Novelette: The Parthian Vase

 

PREFACE

    “The Parthian Vase”! Well, the title might sound quite ancient but the things inside are definitely not about anything like the Parthian wars or a medieval love. This novelette has nothing to do with Parthia or its people. It is purely a story of love, hatred, sins and remorse. In fact, as any other stereotypical stories, this novelette too revolves around emotions and dramas. To me, the best part of reading novelettes compared to reading novels is that they can be completed very quickly but more to it, they also still possess those fine elements of great novels making them look like little time saver novels.

    Jackkar Persley, narrator of the plot, is a narcissist yet waggish wealthy broker of antiquities. He is frolic, romantic, slightly envious but wishful young man who is seen flowing in the story with memories of his infrangible friendship, patchy love, sacrifices, betrayal, search and the mysterious occurrences that follow. The whole journey of Jack (Jacckar Persley) is destined to find the truth behind murders of his best friend and ex-wife followed by flashbacks and twists to every predicted conclusion.

    “The Parthian Vase” is my very first fictional novelette as a writer. However, the summarized version of the novelette had already been published in my college’s annual magazine, KMC Souvenir Vol. II in 2011 as a short whodunit story under the title “Mystery never revealed”.  That old whodunit story by me has now been remoulded and this time is seen with an ending. This novelette is something that began with me as a juvenile story writer and now to a novice novelist. “The Parthian Vase” is purely a work of fiction and my infantile imagination. Being my first ever novelette, it is very close to my heart. 

Finally, any sorts of encouraging and guiding suggestions from the readers are always highly welcomed.

P.S. If you have noticed, the story starts and ends with similar sentence. Good luck with the reading and finding more hidden clues inside.

CHAPTER 1

This vase close to my bed once again reminded me of him, his story and every bit of the memories linked with him. All those years we spent together, our taut friendship and those mischief and pranks we played on rest, are still so spick-and-span inside my encephalon. But more than that, the things that had transpired these years back still comes in my dream, sometimes as a memoir and mostly as a nightmare.

I still feel as if it was just yesterday that I had tried calling him, but it’s been years already. My memory still time and again takes me to that very day when I had rung him up after a very long holdup.

I, very daringly, had dialed his number that day. The ring on his phone hadn’t even been quarter-toned that he immediately picked up the phone. “Hello, is it to Sam’s? I mean Samuel’s?” I had asked. “I knew you would call me one day, Jack”, answered the guy on the other side of the phone. “And you can still call me Sam. ‘Samuel’ sounds very formal.” he said. “Glad to know that you recognized my pitch S-A-M (giggling).” I replied. I am still not sure whether I should have asked him this question that day but still I had asked, “How are you and your ‘new’ family, Sam?” “I am what the fate had decided for me and yes I am alone, Jack.” he replied. “What do you mean by you’re alone? I thought...” I hadn’t even completed my part when Sam asked, “Can you meet me tomorrow to my house, Jack?” and he ended the call as if the phone had been smashed on the floor or perhaps somebody had unplugged the phone’s plugs. Whatever might have been the matter, I found it quite weird.

I wasn’t sure whether I should have gone to meet him or not that time, but a curiosity always had resided within me to meet him once and to see how Sarah was.

 

 

CHAPTER 2

        I finally decided to meet Sarah at Sam’s house. I should have never forgiven Sam for what he had done to my feelings but friendship had always been the barrier. It might had been our friendship that had bonded us still in spite of his and Sarah’s betrayal.

It sounds too eccentric to know that your wife, whom you adored so much, was always after your best friend, had an intense love affair before your marriage and you had no damn a bit idea about it. I was an idiot lover boy for the crowd that time. My colleagues, who never had guts to talk to me, were actually starting to talk about me. Of course, they weren’t talking any good about me but making their regular backbiting time pass, telling how fool anyone could be for not knowing his own bestie’s and wife’s affair with each other. I could have taught Sarah an indelible lesson by taunting her for her entire life with that unwanted marriage, but I seriously loved her.

        I still don’t know whether that had been one of my sacrifices for friendship or I no longer wanted to keep a turncoat with me under my roof; whatsoever, I had no other option than to let her go with the man she loved. I thought they perhaps had even got a child by then. I was seemingly getting a bit envious that moment but still I wanted to see how happy Sarah was, without me.

 

CHAPTER 3

        The next day, I drove my car and after four hours of tiresome road trip, I was finally able to reach to that arid site, probably the region’s most barren land. I could see no neighborhoods around except Sam’s old woody house, better to call it a barn. I had been quite a prosperous broker by then but Sam didn’t seem to have reached that level as mine. A very old unrepaired bicycle laid beside the doorstep. It was the same bicycle I had seen years back in his house. Sarah might have been a very lazy wife or a girlfriend; wait, had they been married by then or were they in a living relationship? Well, why would I bother to care for that matter? ‘Sarah and her indolence’, God! At least that could be one of the reasons to be glad that she wasn’t with me anymore.

        The doorbell wasn’t working as usual so I knocked the door. In no while, Sam opened the door as if all those years he was just waiting for my visit. He was smiling very gracefully, but his waist coat, dull green Arabian trousers, black and white lined plaid shirt wasn’t making him look as graceful as his smile. “Nothing has altered in this place”, I said. “Yeah, nothing. Not this old bicycle, this useless doorbell and not my old clothes, isn’t it Jack?” I turned red upon hearing that. I deduced as if he was reading my mind or maybe my eyes because Sam was looking just through them. I still remember that rummy expression on his face that day. We entered in and sat on a cramped sofa; an empty table was lying just beside the sofa. The room was however quite orderly with that ancient touch to it but still the dusty smell was fading out all that antique richness of the room. “Sarah quite detested the antiquated designs earlier, seems like she has changed her likings”, I said satirically. “Sarah isn’t with me, Jack. She had been out of my head and heart from the day my best friend was engaged to her. I was never a cheat, never a betrayer, Jack”, said Sam.

