To The Place I Belong

ETHAN

“It is the fifth day of the week and I haven’t seen her in a while” I said to Ben, George and Isabel.
“SO what’s the big deal bro, she must me sick or something” said Ben.

The canteen was now a hideous place with crowd flowing in from everywhere, really irritating uproarious crowd.
“Why don’t you try and drop by her house sometime later?” said Isabel quirking up her eyebrows.
“Do you think I didn’t try that? She isn’t home, neither is Jane, before 11p.m”
“Why don’t you visit the store where she works?” asked George.
“I did, they say she left the job a week ago.”
“Oh my, then what’s wrong? Is she really sick or something?” said Isabel worried.
“Myra doesn’t know about her, the stores don’t know about her then who the hell knows about her” said Ben hitting the table with his fist.

We all relapsed into silence for a while. 
“I had left fifteen messages for her, called her at least fifty times” I said with utter frustration.

I thought of ways to reach her but it went all in vain.
“I think I should see Jane”
“But dude you tried that” said George.
“Not at the right time… I will visit Jane at 11:30 p.m if that is what I have to do now.”
“Ethan are you crazy? Knocking someone’s door at 11:30 sounds pretty crazy to me, even if you guys are neighbours.” Said Isabel.
“I don’t know what else I can do.” Now I wanted to do it all the more forgetting all decency or courtesy.
“Alright I’ll accompany you.” Said Ben.

We didn’t have to ring the bell at 11:30 pm that night. Jane’s heavy hands banged at our door urgently even before that. The dark circles underneath her eyes caused her to look ill and suffering from sleep deficiency.

Mom who had answered it brought a shivering Jane into our living room.
“Jane what’s the matter” asked dad sounding worried.
Jane gave way and broke down into fit of cries. “Mr Smith Sylvia isn’t home for two days.”
“What?” I cried out.
“Yes dear.” She sobbed and dabbed a handkerchief on her cheeks. “Five or six days ago she had come to me saying ‘I wanna go on a trip, somewhere alone’ and I had turned her off immediately saying that can’t be done.”
She paused to take a breath between her sobs and her words. Mom brought her a glass of cold water.
“You know keeping in mind her history and such a thing like a trip alone, anywhere in the world-” she took a huge gulp of water, “how can I allow?” she looked up at mom for some comfort.
“Two days ago, she left me a note” and then she handed me the note, “she wrote that since I had denied her, she would go anyway and would be back the next day. She took our car. But it has been two days Mrs Smith, Sylvia isn’t home.” She broke down into a renewed fit of cry.
“Don’t worry Jane, we will report to the police as soon as the sun rises tomorrow.” Said dad.
My mind went into whirlwind. I wanted to get out right away with Ben on a search, but where would we find her?

Jane left with a ‘thank you’ with folded hands and said- “I have nobody else other than her.”

I slammed the door of my room shut and called Ben.
“What are you saying?”
“Yes”
“But dude she is an adult, she could go anywhere, I think Jane ought to wait for a few more days before filing a complaint-”
“No! Are you crazy?”
“But-”
“No listen, tomorrow we will go out and search all the places we know-” I paused, “but do you think she might have…I mean , I don’t know- I hate to think but could she have been harmed in anyway?”
“No, no bro don’t think of that. She is pretty tough” He took a breath “But dude searching her would be utter madness, we don’t even know which part of the world she went to.”
“Well then let it be madness but we are skipping college tomorrow and we are going out anyhow” I ended the call abruptly without listening to his ‘ifs, buts, cans’.

Sleep was long gone from my eyes as I tossed restlessly on the bed from side to side. Finally I got up at around 1 am and decided to make a list of the places where we could begin a search with.
Maybe we could search in and around the college with her photograph but that seemed pretty stupid I mean she has nowhere to stay for two days. Not atleast in and around here.