Song for the chapter: Kaise Jiyun by The
Local Train
Sia
For the first time in seven years, I have slept the past two days hugging my parents’ picture. Their departure had shrunk my world to a sudden bleakness. The girl who laughed a little too hard at every little nuance was merely reduced to a crumpled up ball of sniffs and sobs. I refused to get up from bed for days, I cried all the time. Life did bounce back to normalcy gradually. Being in Mumbai, making new friends, attending college classes and meeting and falling in love with Gaurav, life had never been merrier.The presence of Anubhav as my acknowledged yet unsaid support system had made it all the better.
Until everything that I have held dear in my life started slipping away. No wonder the culprit has been me. But just when I thought new beginnings were coming, the end of a life ended my chase of a mirage.
The wedding indeed has been postponed, both the families knew it, even without saying. But that was the last of the concerns. I have tried to morally boost the grieving family’s spirit but the dooms had already befallen. Vinay uncle seemed to have aged twice in two days.
Death does that to people.
And the bad part is that the investigation has merely started, a day after his cremation which has been done by Gaurav and Vinay uncle.The reports are due in a day or two. Life is yet to take a toll completely.
“We are here” Gaurav says as he exerts the brake. I fold my sweaty palms at the hem of my white kurta. He squeezes it.
“You don’t have to do it” He says.
“I want to. I will be fine” I revert and open my arms as he nestles in my embrace. It is in moments like this, I tell myself that this is worth it. All the push and pull that eventually makes a way for a togetherness as blissful as this.
“Call me when its done” he says as he kills the engine. I smile and head back inside the police station.
The sub-inspector eyes me inquisitively. I raise my chin for the cue.
“Just a few moments, Arvind Sir will talk to you. He will be here in some time” He declares and dismisses me off like a passing by. I decide to wait in the verandah for some time but minutes start rolling by and soon its an hour when I find myself seated in a three seater next to an old man with a skullcap. He gives me a toothy smile.
“Just here to file an FIR, my daughter got her money bag stolen.She will be here from school.”He said.
“Oh.” All I could manage. I still flash him a smile. I would never be crude to an elderly person.
“You lost something too?”
“Yeah” Lost a life.
“Miss Tripathi” I pay heed to a calling that succeeds the sound of an engine and approaching footsteps.
“I hope I am not late” Inspector Arvind sniggers.I choose not to retort. This is why he speaks to himself. “I had an online conference with the IT cell team of the Andaman police again”
The old man looks confused.
“Lets have a chat, Miss Tripathi”
I nod to him and paddle closely behind him. I hope he hasn’t used the word ‘chat’ as part of some dire need of sarcasm to lighten up. I pray to my parents that the word interrogation doesn’t loom as scary as the somber ambience of the station.
The room is small and barely lit. Two chairs opposite each other and a table in the middle. The questions have barely begun and I already want to throw up. The steady and rising throbs at the back of my neck makes me all the more unsteady. I wipe my palms in my tunic.
YOU ARE READING
|The secrets we take to grave|✔︎
Misteri / ThrillerSia Tripathi was getting married to the man she had loved for years, Gaurav Sharma.Their blissful union made every kith and kin happy except for one person; Gaurav's step brother, Anubhav Bhattacharya Sharma who has loved Sia unrequitedly for longer...
