It was a picture-perfect morning, and the sunlight gleamed beautifully through the window, sinking directly on her face. The moist fresh air was flowing inside the room and the alarm did its job of ringing as loudly as it could. But there she was, who didn't get bothered to move an inch of her body from the bed, even after the alarm sounded like a dog barking and she snoozed it, half-sleep. Her phone kept reminding her of the important meeting that she had got with her colleagues, even after shutting her reminder for the fifth time in a row. It was nine in the morning, and still, she hadn't gotten out of bed. This girl in her twenties didn't seem to be much of a morning person, looking at the sight of her spending the entire weekend on her bed. She did her usual morning routine of scrolling through some feed, replying to her Facebook friends whom she had never met. Checking texts from work and also, wait a minute, who even watches videos of basic ponytail hairstyles on YouTube, early in the morning, especially such basic shit she should know? Feeling pity for her drained-out morning energy, she dragged herself out from the bed, looking really messy. Normally, young girls of her age like to dress up in fancy clothes and wear glittery makeup, but I just realised Anna was of a different breed who always wore the same pale grey hoodie with her black ripped jeans. Who even wears ripped jeans to their workplace?
"Hmm! Stable life, but boring work," she mused at herself as she adjusted her hoodie, trying to look presentable.
"Anna, your breakfast is ready. Come soon," yelled the roommate from the kitchen.
She gathered her belongings roughly and proceeded straight to the breakfast table. Her disgusted expression indicated that she did not find the bowl of fruits desirable and rather craved for some cereals with milk. Anyway, with a forceful smile, she took a couple of spoons of it while glaring at her friend, and cursing her internally for serving the same breakfast every single day. Somehow, she managed to stuff as much as she could inside her mouth, took her keys, and waved her goodbye. A small breeze hit her face as soon as she walked down to her car. She closed her eyes to feel the hunch, and a strand of her hair caressed her cheek, making her feel good. It was nice to see Anna smile, and when she opened her eyes; she decided to walk rather than drive, so she put the keys inside her bag, being ready to be further late for work. On her way, she stopped for a cup of coffee to combat the cold weather and plugged in her earphones to listen to the timeless Paul Anka soundtrack, "Put your head on my shoulder." Her phone rang at the exact time of the melody, and it was from an unfamiliar number.
"Hello!" she picked.
"Dad wants you to come home," a man answered. The voice over the phone was quite familiar to her and it took some time to recognize who it was, as it struck her that it was Mr. Jay.
"Hello, Uncle Jay. I couldn't place you, sorry. Why all of sudden? Did something happen?"
After a minute of conversation, she said, "Okay Uncle, I will be in the States, probably by tomorrow morning and mail me the tickets," and hung up the phone. Her perplexed expression indicated that she was having multiple thoughts and was making her own assumptions.
"Anna, don't overthink it, and remember what Maria told you," She recited to herself like a mantra. After calming herself, she called one of her colleagues while she walked back home. "Buddy! I will be needing 10 days off, inform the head that I will be mailing him the same," she declared proudly.
"Could you please bother explaining to me the exact reason for your absence, that too for the next ten days, Ma'am?" His sarcasm was at an all-time high as he stressed on the word ma'am.
"Actually, I just need a break from you and that boring work of running around," she said in a similar tone.
He retorted, "And as if someone begged you to come to work. At the very least, we can save all of the snacks you finish throughout the day. Hang up and don't forget to call me if you get into any trouble. Not that I care, it's just that I would love some entertainment in my life especially when you are in trouble," he said as he abruptly disconnected on her call, laughing like an idiot.
She smiled as she looked at her phone, realising that her colleague really cared about her.
But I thought maybe he was her love interest?
As soon as she reached her home, she started to pack her requirements so when she opened her wardrobe, I couldn't control my laugh looking at the pathetic clothes collections. All she had were white and grey hoodies along with some blue jeans which were from different brands. "Classic!" she said just to cover her boring wardrobe. Almost done with gathering all her stuff, she looked around to check if she had missed anything, and her eyes fell on the photo frame which was kept next to her bed. It was the photo which was taken when she had gone on a trip to Thailand with her best friends. Feeling nostalgic looking at it, she was happy that they were together and added it into her backpack. While she was buzzing around the house, her phone beeped with a notification and it was from her Uncle Jay. Opening his mail while multitasking, her eyes went wide as an owl looking at the phone.
"What the hell? Why would it take 13 hours from London to New York, why the extra few hours?" she nagged.
But immediately she smiled looking at the word "BUSINESS CLASS" on the ticket, making me wonder what was this girl actually made of. While she was about to leave, she noticed a sticky note on the refrigerator reading,
"Don't forget to take your travel neck pillow and have something low calorie before boarding the flight.
-Love Maria".
