CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU

“Dad has been arrested!”

Vael stumbled out of his room dishevelled and disoriented. It was midmorning, the morning after his late arrival at night. His jetlag had made him toss and turn around the rest of the night and he had finally fallen asleep only after the sun was well up on the April Sunday morning. Balaji had told his daughter Sarayu not wake him up and to let him sleep for as long as he needed. The incessant and insistent buzz of his phone vibrating for messages and calls had woken him up to the nightmare that was being visited upon him in broad daylight. 

“Vael Anna, what are you saying? Did you have a bad dream? You are in Chennai now”, said Sarayu, walking over to him to shake him a little.

Balaji who had been on his laptop, looked up with concern.

“No, Sarayu. It’s not a dream. Look”, he said and showed his phone to her. Sarayu took the phone playfully from him and as her eyes went down the screen reading the messages she looked up in alarm and ran over to her father and handed him the phone.

Balaji looked at the phone and scrolled through the messages. A deep pit opened up at the bottom of his stomach and he had to exercise all his control to stop his face from showing the panic he was beginning to feel.

Vael’s phone was filled with messages from his friends asking him what had happened and how they saw the news on the news and so on. He had a ton of missed calls from his friends and his brother.

“Call your Dad, Vael”, said Balaji and handed him the phone.

Vael called his father’s phone but it kept ringing with no answer. He then called his brother Ethan who thankfully answered even before the first ring.

“Ethan, what happened? Is it true? Has Dad been arrested? Where are you?”

The questions flowed non-stop from Vael.

When Ethan answered, he put his phone on speaker so that everyone could hear.

“Vael, thank God! Are you okay? I got worried when there was no answer from your phone too”, said Ethan.

“I was fast asleep, Ethan. Got here only late last night. Jet lag. Is it true? Has Dad been arrested? Why? What for?”

“Looks to be true, Vael. I couldn’t reach his phone. There’s no answer. Probably his phone has been confiscated. I don’t know much else. I tried catching the news about it. Looks like it’s something to do with the provenance of an idol he was authenticating”, answered Ethan.

“But what’s that got to do with Dad being arrested? He has nothing to do with the buying decision. The idol must have already been bought by whoever or whichever museum bought it. What’s Dad got to do with anything?”

“I don’t know much more than what they are saying on the news, Vael. I’m scrambling to get tickets to go back home. Once I reach there I may know something more”.

“Ok. I’ll ask Uncle Balaji to prepone my return tickets. I’ll also take the next flight home”, said Vael.

“No, Vael. Just listen to me. It’s better that you are out of the picture right now. Dad must have sent you off knowing what was coming. He must have done that for a reason. So stay there for the time being. Let me first go home and see how things are. We can think of what to do further after I reach there”.

“Ethan, Uncle here. How are you holding up?” asked Balaji intervening.

“Hi Uncle, so far so good. I have absolutely no idea what happened. Let me get home and call you from there with details”, said Ethan.

“Ok. Keep trying your father’s number. If he or even anyone else answers, let me know what they say. We’ll take care of Vael here. He’s too jetlagged to travel back immediately”.

“Ok Uncle. Will do. Take care. I’ll keep updating. Gotta go now”, said Ethan.

“Travel safe, Ethan”, said Balaji as the call got disconnected.

Vael sat down on the living room sofa with his head in his hands. He was feeling physically sick.

“Vael Anna, please…go and freshen up and come. You’ll feel better once you have eaten something”, said Sarayu, gently nudging and lifting Vael from the sofa.

“Oh God!” moaned Vael in response.

“Come on, Vael. Chin up. No time for moaning and groaning. Not the first time we have rallied together, right? Go on. Freshen up and have a bath. Then come and eat. We can sit and plan on what to do once your head is clear. Meanwhile I’ll contact my sources over there and find out what’s happening. Go on now. Get up”, said Balaji in a firm voice.

Vael looked as if he had not heard a single word of what he had said, but after a few moments, he slowly got up from the sofa and went inside his room. Balaji motioned for his daughter to follow him. Sarayu went to the room and watched as Vael went inside the restroom. She then unlocked his suitcase and took out a fresh set of clothes for him and put them on the bed. She waited for a few seconds to make sure that Vael didn’t need anything else and then went out of the room and to the kitchen to get his food ready.

When Vael came out half an hour later, he looked infinitely better. His face had lost the drawn look it had a while ago and his blonde hair that had stuck out in all directions was now wet and slick and combed back. Though rimmed with tiredness, his blue eyes had lost their look of confusion and had taken on a sheen of clarity. His tall athletic body just needed to be fed for it to start feeling useful again and Sarayu did just that. Their cook had made hot idlis and country chicken gravy and Sarayu heaped idlis on Vael’s plate as he kept wolfing each down in two mouthfuls. A hot mug of coffee to wash it all down completed the nourishment his body and mind needed. He walked over to the living room and sat on the sofa and Sarayu joined him moments later. And then they talked.