The Suitcase With Memories...

Peter was having a heavy headache the next day morning and it took him a while before he could gather what happened the day before. He was lying on a pile of Bella's photos, and he wondered if anything bad happened to her. He immediately called for Mark.

Mark entered Peter's room looking crossed and very sad.

" Mark… Did you see Bella anywhwere yesterday..? I want to meet her now, just check whether she is at her home..?"

" Mr. Peter Robinson, aren't you a bit too extreme at punishing that poor thing. You have made her suffer too much.. now stop it, She was crying pitifully yesterday, that is the worst you can do.. "

Mark was all red and swollen up now..

"What are you saying, Mark.. Think well before you speak anything.." Peter was getting angry now. It was the first time he saw Mark with such a face and he was in no mood of putting up a fight..

"Why should I think..? Why don't you think a bit before you hurt such a helpless being, who could neither hear nor speak, and she was crying so miserably yesterday.. What have you done to her..?"

"What!! You mean Bella was here yesterday? Then when did she leave.. why didn't she meet me.. And what do you mean by saying that she was crying… Tell me clearly Mark, its really important."

Now it was Mark's turn to look surprised. What does his boss mean by telling that he did know that Bella was here yesterday.. Then why else was she crying..??

" Yesterday afternoon, Bella was about to meet with an accident on the road near our office. I saved her and looking at her, I saw that she had been crying badly.. So I thought you might have made her cry. Are you sure you did not see her yesterday?"

Mark was still not sure if his boss was telling the truth.

" Now I get it all, she might have seen the presentations and misunderstood me. I have to rush to her and clear up her misunderstanding. So yesterday she had come..!! She had not insulted me.. she had come, .." Peter was all smiles now and Mark was surprised to see his boss suddenly all happy. Mark was slightly getting a picture of what happened yesterday but he was still not sure of giving his dream girl to his boss.. He still did not believe his boss fully so he will always be there behind Bella to protect her if he did anything wrong.

Bella woke up very early in the morning. She have to get that key from Mrs Thompson's place. But before that she wished to know some details about her parents. They were a complete stranger to her and the gardener blabbered things that she never understood properly. What exactly is this secret..? And who exactly was her father..? She needed answers to these questions.

She looked around the house, she wondered was there anything in this room that could give her any clue.. She took out her old schoolbag and placed her parents photo in it, then her little panda toy, the other pair of her dress.. The bag was already full. She did not know how much time she will be away from this house, the gardener said that it was risky, but she was determined to go. Just as she was about to leave the storeroom, she noticed an old suitcase. It had been there for years, the time since they shifted here. Her Aunt had once said that it had things of her parents, but at that time, Bella was scared of her parents. She was scared of that suitcase right from her childhood.. But today was not a day to get scared.

Bella went to the suitcase and took it out under the huge mess of dust and spider webs.. She had started to cough just by shifting its one side from the huge pile of dust.. In an hour or two, she managed to free the suitcase from the old rummages, clean it with a wet cloth and sat down with it to open it.. It was a wooden suitcase.. It had beautiful handmade carvings on it of two lovebirds twining onto a rose branch.. Underneath them was written L&J in an artistic manner. It might be Lawrence and Juliet, Bella thought and a shiver ran through her spine as she thought about the name, even now her parent's name gives her scary shivers..

Luckily, the suitcase was not locked but the iron hinge in between were rusted really bad and it creaked and broke as she opened it.

Finally…. She opened it.. And there were a pile of things in it. Unknowingly, Bella started crying as she placed her hands onto her mother's skirt. It was a beautiful skirt with pink laces and colorful floral designs on it. The top was a high neck small one with a beautiful rose embroidery in the chest region. Bella sniffed the dress.. She could get a strange smell of roses, maybe her mother smelled of roses, she smiled. She carefully folded it back into the suitcase and searched for anything more. Under it there was a white shirt.. It was a men's shirt and it smelled of roses too.. It might be her father's, she wondered. She kept it back too after carefully folding it..

She suddenly came across a book, it was a diary.. and on its front were written.. Don't dare to open it.. Its Juliet Lawrence.. And there were two beautiful photos on the front page.. One of her mother holding hands with her aunt when they were very young, it was an old photo and her aunt had that similar smirking face right from the childhood. But she looked very happy, such a lively face, she had never seen her aunt look so happy and cheerful ever. Another photo was of her parents.. They were holding there hands and standing with all smiles in a … rose garden… just like in her dream… A garden which was an exact replica of Mrs Mathew's.. but there were only roses in it unlike that of Mrs Mathew's garden… Bella wondered where it was…

She turned the pages.. Her mother had written this diary after her marriage.. She quickly tucked the diary onto her bag. She searched the suitcase for anything further but couldn't find anything except for a seal.. It was an L&J seal too.. She wondered why did there parents have a seal on their name. She tucked it too inside her bag. Just as she stuffed all other things back to the suitcase to close it, an old parchment stood out of the suitcase.. She took it out and read it..

The Rose garden

By Lawrence & Juliet

The paper looked like a torn first page of an old book.. There was nothing more written in it.. She took out her mother's diary and kept the paper in it and placed it carefully on her bag. Now she had to search for the key and she will read her mother's diary on the way to find out what this secret is all about.. She looked out of the room… Everyone were still asleep.. She took out a few buns and stored juices from the fridge and stuffed it in her bag.

Bella also took out a paper and wrote in it,

'I might be out for a while.'

Bella.

She placed the paper on the kitchen table..

And left out to Mrs Thompson's house.

Bella couldn't hear but she could sense it everytime, someone were following her and she remembered the old gardener saying, "You are surrounded by enemies.." She quickened her pace in the dark and got on the first bus she found..