2.1.53

Chapter Twenty-Six: Package

The faint glow of the laptop screen was the first thing I saw as my eyes adjusted from waking up. My head was feeling like a jackhammer on the pavement. I sat up on the bed and ordered the virtual home assistant to turn on the lights. My head started to hurt a little more from the sudden bright light. I looked down at the bandage in my hand, it was blood-stained and it hurt as well

Maybe I had a little too much to drink that's why my head hurt like that. And maybe that's why I couldn't remember anything leading up to me waking up. I don't remember when I got so drunk, when I fell asleep, or why was everything in my room looked like it had been hit by a tornado passing by. I just remember myself smashing the stand mirror and how I had bandages wrapped around my fist. The shards of the broken mirror were still scattered across the floor.

I unlocked my laptop and found a clutter of things opened. The first one was a writing document, with only a single line in bold letters: WHAT DO YOU DO ON THE LAST DAY OF YOUR LIFE?

Maybe I was writing for my Instagram page. But I forgot what I wanted to express so I closed it and there was another writing document. I was quite familiar with the contents of it. It was my dream list. From my childhood, I used to keep a list of things I wanted to do in my life and kept on adding on it every time I thought of something and then cross them out once I achieved it.

I closed it as well and then closed some tabs on my browser, there were just confirmatory spam and sketchy websites that I was probably scrolling for fun. I got out of my bed and tidied some things that were scattered across the floor. I popped a painkiller and then sat again on the bed.

By then I started to remember some things that happened probably a few weeks ago. The reason why the house felt emptier than I remember it to be. There was the other person missing from the place we both called home. I picked up my phone, the wallpaper was changed from our photo to a black background. I went to the gallery first and there she was, a little more than a thousand photos in a folder named 'Her'. I scrolled through each of them, trying to comprehend, to feel. But I was sitting there in the bed, with her photos in my sight yet I was numb, emotionless, a statue of a man staring into his God for a miracle to happen.

I was startled by the call on my phone. Shruti the caller id said. It was unusual for my sister to call me

"Hello Bhai" She spoke.

"Hmm"

"Bhai please don't be hurt with whatever maa said" She spoke softly.

I didn't remember anything maa said, none that I should be concerned about.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"In the hospital, whatever maa said, please don't take it to your heart. It's just right now she is a little disturbed with baba's health"

"Wait. Baba is in the hospital?" I almost shouted at the phone

There was a moment of silence from her

"Are you okay? You don't seem to remember anything" She asked

"I just had a little too much to drink" I confessed

"Oh. Take care of yourself. Baba is good now and Maa just shouted some weird things at you, don't worry about it"

"Which hospital? I am coming right now" I said

"It will be better if you don't. Maa told you to not come, she is still angry at you. I am here to take care. You take care of yourself too, I will call you once she cooled off" She said

"All right" I disconnected the call.

It suddenly felt like I have experienced whatever Shruti was saying but I don't remember anything. I loved my mom and my dad and Shruti but after leaving home, I just got unattached with them. I hardly called them, I hardly visited home, I don't even remember the last time I thought about them but if I did visit the hospital, dad might be in a serious condition. But then at the same time, I knew I don't want to go again, not after my mom said whatever 'weird' things Shruti was talking about. So, I went to WhatsApp and left a message to call me when she was free. I didn't want to text her, family wasn't that much important for me, not anymore.