Sophia's Freedom

Chapter 42: kidn*pped

Vikash dada and Joe dada were sitting on a garden chair in front of a beautiful green-colored house with a swimming pool next to it. They were discussing something which was not audible to me. Abhinu was in the swimming pool. Master daa was giving swimming lessons to him.

When Abhinu saw me approaching, he came out of the swimming pool and came running towards me. He raised his arm to hug me and said with a beautiful smile, "It's been so long; I was missing you a lot. Look I am not Sophia anymore."

I was so happy to see him smile after a long time. I hugged him tightly and kissed him on his cheek and replied, "Of course sweetheart, I am so excited to see you happy. The way you are swimming, it is amazing."

Abhinu's eyes dazzled as I recognized his skill. I continued "Remember the day you made me promise that I shouldn't call you Abhinu anymore... I was so hurt you know... eventually your memory of Abhinu began to fade too... but today I cannot tell you how happy I am to see you as my Abhinu," 

Before Abhinu could reply, Tribeni Dadu intervened and said "Son, are you not feeling cold. You are all wet. Where are the 2 girls?" and Dadu gave out a shout "DARIKA, GARIMA... WHAT ARE YOU DOING INSIDE THE HOUSE?"

Both of them came running towards us. One had an overcoat on her hands while the other one was carrying a towel and gave it to Abhinu. As he was putting it on, Tribeni Dadu pointed his stick towards the girls and shouted angrily, "We didn't rescue you for sitting idle in the house, your primary duty is taking care of Monika and Abhinu.”

The girls with their heads bowing down spoke obligingly, "Yes Dadu."

Pointing his finger towards me he continued, "And why do I see my granddaughter thirsty?"

"I am sorry dadu." The girls replied shakily with her eyes looking down and then Darika said "I will get the water in a jiffy" and began to run towards the house.

Dadu then turned to look towards Garima and shouted "why do I see my grandson all wet... do you really think you can bully him once again."

"I am sorry dadu..." replied Garima

"I don't think you really mean it. I think you might be doing it deliberately to bully my grandchildren." Triveni Dadu resumed in the same tone.

She was standing too close to the swimming pool. Tribeni Dadu raised his walking stick towards her to inspire fear. His gesture alarmed her and as she tried to dodge his attack, she slipped and fell into the swimming pool.

Earlier Dadu made it a point to always keep the feet chained for both the girls to remind them of the misery they caused Abhinu over the years. We made sure that the chain was long enough to only let them walk and not be able to run. Dadu wanted to make sure they don't try to run away from there. 

We all had a hearty laugh watching her getting drenched and struggling to get out of the water. She was wearing a saree and with the wet sari interrupting her arm and leg movement. She was almost drowning in the pool water, her attempts at swimming with aimless flipping with her arms and legs made it truly hilarious.

She shouted, "Please help me Abhinu Sir. You know I cannot swim."

Dadu also made it a rule that the girls will address Abhinu as sir. I saw Abhinu stepping forward to help her out of the water.

As Abhinu stretched his helping hand to Garima, I felt like having fun and pushed him into the water.

Tribeni Dadu looked at the 2 fishes in the water and shouted "HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?"

I was woken up from my dream by noise and heard dad uttering the same thing loudly,

" HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?"

I switched on the lights to my room to check the time. It was showing 3:30. Did I sleep for long? I pulled the curtain. It was still dark outside. I tried to reminisce about my dream and wished if it could be true.

As I rushed to the other room to check why dad was shouting, I saw mom snatching the receiver from dad and enquire, "Who is this?"

"How did this happen?"

I couldn't hear the response from the other end of the line, but mom’s body language and facial expressions during the exchange prepared me for some bad news at the end.

"Monika, get dressed, we have to go somewhere right now," Dad told me with a worried expression, as Mom continued talking to the person on the line.

"Dad, what's wrong. It's 3:30 in the morning?"

Dad came to me, picked me up in his arms, and said "We don't know any detail yet, but the person on the other end informed me that there has been a serious development near the Station gate."

As dad tried to continue with the detail, we saw the headlight of an approaching car in our front yard. Dad put me down and went to open the door. It was Vikash Dada's car approaching our house.

