Riches and Rags (On Hold)

Chapter-2

The world was humongous, but Rachel had never felt smaller. Anger was not even the tenth of what she was feeling. She had seen and read enough of cases in her journalism class- her major at the New York University, wherein people in power ruined the commoners. But never in her entire life had she pictured herself to be in a position such as this. ‘A piece of paper’, she thought. Just a single piece of paper had enough power to make them loose everything they had, in a matter of seconds.

‘The land of The Relic is herein declared to be the property of the State...’

Bold letters on the letter were forever imprinted in her mind- the mind that now was now working overtime. The letter had been a proof of what the world had become. She had to fight... was going to fight for what was theirs. Her father and brother were both working overtime tying to find what went wrong, find loops in the letter and a lawyer to represent them. Her mother tried her best to single handedly run the cafe. Jessica came in to help for a few but she had her own classes at the NYU to attend. Every relative they knew, even some customers, joined in and put an effort to pitch in but there was always the same thought at the back of their minds. They knew that it was not enough. That it would never be enough.

She felt useless. Rachel had wanted to miss her classes for a few days, at least until this upheaval was settled. But her stubborn parents and brother did not even wait to hear her pleas. ‘You get educated, that will help us better” they had said. Like attending her class would somehow bring back their normal life.

*Two Months Later*

It was gone. The only place they had called their home was replaced by a plain looking building with a forlorn looking notice on it stating it to be the State property. Rachel was leaning on to Jessica who was trying to stay strong for her dearest friend. Rachel looked over to see her mother clinging to her father and her brother trying not to cry. But there was nothing anyone of them could do.

The past two months had been a period of test for them. But they had managed. And had survived. They had fought with everything in them. but the other side had made it seem as though they had no case, stating that the state had every right to do so and that they had been compensated for their pains. How her father has scoffed at the word pains. As if their lives and memories could be packed in a suitcase and be ‘compensated’ for. But that was the word on the street. The O’Conners were officially shutting down The Relic and moving on.

Having run a whole cafe almost singlehandedly, Rachel’s father had managed to snag a good post as the assistant manager at The Zing, a posh restaurant in Manhattan. And so the time had come. They were leaving their beloved home for a rented apartment in the midst of the busy streets of Manhattan. Her mother had tried to lighten her spirits by stating that it would become easier for Rachel to commute to her college campus. But Rachel couldn’t fault her mother either. All of them were trying to find something good from within this darkness that seemed to have surrounded them.