The otherwise brilliant and heavily bearded Adam was beginning to experience considerable decline in his intelligence quotient (IQ) and mental alertness, ostensibly due to age factor, slackness and minimal interaction with the public.
He hit the arm chair put in his path several times while pacing around the room. As he kicked it aside, his wife rushed into the room with a paper in her hand. Her eyes were swollen as result of many days of insomnia. This was natural as no mother would be able to sleep and eat comfortably while her only son was tucked away in an unknown destination, for reasons they couldn't fathom.
They could not even inform the police about this unfortunate incident, as they had since adopted a nomadic lifestyle of living like refugees that involved frequent change of locations. If their son, their only beacon of hope was not recovered alive at the end of the day, then they would have lost everything in life. He, his wife and his elderly father had been living like ghosts, without appetite for food and water since his son's sudden disappearance from home. Of course, cleaning the leased house was out of question!
But today, his seventy-five-year old father named Gaius who was still strong, though heart -broken as a result of his grandson's disappearance, shouted angrily. He scolded and ordered his son to clean the house, and his daughter-in-law, Susan, to cook a healthy breakfast.
Then he went out for his regular morning walk cum jogging which he used to do with his grandson. Today he went alone with sadness and depression, even though he tried desperately to look cheerful.
Adam decided to switch places with Susan after realizing that she might destroy either the breakfast or the kitchen. The experience of depression had made her fidgety. Thus, anything that happened to slip from her hand could ignite fire.
He asked her to clean the house while he went to cook. Well, cleaning such a big house would be a daunting task as it was bound to keep her momentarily busy, with little or no time to think about her sorrow.
After cooking oat-meal, he set the bowl on the dining table to cool down before going to his room. While there, he started thinking and pacing around before crossing the woods to visit the internet cafe. Browsing through his son's favourite computer, he found the history and wondered why his son was looking for it. Why? – After all these years? Perhaps his son wanted some answers.
He had thought that his wife was engaged in cleaning, but she was now before him looking paler than ever after emerging from the bedroom and holding a sheet of paper. She handed over the paper to him. Despite having the paper in his possession, he kept glaring at Susan in anticipation of a comment from her. But these days she had grown dumb and numb!
With much trepidation, he looked at the sheet of paper which turned out to be a medical laboratory report that bore his son's name. "Oh no! It's his blood report. He had found out," said he. His knees buckled and he fell to the ground. Tear filled his eyes. Susan fell beside him on the ground and said, "It was hidden under his bed."
He saw the date on the report which was almost a month earlier. All this while, their son had been keeping such a big secret!