Sophia's Freedom

Chapter 7: Lost and Found

I woke early the next morning. Yesterday's chain of events kept running through my mind. I felt this incessant urge of visiting the Banerjee house and checking up on Geeta, but it is much too early in the morning, I refrained.

I felt the urge for a cup of tea and waiting for everyone to wake up. As I got down the stairs, I saw Monica practicing her dance move on the carpet. I stood beside the door and was impressed by my sister's amazing skill. As she performed a Pirouette, she saw me standing behind the door. She stopped, and quietly ask me, "Why are you up so early, it is 4:00 a.m. in the morning?" 

I didn't respond to her query and asked her, "I was going to prepare tea. You want some?" 

She nodded her head. 

As I was getting the tea ready, it dawned on me that Monica has never been an early morning riser so why was she awake at 4 a.m. Something did not seem right. I decided to ask her later. Once the tea was ready, I poured the tea into 2 cups and brought them to her. 

As I was drinking my tea, I planned to surprise my parents with breakfast. I asked Monica if she had school today and she replied that she did. I told her, once she had her tea, she can go and get ready for school and I will get the breakfast ready. 

She gave me a disbelieving look and smirked, "Are you sure bro, do you know we had our kitchen renovated recently?"

I blushed at her remark and didn't retort anything. I knew I am not a good cook.

As I was sipping my tea, I asked Monica, "Can you tell me something, is there any time of the day when Sophia is left alone, I want to talk to her  personally."  

Monica replied "It is difficult, she is rarely left alone. The sisters leave for school at 8:00 a.m. and Aunty leaves for work at 10:00 a.m. Sophia's tutor comes for tuitions around noon and continues till 5:00 p.m. so you have a two-hour window between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon to talk to her alone. What's on your mind bro." 

I responded, "Thanks, I only need one... that would be sufficient for me to get to know more about her."

I finished my tea and went to the kitchen to get breakfast ready. Opened the refrigerator to check for available contents and decided to cook French Toast and tea. I knew this was going to be a heavy breakfast for all of us. It took me nearly one and a half hour to finish cooking the breakfast and setting up the table.

I found an apple in the fruit basket and sliced it into quarters, one for each of us.

I exited the kitchen around 6 o'clock and saw mom and dad coming down the stairs and Monika dressed and ready for school. I saw mom's surprise look as she saw the breakfast ready on the dining table. 

Mom came to me and gently touched my neck with the back of her hand and asked me "Are you, alright son, you don't seem to have a cold." 

I understood mom was pulling my leg. I went to my room and felt that I had time for some physical exercise and therefore went to the balcony for some fresh air and push-ups. I could see the Banerjee residence very well from there.

I saw Aamaya dressed up in casuals, ready to go somewhere. It appeared as if they are skipping school today. So, I decided to go and check out. I came down and went to our garden which borders their residence through a fence. The moment Aamaya saw me, she began to walk towards me.

I asked her "Are you guys going somewhere?"

She replied, "We are going to Kolkata. My sisters were missing dad, so mom wanted to take us to Kolkata to visit him for the weekend." 

"I am going to miss you, dear, I mean all of you" I replied with a blush on my face.

Aamaya replied, "Don't worry, we will be away for 2 days only and will be back by Sunday positively."

I continued, "Let your mom and sisters take the trip, meanwhile you can stay at our place. I know Monika will be very happy to spend some quality weekend time with her favorite sister."

Out of the blues, she asked me with a smile on her face "What about you...? don't you crave some time with me?"

I was stumped by her directness. She definitely struck a nerve. If only I had the courage to tell her how I felt. But my flight response compelled me to simply smile and nod my head. She guessed at my discomfort and continued, “You do not have to answer that." She paused and continued still smiling at my discomfort and continued"I know Monica would be very happy, but papa wants to meet us. It has been more than a month since he had seen us. I promise I will make up to you both, once I am back."

 I asked her if I can get the contact number of their Kolkata house, to which she hesitantly obliged. Finally, she raised her hand to bid adieu. 

I replied, "See you soon" and I came back to my room and started planning my next move.

It was around 7:00 a.m. and Monica was waiting at the gate for the school bus to arrive. I wanted to use my father's laptop during the day. He told me that it was in the room and I can use it whenever I want. I got ready to go and meet Vikash at his place.

I called him up and asked him to keep the video recording of yesterday's match ready. After about half an hour I had my breakfast and left for his home.

It took me about 15 minutes to reach his home. Vikash's caretaker opened the door for me and took me to his room.  As I reached the room, he asked me to lock the door, gave me a CD, and told me that he has recorded yesterday's match on it.

I replied, "Thanks bro, I owe you one."

Vikas replied, "Well, actually you are going to owe me two."

"I beg your pardon," I said.

Vikas told me to give him a minute. He picked up his tablet, lying on his study table, and showed me a recording of the match which we were discussing yesterday. I couldn't believe my eyes and asked Vikash "How did you get this video and how did you know that I will be searching for this video." 

