Unbroken

Footages and Secrets

Henrietta returned home with a cheerful mind. She was really happy how Michael came forward to make her lightened up and even protested for her when the whole class was against both of them. The most beautiful thing was Michael totally have given his consent on befriending her. That was so sweet of him.

Throwing her backpack on the couch, she sat on the chair untying her converse laces. Mom was at the parking lot talking with the neighbor's grandmother on how she was bound to spend her winter in this chilling freezing area with grandchildren.

Henrietta had her bathe and when she came out she found mom on the cordless telephone talking to Mrs. Brown, Silvia's mother about the release of Silvia from the hospital and how'd she been now.

"Mom!", Henrietta interrupted.

"Yes, sweety?", said mom covering the mouthpiece of the cordless.

"Mom, I guess you are talking to Silvia's mom. May I get Silvia on phone please?"

"A minute baby."

Mom again went to Mrs. Brown and asked her if she was around Silvia. Henrietta didn't hear what Mrs. Brown answered but mom handed the phone to her, "Silvia on the phone."

"Hey, Silvia, how are you now?"

"I'm fine, Henrietta. How are you?"

"I'm good. But, how was your day today? The hospital discharged you, right?"

"Yes, they did. Umm, the day was usual. Nothing special to say. But I'm sort of excited about tomorrow. You know why?"

"Excited for tomorrow? What is it about?"

"I had called Mrs. Francia who is the attendance of the close circuit camera of the school. I oiled her too much that she got convinced to hand me over the video footages of last two weeks. She inserted those clips in my pen drive that has been rotting in the locker for few months. Isn't it exciting?"

"Honestly, it is totally exciting. By the way, did you arrange it to watch the footages of the day before yesterday when you were locked? Had you done that to find out who locked you?"

"That's why I call you brilliant! Yes. I want to see whom did lock me in the bathroom that day. Its going to be real fun to catch that creep and hand him or her over the principal and would get a cool punishment. By the way, can you come over my place tomorrow evening if you don't have home works? "

"I think so. I don't have any due homework. So, I can come. No problem. "

"Great! Well, I called Michael too. You know Michael? "

"Of course I do! He is really a nice and sweet guy. You know what, he befriended me all in front of the whole class! That was beyond my imagination."

"Wait! Seriously? You're a lucky kid, Henrietta! Every girl of grade nine and ten have been roaming around him to just get a silly 'Hey'. And, he befriended you in front of the class. I bet that McKenzie and Reagan are dying! Cool!"

"Yes. It was totally amusing how McKenzie reacted when he sang that friendship song for me. And there was another blonde girl, maybe Reagan, as you said arguing too much with Michael about why did he sing a song for me. That was insane!"

"What? Michael sang a song for you? Were you daydreaming? I mean, this is another bomb. I can't digest more surprise today."

"Really? I thought you knew. Because he told that you told him to arrange this song for me. Didn't he visit you last night at hospital?"

"Yes. He did. But we didn't have a talk about this. Really?"

"Yes, Silvia. I wonder why?"

"Aww! Now I got it! Maybe he has a secret crush on you. Huh?"

"Stop nonsense Silvia! Well, mom is calling me. I'll see you soon at the school. Bye."

"Bye. It was really appreciable how efficient you are in case of changing topic.", Silvia was laughing hard.

Putting the cordless down, Henrietta thought if Michael surely had a crush on her. Leaving all those beautiful girls and cheerleaders and students president out there, Michael came forward to sing a song to her. That was beautiful.

Henrietta got up. She had to prepare her lessons for the next day. Moreover, she needed to do extra homework today as she had to visit Silvia tomorrow. That was going to be super exciting to find out who did lock Silvia in washroom. As a bonus, if it was found to be McKenzie as the criminal, that would be as sweet as a birthday gift.

***

Henrietta had reached Silvia's home. It was in the outskirts of town almost near the sea beach. There was almost no crowd, no traffic jam. Literally, far from the madding crowd.

Silvia had copied the video clips on her laptop. They were waiting for Michael to come and they would start. Mrs. Brown had been coming every minute with lots of snacks of what half was not finished by the two of them in the past one hour.

The bell rang. It was Michael. Silvia ran to open the door. Henrietta would have been glad if she could run too and welcomed Michael warmly. But, this place was kind of new for her to know each and every steps of it like her own house.

Michael entered the room. Henrietta guessed it from the smell of CARBON. That perfume was sort of amazing and cool.

"Hey, Henrietta!"

"Hey, Michael! How are you?"

"I'm always cool. By the way, you're looking beautiful today."

"Really? But I didn't wear anything special today."

"Yes, you did. Though I'm a guy, but I'm pretty concerned about the fashion and swag of everyone around me. And, my fashion critic mind says me that you too have an awesome fashion sense. Like, the top you are wearing is white in color but has pink large buttons that are floral printed. Then, the bottom you're wearing also suits. It is pink in color that has incorporated really amazingly with your yellow converse."

"Thank you! But, I must confess that I don't have any good fashion sense. You know, I can't see. So, I just pull out anything from my wardrobe and wear them. If I were a normal girl like Silvia, then this compliment was appropriate for me, not now."

Michael shut down. He didn't want to remind Henrietta about her blindness. He thought how stupid he was being.

Then, Silvia entered with cheetos in her hands.

"Guys! I think we should start watching the CCTV footages."

"Silvia, please wait a minute. I think something has fallen on my eyes.", Michael ran towards the basin rubbing his eyes.

Silvia sat on the chair and tried to refresh her laptop and said, "Henrietta! Have some cheetos. Dad brought them from Europe."

"Thanks. But, Silvia, is Michael a fashion critic?"

"Phew! Not at all! He doesn't even bother to know what he wears in highschool. You're not going to believe, I saw him wearing baby pink shirt with dark purple denim. And, yeah, he wore a red shoe. But, leave them. That is past. Now, his mom and dad helps him choosing dresses when they go shopping. By the way, why are you asking?"

"Oh, nothing! Just asking."

Then, Michael entered the room. Silvia noticed that his shirt was totally drenched. Maybe, he carelessly spilt some water over himself.

"For the sake of me, can we start watching the video footages now?", Silvia asked.

"Oh, yeah! " Michael had himself settled down. He didn't want Silvia to get impatient.

Silvia clicked the video footage that started playing in the Windows Media Player. They looked curiously into the video. Their heart were beating fast, they were almost sweating in tension. But, not Henrietta. She couldn't see anything.

Few minutes later, they saw what they wanted to. But, that wasn't enough. They saw something more of it which almost blew their heads up. They had to admit that it was seriously a brilliant job done by Silvia to collect these video clips because these contained solution to a great problem to what Henrietta was engaged.

BUT WHAT DID THEY SEE?