That line made me dazed for a while but again I thought he might be joking or was playing some silly pranks on me like he did years back in college. “You remember Jack, how we played those ‘hiding-and-finding-things’ games earlier? Can we play that game now? I want to go back to our old fun days.”, he said. Seriously? Did he call me from that far for this? I was getting bit hard to open up myself before Sam like earlier days but I could figure out that Sam wanted me to find something inside the barn. I faked a smile and got up to find something, maybe his beloved. He again gave me that graceful smile. I went to the room that was direct to my sight.

I searched Sarah behind the door, back of the curtains but she wasn’t there. I then bent on my knees and checked under the bed (well, I still don’t know why I did it that day) and there I was like, “Oh, my Gosh!” when I found Sarah lying dead right there.

CHAPTER 4

I screamed, “Sam, Sam” and suddenly he was there in front of me with that same smile but that moment, I didn’t find it graceful but rather horrifying. I then turned my head towards a wooden rocking chair where reposed a next dead body. These incidents almost had made me lose my consciousness. “It’s…it’s you S-A-M”, I murmured. That dead thing had worn the same clothes that Sam had worn just a minute ago. I started to panic severely.

Then everything appeared sooty to my eyes and probably I had fainted for a while too; I don’t remember exactly though. I just remember that I was inside my car, unknown about how I had reached there. I was totally baffled and lots of questions had arisen within me. Why didn’t anyone know about their death? Was it because no one ever came to that secluded place or was it because Sam never wanted anyone else to know about his purgatory before me?

That mystery remained as a whodunit tale to me, but whatever might have been the reason, that wasn’t the ending I had wished for their relationship. I could no more act normal, not because I had seen a ghost and even talked to it, but because I was left all alone once again and this time with a hefty guilt on my heart.

CHAPTER  5

        All those supernatural incidents were still hovering over my head. So, I drove my car to a nearby pub, drank a large cup of low quality disgusting-to-taste whisky. Well, I should have known that the drink would obviously be unpalatable after noticing that these people served whisky to their customers in a coffee mug.

That pub had some really clumsy and stinky people, probably might be some workers of a construction site or a hospital or a dumping area, whatever. Among these people, there was an idiot fellow, totally drunk, whom I definitely visualized as one of those foolish woodcutters who climbed to the tallest tree and chopped the branch where he was sitting himself and broke one of his vertebrae; the doctors could tell you more specifically about these technical terms: lumbar, sacral,… or okay, forget it. That fool slapped me on my back in the pub and said to me, “Man, don’t you drink so hard that you ain’t able to stand on your own feet. See, how I have managed myself. Enjoy my fr…ie…nd…(THUD)”. Then I could hear him fall badly on the floor unconscious. “These people!!” I told myself.

        The waitress was however cute. Well, she wasn’t dressed in a white and red laced frock, high leather boots with a cowboy hat like waitresses dress in such motel. There wasn’t even a fake metal bull that people ride on with a mug of beer on their hand spilling all their drink, just singing and yelling out loud. I thought this place was even worse than that and took a sip of my boring drink. Whatever this place looked like, why was I analyzing and acting as a critic to this place? My friend was talking to me some couple of hours as a goddamn ghost or a soul or an evil force or some kind of inexplicable energy, whatever he was, and here I was stuck in this place where people seemed to me almost purposeless. But I had a purpose, an essential purpose to find out the truth about what had happened to my closest, in fact, my only friend.

 

 

CHAPTER 6

        I paid to the bartender and offered an extra tip to the cute waitress. She winked at me and I gave a smile to her telling myself in thoughts, “Hey cutie, I’ll be back to you again after my work’s over!” and I left that mobbed pub.

        I suddenly could feel that excitement in me like some highly veteran detectives in comics feel while solving very mysterious cases. I felt like a detective, although very much naïve, but still with lots of disarrayed queries and predictions. I decided to begin from the beginning and what would have been the best place to start with, other than Sam’s same old barn.

        The pub was quite near to his barn, I drove my car and within some time, I arrived to that place. But as soon as I reached the location, I again felt myself like one of those kids who hide behind their parents seeing a tamed hound dog on the street thinking that it was some kind of wild man-eater wolf that had escaped from the nearby jungle. My so-called Detective Holmes feeling was all gone again. I felt a rush of chillness through my spine noticing that the barn, where I had entered just some hours ago, was no more situated on that location.

        I searched around again and again, memorized about all those things that I had seen on that location a couple of hours ago, but there wasn’t that old unrepaired bicycle, no any doorstep and no any useless doorbell. That cup of low quality disgusting-to-taste whisky of the pub should have done a lot of scathe to my brain and my vision, I thought. I was very thirsty but I found nothing and no one nearby in that solitary land. I decided to leave that place, which I thought wasn’t even the correct location, get myself a bottle of water, freshen up and then search the right place where Sam’s barn actually was.

        I stared my car, took a right to stop by a small grocery shop nearby, lying beside a petrol station, from where Sam and I always used to grab some cans of beer. I laughed recalling how Sam used to pay for just two cans of beer and hid a packet of frozen sausages inside his shirt and made that funny shivering expression of chillness inside his chest. Once, I even had tried to do the same but I was caught by the owner. I had run so fast that I could have qualified for the Olympics that year and Sam was laughing his lungs out inside the grocery. He didn’t steal any sausages that day but for obvious reasons pretended not knowing me, in front of the owner.

        “(TR…ING, TR…ING) Excuse me sir, can I have your order?” asked the salesgirl. “Oh, I’m sorry. Yes, a bottle of water please. If I am not mistaken, Mr.Steven used to run this store, isn’t it?” I asked. “I don’t know Sir. I am new at the job, but right now Mr. and Mrs. Smith own the shop.” replied the salesgirl. But such phenomenal days those were with Sam!

        I paid her for the water, drank a portion of it and got in my car. As soon as I kept my hands on the steering wheels, I suddenly remembered something, in fact a lot of things.

