The two police officers came inside the house and one of them exclaimed,

“Put your hands up.

Both of you!”

Martha was quite terrified.

I raised my hands up and said to her,

“Don’t panic, just raise your arms.”

She did so. The police officers entered further and saw the dead body. One of them asked,

“Who is he?”

“Officer,” I said out loud,

“I will explain everything.

Believe me we are not criminals.”

“Just stand there!”

The police officers went closer to Orlick’s dead body.

They tried to move him.

“He is dead,” I said to them.

“Keep quiet!”

“He committed suicide just now. He drank poison right in front of us.”

“The two of you are going to be dead,” the officer said to us.

“What do you mean?”

“How did you two get here?”

“We were called here by this man,” Martha replied before me raising her voice.

“Did you two kill him?”

“Why would we kill him?”

I replied. “We are innocent people. This man called us here and killed himself. He is Rita’s murderer. He confessed this in front of us.”

The two of them had a secret conversation for a moment and then as they aimed their guns towards us, one of them said,

“You, Brad’s wife, put your hands down and move aside.”

She did as she was asked to do.

“You Brad,” he said out loud. “We’re asking you for the

last time…”

“He died himself,” I interrupted. “I did not kill anyone. I promise.”

“Alright, just put your hands ahead. We are arresting you for now.”

“No! Please no,” Martha yelled.

**************

I remember it vaguely. But I do remember it with some glances. I was held back by Carl. I was crying and screaming out loud. Carl along with some other people was trying to stop me by holding me back. I was really upset at that moment. In fact, ‘upset’ is not just enough to describe what exactly I was going through at that moment.

What’s really bothering me is what happened? Why was I like that? What happened back then? What happened before and what happened after that incident? It has all flushed out of my mind.

I have to get it back. I need to see that again. Or else I’ll never know what that tragic incident that led to this was.

I can’t seem to remember what happened next. I just know that my eyes were open but my mind was not. I was just seeing prisons and courtrooms around.

My kids, no wonder where they were and with whom. They were not with me. Not under my custody at least.

The interesting conversation that I remember after that was,

“We have plenty of evidences that can prove that Bradley is absolutely innocent. He has nothing to do with Rita’s murder.”

“Prepare all those evidences and present them in the court as soon as possible.”

“If we do present them in court, will he be discharged from

the jail?”

“Without a doubt.”

Now this accuracy of conversation in my mind, proves that I can at least recall memories. I remember what happened in front of me. What kind of conversations took place, but my own words and actions were probably not even in my own hands.

I have always believed that love is stronger than hate, but my life’s experience has proven me wrong. These two paths can never meet as long as long as there is extremism. But one can always hope that love would out win hate one day.

Coincidences do not happen for a good reason, or do they? Well, in my case it wasn’t something good. The crimes and sins of your soul are not born overnights, they take time. But surprisingly my life’s case was exactly different.

One Month Later

I was coming out of the court. I was stepping down the stairs. Carl came rushing towards me and said with excitement,

“Congratulations, my friend! Brad you have finally been declared innocent. You are free of all the charges.”

I did not even smile. I just kept on descending down the stairs.

“Why are you still upset?” he asked me.

I did not reply him.

Some psychologist came by my side and said to Carl,

“Let’s just take him to your house right now.”

“The court has declared him insane?”

“No.”

“So?”

“Not guilty.”

“Okay,” Carl responded. “In my opinion, both cases could have been true.”

“Yeah!”

We kept on descending down the stairs until the psychologist said to Carl,

“Go and bring your car.”

“Okay.”

“We’re taking him to your house.”

“Where is Martha?” I finally spoke up after a while.

“Don’t worry about her. She is fine wherever she is,” the psychologist answered spontaneously.

After a few minutes, I was seated on the backside of the car with the psychologist.

Carl who was driving the vehicle asked,

“Uh doctor, where are his kids?”

“They are under police custody. He will meet them soon.”

“I see.”

**************

Few days later, I was sitting inside my house. I was inside my room and I was all alone.

I saw Martha coming towards me. I stood up and talked

to her,

“I am so happy to see you.”

She smiled.

“Where have you been?”

I asked.

I then tried to walk towards her and said to her,

“I have missed you so much.”

She nodded her head while smiling.

“Of all the people I ever knew,” I continued, “you were the one who really understood me.”

She looked aside for a moment.

“Even better than my father,”

I finished my sentence.

