SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

Vael knocked on his dad’s door and entered without waiting for an answer. His father, Daniel Wenham was at his desk with his back towards him, speaking on his phone. Vael paused and waited for his dad to finish, wondering who it was he was talking to at the early morning hour. As he stood there watching his father, he could sense something wrong. His father’s voice was muffled, and he spoke in single words. Vael could hear him asking, “When?” and then after a pause saying, “Ok. I’ll call you back after dropping Vael at the airport”. Vael knocked on his door again, a little louder this time. Daniel Wenham turned around with a smile, with no sign of any worry on his face.

“So, are you all packed and ready?” he asked his seventeen-year-old son.

“All done, Dad”, answered Vael deciding not to show that he had heard a part of his dad’s phone conversation. If it was anything the matter he would tell him, he knew. That had been the deal their family had made after the tragedy that had shook their lives a few years back.

“Where’s your luggage?” he asked.

“Out by the door”, Vael answered.

“Good. Just give your room a final check. See that you have switched off everything and have disconnected all your electric and electronic gadgets”, he instructed.

“Already done”, said Vael.

“Just check again, Vael”, his dad said.

“Dad… come on…”

“Just do it instead of arguing with me”.

Vael stomped off to his room and checked everything once again. He had switched off everything and had closed down his room.

He came back to see that his dad was checking his suitcase and locking it again to make sure everything was up to his satisfaction.

“You are all set. Do you have your passport, visa and ticket with you?” he asked his son.

Vael pointed to his travel pouch hanging across his shoulder.

“Is that your hand luggage? Do you have the necessary things in that? You will be having a stopover at Bangkok”.

“Dad, stop worrying, please. I’m eighteen. I can take a flight by myself”.

“How can I not after what happened?”

“That’s why we are taking the Qantas flight, with the connecting flight being Thai airways, right?”

“Yeah, but still…” Daniel Wenham’s voice trailed off.

Vael reached over and hugged his father.

Daniel Wenham hugged him back tightly, holding him closer for a little longer.

“Come on, we don’t want to be late” he said and disengaged himself reluctantly. He took his car keys and walked out the door.

They locked up and Daniel got the car around. Vael stowed his suitcase in the trunk and put his backpack in the back seat. He took a look at his house and then got in the front passenger seat.

As they drove to the Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, Daniel asked, “Have you spoken to your brother?”

“I spoke to him last night, Dad. I’ll message him after security check-in at the airport”, Vael answered.

His elder brother Ethan Wenham, older than him by five years, had gone to the USA for a work-related project and wouldn’t be back for at least another two months by which time Vael would be back.

“Have you got something for Sarayu and Uncle Balaji?”

“I asked Sarayu what she wanted but she said she didn’t want anything. She always says that. But anyway, I got her a backpack and a wallet for Uncle Balaji”.

“Good choice. Useful”.

“You know the rules, right? Keep messaging me every hour. And call the moment you land in Chennai, no matter the time difference”.

“Yes, Dad. I know and I will”.

Daniel Wenham waited till the last moment his son went out of his sight in the airport for his security check-in and then drove home, his thoughts filled with the impending doom that would be visited upon him the next day.

Vael settled in his seat for the long flight and texted his Dad and brother about safely getting on the flight. Once the flight taxied and took off, he pushed back his seat and looked out of the window at the bright sunny skies outside. The sunshine did nothing to lift the sense of unease that had found its way back into the upper limits of his consciousness.

What was his father worried about? Vael knew he was worried about something, even if he tried his level best to hide it from him. For the art historian and authenticator of Indian artefacts that his father was, what was it that he could be worried about? For a country the size of Australia, more exactly for a country with the kind of population that Australia had, it had more than its fair share of museums and art galleries. If numbers were to be believed, then there were a total of a 1,302 art galleries and museums in the country at the last count. This would include not just public art galleries but also museums of natural science, applied science, history, transport and Aboriginal art galleries. His father’s love and knowledge of Indian art, especially Chozha era statues, had made him a trusted figure in the field of art authentication. The specialist field had come into demand after the fiasco of the Subash Kapoor idols procured from his New York gallery ‘Art of the Past’. Almost all of them had been stolen from India and had been sold to collectors and museums across the globe over decades for hundreds of millions of dollars. Australia had avoided diplomatic embarrassment by handing over a bronze Nataraja statue, a glorious work of Chozha art of a dancing Shiva and another stone idol called ‘Ardhanarishvara’, to India in 2014 as a gesture of goodwill, even as Subash Kapoor was facing trial for the theft and loot of ancient artefacts from India. So much grief had come about when Subash Kapoor had been caught and exposed that the provenance verification, proving the chain of ownership, of an artefact had gained immense importance at present. Two of Australia’s leading museums, the National Gallery of Australia and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, had been the ones who had been the victims of the fraud of the Dancing Shiva and the Ardhanarishvara respectively. Questions were raised as to the procurement process of these two museums at that time and how the due diligence work did not raise doubts about the background of the statues. Thankfully his father had not been involved in that as his reputation had not been that established back then.

Vael had not given any thought to what had happened with the idols, not just because he had been a young boy of eight at that time, but also because his life at that time had been taken over by the tragedy of the missing flight MH370 on which his mother and his aunt, Sarayu’s mother, had been passengers. The next months and even years had gone by in a daze, his young mind at first struggling to grasp the reality of his missing mother and then the acceptance that she won't be coming home ever. Not knowing what had happened to her and his aunt who was his mother’s twin sister, had not been of any help in having closure. It was only two years back that both the families had performed the final rites for both the sisters, hoping that the act would somehow let them walk the path of healing. He had visited Chennai then, along with his father and brother and had promised Sarayu that he would be back the next year. The plan had to be postponed as Sarayu had been busy with her grade ten studies that cut through her summer vacation, leaving her no time for anything else. Now that her exams were over and done with, the plan had been dusted off again, and here he was travelling halfway across the world to see and be with his young cousin who was more of a sister than a cousin.

He spoke to his father and brother during his stopover in Bangkok and could find no trace of any worry in his father’s voice. That put his mind at ease as he called his uncle Balaji, Sarayu’s father, and updated him about his fight arrival time which would be midnight Chennai time.

“Don’t worry, Vael Anna, we’ll be there to pick you up”, Sarayu piped up excitedly.

And they were there as promised. It was an emotional reunion and they drove home, Sarayu chattering excitedly and Vael listening with a joyous but tired smile on his face. They got him settled in his room and bade him goodnight, wishing him to sleep off the tiredness and jetlag of the long journey.