        If that whisky had done any harm to my brain and vision, I wouldn’t have been driving all the way so properly and I wouldn’t have visualized all those memories of Sam with every paltry details. To be explicit, the only place that had this grocery shop and petrol station on its right was none other than Sam’s barn. I was back again to my self hired ad-hoc detective style.

 

CHAPTER 7

        I quickly drove back to that same barren land and this time I wasn’t rattled at all to not see Sam’s barn. After all, that would look quite normal to anyone after seeing corpses of your dear friend and ex-wife, seeing a live ghost of your friend and even having a brief outlandish conversation with the ghost. Now the only abnormal thing left to occur was, me and the ghost having a cup of coffee together and talking about Maroon 5’s new album.

        Sam had perished after that incident because he was no longer a life, but why had the house disappeared? Well, you can’t murder a house and see the soul of the house coming back for a revenge saying, “Whooo…ooo… you broke me down…I will be coming back to haunt you…” or something like that. I know everything happening around was so unnatural but c'mon what was it about seeing a ghost of a house? I laughed at this but thought Sam’s soul shall be upset at me for making fun of his purgatory so, I again returned back to earnest.

        I was quite sure that the house was most probably demolished intentionally. I didn’t remember the names and addresses of any of Sam’s relatives. Sam used to stay alone in that house; his mother had died during his birth and his father had left him years back. The only person he used to talk about was his Grandfather. But I didn’t know where he lived; in fact, I never thought it of any requisite to ask Sam about his Grandfather. Sam even didn’t have any neighbors around because no one resided in that deserted place. The only person I knew in that place (I am not sure whether he knew me) was Mr. Steven, the former owner of the grocery shop.

        I went to the grocery once again and asked the salesgirl to provide me the contact details of the Smiths. The girl hesitated for a while but upon requesting her with my macho-charm, she easily gave me Mr. Smith’s number. After all, no girl could resist such an eligible bachelor like me for a very long. But I would have been more pleased if the girl had provided me with Mrs. Smith’s number than of Mr. Smith. Never mind, I am quite familiar and okay with such ‘getting insecure stuffs’ of girls. I smiled and thanked her, but didn’t promise myself to visit her back after the work was over. You know, she wasn’t as cute as the waitress in the pub and everyone’s aware with how good I am with keeping single promise at a time.

I called Mr. Smith and asked him about Mr. Steven. Mr. Steven had sold the grocery to the Smiths two years back. Mr. Smith provided me the address of Mr. Steven and I drove to his home.

I pressed the doorbell and luckily Mr. Steven opened it himself. He had become very old and weak unlike those days. I wondered how he had dark shiny black hair with that white beard and drip-dried face; this man seriously had great hair coloring skills. And let me not elaborate that fashion-disaster in his wear, that tight light green t-shirt with picture of Roger Moore printed on it and his brown leather shorts. But a good thing was that, he could now no more run after me like he did earlier. “I am Jack, Mr. Steven. Do you remember me?” He looked quite addled to recognize my face but still replied, “I think so…”, but I knew he hadn’t identified me. However, I was sure he knew Sam even though he didn’t know that Sam was the one who stole his sausages. “I am Samuel’s friend, the one who lived just some distance far from your grocery. As soon as he heard this, he invited me to come in. His rooms were dark and empty; this old man probably lived alone in the house. “Boy, you once stole my sausages, didn’t you?” he asked. I smiled shyly. “Yes, Mr. Steven. So you remember me and Sam? Do you know what had happened to Sam and his house?” I asked. “You haven’t still paid me for those sausages, have you?” asked Mr. Steven. This old man was still that stingy as he was earlier. I gave him the money for his sausages and said, “Here you go, sir. Can you tell me anything about the house, Mr. Steven?” “Boy, you have paid me two cents less. Sausages were costly those days, you know.” Such a penny-pinching old fellow I thought and gave him two cents more. “Now, can you spare me with this sausage thing and say anything about Sam?” I asked. “People say…” Mr. Steven started to talk about Sam; “…his house had started smelling dead bodies. People later found out the corpses and a priest from the nearby church performed some rituals and burnt the entire house with the corpses untouched inside it, believing that the house and the souls could haunt the people around if proper funeral wasn’t performed.

CHAPTER 8

That last sentence from Mr. Steven gave me a chill. I thought at least people knew that Sam and Sarah were murdered so they might also know how. “Do you know what actually happened in that house, Mr. Steven?” “Since you have paid me for my sausages, you are allowed to leave, boy.” said Mr. Steven. He disappointed me being so rude once again. “Here we don’t talk about the ones that are mysteriously gone forever. The priest will definitely have something to tell you.” he said. I assumed that Mr. Steven didn’t know more about this but at least I was happy that he referred me to the priest for further information. I spent a night in a lodge nearby; I wished Mr. Steven had made some use of his empty rooms for a night letting me stay there. Again a “penny-pinching fellow” I supposed and left the place.

The next morning, I drove my car to the church. The church was very small but ravishing with radiant portraits on the wall, antique vases and lovely flowers in those vases. “Is there anything I can do for you sir?” asked a young boy from my back; he might have been a janitor of the church. “Yes, can you take me to the priest who performed the cremation of Samuel Thompson? He also incinerated his house most probably.” I thought I was quite straight forward to ask that question for initiating up a generous conversation. The young boy went to a Padre, told him something in whispers and came back. “Father Elvis does all such cremations.” He then took me to Father Elvis. “Good morning, Father. I am Jackkar Persley. I was a close friend of Samuel Thompson.” “Oh yes, Samuel. I remember. We really had a crucial time performing his and the woman’s cremation. Son, we usually buried the dead bodies but in that situation, we had to cremate. That wretched spirit I felt inside that house forced me to burn it entirely. What a tragic end!” grieved the Father. “And Father, do you know what had happened to them?” I asked. “The hearsay information is that, the woman who died with Sam was responsible for that incident. She was said to be an unethical married woman who left her husband and came to live with another guy, but Sam couldn’t accept her. She was so depressed that she murdered him and then later killed herself. No one came here from Sam’s family, I wonder whether they know about his death. Son, this is all I know. Do you know who the man she was married to was? He might have known something.” I laid off for a while, totally zipped to say anything. “No, I don’t know her husband. I just know Samuel.” I replied.

