"Goodbye Maya. Till next time."
Maya Ganguly has always felt a sense of loneliness in her heart since the time her elder brother had run away from home. Fourteen years ago. But things were finally looking up when she was able to convince her parents...
I will bring my brother home and fulfil Grandpa's wish to meet him again.
This was the only thought that floated in my head as I walked out of Grandpa's room.
And by the time we reached back home, I had already decided to cancel my trip to Puri and go on my own expedition to find my brother.
Of course, it was a foolish decision and especially the part where I hoped that I would succeed where the police and everyone else had failed. I would probably just end up sacrificing the precious little time that I could still spend with Grandpa. And more importantly, I knew that my parents would never ever allow me to undertake this task even in my wildest dreams.
"Lie to them. I always do," Atifa said nonchalantly, as I finally finished catching her up to everything that had happened today via a face call after dinner.
"I don't think it would be right to lie to them about such a serious thing, Atifa," I said, a little bit wary.
"Look, things only become difficult when you think them to be so. I mean, look at me. I have bunked so many classes in school and roamed all around the city with Rahul and the others," Atifa said, "You cannot live a full life if you always follow the rules, yaar. Woman up already."
" I do think that bunking classes and my situation is a teeny tiny bit different though," I said.
"Ugh, look at your messages," she said as she rolled her eyes.
"What?"
"Just look at it, na"
I noticed that Atifa had sent me the location of a park nearby.
"I will tell you what you have to do. Pretend to your parents that your Puri trip is still on. Then meet me here at eleven tomorrow," she said, "We'll start from there."
"We?," I asked, surprised and yet a bit relieved.
"Of course I am coming with you. You would be a helpless twig in the wind without me," she said, shifting her face away from her phone screen. I always find her so cute when she tries to hide herself blushing like that.
"Are you sure? What about Rahul?," I enquired.
"Dude, bringing your brother back is the top priority now. We are like paper and glue, we have to always stick together. I am sure he'll understand."
"If I decide to tell him that is," she added, noticing my uncomfortable face, "Anyway, tomorrow eleven am sharp. At the location I sent you. Don't be late. Mashallah, we'll definitely find your brother."
She had been looking forward to her trip with Rahul for a long time and for her to give it up for my sake really made me glad that I had her as my friend.
"Hey Maya," she said, looking at me seriously, "Do you still think about Ishaan?"
A warm sensation passed through my body as I heard his name.
"What... what are you talking about," I laughed, nervously, "We decided not to talk about him."
Ishaan used to study in my class and used to be my boyfriend for two years. We had shared so many memories with each other - eating ice-cream together, shopping for books in Starmark together, going out pandal-hopping during the Pujas together. But it had all ended during the last day of eleventh grade when he had come and broken up with me.
"I am sorry, Maya," I could still hear his silky voice in my mind, "I just wanted to say that it just isn't working out between us anymore. Besides, we will be going our own ways from now on anyway, so it's better if we end it here."
Later I got to know that for the last few months, he had been going out with a senior college girl. A few of my classmates had seen him with her so in order to avoid any drama, he had decided to breakup with me. Basically, he had cheated on me.
After that, it was Atifa who had tried her best to pull me up from my bouts of depression by visiting and talking with me regularly. Sometimes she went a little over board like the time when she almost set our house on fire because of a poorly aimed matchstick. But nevertheless she never failed to cheer me up.
"You can always count on me," she winked, doing a victory symbol with her index and middle finger.
"You are right, Atifa," I couldn't help smiling.
"About what?"
"That I really am nothing without you."
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Author's Note: The first step, a small one. T'is difficult but must be done.
