LUCID LOVE

WORRYING NEWS.

The sun was way up when I woke up just in time for breakfast. I went downstairs to the dining section and mumbled greetings to mum and dad who had been discussing but had stopped on sighting me. They nodded and mum looked away. The eye bags under their eyes spoke of their sleepless night worrying over a daughter who had ironically had a good night's rest.

"Maybe I'm really selfish as mum had said yesterday" I thought guiltily to myself. But was it my fault? "You can't cheat nature and besides I drugged myself to sleep " I justified myself silently.

The food was served only then did I realise that all of us at the table had lost our appetite. Dad blamed it on his working late yester night, mum said it was part of the recently developed symptoms of her illness. I almost reminded them that I was a medical student. Deep down we all knew we lost our appetite due to anxiety and worry but I let them go ahead with their flimsy excuses. Dad cleared his throat and began " Eva maybe it's time you swallow your ego and ask your cousin Caris to help speak to her father-in-law..." But I interrupted him "Dad no matter what happens, I won't go begging favours at the feet of some proud people who think they have the whole world at their beck and call"

"Such pride and stupid talk" Mum chirped in angrily. She swerved her wheelchair to the other side to intentionally let me know that even the sight of me irritated her. Henry the vice Presidents son after I turned down his proposal had married my cousin Caris as a sought of vengeance since he knew I and Caris despised each other.

The maid cleared the table and we sat back in silence awaiting the inevitable. We didn't have to wait for long when the doorbell rang. We looked at each other and I braced myself for what was to come.

Two men in mufti approached us with an identity card. They greeted my parents and without further formalities went to state their mission "We are from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and your daughter Miss Eva Smith is required at the FBI Headquarters immediately" One of them said as they produced their identity cards. Mum began whimpering softly and dad simply nodded at me. Without any ceremony, I stood and followed them outside. "Please bring her safely back to me" Mum called out with a tear laden voice. The younger man looked at her with what must have been pity for a split second before closing the door behind us. Indeed everyone who has or had once had a mother understood the pains of a mother crying for her child. The older man obviously more experienced and used to such similar scenes was unshaken. Outside the gate the police escort waiting for me would make you think of a hardened criminal being escorted to the execution ground.

The police must have also been expecting someone much more matured because I saw the lucid expression of shock on their faces as they beheld me. "To think this little brat hacked into the USA database seems unthinkable" One of them said.

If I had been expecting to be handcuffed and thrown into some cell booth then I had been wrong. I was sandwiched between two female police officers at the back seat of an SUV. I was two dazed to even cry even though my vision was blurred with tears and the voices in the car sounded faint and distant. This road led to an unknown future but I was not bothered by that at the moment.

All through the ride I kept thinking of mums words " bring her back safely to me" of that motherly look of love in her eyes as she cried...

"Do you need this" One of the female police officers handed me a handkerchief.

I was startled from my thoughts back to reality. I looked at my blouse drenched in tears, only then did I realise I was crying for mother the same way I knew she must me crying for me at the moment...

at the thought of that, more tears poured down in torrents...