THE FEMALE IN A BLACK JACKET

It was bright and sunny as I set out of my newly acquired apartment for a stroll. As usual, the departmental store overlooking my apartment was choc-a-block with customers. One look at the store reminded me that I was in desperate need of some crockery and needed to procure it.

Something inherent in me held me back from walking towards the store. But pushing this gut feeling aside, I headed towards the store. A strange thing happened as I was to enter. The guard stationed at the entry, stopped me and raised an alarm. Several female guards appeared at once and holding me tightly from all the sides, dragged me towards a secluded area....(Don't ask how embarrassing it was!!) I tried my level-best to protest but it was futile. Such was the grip of those hefty females that it made me lose my voice completely. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't mumble a single word.

I was taken inside a dingy store-room where I was frantically searched from head to toe. Unable to bear these bizarre activities, I hurled out abuses to the female guards and inquired as to what was going on. I was asked to shut up. Those guards then said something, which almost blew me off. They said that they had been informed by the police that some local goons had planned to rob their store that morning. What gave me the shock of my life was that those goons had apparently planned to send a young female in a black jacket, who would initiate the robbery...(Goodness, why did I have to wear my black jacket that very day?) Anyway, I tried to convince them that they had made a blunder and that I was no criminal and had no plans of looting their store.

Thankfully, as my failed attempts to convince them continued, some cops entered the room. One of them, probably an inspector, was carrying handcuffs in one hand and a photograph in the other. He seemed to be quite baffled as he was staring squarely into my face. He ordered the female guards to loosen their grip over me. Showing me the photograph that he was carrying, the policeman said that he was extremely sorry for the inconvenience caused to me. Apparently, my face did not match with that of the female, who was part of the local criminal gang, whose activities were being tracked by the police via a series of sting operations.

Thank heavens for the intervention of that policeman, who came in, just in time and played my saviour. But such was the impact of that dreadful day on me, that till date I could not muster up the courage to even look at that black jacket again!!!! :):):)