On My Way

Chapter:15

She fell asleep in my lap. Her stories kept ringing in my mind. I had never heard a thing of my childhood from anyone. After a few minutes, I too fell asleep.

The next day, Rahas woke me up.

“Wake up dear. Your parents are back home.” Hearing this, I quickly got up and ran towards the door. I ringed on the home 103, in my night dress with messed up hair.

Someone opened the door, slowly. As the door opened I realized it was a woman. Looking just like me. Hair as black as mine. Hazel eyes, thick hair and pointed nose. I recognized her to be my mother.

She stopped half way, stood in shock and eyes filled up with tears that were just about to come out. She lifted her hand and touched me through the half opened door. She realized it was no dream. I was there, for real. She cupped her hands around my face and started crying. I started crying too. She hugged me tight and I hugged her back even more tightly. I heard a manly voice shouting.

“Aditi, who is on the door? If it’s the newspaper man then tell him I’ll pay his bill by tomorrow.”

But mom didn’t reply.

“Aditi! Are you listening or not?” I heard footsteps nearing the door. Surely my dad would be coming towards us. I saw him, with a newspaper in his hand. As soon as he saw me, he dropped the newspaper and ran towards me.

“Sheen! Where had you been, my daughter? I am so glad that you are not dead!” I started crying even more.

Rahas and I came inside the house. What a tragic meeting it was!

The people living next door too came to see this family reunion. I was crying and also smiling to have my family back. The house was big and very well furnished. Of course it was going to be like this. They didn’t had to save it for anything. I had done all my studies till now by myself. By working part time and paying the fees.

After 3-4 hours, the atmosphere of the home changed back to normal family. I told my parents how I had been separated from them and how I faced that ghost and everything. My parents were happy that I had joined in somewhere and was going to work very soon.

My mother took me in the kitchen for some questioning.

“Who is this guy, the one who came with you?”

“He is Rahas. We love each other. He is nice. He was in the orphanage with me. He helped me from all that happened to me till now.”

“Oh really? That’s good. When will you two get married?”

“We haven’t thought of that. But pretty soon.”

“That’s good. What’s his family background?”

“I told you, remember about the lady ghost and all? That’s his mom. He is totally alone. No relatives, no friends, nothing. And we live together in his office provided home. Once we save enough money, we’ll buy our own house.” She smiled.

“You two can live here too, if you want. We have one full renovated bedroom on the upper floor.”

“We’ll talk about it.”

We came out. I introduced him to my dad and told him everything. Finally I was back with my family. I didn’t expect I’ll ever see them again. I am glad I did.

I took out my bag and the scrapbook in which I had written everything about those ghosts. I wanted to write about my meeting with my parents. But when I opened the scrap book, I was shocked to see that not even one letter was there in the book. The pages were blank. No matter inside. I couldn’t utter a word. I flipped the pages one by one. But there was nothing. When I was flipping the pages, I saw something on one of the page. There was something written with red ink.

‘Our mission did accomplish but with a different ending than we had planned. You fought with a ghost, got your parents back and also your happiness. But you have been a very good player in this game. And this message is to tell you that the game is over now. You can live your life the way you want. No more disturbances and no more spooky nightmares. Enjoy your life Sheen.

Yours lovingly

A dead man.’

Again a dead man? Does it mean that I haven’t had a meeting with him till now? Will he ever come back in search of me? So many questions but no one to answer.

It was a very tragic story of my life with a happy ending and so I decided to write a book, ON MY WAY.