That priest made me realize back that somehow, I might have been one of the reasons for all these. I should have discussed well with them about their relationship and therefore have come to a decision unanimously.

Since Sarah was the culprit one with no accomplice of hers and even she was dead already, I had no murderer to identify anymore. The only task left was to inform Sam’s Grandfather about Sam’s death. However, those supernatural scenes inside that house were still making visuals inside my cerebrum. Sarah’s body under the bed, Sam’s on the chair, his voice and everything. Then suddenly I thought, if Sarah had killed Sam and then later had committed suicide, how did her body come under the bed if no one had touched their corpses before cremation? That unnatural event, I had seen or I was shown most probably inside the barn, could definitely not have been a simulated one.

CHAPTER 9

I was sure that Sam’s soul hadn’t shown me any false visualization about the position of his and Sarah’s corpses. So, it was quite obvious that all those people in that place had wrong assumptions about their deaths. That might be why Sam’s soul was still roaming in that place, waiting for his purgatory to end with justice although the cremation rituals were already performed.

Since, no one knew exactly what had happened, I was again blank about where to begin from. The only person coming to my mind was his Grandfather. But I had no idea where he lived. His address might have been in the college’s information section, I thought. Sam didn’t use to tell much about his barn to rest students in the college; it was only me and Sarah, who knew about it and had even visited him there.

Our college was miles away from that barn and it would, by all odds, take me several days to reach there on my car. I didn’t even want to leave my favorite Vintage Bugatti Veyron in such an alien land. She’s not just a car to me; she’s my love who lets me drive her, kick her, paint her, touch her, kiss her (I do this quite often). Well, I can’t make love with her, I wish I could, but I am contented with that too because she has been there with me, letting me to ride on her for like nine or ten years and is never senselessly nagging around like girlfriends do. She literally “drives” me crazy. But I don’t think I had any other choice than to leave my elegant vintage car there. I could no more waste time to find out the truth about those murders and justify my friendship. With heavy heart, I left my darling four-wheeler outside the church and took a flight to reach my old college; I mean “our” old college.

I had just arrived in the college but I was already starting to miss my poor little car. The college was however repainted and had built some extra blocks and sections in its premises. I walked through the main corridor and saw photographs of students, all new faces, performing concerts, discussing in the seminar hall, being awarded by former presidents, partying in the prom program and many more. Those pictures took me back to my old memory at our last senior prom night in the college.

All our classmates looked so elegant that night. The boys were dressed in black and the girls in green. I and Sam had dressed exactly the same way and that had definitely not been a planned dress matching thing either. We both had suited up in black with green silk shirt and a green handkerchief in the suit pocket. We were so embarrassed to be twinning at first but later laughed seeing each. I remember Sam had said, “I hope these people don’t mistake us as twins.” And I had replied laughing, “Even if they assume us so, I hope we get two twin sisters as our company tonight.” Obviously there weren’t any twin sisters in the prom; but a very beautiful girl who had all eyes stuck on her. She was dressed in a long stunning green gown, her hair long and lightly permed, her eyes so beautiful and hazel and skin that looked like tanned just recently on the beach. She was the girl I had crush over in the whole semester but I could never tell her then that I loved her. She was none other than Sarah, the girl of my dream.

I had thought that it was the right time I express my love for her because after the semester was over, we might never meet again. I had already told Sam about my love just some days earlier. At the beginning, he was shocked but later he had smiled and had suggested me to propose her at the coming prom night. He was right so I went straight to the rostrum where the musicians were playing some classic music; I grabbed the mike and proposed Sarah in front of the whole mass. I was quite a good-looking desired stud of the college those days, no doubt I am quite good-looking till now, so I had hoped that she would accept my proposal. But to my surprise, she didn’t reply anything and went outside the hall in tears. And Sam ran following her, I thought may be to console her or to explain the whole thing about my true love for her. Everyone were bemused seeing that but after some minutes, she entered back inside the hall and replied out loud, “It’s a yes, Jack”. I didn’t know what Sam had told her that day but right that moment, I felt myself as the happiest guy on the planet.

Sarah and I got engaged some months later and after our graduation, we got married. All those times of our spousal relationship, she wasn’t the same one I had loved in the college. She started behaving very differently, though never told me a word about what was troubling her. She wouldn’t let me come very close to her and never even initiated for that intimacy herself. Most of the times, I just used to say that I loved the color of her skin and touched her gently, but she used to run smiling shyly or may be faking to be shy, just to end all those romantic moments right there. It was only later that I realized she had an affair with Sam, maybe a physical involvement too, before our marriage, had broken up with him earlier but still loved him desperately from within despite our marriage.

I left those afflictive memories behind and thought to visit the information section and find the details about Sam’s Grandfather. I had a very vexed time to convince the personnel of the information section that I was an ex-student of the college, I mean a brilliant ex-student of the college and that I needed the contact information with great urgency. He finally provided me the address of Sam’s Grandfather. He didn't seem convinced though that I could have been a brilliant student of my batch. Whatever, I got what I wanted.

 

CHAPTER 10

I took a cab to Sam’s Grandfather’s apartment. It wasn’t very far from the college. I wondered why Sam resided in the college’s hostel during his college days when he had his Grandfather’s place so near from the college. I took the lift to the fourth floor where his Grandfather lived. I rung the doorbell and a very old man opened the door. He was stunned for a while to see me as if he knew me and was expecting my visit.

