CHAPTER 23- ORPHAN

"What happened sir?" Prisoner asked him.

"You're not as bad as I thought"Commissioner said.

"Maybe I'm more than that" Prisoner said with a smile.

"Yes,because your deeds speak for themselves."

"At the very least, my sins may talk freely here"

"Hmm..so, what happened after that?"

"I was driving, but my hands were slipping from the steering wheel,I felt the most pity for the person I despised the most.God's games are weird, and you never know when things may change.For approximately half an hour, neither of us said anything then " Ravi"

"Yes Aunty"

"Could you please take me to my son, I'd want to ask him a few questions"Aunty said sadly.

"But..... "

"His residence is not far away"She said.

" I.. is it important to go right now, I'll take you there some other day".

"Ravi, please".

"Ok"I didn't want to disappoint her; she was already upset. I took a U-turn as she said to, she then proceeded to show me the way, and I continued driving.After a while, aunty asked me to stop the car outside a building.The guard's automobile similarly came to a halt behind my vehicle.We stepped out of the car.Mr Tushar gazed up at the sky."What happened Mr. Tushar?"I asked him.

"It will most likely rain, sir"he said. I felt the same.

Aunty was thinking looking at the building.

"Aunty" I called her, but she was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't hear me.So, I called her again, louder this time.This disrupted her thought process and she looked at me.

"For the moment, keep calm. Everything will be right eventually aunty" I said softly, consoling her. "Let's go"She said.

" Aaa.. ok"I hated the conditions in which I had been stuck all this while.

"I'll stay here, sir" Mr Tushar said.

"Me too"Alan said.

"Ok" I said, this was making my situation worse, I had to go alone among people I never wanted to see again.We walked towards the elevator, whose condition was not so good.After getting on the elevator, she pressed the button for the third floor. She was taking deep breaths now, I was nervous as well, but I tried to keep my facial emotions neutral.As soon as we arrived on the third floor, Aunty went straight to the front door and examined it.There was a pink nameplate on the door on which was written Robert & Jeny.I was feeling a little bad seeing this, I don't know why, but I was contemplating about removing this nameplate from the door and breaking it in half.Aunty then rings the doorbell. Someone's footsteps could be heard on the other side of the door, and someone was approaching the door.Then the door opened, Jeny was standing in front of us,she was shocked to see us."Who is it, honey?"Jeny heard a voice behind her, and then Robert appeared.He too was shocked to see us, especially me.

"Mom you here, come in"

I was still standing at the door.

"Why are you standing outside, Ravi? Come inside"Aunty said in a firm tone. Robert came to the door and peeked outside at that same moment, like looking for someone.

"Don't worry, my guards are on the ground floor"I whispered. The house was not that clean, a box of pizza in which three slices of pizza were left was lying on the sofa.The drapes were only halfway drawn.

"Mom you... Robert said,"Will you drink tea,mom?"Trying to avoid a disturbing situation, Jeny interrupted Robert but It wasn't feasible anymore. '𝘵𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘱' Aunty slapped him.Robert was now rubbing his right cheek.

"You left the house, left me alone, and when you still couldn't find peace, you sold the house"

"Mom, I can explain"

"What, you've betrayed us, you've betrayed your father, he never wanted to lose the house and you left the house to meet in the dust for some money, why!"She said.

"What was so wonderful about that house Mom, and because I got a decent price selling it, we can obtain a new comfy house that is more elegant and comfortable than that one."

"Your father's memories were attached to that house."

"Ohh.. please mom Dad is gone, we should think about today's enclosure and you can stay here"

"I can't stay here because I'm suffocating from this environment"

"Mom pleaseee don't overreact"

"I'm overreacting, you sold your house without asking your mother, left your mother to live on the street, and I'm overreacting"

"Mom please...

" Don't call me mom! Ravi we should leave now"She said and went to the door.

"Now you are leaving your son and going with this orphan"

Robert" Jeny said loudly.

Hearing this, we both stopped there, these words crossed my chest, I remembered the day when Rudraneel called me an orphan, then robert had beaten him and said that I too have a family and today he called me an orphan.Aunty turned back

and '𝘵𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘱' she slapped him again,this time harder.

"He is my son, if you say this again, I'll sever your tongue!" Aunty said angrily.

We stepped out of the building.The weather had completely changed.Black clouds had sailed in and darkened the skies.The sun, which still had a little business left for the day,had become irrelevant.We got into the car.

"I'm sorry Ravi, I had no idea Robert would say such a thing"

"No I don't mind"I lied,I never felt so bad.

I drove fast now, heavy rain clouds had brought in the darkness of the evening much earlier than anticipated.Underneath the thick clouds cover, nature stood still.Not one leaf of the trees stook.The stubborn air had also parked itself.There was a conspiracy of a storm that evening.The earth looked up at the sky, preparing to defend itself from the assault.Then it all began.The uninhabited mad clouds collided with each other.Miles above the ground, the flashing bright light in the black sky and the crackling thunder in response announced nature's warfare. A

wild spurt of wind invaded the place.On its way, it picked up all the dirt and dust it could and blew it in the air. Rain poured heavily on the windshield of the car.Mr Tushar and Alan had advised me to stop the car for a while but I was adamant.

The wipers were put to task at full throttle.In every pendulum swipe, they flushed gallons of water off the windshield of the car and muted every other sound.It affected the visibility now.Not just the yellow and white headlights, but also the blinking orange indicators had lit the highway.There wasn't much traffic on the road though and therefore it only marginally brought down the vehicle speed.After come a little further,the fury of the rain had reduced.The rain had also cleaned the environment.The occasional winds, which continued to blow even after the fierce rain had stopped, appeared to be refreshingly pleasant.I rolled down the windows to feel some fresh air.I looked at aunty,she was thinking about something.

But after an hour,when we entered our city it began to pour again.I'm having difficulty driving now.

"We should find a place to stay, Ravi"Aunty said in a deep voice."There's a place nearby where we can stay"I said.

Street no 31 was not far from here.I stopped the car outside a street food corner,The guards car also stopped behind us.We went to that food corner, a man was cleaning the plates there.

"Pratap" I said.