Vikas replied, "If you are Sherlock, I am your Dr. Watson. I know you, bro."

I thought of taking the video home but decided, it would be better if I do it here. I asked Vikash if I could borrow the laptop and he agreed.

He replied "Bro whatever you are planning, I want to be in. I am getting a strange vibe that you are up to something big."

I told Vikas that I had some inkling about the girl who scored the three-pointers yesterday. I played the video and paused it where Geeta scored the first basket. And then I told Vikas to play the other match on his tablet, I wanted to compare the shots.

After repeatedly playing and comparing both, the resemblance was too uncanny to refute. We hit a hornet's nest when we went through the full video and found that two children were performing the same step, and it was difficult to figure out if one of them is Geeta. The video was 6 years old and the recording was not very clear.

Vikash replied, "We can go through old news articles and search for the name of the players. We might find Geeta's name on the list.” 

We started searching for any news relevant to the match and after some effort found a few articles mentioning the team. It said that after the match, when the team was returning home, they met with an accident near Alipore. 

There were only 2 survivors. I was shocked to see this news, knowing that one of the best sub-junior basketball teams of West Bengal is no more. 

I asked Vikash to read what is in the article.

"Alipore: In a tragic incident, 9 children and 3 adults lost their lives, after the vehicle, they were traveling in, crashed into a tree in the Alipore town of West Bengal in the late hours of Tuesday. According to reports, a total of 14 passengers were in the vehicle when the driver lost control and collided it against a tree.

Superintendent of Police, Ajay Joshi has confirmed that there were 2 survivors of the crash. According to him, the incident took place when a speeding truck hit the van from behind, which led the driver to lose control, toppling the van and crashing into a tree.

The police further stated that the children were returning from a basketball match in Salt Lake Stadium.

The sports community is in shock and mourning the loss of the 8 talented souls who brought glory to the state of West Bengal in basketball."

I faintly remembered the incident. Back then I was very young hence I don't recall much about it. We kept looking but we were still not able to find the list of passengers who were there on that vehicle. I asked Vikash if there is any way we can get the names of the surviving players.

Vikash replied, "Let me make some calls, give me an hour, I might know someone who can help us."

Over the next half an hour, Vikash contacted a few people he knew who could get him the information. Finally, Vikash looked at me and raised his thumbs indicating that he found something.

He told me "Dude, wait for some time. Arusha Basu from Bangla Post says she has the information we need. She is a Sports reporter there."

As we were waiting for Arusha di to respond, I kept browsing for relevant details about the incident and discovered a picture on the web. This was the same picture Monika showed me the other day.

I asked Vikash if he can recognize the uniform the players were wearing. He looked at it and said, "I think this school uniform looks like it belongs to DPS."

Before we came to Purulia, we used to live in Kolkata. A few years ago, due to unknown reasons, Monika started showing signs of depression. Her low spirits and dejected nature and her decision to quit playing basketball worried us a lot. No matter how much we tried to understand what was causing her despondency, we could not figure out how the most cheerful person in our family has lost her sense of hope and spirit.

Dad decided to transfer the family to Purulia, thinking that his proximity with the family members might restore Monika's confidence and spirit to her usual self. I tried zooming into the picture, but the pic kept getting distorted.

We waited for about an hour for Arusha di's response. She finally called Vikash. All I could hear were his yes's, ok’s, and thanks.

After the call, Vikash informs me, "Arusha had found the names of the players, as well as their addresses. Of all the players who were involved in the crash,” he paused a while “GET THIS… one of them was from Purulia."

I asked, "What about the survivors, does she have their names?"

Vikash replied "That's the shocking part, both of the survivors had the same residential address. However, when she tried to hunt the whereabouts of the 2 surviving children, she was unable to trace them. She was in close proximity of the address when I called her so she decided to go and check it out.”

“She went to the address and could only find a middle-aged person living in that address, and when she asked him about the children, he replied that they have left the city a long time back and that nobody knows where the family is?"

I asked, "Do you have the names of the players?"

Vikash was already browsing through his email and replied, "She has just sent me." showing me the list of survivors in the mail.

Our doubts were proven correct when he found Sophia's name on the list. The other survivor was someone named Abhinu Banerjee. Is our Sophia the same girl and where is Abhinu?

I felt like digging deeper but was not sure where to start. Suddenly I remembered Monika telling me earlier that Sophia's uncle lives in Kolkata. Perhaps we can get some information out of him. I was not sure about his address.

Suddenly I recalled the phone number Aamaya gave me. I can call her and find the address.

Vikash suggested, "You know, I think we should go to Kolkata and go to the address given by Aarusha. We might be able to find something."

I replied "Actually I was thinking the same. We can also go and meet Mr. Banerjee out there. We can find out more about Sophia from him."

                                                                   TO BE CONTINUED…

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