“Hello, sir. Are you Samuel’s grandfather?” I asked. “Yes, son. Come in.” I went inside; the apartment was very small with just two large rooms inside. Sam’s grandfather looked very old. He might have been in his early 90’s. I doubted whether he even remembered his own name or not but he proved to be quite a smart old man. He was dressed in a blue woolen shirt and a cotton rocky pant. His facial muscles were shaking every time he was speaking. His loose skin was most probably making his face shaking, I thought. But I definitely didn’t want to look like him at my old age. This reminded me of one of Ray Young Baer’s poems, “Lamentation of the old pensioner” because I actually was feeling like that old man in the poem who lamented on how pretty girls turned their faces off seeing him in front. Obviously, I didn’t want that for myself, more specifically when it came to girls not checking me out.

 “I am Jack, Sam’s best friend.” I said. “I see! So Jack, how is Sam? He has even stopped visiting me since many years. Is he alright? You know, I was really worried.” I didn’t know how I could tell and shock such an old person talking about his only grandchild’s murder. I didn’t reply him anything and watched the photographs framed on his wall. “Oh, Sam really loved making me click his pictures. He looks a gentleman in this photograph, doesn’t he?” asked Grandfather smiling and holding one of Sam’s photographs. “Is Sam sitting inside his barn in this picture?” I asked holding a photo of Sam sitting on the same sofa where I had sat just three days earlier during that ghostly encounter. “Yes, it’s his barn. We always used to leave the barn empty since it is miles away from here. But when Sam’s father returned back, Sam thought to apart himself from us and started living alone in that barn.” I was surprised hearing that. “So, Sam’s dad was here? He should have been happy for that, shouldn’t he? Why did he think parting himself from Mr. Thompson?” I asked. “Their father and son didn’t have common terms, you see. Sam didn’t want to be what his father wanted him to be and his father could not accept him for what he was. His father was a very stern man with stern rules. Now both are gone leaving me all alone and I don’t know where.”

I thought to say nothing about the mysterious murder of Sam to his Grandfather because all that I was imagining was Grandpa breaking down into tears or collapsing with either a stroke or a heart attack with his son missing and his grandson murdered by someone anonymous. So, I decided to let the old man live his few years of life with a fake assumption of his dearest grandson’s life.

 

CHAPTER 11

“So Grandpa, don’t you have any idea about Sam? Did he never contact you or try to meet you?” I asked. “He used to frequently visit me when he was at college but after his father returned back, he rarely did that. His father however used to visit him in his barn. You know son, he used to work there nearby.” he said. “Where does his father………(pause)” I then suddenly paused for a while when I heard “Sarah” from Grandfather. I don’t know why, but her name still gives me that chillness on my body. I started to have goose bumps when I heard it, more unlikely, from Sam’s Grandfather.

“Sarah,…… or Sera? Sarah! Yes, the name was Sarah, I remember. I wonder if Sam is still with that girl(Grandfather talking to himself).” “Son, did he tell you he liked the girl?” he asked. I then started to stammer, confused about what to say and what not to. “I am sure he didn’t tell you anything. Sam is such a shy boy. I couldn’t even still believe how he gathered all his courage and proposed that girl. But it was me who had forced him to propose her. I was quite worried for Sam. I wasn’t sure that the girl would accept his proposal. But surprisingly, she did. Wait, I think you might know the girl. I will show you one of her pictures with Sam.” Then the old man started opening all the drawers of almirah, taking out the old dusty albums and turning page to page through his large convex spectacles. His specs were making his eyes look like a frog’s protruding eyes. He wasn’t getting her picture for a long time. For a while, I wanted to take Sarah’s photo out of my branded Tommy Hilfiger classic wallet and show it to him saying, “Wasn’t she a beautiful innocent-looking cheater?” but I had to repress myself doing so. I waited getting bored up, I usually got bored very fast. I never preferred choosing similar subjects in every semesters, never participated in same sorts of competitions,  never played the same sports for a very long time, never kept the same hairstyles, never usually wore the same shoes, but there was still one thing I never got bored up with and I wanted it throughout my life. I always wanted to fall in love with Sarah for my whole life but unfortunately, she didn’t let that happen. I could have happily accepted her as Sam’s beloved if only she had told it to me once. I would neither have proposed her at the prom nor would have married her. Every time I hear her name, I feel like a moron lover. But when I remember her face, every time I feel more and more attracted to her like I felt when I saw her for the first time at college.

We were all new to the college. However, Sam and I had known each other from the beginning. We were not just college friends but childhood friends. We weren’t at the same middle or high schools but we were doing a short leadership course at a private institution after our school hours, sometimes in the recess too. Sam was a fully subsidized student of the course and I was a fully unsubsidized one. Sam was a bright kid grown with gold and silver trophies and I was a happy-go-lucky kid born with silver spoon. So, I never even thought it worth working any hard for trophies and scholarships. However, Sam was always behind me at sports. I was the one who won all those football tournaments for my team but never even qualified for the preliminary rounds when it came to spelling, quiz contests or any science and math olympiads. But there was a thing I was most interested in; I loved writing. Not poems, novels, stories or articles. I just loved writing my life out into the sheets and no one knew that. I never wanted anyone to know that about me, especially Sarah.

 

CHAPTER 12

“Yes, here it is. See son, this is Sarah.” said Grandpa and handed me the photograph of Sarah. She was holding Sam’s arm in the photo and smiling. She was looking so gracile and innocent that I couldn’t take my eyes off her picture. “Isn’t she beautiful?” asked Grandpa. “Yes, the most beautiful thing on the planet.” I said holding that photo almost close to my heart. “Sam used to say the same. He used to tell that he loved her hazel eyes. Her eyes had so many things hidden behind them. That was why he always found it so difficult to read her. To him, she was like an open book from outside but very mysterious from within.” said Grandpa. In fact, that was the same reason why I was so much retracted to her. Every day she had new emotions to show; it was so difficult to know and predict her each time. I used to love surprises a lot and every day she was a new surprise to me. I just loved her so much.

