After having her food, Aruhi felt better and more energetic. She finally felt as if she was ready to move on from the Tiraha incident. She started to think about her future when suddenly her father started collecting all the dirty utensils and taking them to the kitchen sink.
Aruhi said, " Leave them, dad. Today is my turn. I'll wash them. You go and rest."
" Don't worry yourself about this. I'll manage. You clean the dining table and go to your room," replied Rajesh.
Actually, Aruhi used to live alone with her father, after her mother's death. Around five years earlier, when the whole family went for a vacation in the mountains, when her mother slipped her feet and fell down the side of the mountain into a ditch.
Aruhi's father, Rajesh, was a simple primary school teacher and was not rich enough to employ someone to help around the house and hence he and Aruhi had divided the chores between themselves.
After cleaning the table, Aruhi washed her hands and feet then went to room and locked the door quickly, causing a very loud noise. She checked her mobile quickly, hoping to get any message from Pradeep. However, Pradeep had not seen her message. It was not even delivered. She wanted to talk to Pradeep about all her thoughts that were eating her up inside. She sat down on her bed, disheartened.
All of a sudden, a thought struck her. Why not talk to everyone who went to Tiraha! Unfortunately, she did not have their number. She should have been more social and not so introverted. Now she had only one way, "Sameer".
Hmmm... Now she had to talk to him. Alone.
Aruhi did not want to talk to Sameer. They were good friends but since Sameer had revealed his feelings for her, things had been awkward between them.
However, Aruhi had no other choice as her thoughts were eating her up on the inside.
Unfortunately, even Sameer was offline.
" What is happening? Why is everyone offline during this holiday? Am I the only stupid person today?"
So she could not do anything else other than sit with her phone in hand.
Aruhi took a long breath and looked around her room. Her eyes fell on the clock hanging from the wall above the window in front of her bed. It was nine pm. She got up from the bed and went to the window. Looking outside, her eyes fell on Pal's Kitchen, which was open even though it was almost empty. Her eyes fell on the Pals Kitchen parking lot which was almost deserted with only three or four cars. Due to the winter months setting in, less people were out so late.
Just then her mobile piped with the sound of notification. She picked up her phone from her bed. There was a new notification about a group chat. She looked at the members.
Sameer
Pradeep
Himanshu
Lata
Rishav
Me
There was also a new message from Sameer.
"Hey guys. Plz add Kuldeep, Harsh and Pooja if you have their number."
Aruhi felt happy in her mind that Sameer understood what she wanted easily with little fuss.
Suddenly, her phone rang with another notification. This time it was a message from Pradeep.
"Sorry. Phone swtchd off. Got a srprse 4 u. Tlk 2 u 2morrow. Bye. Gd night. Tc"
Aruhi turned off her phone again and went to the window. Looking at the moon she suddenly remembered that Pradeep had been recently writing a poem about the moon.
"Shit! Is that the surprise?" She thought to herself.
She did not really like the poems that poems Pradeep wrote, but she could never say that to him. She liked it when Pradeep shared anything with her, no matter how bad it was. It made her feel special.
Aruhi was smiling thinking about Pradeep and his poem when all of a sudden her bracelet started vibrating. For a second, she felt paralyzed with fear. She tried to pull the bracelet with her other hand. All of a sudden her eyes fell on the sky above Pal's Kitchen. She could see the silhouette of a big space-ship like thing there. However, it disappeared in a few seconds and the bracelet also stopped vibrating.
Aruhi became confused. She could not understand anything. Was that all a piece of her imagination? Was she going going mad sitting in her room all day? Unable to process all that, Aruhi sat down on her bed heavily. Was this all a dream? She wondered.
Aruhi's phone pinged again. There was a new notification. Lata had changed their group name to 11->T-2. She could not understand what that meant.
Suddenly there was a new message in the group.
Kuldeep: What's 11->T-2??
Lata: Total 11 of us went to Tiraha and 2 disappeared. Hence 11->T-2.
Kuldeep: Wtf!! 😑
A little later Pooja, Harsh and Himanshu left the group, irritated by Lata's insensitivity. Even Rishav sent a few choice words Lata's way.
Aruhi felt irritated with all their antics. She could not understand what was happening. So she wrapped herself up in a blanket and laid down on the bed all the while trying to remove the bracelet from her wrist.
