SEVENTY-ONE

When the car finally stopped, it was at the gate of Olga Children's Home. I wondered what that meant. Could it be that Olga Children's Home had re-opened, and I had missed the news? But even if it had, was Anisha not too old to be staying at the home? There were age limits to children who could stay there; were there not? I watched closely as Anisha got off the car and sneaked through the gate which was slightly opened. The cab drove off.

I pulled out my phone to call Pete.

"Is Olga Children's home now open? Did they open it again?" I asked as soon as the call connected.

"Olga? No! it's still closed. Why?"

"Well, that's where she is now. The cab dropped her off by the gate of Olga children's home!"

"Find a way to get inside and find out what she is doing there" Pete advised.

"What if she sees me?", I asked.

"Make sure she doesn't!" Pete laughed. That was one thing which usually irritated me when it comes to Pete. He always laughed, even during moments when I thought we were serious.

"I'm not joking, Pete!" I said sternly.

"Neither am I! Ok, do you want me to join you there! I can get there in forty-five minutes!"

"That's too long! Try and make if twenty!"

"OK, thirty!" he laughed again.

"Twenty, Pete. I will wait for you." Before he could object, I ended the call.

After roughly about seven minutes, Pete's car pulled through, and he jumped off. It was already starting to get dark.

"Oh, I thought you had said you'll be here after thirty or so minutes?" I asked him, pleased that he was there much earlier than speculated.

"Yep. I was just pulling your leg. I'm here! Detective Pete is here!" he said.

"Pete, for once, can you just stop the jokes?"

"Is she still in there?" he asked me, suddenly picking a serious tone.

"Yes she is" I told him.

"OK, I brought you some food," he opened his car and took out a bag of food.

"Food?" I asked. I was honestly starving, but I did not want to wait any longer. "Let me go and get my woman first, and then we will talk about food!"

Pete just laughed and said, "OK, just drink the water and let's get going! The last thing I want is you fainting on me."

"Why would I faint?" I asked as I caught the water bottle which he threw at me.

"From hunger," he laughed.

Pete was walking in front of me, and he turned to look at me, "do you remember when we used to come here, when we were school boys?"

"How could I forget?", I smiled.

It was very silent inside the Olga premises. We passed by the hall; the place where I has first laid eyes on Anisha. That hall meant a lot to me. I looked at the hall and remembered the good old days. Anisha singing a song, Anisha carrying a baby in her arms, Anisha helping a toddler ….I smiled to myself.

"Let's go, de Milo!", Pete whispered, making me realize that I had stopped in my tracks as I was busy staring at the hall. We moved closer to the hall. The doors were wide open, and the place looked deserted. A few dusty benches were there; the same old benches which I often saw her sitting on. The windows were coated in thick film of dust and spider webs were almost everywhere in the building.

We continued walking. Our plan was to check each and every building. It was very dark, we used the moonlight which, to our advantage, was very bright on that day.

"Look! There is a light flickering in that room!", Pete pointed at a building.

We walked silently towards it, and when we were very close, we heard voices.

"…he was very happy to see me!", I heard Anisha's voice.

"I know, right! It's good that the Woodruffs allow you to visit him every Sunday!", came a female voice which I failed to recognise.

"And now I can't wait until next Sunday, when I get to see Liam again." There was excitement in Anisha's voice.

"I'm sure he too cannot wait to see you," the other voice spoke.

They were silent for a while, and Anisha said in a sad voice, "Liam is the only person I have. He is the only one who genuinely loves me…."

"Shh, enough of that, Anisha. You're going to make yourself sad again. You have me. You and I have each other. Let's not talk about that de Milo doctor. We agreed that he is out of our league, and we agreed never to cry over him again."

Pete and I exchanged glances full of surprise.

"I know", Anisha spoke. "It's not easy, Val. I'm trying my best. I just never realized that he could be that arrogant."

At that time I knew that the person she was talking to was Valentina, after she addressed her as Val.

"Give yourself time. You will soon forget about him!" Valentina spoke.

We heard the sound of plates, or maybe cups, clinking, before Valentina's voice rang out, "here! Hold the plate! I'm burning! Hold the plate Anisha!"

"I'm sorry", Anisha laughed.

"You're laughing!"

"I couldn't help it! You should have seen your face! I'm sorry my friend." Anisha struggled to keep in the laughter.

"Tomorrow you're the one cooking!" Valentina sulked.

"Yes I will cook."

"And I will leave you to burn your fingers!" Valentina spoke like a whining little girl.

Anisha laughed again, and then, "I said I'm sorry. You can be clumsy sometimes, Val. You should have told me in time that you were about to hand over a hot plate to me."

"Whatever you say! You're cooking tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after!"

"I will cook for the whole week! And I won't burn myself, because I'm not clumsy like you!" Anisha teased her friend.

"Ok, miss good cook! We shall see." Valentina responded.

"What do we have for tomorrow? Do we have any vegetables?" Anisha asked.

"I will bring some tomorrow. Here, take a bit of butternut."

"I don't like butternut, you know that," Anisha spoke.

"Do you have a choice? Just eat the butternut! We eat what we have for now, we don't have the liberty to choose. One day we shall be able to choose what to eat, but that day is not today. I've told you many times and I will tell you again now; one day we shall be CEOs of our own companies!"

"I know, but sometimes I lose faith..." Anisha's voice was sad.

There was silence, only the sound of cutlery could be heard.

"Oh, how I miss Liam. Liam is a big fan of butternut, pumpkin and the like. If he was here, he would have eaten it all", Anisha spoke after a while.

"I know, right. I also love it," Valentina answered.

Suddenly Anisha let out a sharp scream and I dashed to the door with the intention of opening and helping her out, but Pete held and pulled me back.

"Anisha!! Look you made me spill my food!!!" Valentina complained.

"I'm sorry! There was a rat! Did you see it? It ran over my foot!"

Hearing that, I failed to handle myself anymore, I shook myself off Pete's grip and pushed open the door. The two ladies screamed and clutched to each other, looking at the doorway. Due to the darkness, they obviously could not tell who we were. I called out, "Anisha!"