Red Is The New Black

Prologue

When you die, people actually make an effort to keep in mind your likes and dislikes, your talents and accomplishments, how good you actually were. I think its quite pointless, now that the dead person cannot really benefit from this. But who am I to judge? I am not my brother and this memorial service is not held for me.

"Anay was an exceptional child...." my uncle's voice droned on. Every time anyone said something nice about him, I wanted to snap, 'Why didn't you say that to his face when he was alive?' My eyes felt heavy with sleep. 'God, why do I have to be sleepy now of all times.' But I guess that was what's supposed to happen when you don't sleep properly for days. The search for him, or his body had began ten days ago, when a child had found the bodies of three men near a village in Ladakh. They didn't find him for a while, until they found his finger. They suspected some animal, maybe the Himalyan wolves. There were even strange footprints found in a nearby village, and the best guess was that all of them were mauled by such animal or animals.

My mother sniffed beside me. She was staring at some point in front of her, not caring what anybody said. Anay was her favorite, despite being the black sheep of the family. He had given up the conventional careers for animal photography. He never came home after leaving for college, and that too on a full scholarship, only talked to me and my mother. My parents got their heart broken and I, as the child they could correct their mistakes with, was left behind by him. I hated him for that, even today, I was hating him, consumed by rage and grief. How could he do this? And more so, how could he just.....die? I blinked my tears back. No one should see me like this. No one. Ever. 

I got up quietly and went outside. It was too sunny outside. It had stopped raining a couple of days ago and hadn't rained since, despite it being June. It was quiet outside, except for the people who had stepped out for a smoke. I gave them a look that said, 'I know funerals are hard, ask me.' I sat on a quiet corner beneath a tree, away from everyone, hidden. I was preoccupied in my thought when something fell on my head, a tiny thing. I got up, startled. Then I saw a paper ball. I looked around, then picked it up. I examined it curiously, then opened it. What was written on the inside was, I'd never even known then, something that would change my life forever:

Don'y give up like the rest. He lives. You know where to look, he traveled often there.