Mysterious Oberoi

22

I hadn't got a glimpse of Mr. Oberoi from past week. One week had passed for my arrival in the mysteriously dark mansion. A mansion that had secrets hidden in its darkness.

I had arrived in the mansion to unfold some mystery but was discovering more puzzle on the way.

"Beta," Buba called me, bringing me out of my jumble thoughts. "What are you doing here alone?" She inquired, her orbs glancing at me in concern.

I had walked into abandoned room. A room that was placed at the corner. I had noticed, it was mostly closed. None walked into it. I was curious! I needed to work on my mission and the curiousity had resulted me into the room.

"I..." I fumbled with my words. I felt guilty and ashamed of getting caught.

"This room is mostly closed, no-one is allowed inside." Buba mumbled as she kept glancing at the room, lost in her thoughts. Her orbs kept staring at each object in the room. As if those items were narrating a story to her. She kept moving inside in the room, her hands helping her with the wheelchair.

It had a huge area, racks were arranged. Various kinds of book were placed on those racks. It wasn't a library, much like a cabin. There was a desk placed on the centre.

"Shlok spent his entire time here," Buba mumbled. "He had always being the workholic types," she groaned at the idea of it. "I could never understand his interest in those files and papers," she kept rambling. "This papers are more alive than him." I could hear sadness in her voice.

"What do you mean?" I inquired. What did she meant by the paper was more alive than him!

"He was the toughest kid among you all," she expressed. "I had knew, he would be there till last." She kept muttering as she scrolled through the files on the desk.

"I am not understanding a word uttered by you," I expressed my confusion. How did she knew me? She spared me a glance, her kind black orbs searching for a hint on my face. She frowned as if regretting it. "I thought he had told you about it."

"Told me about what?" I was getting curious with each passing second. I wanted to know!

"About the past you shared," she mumbled as she took a photo frame kept on Mr. Oberoi's desk. "About this..." She directed the frame towards me. I took a step towards her as I held the photo. It was a photo of many children, clicked beside a old-large house, trees decorating the surrounding. Nothing in the picture made sense. Except the girl! The same girl was present in the picture, smiling at it broadly. Who was she?

"Who is she?" I pointed at the girl in the picture.

"Who else could it be," she passed a smile. My heart accelerated at the thoughts occuring in my brain on seeing the smile Buba was offering me.

"I don't know..." I shrugged the thoughts off. I was overthinking. "Someone dear to Mr. Oberoi," I suggested.

She gave a slight nod, "she was the only ray of sunshine in his dark-traumatic world. The only person who could make him smile," she muttered.

"Is he orphan?" I couldn't help myself from asking it. I stared at the picture. The house in the background was familiar to orphanage. And Buba was the only adult in the group of children. There were children in different age-group.

"He is..." Buba muttered as I handed the picture back to her. "He was always tough to handle until she arrived," Buba was caressing the picture of the girl. "But her kind and bubbly spirit got her new parents while he was left behind, again pulled into his darkness."

"He never attempted to meet her?"

"He knew, he was fire and didn't wanted to burn her. He was happy seeing her content in her life." Buba spare a glance at me. "His love for her had never being of selfishness. The only person that could make him act selfless."