The Turn Of The Night

Chapter 8

It was Valentine's day, 14th February, the day on which love floats in the air above, kisses fly and the air is filled with the scent of roses, couples rejoice and food is ordered from restaurants. Cards are brought from the shops and letters and poems describing a person's most intimate feelings are written and forwarded to their loved ones.Happiness is in the air ….

However on 14th February, 2014, the roses came but they were splattered with the vermilion splashes of fresh blood. Aarush's parents came but their bodies were taken away. Their souls were not to be found anymore…

Tragic mishap on the highway kills couple

Feb 15, 2014 - Two people were killed and another met with serious injuries in the city market as a Heavy Duty Dumper failed to see an oncoming car and drove right into it. Both the passengers of the car were instantaneously killed whereas the driver of the Dumper was seriously injured. The driver is reported to be currently in a stable condition in AAK Hospital.

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The news article came in a small corner of the city's news. The names of the couple who were killed were not even mentioned….

Aaruini Chatterjee and Vardhan Chatterjee were the names. Aarush was their only child.

Aarush still remembers the day perfectly as if the memory has been ingrained in his brain. He was only eight years old at that time and had a wish of having a toy. He had literally forced his parents to go and buy it after making a ruckus at home. His parents had met with the accident on their way back. Aarush still remembers those blood dropped spleen, his mother's blood soaked saree and his father's indecipherable face, when their bodies were brought home. He had cried a lot that day….and for the following months. Some days he would see his parents in his dreams...some days he would hear sounds. Some days he even thought his mom stood at the corner of his eyes but vanished as soon as he turned his head. He would feel his mom's presence near him when on a bad day….but he would never really see her again. However Aarush earnestly believed that his mom's and dad's souls lay within him and empowered him during his hard days... And will always do so.

But he had adjusted well, after this he had no place to stay so his grandparents came to stay with him and have been with him ever since. From the outside, Aarush looked to cope well enough, his marks had dropped but only momentarily, he seemed cheerful enough, always had a smile and even developed a funny sense of humour. But only he knew what he had to go through and was still going through….each and everyday he would smile when the sun was in the sky but when the sun went down and everything was dark, Aarush silently cried the whole nights…. This continued for months and even years. Still if someone said anything about his mom or whenever he would see other parents at the school's Parent Teacher Meeting his heart would melt, and his scars felt fresh…. On his birthdays he always wanted to give their parents the first bite of the cake….

He wanted to see his mother and his father… and even stayed up nights childishly thinking about ways they would meet in heaven…

His sense of humour was actually his defense mechanism… he always tried to make light of situations that would hurt him in any way…. No one noticed and he didn't want to tell anyone… But his grandparents took care of everything for him from doing his homeworks when he felt too sad to waking up in the morning and doing his school lunches… but they were old….

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There were two police vans standing outside the two storied house on the end of MK street. The officer in charge was asking for details from an old man about his grandson who had mysteriously disappeared… also another young boy who read in the same school.

'I don't know inspector, everything was fine...normal' said Grandpa Max. 'Okay, we will be searching everywhere for Aarush...don't be afraid. We will surely find him and once we do we will straightaway report to you.' replied the Inspector. Saying this, the police departed, they had looked for every detail anywhere…

It was Grandpa Max who had found Aarush's disappearance and had called everyone of his friends … However when Aarush didn't return till 10 a.m, he had been forced to call the cops. The cops had arrived within an hour and had searched everywhere from the basement to the cellar for any clues. They had even scanned the whole floor with a magnifying glass, called a few of Aarush's friends. His phone too could not be tracked. At last, after a search of more than three hours, the cops had given up any hopes of finding clues about Aarush's dissapearance in the house. Interestingly, the same thing about for Darsh too. The fact that both of their mobiles could not be tracked had annoyed the sub inspector a great deal and had flummoxed the technicians.

Grandpa Max heaved a heavy sigh, as he closed the main gate of the house. Gran had cried a pool of tears. And she was still crying.. she didn't want to lose another person close to her ...it would rip her heart.

'Parvati, I don't know…..' said Max with tearful eyes..he cared. 'Hope, it's the only thing we can depend upon...hope...it has kept people alive...let's hope…' Gran said with droplets of tears coming down her eyes.