Another Same Day

As usual, rolling his fists over his eyes, he woke up in the morning. The man tried to have a look at the clock with semi closed eyes; it was already 7:10 AM. Something just felt blank to him. He was struggling to remember the date. Without stressing his brain much for the task, he decided to struggle for it later. Past some months had been so exhausting for him, that every other day seemed same as the previous one. He saw his wife was not beside him even today. For past some days she got up before him. He got out of bed and went to the balcony. The dew drops on leaves of the herbs planted by his son, were slyly smiling at his current situation. The sky was full of dark clouds smirking at him.

He got ready within 40 minutes. Dressed in usual, well used tattersall designed grey shirt and a bit worn out pair of trousers, a daily usage wallet pouch held tightly in his arms, hair well combed in usual manner, the man came to the hallway. He called out for his wife. She brought along tea and cookies with her and almost smacked them on the breakfast table. Certainly even she was tensed with the given circumstances. She went back inside without a word. The man had the tea and left the house without even touching the cookies. 

For over 4-5 months, that was his state. He was himself testing his emotional range. He had took up leave from his office for a month or two. He just used to wander about the lanes and roads. Even rains and winds did not matter to him much. His eyesight had started to search the roads for him. He was unaware how days went by, while he was spending his days viewing the posters on roads and over the shops. It was about time, he lose trust over the truth of getting lost things back.

He recommenced his search, 4 months ago, after a long break of world lockdown. The pandemic did not seem to have made any much of a difference to him. Even today he had left the house in search of something; something very dear to him. He felt, the off-period, cascading rains were just aiding him to hide his rolling down tears. But despite the streaming rains, he saw a rather weird advertisement board, just like his very locus... it was a movie ad. Although the alliance between films and him was not very familiar, the ad seemed to pacify his mind and his notions. It was a display about a Cops Team hunting around for the glided criminal. 

At that very moment, a strange hunch crossed his mind. The ads that unveil social concepts, sometimes posses power to just change our path of misconceptions, that tend to alter our aim of life. He could perceive that his aim had now become someone else's focus. Out of the blue, he received a text message from his wife, bringing him back to senses; 

3:27 pm : Dear, come back home for lunch now...

If only in movies and series, lost people were ought to come back and reunite with ones who awaited them, then he would have loved his life to be a TV serial. In the mean time of these running thoughts, he realized that the rain had ceased. So it could be easy for him to locate the path back to his house. Even the ceased rain was making him feel the emptiness of his lost special one. 

He took a long breathe. "That's fine. I would always be pacified that, although not in my life but somewhere someone is getting his lost one back. I think I should let the cops and others carry out their duties without meddling into their tasks." said the lost son's father. 

The man's son had just left the house one day, without informing anyone, neither his family nor his immediate friends. The couple, parenting him commenced being stressed and afraid after his sudden disappearance. No real reason nor any message note had been left behind by the boy. The man and his wife were now each other's only support. Neighbours and relatives usually came up to raise more and more queries about the incident. This only increased their tension and tested their patience further. 

No one can typically imagine the situation their loved ones would go through after their sudden departure. It seemed even the boy didn't think of it. There were numerous possibilities for the couple to hire a cop team to search for the boy. Somebody could have abducted him, or murdered him, or someone might have taken him out of country for illegal means; neither chance of knowing the real reason. 

The couple was in search of the boy for last two years. The boy's friends were quite co-operative during the trauma period the couple went through. Two of his friends had grown so much proximity with the couple that they even ran in time to wipe their tears.  

"What went wrong? Weren't we good parents or did we fail in protecting him more than our lives?" the man used to question himself. "Nothing dear. Its just part of our awful fate. Who knows he might come back and be living with fun and happiness? But it still remains our duty, as parents to be afraid of his whereabouts," the wife consoled him, every time the man lost hope. 

Every time plunging in the same mental state, the days were just passing for the couple, as awaiting for their fate to change. But the daily chores weren't missed by them. They were still eating, talking, cooking and waiting just in case if their son turns up one day. 

"Hey, come up for dinner. I have arranged our dishes to serve food. Come down fast," the wife roared almost every night.

On the other day, the couple and the boy's friends had got an ultimate idea of letting out a poster of the boy on social media to make it reach to a greater mass. No wonder the social media segment worked really well during the caged lockdown period. No sooner the idea was confirmed by the couple, than the image of the boy with the couple's contact numbers was out on the social media platform. It did not take much time for the image to reach out to the public of nearby states, countries and continents. The boy had become viral on the internet surface. 

The couple faced a rather opposite scene here. The cops were displeased by their sudden internet movement. Enraged about not taking formal permissions, the cops rested the case and also insulted the couple about the incident they were living in. But rather being sad or torn this time, the couple was now used to such words and misgivings by the people. 

Days after the poster scene, a new day arose. As usual, rolling his fists over his eyes, he woke up in the morning. The man tried to have a look at the clock with semi closed eyes; it was already 7:15 AM. Something just felt blank to him. He was struggling to remember the date. Without stressing his brain much for the task, he decided to struggle for it later. Past some days had been so exhausting, that every new day seemed the same as the previous one. But now they had a different way to look at. Some false alarms about their son had striken them off their routine life. On this day, they had a differed routine. 

The couple got ready at 10 am. The man dressed in plain white shirt, a pair of same old trousers, a wallet purse clutched in arms, hair well combed, came to the hallway. The wife dressed in a short purple kurta, a pair of light grey mismatched pants, hair tightly bunched in a ponytail, came behind him. The mid-age couple were on ready to go on a small walk to a nearby park.  

On reaching the park, the couple chose to sit on a wooden bench lurking around for some good old memories. After an hour of relaxing, the man saw postman frantically searching for an address. At the very moment the postman also saw the couple from a distance and approached them for clearing out his query. The couple was astonished to know that the postman was looking for their own address. The postman handed over the envelope and bade goodbye. 

The man looked at the packed thing very closely. No sender address was available on the pack. The wife was restless to open it. She tore the off the covering hastily and took out the letter from it. The further letter read:

"Dear YOU Both,

I apologize for inconvenience I caused in your life. I am the reason you could not live happily even after I was gone. Yes, I am your only son who went missing two years ago. To be honest, I did not go missing. I ran away for my own good. Being born in a middle class family would be doing no good to me in my future. So I eloped for my betterment and exploring my fate. I never understood why you never let me dream big. Even my friends were of the same sort as you. Anyways, I am quite happy alone. I got to see a rather weird poster you released on social media days ago to search for me. Good to know you still care about me. But this is the first and last warning; Do not try and search. I am quite happy wherever I am. Be happy with your fates and do not disturb me again. Have sent some money for your share in my life. I tell you to forget me and move on. Good Bye. 

Your Only Son."

The couple was rather content to know that their son is alive, fine and happy. They weren't thinking about their sadness but were happy for their son. The couple swore to not disturb their boy again. Now, a new journey, a new life was awaiting them. Although without their son, but now they were ready to start life afresh. The 'hunt' of their life had ended. 

The couple left the park, with their hands entangled with each other. They were off on a new path, designed only for the both of them...