Chapter 10:

Ashura's First Outing

Whispers heard in the dark


Its a pleasant and peaceful morning without the honking of cars or barking of dogs, or with noisy backgrounds of tv or radio. it just a kind and warm morning with sunlight slowly caressing against Reavan's skin as he sleeps in the couch against patient Ashura's bed. Maya is found half resting on the chair and half leaning over the side of his bed. Ashura wakes up first to find that he was admitted in hospital, upon knowing which, he clearly knew that he had messed up.  He started wondering about What he had been thinking earlier that had lead to this condition?  

As he thought about it, his head started throbbing, which slowly increased in intensity.  He seemed to be close to his answer but the pain was too much to bear, he gripped his blanket so hard in order to control the pain as much as he could. Reavan places his palm over Ashura's to ensure that it will be ok, he can now let it all go and give up whatever he was thinking. Its not that he loses something if he stops thinking. He can always have his fun time with analysis and logical deduction, but this wasn't the time, all Ashura should do now is to rest well until he regained his strength, that's what is essential and important in his current scenario.

Reavan had woken up when Ashura was struggling to remember, well since he woke up, he went to the nurse's station and asked if he could go on a walk with Ashura. They agreed, after all, all that the kid needs is a peaceful walk, away from his own thoughts which were slowly becoming a monster that might end up engulfing him. 

He tried to make Ashura stand in his legs but was too weak to do so. The other alternatives they had were to either be carried by Reavan or travel in a wheel chair. Both were embarrassing enough in their own way, thus Ashura chose the later. Reason being the comfort of himself and Reavan. 

They thus decided upon going on a walk to the park in the ground floor of the multispecialty hospital. Reavan wakes Maya by gently touching her shoulder, he softly speaks into her ears to take rest and not to worry as he will take over the duty of being with Ashura now.

Maya agrees and shifts to rest on the couch. Reavan and Ashura leave for the park, where they spend quality time together. Reavan being a nice person tells him about different techniques of breathing to calm themselves down. 

"Take a deep breath, imagine that you are inhaling peace and exhaling tension.... relax your body and mind, where ever you feel tension built up in your body think about it being relaxed as you breath in and out...." Ashura follows as Reavan commands, he has never felt so better and relaxed before. 

Reavan also tells him to focus on his breath and thus to gain control of mind via it, Ashura excited and yet calm, grasps it all so quickly and gets a very good hang of it. Ashura, curious about where Reavan had learnt them asks him the same. 

Reavan suddenly observes a moment of silence and answers with one word, No,  a noun "Ria" 

Ashura seemed to understand that the word was not a mere word but one with a lot of emotions and memories attached to it. Thought the owner of the name no longer existed, funny humans, we still carry the burden and pain of the loss along with beautiful memories of the person and we also want to relive it with them. Unfortunately that cannot happen which gives us sorrow all over again. 

The other funny thing that the humans do, is to try to see some other person who is not currently with them in the form of other person that they interact with. The more they get to know each other the more the other person tries to find similarities between the ex- person and that of the current person. 

This was true even in case of Reavan, as all he thought about when it came to Maya was that he should be there and give her a moral support which he couldn't give Ria. 

Since the topic had already deviated to that of Ria, he asked Ashura about his opinion on the death of Ria, was it accidental or homicidal. Ashura stared at an empty patch on ground thinking if it would be ok for him to know the truth, at the same time, he knew that it was Reavan's right to know how she had passed away.

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The story (since no one knew the truth of her death) that her friends had told him post her death was that she had slipped while she tried taking a selfie, but they weren't there with her at that point of time as one of them was speaking to her husband over phone and had come away from the falls as he couldn't hear anything, while the other had gone to buy them both food. 

It seemed suspicious but at the same time cannot be definitely said to be a fake reply as upon further interrogation of the manager serving in food counter that day, he too agreed that she had visited. but this further increased Reavan's suspicion as how can one remember what all kind of customers had visited. This thought definitely rose suspicion but was nullified upon extracting the transaction information for paying the food. the account was linked to that of her friend. 

He said it all to Ashura and also that John the culprit had said so and so. How could someone know her last words? they both started discussing. This gave out a possibility that either they were in close affinity to each other as she spoke in phone and thus they overheard it, or they were tapping her phone, whichever be it, it could either be an accidental occurrence of meeting or well planned murder. but one thing was definitely clear. 

They knew her to be the wife of Reavan or had ulterior moves which could have been played through had she not died there. They as in John and others would have definitely known her as otherwise one doesn't remember what others talk on phone and it especially doesn't mean anything to a stranger if he was genuinely not interested in the person or her position in the society. Or what if he was a hit man and worked for someone who paid him to kill her due to jealously or because her business was starting too bloom? there could be multiple reasons.

What if her death was just what the witnesses said, which is, she was taking a selfie, slipped and fell deep into the base of the waterfalls where, the pressure and force of the water was too high that she hit on a rock and couldn't be saved too. Autopsy report too said nothing much about the actual reason of why she fell. 

As this conversation hit the rock bottom, and they had no lead what-so-ever, Ashura gave an idea of having a conversation with the cop who was in-charge of this case. Reavan appreciated Ashura's idea  and called his team to find it out the details about the cop. 

Well, the world they live in is a small one, the one who was found to the inspector handling that case was Billie. Reavan got this information, upon hearing it he got agitated. He punched both his fists into air, then kicked a lamp post beside a wooden bench. He then rubbed his shin and started hopping here and there with pain. seeing this funny reaction of Reavan, Ashura bursts out laughing. the whole crowd of patients turn around and look at Ashura. but how does that even matter to these two? they both end up laughing followed by scolding of elders asking them to be quiet.

They then apologize and Reavan pulls the wheel-chair with Ashura, they return back to his bed.

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Both of them felt happy and satisfied to have spent a quality time with each other, it was much more like an outing of father and son, who were trying to cheer up each other to survive past any kind of stress. Ashura confesses that this was his first time that he didnt get stressed out as he went into an unknown environment. Reavan was happy to hear it as it means that Ashura trusted him that he would be protected in care of Reavan. Maya too got her compensation for the sleepless, stressed night that she had spent taking care of Ashura. She definitely got the help of Reavan but had more to do as a mother.

Finally Reavan decided upon calling Billie as he had no other go. she hadn't picked when he tried calling her. When he was with Ashura and Maya in the ward, he got Billie's call. he pulls his phone from his pocket as he exits the room, where he accidentally hits someone wearing a medical coat (apron). He apologizes to that doctor without clearly seeing his face. All he could see was that the doctor was having a slender figure with thin and shiny hair. He looked dignified and like an Elite..... Well, it was Aron.