“This was the day when Sam proposed Sarah for marriage and I took the snap of that moment. Do you see that ring on her finger? Sam proposed her with it. They were so happy that day.” he said. I was quite dismayed that moment because I never knew they were so deeply in love that they had even planned for their marriage.

 “I still can’t believe that they are together. Sam never launched anything himself. He hadn’t even shown his feelings for her, just directly proposed her very shyly. I was stunned when I came to know that she had accepted it. It was only later I knew that Sarah had assumed him as another guy. I still find that very funny.” said Grandpa laughing his lungs out. “Another guy? Who? “ I asked. “I don’t know; but whoever he was, Sam should be very thankful to that poor fellow. That guy used to write some very heart touching literary stuffs to Sarah without his name on it. What a fool! (laughing again) and when Sam proposed her, she had mistaken him to be that very guy already and accepted the proposal. It was only some weeks later that Sam knew Sarah was in delusion. He wanted to tell her the truth but he was scared to lose her. Even I had suggested him to remain dumb on that matter. After all, everything was going all fine and why would Sam pay for some nerd’s stupidity? What a waste of literary talent! Forgot to write his name!” said Grandpa giggling.

I was very angry that moment when Grandpa was calling me a fool again and again. I didn’t write my name on those love letters because I was scared, scared to lose her even as a friend. Actually, I didn’t want to see those letters torn into shreds ending all my feelings for Sarah with her slapping me right into my well-favored face. Grandpa was right. I was indeed a fool. I should have known that Sarah was actually doting those letters and my secret attention for her. If only I had gathered my courage that time to reveal my identity, Sarah wouldn’t have been holding Sam’s arm in that photograph. The photograph would have rather showed her kissing my cheek and me holding her curvaceous waist and both looking into each other's eyes intensely in love. But sadly, Sam had come between my likely to happen love.

“Did Sam know who the guy was?” I asked. “No, he hadn’t known for some years but one day he had come to me, some days before his graduation I guess, saying that he told her who her secret lover was. A minor teenage lovers’ fight! I thought and I ignored the thing. I hope they have patched up after some time. After all, how can Sarah leave the guy she loved those whole years just by knowing a weensy truth.” said Grandpa locking all those albums back inside the drawers. Grandpa’s hope was wrong, I was sure that they never patched up after that. I always wanted to know the reason of their break up and I guess, I already had the answer then. The reason was “me”. Grandpa was right in a sense that Sarah could never leave Sam just by knowing a futile truth. But Sam chose friendship over his love. Sam was right; he was never a cheat, never a betrayer. It wasn’t Sam, it was me, who had come between their love.

CHAPTER 13

Grandpa snatched the picture of Sam and Sarah from my hand and kept it inside his old drawer. However, I didn’t give the picture of Sam sitting on his sofa inside the barn. Even Grandpa might have forgotten to take it back from me. I wasn’t taking that photograph just because I wanted to keep it as a souvenir of Sam, but I was somewhat sure that the picture was a key to unlock mystery of his murder. As soon as I saw that antiquated vase (the vase was kept on the table just beside the sofa where Sam was sitting) in that photograph, my hawkshaw part of brain suddenly was so alert that I felt like one of those athletes who feel energized after having that dose of amphetamine (of course in an illegal way) before their match.

I was so much into my flashback mode that I didn’t hear a word Sam’s grandfather was telling me. Well, I didn’t even think it worth listening either because all he was doing was, talking about how Sam couldn’t tie his lace when he was eight, how Sam used to force him to sing the songs of George Michael and so on. The only thing that was coming to my head was that vase, that beautiful antique virtu. I had somewhat recalled already about where I had seen that gracious piece; after all, I was quite a smart broker whose half the life so far just went buying and bidding such rare objet d’arts. I, in fact any broker dealing with ancient pieces, could tell you that the vase was one of such designs for which many “Richie Richs” could offer you hundred thousand dollars. I am sure some fool art lovers could even pay it a million dollar. I, seriously had no such craving for these designs because all I craved was the money I got from them. But right that moment, I started lauding my knowledge for the artifacts, because that knowledge was definitely going to take me very close to the murderer.

I once again went through all those photographs hung on the wall. I was obviously not willing to hear anything more from Sam’s grandfather but still, I wanted him to answer my last question. The question, whose answer, I had somewhat already figured out but all I wanted was to hear it from Grandpa.

“Grandpa, don’t you know or are you just pretending not to know that your grandson is no more alive?” I asked. Grandpa didn’t utter a word, his hands were shaking and I could tell you that it wasn’t of his old age. There was something, in point of fact, a lot of things he was trying to conceal.

CHAPTER 14

“I always knew you would come here one day, Jackkar.” said Grandpa. I wasn’t surprised that he called me with my real name and not just “Jack”, because by then I had already guessed that he had recognized me in the beginning, from the way he was looking me at the door when I had entered. “So I was right that you were expecting me here. Can you now bother to stop feigning and just tell me everything you have been hiding to the world?” I asked with my eyebrows raised. “I know my Sam is dead, I know. No one needs to remind me about that ever. He is no more here but still I can feel him everywhere. It feels like just yesterday that he asked me to explain his school’s lessons.”, said Grandpa with tears rolling down his wrinkled cheeks but still smiling. “Now that I know where I have seen that Parthian vase, there is no other option than to tell me all the truths. Why did he kill Sam?” I asked him.

“No, he didn’t kill Sam. No, he didn’t.” exclaimed Grandpa really loudly. I then went straight to one of the drawers, took out the album, pulled a photograph from it and flung it hardly on the table. “What is this? Do you think I didn’t notice this man? I have met him already. These past three days weren’t any normal days to me. I remember every bit of these days and all those persons I talked to in these freaking three displeasing days. I am not a fool, Grandpa. Now, definitely not like the one I was in my college. At least you don’t need to tell me who this man is. I just want to know ‘why’. Why did he kill Sam? Why did your son or let me rephrase, why did “Sam’s father” kill him? Am I right this time, Mr. Thompson?” I smiled.

