Dark Side

By looking at Villa's photograph, numerous thoughts started to revolve in Charu's mind. She has seen that villa in her mother's photo album. Charu got a flash of a moment when her mother was showing her photo album to Charu when she was 6 years old. That album contains some pics of her Maternal grand maa and grand paa while some were of her mom and there were few pics in which her mom was seen with her school and college friends. Charu's mother was quite simple, emotional and used to keep very few friends but that few were really special to her mom. In that album Charu's mom Kirti was seen with her best friend Sheryl Varghese who was with her when she was 5 years old.

Sheryl was the complete opposite than Kirti, she used to keep as many friends as she can, very talkative, fun-loving and very beautiful but was blind by birth. Charu didn't get a chance to meet her but she usually heard about her from her mom. And she recalled a picture from that album, having her mom and Sheryl aunty was standing ahead of a villa and that was the villa which was captured in picture which Charu held. She remembered when Kirti said that when she was in 1st standard, she saw Sheryl for the first time, she was cute, very adorable and how beautifully she was managing her things even though she was blind. They started to know each other when Kirti helped Sheryl once. It was first day of their school, an introduction was made by their class teacher miss Poonam and from that Kirti came to know that Sheryl was a special child. From Sheryl's way of talking, walking no one can even wonder that Sheryl has any disability. God always bless everyone with a special skill and Sheryl has a skill to attract anyone towards her. 

After introduction session was done, Kirti saw Sheryl ID card was lying down and it seems Sheryl was unaware of that. So Kirti helped her handing her ID card, from that day Kirti and Sheryl started to talk and after that they both used to spend their breaks together, had hours of conversation and gradually Sheryl became Kirti's best friend. Kirti told Charu once, how they both used to helped eachother in need. Kirti also explained an incident of college when she forgot to bring an assignment and that was very important for qualying final exam. She briefed that incident to Sheryl and what she has done, Sheryl presented her assignment from Kirti's name wich she has intelligently completed by spending many hours. That incident placed Sheryl in heart of Kirti forever. 

When Kirti was briefing about Sheryl, Charu asked her inquisitively "where is she now?" And at that time, Kirti was speechless, she had no clue of where she would be now. Kirti told Charu that on last day of college, at the time of there farewell, she saw Sheryl for the last time, after then she tried to reach her, contacted her end number of times but she didn't get any clue. She also went to that place where Varghese family was residing but no one was there, Sheryl was staying with her mother Alisha and she was a single mother. Kirti enquired Sheryl's neighbours but they too had no clue of where Alisha and Sheryl went. She also droped her marriage invitation to that house but no one from Varghese family came to Kirti's marriage. Then with no clue, Kirti lose all hopes of meeting with Sheryl again. That was the last conversation which Charu had with her mother Kirti about Sheryl Varghese. 

Looking to that villa, Charu got her unanswered question back. Again thoughts of where Sheryl aunty would be knocked in her mind. She started to remind all things back, from the day where Charu's mom meet Sheryl till the day when they both get seperated. Where does Sheryl aunty went and that too in a sudden way was making Charu to hunt for this constantly. And she was also curious to know the reason behind her mom and Sheryl being stood ahead of that villa. She was curious enough to know the reason why this photo lying in this book, who can be the woman drawn on cover page, who has written this and is there any connection between this book with Sheryl Varghese and many more questions started to arrive in Charu's mind.

Charu completed the last sip of her coffee, bought that book and went back to her house. She saw her grandmother, she was still under observation in her bedroom, she saw there is a nurse standing there so without disturbing her grandmother, Charu went to her room with that book in her hand. She was searching for her mother's album which she found lying in a box full of antiques. She attentively looking each and every photograph of that book and at last her fingers stopped when she found a photo of her mom standing with Sheryl ahead of a villa. She opened that book which she bought from the library and opened that page on which this villa was drawn, she was trying to match each and every object from photo to book's image and she found that both are exactly same, in fact both are same villa. The immediate question occurred in her mind was that why a path mentioning this villa as home was mentioned on back side of this image, can it be someone's home, can that be Sheryl's home, if so then where this villa could be and what can be the complete name of Hotel AB*** was making her more curious. 

Without wasting a single minute, she started to hunt for the book's author and after spending an hour, she got complete address of author. She first tried to connect that author on social media platforms, but she couldn't find him but somehow she managed to get email id of the author, she immediately dropped a mail to the author stating "Hello Sir, I am Charu Oomen and was reading a book written by you called "Dark Side" and would like to know about the concept and woman drawn on cover page. So can we meet for the same? Awaiting for your reply on the same. Thanks, Charu." Night completed with many unsolved questions, Charu went to sleep with the hope of getting any reply from the author.