Page 17 - Cornice_Grade 7

for her the whole night, she didn’t come home.”
Worried, I tried calling mama. She wasn’t picking up. and also as I didn’t really wake up so early. But that’s
Is mama okay? Why isn’t she picking up? Where is
she? How is she? I tried to calm down. I was being
paranoid. Maybe the body wasn’t mama’s? I got
another call from papa. It was unusual as papa never
really called me.
I picked it up.
“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? Tsering.” Papa said. was about time Abhishek would come home. After
“Yes, it has. I never thought you would call me ever
again” I said.
“Nor did I, but this is about your mother.”
“...Is she okay?”
“I thought you would know. She calls you regularly,
doesn’t she?”
“So you knew?”
“I did, and I allowed it as well. You should appreciate
it.”
“Okay. Thanks I guess.”
“Well, have you seen your mama or heard of her at
least?”
“No, not at all. We usually called on Fridays, which
you probably knew, but as she had a reunion with
her friends that day, we couldn’t call. Does that mean
she’s missing?”
“I'm not sure. She should’ve been home by yester-
day. She told me she would notify me if she had a
sleepover or anything. I even called her friend, she
said that Tara had left around 9:00 p.m. But I waited
“Oh.. Well you see papa, I think- I think- I think she’s
dead..”
“..What makes you think such a thing..?”
“This morning papa, I received a present box with a
note and a woman’s severed body parts inside. I don’t
get why anyone would send that to me.. Nor, who
that could be.. But I believe it could be mama.. You
know, after all she’s the only woman I talk to often..
The woman I'm most close to..”
“That makes sense.. I’ll report her missing for now, I
don’t think the police will think of me as innocent if
I tell them she was murdered. Call me if you figure
anything out. I’ll get going for now.”
“Okay.”
It was true. She was really gone. I was infuri-
ated. Who could’ve done this? Who would want to
see me suffer? She was innocent. She never did any
harm to anyone. I tried thinking of all possible sus-
pects who could do something like this. Maybe papa?
But no, he couldn’t do that. He loved mama. Even
if he was disgusted by me, he loved her. He would
never do anything like that. I didn’t know what to
do. It was hard to believe that she was actually dead.
I thought of going back to bed and sleeping it off,
when the police arrived. They asked me questions
about the incident and took the box back to their
station. They told me they would call me if anything
was needed from me. After that I ended up sleeping
until my stomach woke me up, as it was empty. I got
up and ate food. I checked the time, it was 2 p.m. It
10 minutes, I heard my phone ring. I went to pick it
up. It was the police. The police told me that the body
was identified and that it was my mom indeed. I was
about to break down on the spot but then I heard the
doorbell ring. It was Abhi. It really was him. I never
thought I would’ve been so happy to see him in my
entire life. As soon as I opened the door, I hugged
him and cried. He was startled, but hugged me back.
He helped comfort me by saying that we all lose
someone we love, and that we have to accept it, and
that he was there for me if I ever needed him. We
ended up watching movies together and spending
time to cheer up. I felt better as Abhi was here with
me now.
The next day I woke up and made breakfast
for the two of us. I woke Abhi up and then we ate. It
was already 9am. We got ready to go to the ghewa. I
was ready to introduce Abhi to papa as well. On the
way I kept rehearsing how to tell papa that Abhi was