 job... I knew that all along... He was the kinds who was used to a luxurious lifestyle... Even when we were in college, he preferred the Barista outlet to the college canteen... I, however, was content with a vada-pav n a cutting chai... He always teased me about not having ‘élan’... He would take me to really expensive stores and buy designer clothes for me... But I preferred the hard-earned clothes I bought off Colaba Causeway and Linking Road, after having haggled with the shopkeeper for over an hour...
So if God had to answer my prayers, it would have to mean that Sam could come back to Mumbai; and it would also mean that he should have devised some plan to make a lot of money; and that too quick...
I wasn’t okay with any hanky-panky ways of making the money... So I prayed for white-money...
My prayers were answered... And how!!!
Sam was on board a cargo ship that belonged to ‘Star-line’, which is a US based shipping company... His contract was valid for 6 months; and he was due for vacation soon...
When the engineers went for a routine check up in the engine room, they noticed a technical failure that could have amounted to a huge blast in the engine room... The entire ship could explode... The captain of the ship asked the engineers to rectify the issue at the earliest... No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t seem to fix it...
After all had that was in their capacity had been tried; the captain gave orders to evacuate the ship... They lowered the lifesaver boats and rowed away to safety... On reaching a safe distance, the captain did a head count again, just to be sure...
“24...25...26...27....” he counted...
“Holy Mother of Jesus...” the captain gasped... “We’re missing one man...”

In the meanwhile, Sam got up from his deep sleep... It was his day off... He had been in his cabin, snoring away to glory... He got up, stretched his stiff body... He walked out onto the deck, sleepily rubbing his eyes... He desperately needed some breakfast...
As he walked around the ship, something seemed wrong... The ship was quieter than usual... Where was everyone??
“ROGER... EVAN... SMITH... Where are you guys??” he shouted out loud... He hoped it was a prank the guys were playing on him...
He checked the other cabins... No one was there... While he was on his way to the control station, his attention fell on the place where they usually had the boats and other life saving material... It was all missing...
“They evacuated... Without me...” he gasped...
Sam ran up to the control station and tried to manually radio any port that he could... He felt a frequency coming in... It was from a port in the UK... They gave him directions to get to the port...

When he got to the port, they questioned him about all the on-goings that had landed him there...
In the meanwhile, the officials had a team of engineers check the engine room... They realized that there had been a technical snag... However, they added that it had been a rather small problem... The engineers on board had probably not been able to correct it coz they were already in a state of panic...
They checked the contents of the ship... The ship was carrying electrical items to the shores of USA...

They asked for Sam’s contract... On checking his contract they noticed a detail that was going to change Sam and my life forever...

“Did you know your contract expired 2 days back?” asked an official...
“I hadn’t noticed, sir... I knew it was close to my time of leaving sea... But I hadn’t checked the date...” Sam replied earnestly... He wiped the sweat off his brow...
“Do you know what this means Mr.Sameer Rathore?” the official quizzed him...
“No, sir...!”
“Since your contract with Star Line Shipping Co. Has expired, it means you no longer are an employee of the company... And as we have understood from your narration of events, there was no other valid employee of Star Line aboard the ship when you brought it to this dock? Am I right?”
“Yes, sir...” replied Sam.
“By the virtue of the rules of the sea, any man who finds a ship without a captain or a valid employee on board is the rightful owner of the ship and all its contents... So what do you wish to do with the ship now??”
“I... WHAT??? I own this ship???” Sam gasped in disbelief...
“Let me make this simple for you... You can sell your ship and all its contents to us... We would be more than happy to pay the desired amount for it...”
If you even go to sell an empty ship and its spare parts as scrap, it seems that you can get money that will go into crores... Sam got to sell a ship full of electrical goods, that were brand new and in undamaged state at the time of the deal...
“Thank you very much sir...” said Sam, as he left the official’s office; armed with a cheque for an insane amount that would mean he would never have to work ever again... Forget about him... The coming generation could also just sit at home and enjoy the fruits of Sam’s luck...
And that’s the story of how Sam came back home to me... And that’s how a junior copy editor with a leading lifestyle magazine owns her own magazine today... That’s how we live in a 4 BHK apartment at Cuffe parade...
That’s our story... As they say, it was all a matter of luck... *wink wink*