To The Place I Belong

ETHAN

I was so certain, she wouldn’t agree for the play but after two days I was amazed with her ‘yes, I will do it’.
I had a bet with Ben that she wouldn’t agree but I lost it. She had even auditioned with such skill that the selection committee were impressed and so were the rest of us, especially Isabel.
She had that strange, eager, unearthly pallid expression while saying ‘yes’. I have no idea, what might have made her agree or even compel, but I saw no reason. I was so sure she wouldn’t but anyhow, in a way it’s going to take her mind off things and that’s more than just important at the moment. These days she had appeared so lost and lonely. She had made every possible way to avoid us and I don’t blame her.
I sometimes wondered what it would be like to be Sylvia Jones for a day- wrapped in loneliness and depression, constant pang of memories of the ones lost on the way, what would I live for?
But one thing that had always made me curious was the death of her sister. She had never tried to discuss it and the remote introduction of the topic itself would make her face go red with anger and eyes gleam with contempt.

The ball was the best thing that had ever happened to me, but I had hardly seen her after the ball, except for the funeral day. She had wept uncontrollably and with passion. Everything Sylvia ever did, be it laugh or cry or some other task was always draped with passion. Yes, that’s how I would like to remember and see her always-the girl with passion.

In the first week of March, the vibe of the inter-college drama competition roared ever so loudly, that Ben forgot all about his break up with Alicia, and gobbled his burgers like he did before without mentioning her name, Sylvia and Isabel were found practising whenever they got offs, George, Myra and Eric got into the dressing committee to make themselves feel involved. No one was seen aloof. Almost every nook and corner of the college had people discussing about how prestigious this event was and how important is the trophy.
The event was set at around 3p.m in the afternoon and it would begin with a musical. The competition would start from 4.
And finally when the day arrived, Sylvia disappeared. Not that she could not make it on time, but she was nowhere to be seen unless the play began. This sent some sort of sensation and speculation through the crowd. We were almost on the verge of taking up Alicia (who was kept as a reserve for more than one role), when Sylvia arrived fully clothed as Lady Macbeth.
“Where have you been?” asked Isabel anxiously hugging her. “For a moment I thought you wouldn’t turn up”
“Oh but I did!” said Sylvia assuming the best of calmness. She showed no mark of tenseness on being late or something but there did appear some beads of sweat on her forehead. Her eyes looked colder than usual and this really scared me. Something was unusual and I failed to comprehend.
And so our Macbeth was accomplished, followed by Othello, King Lear, The Merchant of Venice by some other renowned college.
We took our seats in the crowd and waited anxiously while Ben stuffed fistful of popcorns into his mouth.
Again, Sylvia was nowhere to be seen.
“Hey Ben where’s Syl?”
“Dunno” he managed to say pathetically.
I turned to ask Isabel and she informed that she had left.
“Jesus! Why?”
“She said she was having a stomach upset and felt nauseous, so she went home. I didn’t insist. Didn’t you see how pale she looked?” said Isabel watching the play intently.
“But she didn’t even tell me once”
“Oh Ethan don’t be such a kid…”
“Alright…” But I did feel something else was definitely wrong. I had full intentions of landing up in her house to know how she was doing but this stupid play thing had kept me back till 9. God! How I hated it this instant although Isabel and I were the keenest among all.

The way our Dean declared the results must have been very interesting for some, actually for all, but for me it was nothing more than wastage of time. Our college did secure it’s grand reputation by bagging the first position but I took the liberty of escaping while the team was called on stage. It was already 9 p.m

I spent a minute hesitating before ringing the door bell of Sylvia’s house but it went unanswered. She must be sleeping…but what about Jane? 
Back at home Eliza pestered me at the dining table asking questions about the play. I replied in great frustration, “It sucks, okay?”
The frown on her face caused dad to ask me additional questions-“Why what happened honey? I thought you said you guys won it?”
“We did, dad”
“Then what is it?”
“Oh forget it, nothing.”
I almost swallowed half of my meal without chewing it to get away from everybody and spend the rest of the night in solitude. Sleep seemed so remote that I finally decided I should text Sylvia.
ME: Hey, are you fine?
I waited for another five minutes. No reply.
In another ten minutes no reply came. I tried to lay awake for an hour or so and when no reply came I fell asleep with my cell phone in hand.
…
The morning sunlight ruined my sleep at 6:30 a.m. I had planned to sleep a little further as it was a holiday but Sylvia’s thought kept disturbing me, so I decided to check my cell phone again. To my surprise, she had replied at 6a.m with one “yes” and that relaxed and lulled me into another happy two hour sleep, knowing I would end up at her house sometime around 10 to check up with her ‘yes