Who is Maria? Was she that roommate of hers? How did she already know about her trip back to her city? I wondered looking at Anna's smile at the sticky note.
"You're faster than my flight tickets," she said and left the place with the same smile. After an hour of struggling to reach the airport through the heavy traffic, she managed to make it on time. While being at the security checkpoint, she texted Uncle Jay "I will be boarding the flight soon in an hour. Will text once I reach".
Standing in the queue, a cute little girl caught her attention who was nagging her mother to get a Cinderella bag from a duty-free shop nearby. The little one had a cute pink bow on her headband and her big eyes with pouting lips, made her look like a small doll. She had managed to get all the attention of those who were on the floor and Anna kept an eye on her until she passed her security check, somewhere feeling annoyed with the noise of crying. Soon she bought a huge box of Ferrero Rocher and went to that little girl, showing her the box, which was a great move to stop her from crying. Her big eyes were still holding the tears but she calmed down ultimately, gazing at Anna suspiciously. As Anna winked at her, she looked up at her mom, asking what to do.
Anna signalled her mom to accept the chocolates, and the little girl understood the signal to get her favourite. She immediately released her mom's dress which her small hands were holding on to, and placed them on the box, trying to get it from Anna.
"No disturbing mom anymore. Okay?" Anna told her, still holding onto the box. She nodded her head and pulled the box from her. Anna had a wide smile looking at her, who ran to her little brother, sitting on the passenger's seat while playing games, to show him the box of chocolates.
"Tell aunt, thank you, Nora," her mother notified her, and immediately a "Thank you!" she said with a small giggle. Anna smiled at the way the little one thanked her and when she turned the other way around, her face turned into frustration as she rolled her eyes.
Eh? Then why did you even spend those 20 dollars on the chocolate?
Soon she was enjoying to her music but suddenly paused noticing a quote written on the passengers waiting area -
"LUCK DOESN'T VISIT YOU TWICE. SO, FIND YOUR FOUR CLOVER BEFORE SOMEONE DOES"
She guffawed reading those lines which were running on the screen, rather than the flight schedules. "Nonsense," she said, reading the message and before she could go back listening to her music, they announced her flight for boarding.
After taking her seat, she adjusted her neck pillow, still enjoying to her music playlist. The combination of a tired person and their favourite music was the perfect formula to sleep, so eventually, she drifted to snooze for about an hour as soon as the flight took off. It was a connecting flight, where all she had to do was relax, which she spent on playing video games and munching on some great food. Between a few seconds of lifting her head to drink some water, her cunning eyes caught a handsome looking steward to which any single woman who had not got laid for the past 5 years would be thrilled and so was she, as she signed him a flirty hey. To my surprise, he also smiled back at her and well, she spent the next few hours flirting with him. Even before her flight landed, she had managed to get his number smoothly. After the landing, she collected her bags and walked out from the airport, taking her phone to text Uncle Jay but instead got a text from a private number reading, "You are finally here, looking gorgeous with those shades and that fur coat. Wish I could mark you as mine, seeing all of that desirability as a woman. Damn, it's good to see you back in the city, my Dar-lin". After reading the text, her eyeballs were shaking and as she looked around in the hustle, she couldn't find anyone suspecting.
Why is she getting scared of a text? Maybe it could be a spam but wait did something happen with her before she left for London? What was that text all about to make the cheerful face vanish?
"Anna!" She heard a man's voice from a distance.
She turned around with a smile, making me assume that it was Uncle Jay who was standing near the car, waiting for her arrival. She instantly forgot about the text and headed straight towards him. The guards who accompanied him, took her backpack and kept it inside the car trunk making Anna feel a bit awkward because of the sudden privileged treatment. As she looked up at the sky, it was dawn dark with hints of snow fall and the cold breeze made her body shiver despite wearing the coat, which luckily, she had got along.
"Hope you had a good flight, Anna. It's been 5 years since I saw you," uncle Jay said with a smile.
"Yeah, it was good. Thank you," she replied.
But why? Did something happen to you that made you look this uncomfortable with everything? You were fine a few seconds ago but hearing Mr Jay, changed you? Why?
One of the bodyguards opened the door for her and she was left with no option of escaping from that place. She was hesitant to get inside the car and didn't feel right coming back here again, though it was after 5 whole years. Silently she sat, taking a look outside the window while Mr Jay took the front seat.
She noticed two black cars behind, following hers, and even in the front, there were two others. It made her ask, "Was it necessary to bring so many guards with you, just to pick me up from the airport when it's already going to be morning soon?" realising the main reason she hated this place.
"We don't want to invite any kind of risk when it comes to your security Anna and you know it. This was an order from your dad," Mr. Jay replied to her.
But I don't know the reason Mr. Jay, tell me what is it, why so much security for this girl?