CHAPTER 15

I was sure Sam’s grandpa felt like one of those lambs standing near the Dead Sea surrounded by wild jackals and having no choice than to dive into the sea. Grandpa actually had no other option than to reveal the unrevealed truth. Grandpa replied, “You are right. This man in the photograph is my son, Sam’s father. But he didn’t kill Sam. Sam had to pay for his sins.” I was appalled to hear that. If he didn’t kill Sam then who did? Grandfather? No, not him I guess. “The cops killed him. He had to be encountered to death some day and same happened. He deserved it” said Grandpa. “Encountered! By cops! I didn’t get it.”, I exclaimed. Grandpa began to reply again, this time more slowly than before, “His father is a priest, known to the world as Father Elvis.” Yes, I had already known that Father Elvis was Sam’s dad when I had seen him standing close to Sam in the photograph and Grandpa had hurriedly snatched that album from my hand. I should have known earlier that Father Elvis knew Sam very well from the way he was addressing Sam by the name ‘Sam’ and not ‘Samuel’ even though I was only using the name ‘Samuel’ in front of him. Only close people called him by that name. And of course, how could I forget that Parthian vase, which I had seen inside the church where Elvis worked. Grandpa started to talk again, “That day, I still remember. You had come to see Sam in his barn, Jack. I too had come to see my grandchild that day but as soon as I entered in, Elvis had already hit you with that Parthian vase on your head and you were lying on the floor unconscious.” Now, that was the most shocking thing I had heard of all those things I had seen those last three shrilling days. I was lying uncounscious? “I don’t even remember visiting Sam to his barn or meeting his father. I was a “lacunar amnesia” patient, a disease that made me lose part of my memory, but it didn't mean people could fool me each time saying the things that didn’t even happen to me. Oh God! My illness will actually get me into huge trouble one day” I thought. “Look, I don’t remember these things and please Grandpa, stop making up fake stories to save yourself and your son from this criminal offence. I don’t know how you came to know that I have this problem of amnesia, but whatever it is, you just need to come up with real stories else I will wait no more second to call the cops.” I warned him. “You can call the cops. After all, it’s the only thing I have been waiting for years. I know that you have this problem of lacunar memory loss because that “hit” on your head that day was the sole cause of  your memory disorder, Jack.” said Grandpa.

CHAPTER 16

I felt that grandpa wasn’t fibbing this time. I told him to continue everything he knew. “I was very happy to visit Sam that day. I normally didn’t use to inform him earlier that I was coming. I had done the same that day too. But when I opened the door, situations weren’t the same as before. Elvis was holding a vase, the same Parthian vase, with his hand covered with blood and you were lying unconscious on the floor. I hurriedly rushed to you and tried to awaken you but you didn’t respond. Then Sam said that you were Jack, his best friend.” said grandpa. “But why? Was there something I shouldn’t have known?” I asked in swivet. “Elvis was a deacon those days at a catholic church near to my apartment when he had returned back to us. Sam was happy that his dad was back but Elvis wasn’t ready to accept him as his son. In fact Elvis had never married Sam’s mother, Rose. He had profaned his clergy celibacy even after he was ordained as a deacon. He had committed a sin. He then sent Sam to our barn so that no one would know that Elvis had never abstained himself from physical intimacies. But faith sometimes destines you even for the things you don’t want. Elvis was ennobled to be a Catholic priest in the same church where he is working right now. It was only later I knew that Elvis had intentionally inherited that barn to Sam. Elvis had been a criminal all those years. He was a transgressor starting from having objectionable relationships to being involved in smuggling of ancient objects. “What? Sam’s father ran a smuggling business?” I asked being totally baffled. Grandpa told, “Yes. Elvis ran such racket. He disguised his business in the name of running a candle factory for his church. A hand of black mud though covered by white furry gloves cannot conceal the dirt inside it. Sarah was living with Sam since some days after you left her; but Elvis didn’t know that she was living with Sam in the barn. Even Sarah had no idea what crime Elvis was doing there. But the truth never conceals for a long time. Sarah knew that there was something wrong happening inside the factory. She, one day, came to know what sins were being performed by their so-called most steadfast priest of the town. She threatened Elvis to reveal all his sins and unmask his real face. Elvis definitely didn’t want that to happen so he hit her with the same Parthian vase and later suffocated her to death when she was all alone inside the barn. “And Sam? Didn’t he fight for her?” I asked. “Son, Sam was no more our old innocent Sam. Elvis couldn’t have run the whole racket without Sam’s help. He must have first grieved seeing her killed by his own father but Elvis' accomplice was none other than his own son. Sam always craved for his father’s love and attention which ultimately compelled him to do everything Elvis wanted, even the most unforgivable crimes. Yes, Sam loved Sarah but not more than his father’s attention for him. Elvis made him hide her dead body under the bed and he did it without any hesitance. Elvis stole a skeleton from the graveyard, yet committing another sin and dressed it as Sam to lie whole town that both Sam and Sarah were dead and fabricated the reality with a lie that Sarah killed Sam and later committed suicide. He decided to send Sam away from the country so that both would be acquitted from her murder. But unexpectedly you came to the barn, found out Sarah’s corpse and the fake skeleton dressed up as Sam, you know what happened rest. You should thank me because I convinced Elvis that you were in coma to avoid him killing you and promised him to keep all these things a secret. I was the one who took you to the hospital nearby and luckily the doctor told that you developed this problem of amnesia after that attack so there wasn’t any necessity for Elvis to kill you. It was a moment to grieve about, but right that moment I thanked god to have blessed you with memory loss because it was the only reason that spared your life.” said Grandfather. I wasn’t able to get anything grandpa was telling then my cell phone rang ‘TRING…TRING’, “Hello Mr. Jackkar Persley, you were supposed to attend a meeting at the ‘Vision Hotel’ three days earlier but why didn’t you arrive? We have been trying your number every day since then but we couldn’t get your signal. Is everything alright, sir?”

