Strangers & Secrets

by Jai T J

  She leaned forward and looked above. The sky was filled with white clouds without any shades of Grey. She tried to call her lawyer again but still, it was repeating the same busy tone.

  She turned left and made her way into Devin’s street. The swirling red and blue striked her as she drew toward his house. There was a huge commotion and the ambulance along with few police cars were parked right in front of his house. She couldn’t see what was going on from her position. She parked the car a few feet away and got out.

  As she approached, she realized the people were staring at the house opposite to his. She pushed her way through the crowd and saw two men in green shrug walking out of the house, carrying a stretcher with someone covered in it. She turned toward Devin’s house but saw Hiran walking toward her in his uniform.

  “What’s going on?” She asked.

  “Serious problem, Come with me” He dragged her out of the crowd, toward his car.

  “This lady, your stalker’s friend, She died this early morning. Her little child was worried that her mother wouldn’t wake up, so she called the emergency number and informed.”

  “What about Devin? Where is he?”

  “That’s the problem. He is missing. He hasn’t been home for the past one week according to their neighbors. We are still not sure whether it’s a homicide but it looks oddly coincidental”

  “He is not home?” She pulled her cellphone and began dialing his number.

  “Don’t trouble. It says number doesn’t exist”

  “What?” Before she could continue, she heard the same message from the computer-generated voice on her phone.

  “That makes it even more suspicious”

  “Do you want to me look at it?” She said eyeing the body carried inside the ambulance.

  “No, it’s alright. The arrangement is already made. We will get the data before the evening but did you hear anything from him after we left here?”

  She shook her head and as the male nurses went inside the back door of the ambulance. she saw little Eva standing next to a lady cop, holding a rag doll near to her chest. She was looking at the mouth of everyone who was speaking around her. She tried to listen to the adult’s conversation going on next to the ambulance.

  Yuleika waved her hand at Hiran and went straight to Eva. She walked past the ambulance and reached her. “Eva” She called as she knelt before her.

  Eva’s face changed as she saw a familiar face in the crowd. “Hi, Mij. 55. You look jo pretty”

  She didn’t know what to say. It was big news for such an innocent child. “Could you come with me?”

  Yuleika tried to bring her out of the crowd as she nodded but the lady on the left stopped her. She tried to explain but Hiran gave the command to the lady police, and she let them go. She went far away from the noisy commotion and sat on the steps of someone’s house.

  “I am sorry, Eva. Do you know what is happening?”

  She nodded quietly, pulling her lips. “I know. I heard what the doctor jed. My mom died” She said matter of factly.

  “I am so sorry, Eva” She said nodding at her. “Do you have any relatives or anyone?”

  “No, only Devil, but he ij aljo not there when I knocked on the door thij morning”

  “When was the last time you saw him?”

  “Ah, laj apternoon”

  “Yesterday?” She was quite shocked to hear that at the same time when she got a call from him was the last time he was seen last.

  “I really mij my mommy” She said in her tiny voice.

  “I understand” She said with genuine concern. “Would you like a hug?” She asked opening her arms.

  “No, I don’t like to be hugged”

  “OK” She paused without knowing how to console a child who lost her mother. She saw Eva rubbing the eyes of the doll like wiping the imaginary tears.

  “You know, she didn’t say goodbye to me” Her squeaky voice made it more sadder than it already was. The last statement hit hard into Yuleika’s heart. Her eye filled up. “I know. I know how you feel, dear. My father also didn’t say goodbye to me when he left”

  “How did you peel?”

  “I was so mad at him. It was like all of a sudden your world changed. The one person who you really loved and cared is no longer in your life”

  “I can never be mad at my mom” Eva said looking at the ambulance on her left. “Jhe loved me more than I did her but if it haj to happen then there is nothing I can do, can I?”

  “So, are you going to stay with Devin?”

  “I don’t know. Can I aaj you something?”

  “Yes, dear”

  “Ah, Pleaje don’t call me dear and I have jum money on my piggy bank. Can you drive me to any hotel nearby? I am really hungry”

  “Oh, my- you didn’t have anything from morning? Come” She grabbed her hand and brought her back toward her car.

  She saw Hiran standing next to his car, talking in the walkie-talkie attached to the dashboard. He kept it back when he saw her coming toward him.

  “She hasn’t eaten anything. I’ll get her something”

  “Before you do that, there is something important you need to know. Mr. Krish tried to call you –”

  “Yeah, yeah I tried to call him back but his phone was busy. I will talk to him later”

  “There is no need for that. He is here” He said pointing behind her.

  She saw her lawyer approaching her with his briefcase. “Miss. Yuleika, I tried to reach you many times but I couldn’t convey this earlier itself. I apologize for that”

  “What is it?” She asked confused over his worried expression.

  He looked at the Eva standing next to her. “Can we talk in private?”

  She followed his eyes and puzzled over the way he mentioned looking at Eva. “Do you any chocolate or snack?” She asked looking at Hiran.

  “Yes, I’ll handle until you return” He said and brought Eva into his car.

  She and Krish walked a few feet away from the car. “Miss. Yuleika. Please forgive me for not bringing this up front. I tried to handle this but I didn’t expect this to happen” He said eyeing the commotion behind him.

  “Why did you want to meet me in such a hurry?” She asked ignoring the way he was delaying her time.

