New Beginnings

36-Sia is missing

Everything went back to normal well as normal as we could be in this situation. Uncle, Aunt and Rishi promised that whatever happened would never happen again and it was enough for me.

Even though it was weekend, Raghav and I woke up early. Cursing ourselves for waking up early on the very day we could have slept in, we thought to make up for it by watching a movie, so went to the living room.

"Who watches movie so early in the morning?" Aunt groaned, coming out of her room.

"We do", we answered in unison.

Shaking her head at us, she went inside the kitchen.

She came back after a while and paused the movie.

"MOM!" "AUNT!"

We both yelled in frustration. Why did she stop the movie when the good part was about to come?

"Stop groaning. We are short on many things, you two need to go for grocery shopping", Aunt said handling us the list.

"Can we please go after finishing this movie?" I asked, while making puppy eyes.

"NOW", she shouted sternly.

"Let's go. It's no use to fight with Mom", Raghav told me in resignation.

Sighing, I too stood up. Rishi was so lucky to have slept in.

"Do you know how to bargain?" Raghav asked curiously, while we were on our way.

My eyes furrowed in confusion.

"I didn't know that we could bargain at the mall".

"We aren't going to mall. We are going to buy all this from the market", he cleared my confusion with a laugh.

"Don't laugh", I pouted.

"Won't it be better to buy it from the mall? We could get everything from one place", I suggested.

"Malls are expensive. Plus you get fresh fruits and vegetables from market", Raghav answered.

Humming at his answer, I continued to walk further in silence.

Fortunately, he didn't look annoyed by my continuous questions. He was always the best person out of everyone, when I wanted to clear my doubts about town life.

We were done with most of our purchase and were at the last store. Raghav was taking money from his wallet, when I saw Samar passing by.

"You pay, I will come in a minute", telling this to Raghav, I went behind Samar.

"Samar, wait".

Hearing me, he turned towards me.

"Looks like I was right about you being a stalker. Wherever I go, you are always there", he said smiling cheekily.

"Oh shut up. I am not a stalker. It's because of the size of the town that we cross paths with everybody atleast once in a week", I told him in a matter of fact tone.

I had a sudden thought that how we never crossed paths in vacations.

On asking him, he replied, "I spent my vacations in a camp for disables".

"Is the camp any good. What do you do there?" I asked him curiously.

"Yup. We learn new things that helps us become independent. About what I do, I spent first 3 days of the week learning and the other 3 helping the new bees and on sundays we just mingle around", he explained smiling.

I nodded smiling at his answer but then realised that he can't see me.

Face palming myself, I informed him, "I nodded and smiled at your words".

He shook his head, and chuckled at my antics. Raghav too came back with the bags of our purchase.

Handling me some of the bags, he greeted Samar,"Hey Man", side hugging him.

I suddenly remembered that while talking about all these things I forgot the main reason I called him.

"Here, this is for the icecream you paid for me last sunday", I spoke while giving him money.

"What's the need for this? It was just an icecream", he said refusing the money.

"I don't like being in debt, whether it's a huge one or small one like this. Plus we discussed this last time itself and you agreed", I spoke, not budging from my decision.

He sighed but finally accepted the money.

"Good thing, you learned fast. No one can ever refuse Trisha", Raghav commented, making fun of me.

I just slightly pushed him laughing.

We stood there talking about random things when Raghav pointed out, "Isn't that Tanya?"

I turned towards the direction he pointed and saw Tanya looking here and there, panic clear on her face.

Calling out to her, I asked, "What happened?"

"Sia is missing", she replied in panic.

"What?" we all shouted in shock.

"I came here with Sia but got busy on a phone call. Sia was standing beside me but by the time I finished my call, she was nowhere to be seen", she explained to us in a stressed tone.

"Seriously Tanya, this is the second time it happened. That day on the park you did the same thing, got busy on the phone while leaving Sia alone", Samar lost his temper.

While Raghav looked confused, I knew that he was talking about last sunday when instead of Tanya, we took care of Sia.

Coming out of the thoughts I told them, "We can talk about this later. Finding Sia should be our first priority. Let's go in different directions, it would save time".

"Yes, you are right. Samar you go home as you would not be able to help us as you can't see", Tanya said and walked away in hurry to search for Sia.

"Goodness!! How can she be so insensitive?" Raghav questioned angrily, looking at the direction Tanya went.

"It's fine, I don't mind. It's not like she said something wrong", Samar said, trying hard to not show how her words had hurted him.

Raghav went away to search for Sia after being assured that Samar was okay.

"Come with me", I told him.

"Don't pity me. You know, I would be of no help to you. Infact I may end up causing more trouble and waste your time", he said with a sad smile, barely managing to hide his hurt.

Looking at him sharply (even though he won't know about it), I told him to get out of his self-pitied state.

"Who said you won't be of any help? Your hearing is far better than mine.
We will search for her together. I will be the eyes, you be the ears".

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