Alone Or Lonely?

A SHOCK

" What do you mean she left you with no choice?" her mom blurted out.

" Aunty, if we wouldn't have drugged her, she wouldn't have returned. You would never be able to see your daughter again." said Rina in defence.

Mrs Mathur was stunned at Ri's choice of words. Somewhere deep down her mind she had already begun calculating the gravity of the situation.

" Stop beating around the bush and just come to the point!" her mom said.

Rina went numb for a second. She let out a deep sigh and turned around so that she could probably avoid eye contact with Miru's parents.

" Kabir...Kabir Malik! It's all because of him." she said timidly.

" Kabir? Now who is he?" asked her dad curiously.

" It's some guy she says she met at one of the Art Museums in the States."

" So it means you too must have met him!" exclaimed her mom.

" Actually, no aunty! I had mostly been hanging around with Sameer and in the meanwhile, she said she met him."

Looking at her mom's face one could sense that she had already started to put two and two together, but nevertheless she was reasonable enough to let Rina finish up with her narration.

" She said the minute they met, they got along well and became very much fond of each other's company. This fondness paved it's way to more and more meetings, be it in the restaurant, a cafe or even his hotel room!"

" What next? Cmon now come out with it." ordered her dad.

" I used to get these updates very late. But then, at first even I didn't pay much heed to them, since I could see her happy and content. I could feel that changed vibe in her. The way she narrated me all those incidences of their meetings it was not that difficult for me to understand that Mira had fallen for this stranger. Also then the more I got to know of such versions from her, the more I started to become sure that even he had that soft corner for her. But ...."

And before she could think of words to finish what she was about to say, Mira's mom intervened.

" But what...was he not good looking? Was he not classy? Did he misbehave with my baby? Did he hurt her...! What was it?" she asked being restless.

" No aunty..it's nothing like that!" she said.

" Then what is it like?" she stressed wanting to know more and more of it.

" Somehow I started feeling something fishy about his whereabouts. Because once we four had chalked out a plan to go on a double date sort of a thing just to get to know each other well, but this man ditched us at the last minute! It felt weird, though I didn't mention this in front of her but now that it's you guys, I feel I can frankly express things."

By now even her parents became glued to Ri's narrative.

" I felt, the guy who willingly took her alone on a road trip to NY, could obviously have tried to cancel his plan or at least do something and take out time for her."

" Road trip to NY?" her mom and dad seemed puzzled.

" Yes guys, she said she had been on a road trip with him to NY! I swear, I really didn't have any idea about this. In fact I got to know of this when a bell boy at the hotel found her in a drunken state and graciously escorted her to our room and it is the next day that she narrated me the entire story."

Her mom and dad seemed dumbfounded at the sudden twist of events. Knowing Mira and the kind of person she was it became difficult for them to decide whether to be happy that finally their daughter had found a man or to be suspicious that how could she actually find a man.

" What next?" her father asked.

" I was also amused at first, but then I let go off it. As days passed by, I could see that she had in some way begun drifting apart from us. She used to keep talking about him, she used to go and hangout with him. At some point, even I got a bit scared seeing the madness with which she used to pursue him that too without any solid background check!"

" O cut the crap! Just tell us what led her to this state." screamed her dad who was immediately hushed by a nurse passing by the corridor.

" The day we were scheduled to leave, she became paranoid as he hadn't turned up and she had this strong desire of meeting him. Catering to her urge, we three set out to hunt him down. At first we raided his hotel in the hope of catching him before he could check out but...."

Seeing Rina stumble upon her own words, there obviously grew a question mark on her parent's faces.

" Yeah, probably he might have checked out right before you could reach there. My poor baby..." said her mom on dismay.

" No aunty, it's even worse than this. When we reached the hotel and made an enquiry about him with the receptionist, she simply said that no such man had ever checked in their hotel!"

Her parents were shocked.

" Yes guys, after getting a double check done on this piece of information, me and Sammy were as amazed and shocked as you guys are right now. Somehow all are efforts to track him down reached a dead end so we gave up. But then contradictory to our emotions Mira became impulsive and almost out of control. She had a major nervous breakdown and needed to be hospitalized. It is then in the hospital that the doc informed us about her weak mental condition. We couldn't get Kabir to meet her, due to which she was not even ready to move from there. The only option that she left us with was what we chose, and that's how we could get her here to you." said Rina with a fine smile of uncalled satisfaction.

" But then, where did that rogue go? Did he cheat on my daughter? Did you check on him properly? Why couldn't you get him to meet her?" asked her mom trying her best to control the anger that swivelled out from her body.

Rina was quiet. She didn't utter a word.

" Cmon, girl speak up! Why couldn't you guys get him?" asked her dad.

" That's because He doesn't Exist!"