Mom kept the receiver down and went out of the house. We saw Vikash dada, Nishi Jethu, and Master Kaku coming out of the car.

Master Kaku started, "Mrs. Christopher, I am sorry for what happened, Joe and Sophia are missing. Nishi sir has asked the district S.P. to take up the matter expeditiously."

Mom replied, "That's a relief... but I don't understand, how could anything like this happen."

It was Nishi Jethu, who responded, "At around 10:30 a.m., Sophia complained about severe headache and said that she was unable to feel anything below her waist."

"The on-call doctor Dr. Prathama Sen ordered to do radiography and an N.M.R (nuclear magnetic resonance). However, for the N.M.R. they had to take the child to Gopalpur hospital. On their way to Gopalpur, someone attacked the ambulance and kidn*pped Joe and Sophia."

I was shocked at what I just heard and only hoped that I heard it wrong.

Mom stepped forward abruptly, caught hold of Bikash Dada's collar, and started shouting "YOU... YOU CALL YOURSELF JOE'S BEST FRIEND..."

"WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THIS HAPPENED...?"

"HOW CAN YOU LET HIM GO ALONE...?"

"YOU KNOW FULLY WELL... BEING NEAR TO THOSE BANERJEE CHILDREN IS NOT SAFE FOR ANY OF US...?"

I saw dad, moving fast, pulled mom away from Vikash dada...

He was bowing his head down in shame and replied softly "Kaki maa, I am really sorry, but when Sophia was taken to the ambulance, Joe insisted that he will accompany her. I tried to intervene and told him not to get into the ambulance and suggested that we will follow them on my car. But he was so adamant that he did not pay heed to my advice and accompanied the Banerjee's eldest daughter Aamaya in the ambulance."

Dad asked eagerly, "AAMAYA... did you say Aamaya was in the ambulance with them?"

"Yes uncle, She was in the hospital today with Joe, as Mr. Banerjee had to go to Kolkata for some urgent work. Joe convinced Aunty to go back home and be with the kids."

"Then, what happened to her? Where is she?" Dad enquired.

Vikash dada continued, "When Sophia was transported to the other hospital, master da and I decided to follow the Ambulance in my car. We maintained a reasonable distance in our pursuit. However, our car was stopped at a police check-post. When we were cleared, we followed the road leading to the Gopalpur hospital. We took the shortcut from the station gate, with the hope that we would make up the lost time."

"However as we approached the station road, we saw that there was a pile-up. 3 SUV's had met with an accident. The ambulance was also there lying in flames, and the rear door was open. The driver might have decided to take the shortcut through the station gate just like us."

"Moreover, the bad news was, the driver and the paramedic were lying unconscious by the side of the road. Joe and Sophia were missing and we saw a dead body that we believe belongs to Aamaya. A forensic team is trying to figure out whose body it is."

"Nishi Sir has assigned the case to the S.P. and investigation is already in progress."

 Mom stepped out of the house without further delay and rushed to Banerjee aunty’s residence. Dad, Vikash Dada, Master Kaku, Nishi Jethu, and I followed her in tow.

Mom kept pushing the button of the doorbell, but there was no response from inside.

Suddenly Nishi Jethu, who was standing in a corner, raised his hands over a window and tried to peep inside the house.

In a swift move, he took out his g*n and ordered authoritatively, "BREAK THE DOOR..."

"What" asked Master Kaku in a surprised tone.

"I SAID...COME ON... BREAK THE DOOR, QUICK... QUICK..."  and he continued with his g*n still clutched in his hands.

I was totally confused at the new development. Dad, Master Kaku, and Vikash dada started pushing the door with all their might.

Nishi Kaku, waited in readiness, still pointing his g*n towards the door. Mom caught hold of me and pushed me behind her to shield me from any untoward event.

After a lot of pushing and kicking at the door, it gave in and they made their way inside the house.

I tried to peek inside to make out what is going on and saw Nishi Jethu racing towards the interior with his g*n pointing onwards...

At the same time, Master da uttered "MRS. BANERJEE" and ran inside the house.

                                                    TO BE CONTINUED...

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