Missing

It has been seven years since my grandparents went missing, and like any other day, today started off the same, until I get the call from police reporting that their bodies were found.

As the oldest grandchild, the responsibility fell on my shoulders to report to the station and find out more about what happened. My grandparents had lived by themselves in an isolated area for as long as I could remember, At the tip of the world ,under the majestic mountains, beside the peaceful valley laid this condo, quietly still. On the other side of the valley was a fort of tall spiky trees always green, and beyond them was the unknown.

They could contact the entire family once a week, on a Wednesday, exactly at 7 pm at their place. It happened so that for 2 weeks we didn’t receive any usual calls. Contacting the station nearest to them to check in took two days due to lack of courage in remote area’s and by the time then police got there and searched, we were told that they were gone.

We have a friend who lived close to my grandparents and he made sure to check on them regularly but he too was as surprised as we were when he heard the news. The report said that there were no broken windows or doors and everything in the house was perfectly arranged like how grandma would’ve kept it.

It was later concluded that they had left willingly. Ever since then ,no one has gone to their house in fear of what they might find out and because the police requested us not to.Which leads me to the present where am busy boarding the flight to Auinly, to see my grandparents.

Joe was waiting for me at the checkout counter, still in his gardening clothes. He was the guy who would check on my grandparents but it so happened that he wasn’t around when they went missing .Once a year when our family came here to visit, I would sneak out to go play by the valley with Joe. We grew up with each other and usually I would’ve been the most excited person to see him,but right now at this moment, I couldn't feel any of it.

He drove me to the station and accompanied me inside only to find a pile of old bones,dusted and grey, lying unevenly on a steel tray. Officer Halt, the an who led the investigation, made his way to us and briefed us on how the tests confirmed they were my grandparents. A fisherman was fishing far east of the valley found them.There seems to be no signs of any broken bones on gunshot wounds,but there is only so much we can say from the bones. Haly claimed.We were told that the investigation will take a new turn now that the baves are retrieved and that it will resume tomorrow,until then I planned on getting some much needed rest, at none other than the condo near the valley.

The white pebbles under the water were glistening due to the sunlight and the trees, protected us from the wild. I unlocked the door and stepped into the house, welcomed by finely knit webs and the flies that zoomed their way past me.

I dragged my luggage behind me as I made my way past the quiet living room into the guest bedroom.I was too tired to clean up the mess and plopped myself on the bed .I slowly took my shoes off and threw them on the wooden floor. I looked down at the shoe that went under the bed. The floor is not meant to be hollow to make such a noise.

sprang up and pushed the bed to one side, only to discover a door .I kneel down and use the sole of my shoe to open it and slowly but cautiously make my way down .The further I went the brighter the path got. The stairs led me to a room which looked like it was still in use .That’s when I saw him, the last person I expected to be there ,grandpa.

- Sneha Alphonso Francis