  

CHAPTER 17

I still remember how I had smiled scornfully at my stupidity. Now, everything was appearing quite clear to me. I never had seen or talked to Sam’s ghost. I was just recalling those incidents in my imagination. That location, the barren land might have triggered the subconscious part of my mind when I was driving for my business meeting. Yes, I had in fact come to that place to attend a meeting about a halted auction but that place had sharpened my memories so much that every moments starting from Sam opening the door, talking about his clothes, talking about no more being with Sarah, me seeing Sarah’s corpse under the bed and that skeletal frame dressed exactly like Sam which I had assumed to be Sam’s corpse, all events looked so much real to me; but in fact had been the memories of my past events when I had come to meet Sam in his barn years back. The events of the pub and things later, had only been the things that had occurred in those last three days. I always had conceived that I might have this amnesia problem due to some sort of genetic issue but the reason was different and shuddery too. “I always wished you to come back one day and reveal the truth, Jack. Sam, personally never had wanted to follow Elvis’s footsteps but he pushed himself unwillingly to do as such. After some years of Sarah’s death, I heard from Elvis that Sam was killed in an encounter by the cops in Hongkong while smuggling a very old Greek inscription. Such a waste of life and innocence for an inconsiderate man like Elvis.”, said Grandpa. And this time I believed every word Grandpa told me.

All this time I thought I had been fighting for my best friend but now I had to fight for the lady who was once my wife. I took Grandpa with me and caught an immediate flight to that place from where everything had begun. I took a cab for the very church after landing there. I could see that my car was still there, in the same condition as I had left her. My poor little car left all alone with the murderer! I then saw Elvis walking in the corridor and I rushed to him forthwith.

“What a lovely vase made of molded Parnian clay; characterized by extensive use of a motif, the Huma bird, a mythological bird of paradise of Persian origin; silhouette of a Parthian warrior riding on that legendary bird with sufficient detail on these figures to allow scholars to discern a number of different artists' hands. Isn’t this a beautiful vase?” I asked Elvis holding that Parthian vase which was placed inside the church. “Thank god, my blood hasn’t damaged any of its designs, Father or should I say Mr. Elvis Thompson, father of Samuel Thompson?”, I asked with a deep voice.

“So, your doctor has finally treated your mental disease, isn’t it? It’s good. In fact, I was feeling pity at your situation all these years, Jack.” said Elvis. “Thank you for your concern but I think the time has come to feel pity upon you instead. After all, I need to return your favor you had given me on my head.” I said. “That fool shouldn’t have called you that day. I had told Sam to call no one in that barn but he invited you on the phone. That was why, I unplugged the phone instantly so that he wouldn’t spit out the location. But you had known that barn already; and that girl, the most foolish of you all! Why peek at a thing that isn’t of your concern? God, I should have burnt you too inside the barn with her.” grinned Elvis.

Then Grandpa entered in and spoke, “Elvis, your sins have buried the hell too. It’s time you redeem for your sins.” Then he called the cops who were waiting for his call outside the hall. Elvis tried to escape but he was caught. The cops had heard Elvis’s confession already and Grandpa too became a witness to  Sam’s and Elvis’s crimes, and also accepted that he had tried to hold back the truth all those years. The cops also took Grandpa under their custody but I guess he will be released soon. Well, I never met him ever after that.

I was really happy that Sarah got justice. She was betrayed by Sam as I was betrayed by her. Maybe destiny made her to pay for it but she definitely deserved justice. Those past years were like past haunting lives to me. I could never forget it; after all, my lacunar amnesia was cured too. However, I did forget to meet the cute waitress at the pub. Then I thought, “No, never back to that gonzo place again.” and left from that place.

I called my manager to rearrange my meeting for the halted auction and drove my car to our booked hotel. I saw the same drunk fellow working as a security guard there, who had fell on his face before me in that clumsy pub few days back. What a roller-coaster journey it had been these three days! My mind and heart was definitely not within the topics of meeting but both of them suddenly got alert when I heard “The Parthian vase” from one of my colleagues in the meeting. “Friends, this auction for the Greek painting shouldn’t be obstructed like it happened for the Parthian vase years ago. We can no more afford the loss for the painting as we had to bear for the stolen Parthian vase.” said one of my colleagues to the attendees. So, the vase was one of Elvis’s burgled artifacts. I said nothing about discovering the missing vase in the meeting and returned back to my home after the meeting was over.

I entered my room and cleared my rack close to my bed to make a space for something. A thought suddenly struck my mind meanwhile. That day from where it all happened- Elvis murdering Sarah, that vase getting bumped into my head by Elvis and the memory loss, all of those incidents suddenly came to my mind again. Those weren’t just the things I was focusing on; there was a moment that day which I had missed. Yes, ‘the hiding-and-finding’ game that Sam had talked about that very day when I had come to meet him in his barn years back. That game had actually been an indication to inform me that Sarah was murdered and her body was hidden somewhere inside the barn. Grandpa was right. Sam never wanted to follow Elvis’s bridle path but he forced himself to be a biddable son for his dad. Sam had genuinely wanted me to reveal the murder but before that could happen, I was hit by Elvis. Sam too had wanted justice for Sarah, though he wasn’t able to save her. He had genuinely loved her; such a waste of life! I finally made a space in my rack for the Parthian vase. Those mysteries, murder secrets and my detective intuitions were all over by then; it wasn’t a whodunit tale to me anymore.

 It’s been years that these incidents occurred and they come in my memory so fresh and alive till date. I still wonder who loved Sarah more? Sam or I? He loved a one woman his whole life and got her love till she survived and in my case, those hazel eyes still don’t allow me to get involved in another conjugal life even though those eyes never wanted to see me. Taking the brighter side, there is still a feeling of radiance in an unwed life I guess. In whatever form the love might seek me later, that vase close to my bed will always remind me of him, his story and every bit of the memories linked with him.