  “The person who died was Mrs. Mara and it was the mother of that child you were holding”

  She nodded patiently waiting for him to get to the point.

  “She was suffering from some serious illness, and she wasn’t undertaking any kind of treatment for that. She seemed to be saving everything she had for her daughter and after her death, her whole assets can be used for the sole purpose of raising her daughter”

  “Why are you telling me this?” She asked failing to comprehend about him sharing the personal thing of someone she never met before.

  “She wrote a will about this, and she had a friend called Devin. Do you by any chance know him?”

  She nodded quietly.

  “Well, she anointed him for searching of next guardian for the child, and he chose you”

  “What? When did that happen?”

  “Hiran just confirmed it was the day before you left the city - two weeks ago. I got to know this from my undergrad and I tried to call you”

  She looked at Eva, sitting inside the car, and she saw something else behind. It was Senandra, standing at the entrance of his house. She needed more explanation. “I will be back” She said and walked toward the house.

  Senandra slowly turned and walked inside the house. Yuleika opened the fence gate and stepped into the lawn. Hiran saw her walking toward the house with the closed red door but the door was wide open to her with Senandra retreating back inside. Hiran couldn’t see anything she was seeing. The door began to close as she reached the house. When she reached the steps in front of the entrance, the door shut completely.

  She turned the knob and walked inside the house. Senandra was standing right in front of her as the door began to close b
ehind her. “Where is he?” Her voice was filled with rage.

  “He blinded me” She said in her prickly, overlapping dual voices. “He got help from someone more powerful, performed a strong ritual, and he used it to escape”

  “Why? He said he loved you”

  “That he did” The burning smoke image trailed out of the edge of her silhouette. “Still he betrayed me”

  Ten minutes passed. Hiran kept his eyes on the door through which his friend went. The ambulance passed through the crowd and ran to the hospital while Eva was licking the molten chocolates off her finger. Finally, the door opened, and he saw her coming out of it.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I thought it’s over. It started all over again” She said shaking her head. “Come, Eva. We will go eat something” She said opening the door. Eva complied and climbed down and thanked Hiran.

  "We still need to talk Yuleika. He is been missing. What happened?"

  "DO NOT TALK ABOUT DEVIN AGAIN"

  "I wasn't talking about Devin"

  She didn’t answer him. The crowd in the street began to disperse when she walked her to the car. She strapped the seat belt around Eva and closed the door. She got into her seat and turned the key, starting the engine. She gazed at the rearview mirror and saw Senandra sitting on the back seat of her car.

  Senandra explained the complexity of the situation. There was no way to escape from the entanglement. Eva was the third thing he meant to say that day. She doesn’t have much choice than finding and locating him.

  She noticed Eva staring at her. “Why are you looking like that?”

  “You look jad. What happened?”

  “Nothing, de – Eva. Have you heard of the word ‘traitor’?”

  She nodded eagerly. “Hmm. It’s devil only”

  “Good that you know that. Do you know what he has done to me and to your mother? He tricked your mother to agree to something that she wouldn’t have if she knew the truth and from now on I have to take care of you”

  “Oh, OK” She said slowly understanding what she said.

  “Are you OK with this, or we can go to court and change it”

  She thought quietly before replying “Are you OK with thij?”

  She looked back at Eva. Her blaring innocent eyes stood out. She was dumbfounded. “Yes” She said finally, nodding her head. “Yes, I’m”

  She thought about Devin’s statement about ‘family’ and this was not the family she expected. A motherless child with dead emotions and a dead young mother with an unborn child.

  The traffic has reborn and filled the road with the honking orchestra playing out of sync. She stopped the car as the signal turned red. The door behind her opened, and she saw a figure wearing a blue sweater with a pale shirt on the seat behind her. She went back to the same stage where she was.

  Her car was full and her heart was thumping loud. The car behind her honked loudly, and she noticed the light has turned green. She revved the engine and turned on the radio to get rid of the noise outside and inside.

  The man in the radio addressed his cheerful welcome of the early spring and began playing an acoustic song as she drew through the long, long road.

  “So where are we going now?” Her father asked.

  “We are going back” She said as her car made its climb onto the flyover. Nothing will be the same. Nothing will be new. Everything was everything to her. Life has given a wide range of experience to her and that was just a part of the grand design. She once again began her journey toward her findings but this time with strange companions.

  She pushed the accelerator and flew through the current of her life with the ray of morning light and this time, she is in white.

  Do you think she will find? She asked

  Of course, she will, came the reply

  Will it be too late?

  Au contraire

  Acknowledgment

  Writing this book was a scary journey, filled with dark corners and ‘dead-ends’. I would like to thank my friend, Adhithya PA. Without him and his guidance, this wouldn’t be possible. He was as important to this book getting done as I was. Thank you for making me write.

  Thanks to my good friends, Deepika, and Supriya Sinha for their support and ceaseless motivation whenever I hit the bottom and also for the inspiring idea behind the fun language of Eva(one of my favorite characters in this book).

  Thanks to Anjuna Rajpurohit, my personal mentor and an amazing work partner, who supported me with her brutally honest opinions and for the immense help provided during the publishing of this book.

  Thanks to my Father and Mother who were always there for me with lots of patience and a hell lot of love.

  And thanks to you, my readers.