Tu Hai

Chapter 11

[2013]

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My heart sank and raced, all at once. I didn't have a good feeling about how things turned out, but I was helpless. Restlessly, I paced around our living room, clasping my phone between my sweaty palms. It had been three hours since Abhimanyu left, and he left behind, with me, a bag of worries that I couldn't get rid of. I tried calling him up, again, but the response still remained the same.

Midst the cold, I began to sweat and shake; my hands began to tremble and heart pounded in its chest. I couldn't breathe, nor think straight.

I scrolled through my contact list and dialed Abhimanyu's best friend's number, and as the outgoing rings rung in my ears, my heart prayed for him to be with his best friend.

"Hello, Navya! How are you?".

"Hey...is Abhi with you?".

"Abhi? No. Is everything okay?".

"Uh---yes...like, yes. I'll call you later".

"No! Wait. You don't sound okay".

"He went for a drive three hours ago, and he hasn't returned yet. His phone is not reachable".

"He'll be home, don't worry about him. You know how crazy he is about driving through the countryside and you usually don't find good signal on those roads".

His words failed to comfort me, because nothing felt right. I had a gut feeling about it. The happenings in the morning at the hospital, his mental state of mind and his sudden disappearance; nothing felt right. And, how could I plainly tell his best-friend about everything that happened? I simply chipped a goodbye, and hung up, with hopes that his best friend's would come true.

Slowly, the sun set and three hours had turned into eight, but Abhimanyu didn't return. His phone remained unreachable, and my heart continued to thud in fear. The situation was beyond my control; I didn't know what to do, other than stand on the tip of my toes and anticipate for his arrival. A part of my heart still cried over the bitter truth that I could never become a mother, and another part of it screamed out Abhimanyu's name. I was torn between two things; I couldn't entirely cry out my sadness, not could I face my fear.

I held my phone between my hands, looking down at it, but after giving it a thought, I kept it aside. I decided to wait for another two hours, before calling up his best-friend. His best-friend had a point – Abhi had an unexplainable madness for long drives...what if he drove to a faraway countryside, and what if that took him a long time? It would obviously take him a while to return.

Although my mind questioned why I couldn't reach him, through calls, I kept the thought away and tried hard to remain positive. But the light on the other end of the tunnel began to dim, as the needles of the clock ticked away. With my fingers that shook, I called his best-friend up and licked my dried lips, as I pushed my tears back.

Abhimanyu wouldn't stay away for that long, no matter what went wrong between us. He'd never leave me alone...especially, on the day when I needed him the most. He wasn't selfish to care for himself, only. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. My heart knew it, and I desperately wanted someone to prove my heart wrong.

"Navya?", Surya– his best-friend – sleepily mumbled into the call and a cry left my mouth. I burst out and cried all my heart out; I couldn't stay calm, or strong, or optimistic anymore. "Abhi di---he didn't come back yet?", Surya questioned. "No! Surya, it has been over 10 hours now. You know, Abhi wouldn't simply leave me hanging this way", I cried. "S--S--Surya, he—he wasn't in the right state of mind when he left. I'm just so scared", I revealed. "Don't panic. He would be around. Maybe, he's in one of his friends' house! Do one thing, call everyone you know. I'll come see you soon!", he ordered and I hung up.