After all this time

C H A P T E R 4

Amaya was in 4th grade when her parents allowed her to  go for a school trip. She had always wanted to go but her Amma refused.
So this time , when Amma said that she is old enough to go with Ashi,  Amaya was thrilled to bits.
Little Amaya was so excited for the day that all she could think every waking moment was the trip, she made excellentplansto enjoy it fully.
On the day of the trip , Ashi fell ill and her Amma didn't want Amaya to go alone.
Amaya cried and begged her Amma and Acha until her Acha's heart melted.

'Do you want to go that much? Staying with Acha or going for the trip?' Her Acha had asked.
Amaya's eyes welled up, she loved her Acha very much but she wanted to go to the trip.

Her Acha had realized that too..so he dropped her off at the school even though her Amma strongly refused. 

Then she went for the one day trip, without Ashi and was so happy for the entire day. When the group returned to school , parents of all those kids were awaiting except for Amaya's.

She was sad at first ,  then got scared thinking that they all forgot about her but she kept waiting , till someone, anyone showed up. 

At last some neighbors came to take her home, which confused her a lot but she kept quiet. When they reached home, there were a lot of people and  she saw her Acha was lying in the floor , covered by a white cloth and there was a lamp beside him. Ashi cried loudly saying that their Acha was gone forever. Amma didn't even look at her.

Amaya stood their like a statue for hours, she felt cold and numb.
She should not have left that morning, she should have stayed and told her Acha that she loved him so much, more than her her stupid school trip, more than everything in the world but little Amaya never got the chance to tell him  that and never will.

              ******************

Amaya was sitting through the review meeting, most of the things were about budget and the soft opening of their new resort, which was located in Chithirapuram.
Even though she was listening all of it, the gnawing feeling in her stomach kept bothering her and she wanted to check on Mili and Advaith. She tried to ignore it for solid 20 minutes.

She would just ask him how they are doing nothing else. Advaith won't think that she is being obsessive, is he?
Nothing about the situation wasn't really normal, so it's ok to check on them.
Ok here we go ,
Amaya chewed on her lower lip as she tapped on the message box.

' Hi, this is Amaya. How things are going there?'
Amaya typed carefully, hoping he would reply right away.

It showed that he had seen the message and it showed that he is typing .
But no response came for the next few minutes. Amaya got frustrated by each passing second, what is he writing that's taking him this much time? Did something happen? Is Mili alright?
She should not have let Mili stay.
She kept refreshing the screen until a reply popped up.

' All OK here'

What?? He took this much time to type just three words? Amaya rolled her eyes and realized she was in a meeting, and it wasn't particularly good time to roll her eyes , so she dragged her fingers to touch her eyes, pretending that something went to her eyes.

Nice Amaya, what are you even doing. She checked her surroundings and made sure nobody was watching her.

She refreshed the message box one more time , hoping another message would come in, but nothing happened .
She had expected a little bit informative reply but looked like she's not going to get any.

Amaya tapped her heels impatiently and
she was completely lost in her thoughts, when another message came through.

It was a photo.
Amaya grinned in releif. It was Mili's picture.
She was smiling, the curly hair adorned her little face and there was a bunch of yellow and pink flowers tucked on her left ear. She looked happy.