The accident that destroyed so many

Laksh nervously paced around after hearing the question. When he had finally sweat a great deal, he slumped down infront of Tejas. "To be completely honest with you, I know very little about the incident."

"And I know nothing, so," Tejas looked pleadingly into his eyes.

Laksh took a deep breath and began, "A group of people where involved in a highly confidential project. This team included developers, scientists, coders and people from many other profession as well. They were handpicked by the government-"

"So were his parents...sorry, my parents a part of that group?" Tejas said impatiently.

"Correct. The group had been working on it for atleast an year. But before the completion, the members disappeared. The government claimed that an accident during the project had taken their lives."

Laksh crossed his arm and looked away from Tejas for a moment. His eyes had teared up at some thought.

"How many people were there?" Tejas said deep in thought.

"Maybe 10 or 12 people," Laksh said clearing his throat.

"And all of them disappeared at once!" Tejas's eyes had gone wide.

"I don't know. That's the most infuriating part. Did all of that happen gradually? No one except that group knows."

"So the government just declared one fine day that all of them were dead!" Tejas scratched and pulled his long hair.

"When no one had seen anyone from the group or heard anything about them for a long time, people began to grow suspicious, so they-"

"-What? This is complete nonsense. No one objected to this?" Tejas had tangled up his hair in a confused state. He too now paced with Laksh unsure of how to handle the information.

"This is messed up. Are they really dead? What happened, man?" he shook his shoulders vigorously.

Laksh's eyes sparkled with more tears, "I wish I knew too."

"No one except me was angry at this incident? No one..." Tejas shook him again.

This was when Laksh's eyes stopped sparkling. He looked demure and said in a whisper, "There were, actually. But..."

"Go, on. Don't hesitate now," Tejas nodded his head encouraging him.

"They were compensated at first. But when some of them didn't quite down, they were kicked out of the country."

"WHAT?" Tejas said this so loudly that some of the parrots flew away. He walked around in circles scratching his head and holding the locks of his hair away from his face. "WHAT?" he screamed again. This time one of the birds from the tree covered his shoulder with its shit.

"Come on!" Tejas looked even more pissed. "And I was the crazy one. Why didn't I get kicked out of the country as well?"

"Dheera aunty," Laksh looked down as he said the name. "She was the one who helped you get in the rehab center."

"But I was not really having any issue, right?"

"You were severely depressed. But also your rage was somewhat out of control. You had hurt a person from your lab."

"Oh!" Tejas grew calmer. "But why were you accusing her earlier?"

"I was angry that she didn't take better care of you. I mean, how did you loose your memory, Tej? It is not very common. To me it is equally suspicious as the incident." he crouched on the ground and looked down as if defeated in some battlefield. "I lost so many people I cared about. Purvi, uncle and aunty Raman. Then you went away." He looked up with regret, "We had a huge fight before you ended up there. So I used to ask your guard Jagjeet if you were doing alright."

"Jagjeet?"

"The man with the turban."

"Oh! I remember him now." He looked at Laksh, "What did we fight about?"

"I don't even remember," Laksh said in tears. Tejas stood near him placing his hand on Laksh's shoulder and the other rubbed his forehead. "Was Purvi a part of that group too?"

Laksh nodded slowly, as if he wished it weren't true. "From what I have understood so far," Tejas said still rubbing his forehead, "Purvi and you seemed to very close."

"We were," he grinned at the sentence.

"Didn't she ever talk with you about what was happening?"

"Like I said, it was extremely confidential. So I couldn't meet her for that duration of time at all."

"Damn it!" Tejas returned to his spot on the tree. He rubbed his forehead with both his hands and closed his eyes.

"Isn't this frustrating?" Laksh followed him. "Only God knows how I too didn't end up in rehab."