Finding Arun Read Free Page A

my family and it is not for not thanking you and
certainly not for making a trouble in your life. Only it is to
seeing with my own eyes the man my boy is becoming. To be knowing
surely that he is happy in his life from my choices so that
peacefully I am resting when the time is coming.
    After this I will not anymore asking for you
Catherineben, this is my really promise.
     
    I am waiting for hearing from you very soon.
     
    With very best wishes,
    Your friend Kalpana
     

 
THREE
     
    AARON stared in disbelief at the paper in his hands,
his pulse quickening as the colour began to drain from his cheeks.
His mouth tasted as though he had been sucking on coins and his
throat was rapidly closing in on itself. A million questions raced
through his mind, too quickly for him to make sense of any of them.
Shaking, he read the letter again, and then a third time, and then
a fourth, but still he found himself unable to process the words.
Nothing seemed to make sense and it was only on the fifth reading
that his mind stood still long enough to focus on a single phrase:
‘ Maybe you are not receiving my last letters? ’
    In that split second Aaron knew the real reason his
mother had kept the faded journals and his stomach did a quick
somersault. Pulling the box file closer towards him, he held each
issue up in turn and gave it a gentle shake. His suspicions were
instantly confirmed when the movement yielded a small flutter of
letters from between the pages, each scrawled in an inky black
lettering identical to that which covered the first note he had
found. The faded red rug no longer visible beneath him, Aaron felt
tears prick his eyes for the second time that day. Paralysed
amongst the sea of letters, tears coursed down his cheeks, slowly
at first, but soon picking up speed, until his vision became so
blurred that he was looking at, but could no longer see, the
letters that lay all around him. He gasped desperately for breath
between the violent sobs that rocked his body, yet the string of
questions continued their relentless tirade and before long his
upset and confusion had transformed into an irrepressible rage.
    Like a man possessed he struggled to his feet and,
defiantly wiping away his tears, attacked the third bookcase with
new vigour. Box file after box file was wrenched mercilessly from
the shelves, the journals inside shaken violently, finally forced
to give up their secret hoards. Each shelf was stripped bare, its
former contents sent crashing to the floor in a flurry of perfectly
preserved notes, until nothing remained but a thick blanket of dust
outlining where the box files used to stand. Collapsing
breathlessly back into the fort, Aaron sat back against the stacked
carriers, panting with exhaustion from the sudden surge of
activity. The manic outburst had helped to quash his rapidly rising
anger, providing a vent for the intense frustration he felt, but
now all about him lay more letters and ultimately more
questions.
    A soft knock at the door startled him and he looked
up in panic, half- expecting Aunt Ruby to come barging in.
    ‘Aaron, is everything all right in there?’ came
Arthur’s concerned voice from the other side of the door.
    ‘Yeah, it’s … it’s fine,’ he lied, his heart beating
furiously inside his chest.
    ‘What was all that banging?’
    ‘Oh, I … I just knocked a stack of books over,
that’s all. Everything’s fine.’
    A brief and awkward silence followed while Arthur
appeared to contemplate Aaron’s excuse, but it seemed to satisfy
his concern because he quickly changed the subject.
    ‘Aunt Ruby’s not back yet. I don’t know where she’s
got to, but I’m starving and I can’t wait any longer. I’m going to
order a pizza or something for lunch; do you want anything?’
    Food was the farthest thing from Aaron’s mind after
what he had just discovered and he wasn’t ready to face Arthur yet
either, not until he had more information.
    ‘No thanks, Arthur. I’m still full