"If that was the case, he shouldn't have even called me here in the first place," she expressed her anger but he ignored her as he was submerged into his device. Later he handed over his iPad to her, showing something. Though they continued their conversation in English, it was Greek and Latin to me as I was clueless just like you guys are.
Suddenly Anna started to murmur to herself "Anna you came here just for your dad and nothing else. Come on, get your shit together, you're brave enough to face anything, hang in there," like a recitation.
So, London was not your place, New York is and you didn't move to London for work, but something did happen. You were a totally different person in London and now, you're scared to come back to the place you love the most, I mean your own homeland. Why? and they reached home in about an hour.
"You haven't changed, Anna," Mr. Jay commented on Anna jumping out through the windows. He showed the way through and led her to her dad's room once they got inside the huge villa which occupied many acres of land.
You are rich Anna, and still wore that boring wardrobe of yours?
He stopped at the doorstep of the room and closed it after Anna entered. Looking around his huge collection of books, she enjoyed the smell of Lavender, "Finally feels like home," she said with a relief, while standing in her dad's study room.
"I did suggest you have a good air freshener dad, and now see it's wonderful here," she said, looking at him.
"Get ready Anna! It's time to bring things back," her father said in a stern voice.
And for what? Bring what things back? Ask him, Anna.
For which she simply nodded to his words and kept looking around the room.
Hey! Are you even family? Like no hugging and those dramatic scenes of father and daughter reuniting?
"You must be tired from the long journey! Take some rest, Anna. I will meet you tomorrow at the breakfast table," he said with a huge smile on his face.
"Good night dad," she said and left the room after him, still running her hands around the stacked books like a child.
And that's it? It was nothing I expected. What about the things she was worried about? Was it only my expectation that fathers hug their daughter who visits them after years or they actually don't do it anymore? A weird family I must say. She seemed way too silent and careful than back in London, but here things are only suspicious.
When she entered her room, the place filled her with all her memories and the only thing that was new in her room was a huge photo frame of hers hanging out there on the wall, which looked new. Without unpacking or refreshing her up, she jumped straight into her bed and it must have been very comfortable that she fell asleep within a few minutes.
###
Present
"Hey number 605, wake up, you lazy ass!" a fat lady bangs the iron bars of the cell and I had to wake up because of the annoying noise. Getting freshen up soon, I go to the breakfast hall to fill my grumpy stomach. Unfortunately looking at the stale and rotten food in front of my eyes makes my hunger go away. So, I decide to pick up a glass of milk and a banana to finish my breakfast at the least. As I walk towards the basketball court, my eyes fall on the date of 25th September, 2021 which made me realise that I have been in jail for a year now.
Sitting on a bench nearby, I look up at the blue mountains. It is a sunny day and I tie my hair up with the worn-out scrunchie which was on my wrist. Two very young girls come and sit beside me, holding a torn magazine page in their hand with a lot of excitement which catches my attention.
Looking at the photo, one of the girls says, "This guy is fucking hot. Just look at his abs here and these eyes. I would do anything to have him." The girls were going nuts just looking at a photo of a hunk I suppose and another says, "I don't mind having just a night with him, it will all be enough."
"After getting out of here I really want an autograph from my love. I mean just look at his dimples. I really would jump over this sexy body of his anytime. He fucking looks like a masterpiece created by God himself," she says sounding in excitement.
"He doesn't look that young though, what is his name?" the other girl asks looking keenly in the photo.
She replies, "10 years ago, he was known as the most handsome man in the world. HE IS RYANN!! My very first love."
Done tying my hair and overhearing their conversation is what I was doing, but suddenly I freeze, when I hear her telling the guy's name. Did I hear it right? Was it the same name or I was just hearing it because of my subconscious. I started to feel blank, almost everything became still and I wasn't able to breathe for a few seconds.
With my shivering hands, I somehow try to move away from them to bring myself to become alright. They look at me leaving uncomfortably and I give an uneasy smile, walking away to control myself. Walking till the end of the court, carrying a heavy heart and confused mind, makes me feel all the bad emotions. The huge mountains surround me and the beautiful sky, having a perfect shade of orange and yellow, keeps spreading above me. Those colours start to fade as the sun slowly seeps down on the west and that's how he faded my life, taking away the brightness forever.
RYAN, exactly the name, yes, it is him. The reason for me being here.
Jessi, my cellmate pats my shoulder and makes me come back to the real world when she asks for help in cleaning our messed-up room. Forgetting everything, we go inside and start collecting our things which were all over the place, to put them in their positions for the room to look decent. Cleaning my side of the bunker, I find a medium sized wooden box with a broken lock under the bed. As far as I knew, I bought this along with me when I ended up here and it belongs to a bastard. I open the box, a diary catches my vision, and the box also seems to have a small shoe along with a few other tiny things.