Chapter 2

Day 1

My door bell rings. It must be Aashay. He has been calling me on my mobile.

Aashay, who works in the same bank as me, stays two blocks away. We car pool, and today it's my turn to drive.

I grab my suit case and hurry towards the door.

After exchanging good mornings, we don't talk to each other till we are seated in the car.

"Let's stop at the cake shop on the way. I am starving," I say, as I steer the car onto the main road.

"Why? Navya didn't cook or what today?" He asks, chuckling. He knows how I never fail to carry a home made tiffin. It is one of the things I most often get teased about.

I am not sure what to tell him. I take a few moments pause before speaking.

"We had a fight last night," I tell him.

"Oh, but that doesn't stop that wife of yours from giving you your tiffin, right?" He laughs.

"No. Actually she had stormed out of the house. And I am not sure when she came back," I say, summarizing the entire event in the least possible words.

"Oh, was it serious?" Aashay asks.

"Not so serious according to me," I shrug, "but...women...!" I trail off.

Aashay nods in understanding.

The rest of the way, we make small talk, my participation is half hearted. We pick up donuts on the way and I get myself busy eating one, even as I head to my cabin. I keep sneaking glances at my mobile phone, anticipating some response from Navya. A message, a call. Something. But nothing comes.

At lunch break, when I have still not heard anything from Navya and her phone is still switched off, I call Niyati.

Niyati is her friend, and colleague at the school. They generally have lunch together and I am hoping to get hold of Navya on her phone.

"What? She hasn't come to school today," Niyati says, her voice puzzled, when I ask her if she can give the phone to Navya.

I pause. I have been assuming the whole time that Navya is at her school. If she isn't there, where the hell is she?

"What happened Sumedh? Everything alright?" Niyati asks, worried.

"Yes...um...when did you get to know she is not coming to school today?" I ask her.

"She messaged yesterday evening, that she won't be coming for a couple of days. That something urgent has come up," Niyati says.

I am flabbergasted.

We fought yesterday night. Navya disappeared after that.

But how did she message Niyati yesterday evening that she wouldn't be going to school for next couple of days, before we even met? As far as I know, nothing had come up and there was no reason for her to miss school!

So when we fought, she already had plans to go somewhere? Was that why she picked up a fight? Was the storming off out of the house in a fit of rage premeditated? If so, why? What was the need? What was there to hide? Unless...

My mind is suddenly a whirlwind of thoughts I am unable to stop. I am brought back to the present by Niyati's voice.

"What happened Sumedh? Hasn't she told you? Did you guys fight or something?"

"No...I mean, yes, we had a bit of an argument...but...Niyati, I will call you later...".

I realize I am hyperventilating.

I am completely at loss of words.

Niyati is saying something in protest but I disconnect.

Why would Navya do something like this? Is she hiding something from me? Is she in any kind of danger? Or has she found out about...

Should I call the police?

"Sumedh? One round of drinks tonight?" Vikram calls out from the adjacent table where all of my mates are gathered together, chit chatting and laughing. I have been so tuned out that I don't even know what they are celebrating.

"No...I..er...I have some commitment tonight," I stammer.

What am I supposed to do? What if she doesn't come home tonight as well? Is she punishing me? Or is she in some danger?

There is no way I can know that!

I absent mindedly call Navya's number again. It is still switched off.

Someone pats my shoulder.

Startled, I turn around.

"Not able to reach out to her yet?" Aashay asks.

"No, I am getting worried," I say.

"Have you called her sister?" Aashay asks.

Navya doesn't have parents. She lost them within a year of our marriage to a car accident. And her sister stays in the UK. So it seems impossible that she has any idea either.

"I haven't. I don't want her to be worried unnecessarily. Anyway she's too far away and there's not much she can do at the moment," I say.

Aashay sighs. "Do you want to wait? Or should we...?" He leaves his sentence incomplete.

I know he is implying whether we should go to the police.

"Let's wait till evening. And hope that she turns up," I say.

Aashay nods in understanding and goes back to his cabin.

Time seems to literally have come to a standstill. I keep counting seconds, minutes, hours as they pass by painfully slowly, wondering if the next moment would be the one when Navya calls back. But that moment never comes.

By evening, Navya has neither received my innumerous call, nor has she called or messaged.

So finally, I decide to go to the police station.