After quite a long moment of silence, she finally said.

“I am always with you.”

I paid attention to her.

“I never left you.

And I never will.”

I walked to hug her but I got badly distracted.

I fell over from the stool.

I sat up and looked around.

I was at Carl’s home and there was nothing like what I was seeing in my day dream.

I stood up and saw that there was no one around in the room. I started weeping as I remembered my dream.

Meanwhile at another room of the same house, Carl was having a phone call conversation,

“His condition might get worse.”

“Don’t worry, it won’t,” speaker from the other line said.

“I’m just suggesting that we should let him meet his kids once.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen that easily.”

“Look, we can hire new lawyers, can’t we?”

“That could be really expensive.”

“No problem,” Carl responded.

“You know you already are under a big debt.”

“I don’t care.”

“Come on, Carl. Be realistic.”

“I don’t care at all. I’m doing this for my friend.”

“The government can do all of this if you simply let them.”

“Look sir, you know very well that I will not agree on this stuff. So it is better if we make it happen the way it was meant to be.”

“Alright fine…What do you want right now?”

“I want for him to…I want him to meet his kids.”

“Anything else.”

“Not apparently,” Carl replied.

“Look, I’m not going to lie to you. But Brad meeting his kids is not likely going to happen.”

“Why not?”

“The reason for that is that the kids are going to stay inside the foster home for several days. And the visitors are not allowed there for this month.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why the visitors are not allowed?”

“It was in that agreement. Right now,

I would recommend you to take care of your friend. The court appointed psychiatrist must have given you a list of some medicines. Make sure he is taking those. Just look after him.”

“Okay, I think that you’re right here.”

“We’ll talk later on.”

“Sure, bye.”

Carl disconnected the call.

**************

Next evening, I was sitting on my bed as usual. Carl entered inside the room where I was seated. He came with an expression of delightfulness.

He said to me,

“My friend, I have very good news for you.”

I was as I was before. He took out a paper from his pocket and then said,

“My friend, listen you will be really happy to see this.”

I wasn’t even listening to him.

“You will feel much better today, once I will let you know that the person who wronged you will be punished quite soon.”

I moved a bit by looking up

at him.

“I’m just asking you to pay a little more attention, can you please?”

I blinked once.

“Alright,” he smiled, “now listen to this. This crooked cop. This evil police officer, he has been arrested.”

I asked after quite a long pause,

“…..Who?”

“The guy whom you wanted to get arrested, Ron.”

I wasn’t responding with expressions because I probably couldn’t. But deep down inside I was really happy.

“He will get hanged I’m sure,” he said while walking around in the room. “I hope you will recover by then. You will see him getting hanged.”

“Where are my kids?” I broke the silence after quite a long while.

Carl turned and looked at me. There was some kind of hope in his eyes.

“Your kids?” he replied. “Uh…well you will get to meet them. Real soon, I promise.”

I smiled a bit.

“That’s all I wanted to see,” he said looking at me.

Carl left that room after a while.

**************

One Month Later

The truth about my life is that it has always been too heavy over me. I have been a patient and tolerant person. Believe me I have been. But the truth is that there is a limit to every emotion. There comes a moment when you explode.

In my case, it was probably something similar. Losing sanity, I never realised that my life would reach this point someday. You lose one thing after another. First, your loved ones then your truly loved ones and eventually your mind.

Carl came home that day with a wheel chair. As he entered inside, he said,

“My friend, Brad! Look, what I brought for you today. Now you and I will go out every night and spend our fun time. Just like old times.”

He saw that I was sitting in his room but was not responding. He started crying a bit and said,

“Come on, Brad, say something please.”

He started crying really loudly as if he had burst open after a long time. He was too depressed to see me like this. He spoke out loud while crying,

“You guys, do you have any idea about how much it hurts me? Do you have a slightest of clue? It hurts me so much seeing this family break apart. You guys were the best people I knew.”

He kept on crying hiding his face against the wall.

“Please, get well soon. Please just recover,” he cried.

Some driver who was probably Carl’s driver entered inside the house, he looked at Carl and asked,

“Is everything alright sir?”

Carl kept on crying without even listening to him.

**************

Several Months Later

Carl was at some theatre watching a stage play. The stage play was in modern day English and it was a love story. Carl asked himself during the climax of the show,

Why are these love stories so depressing? Be it in real life or in dramas.

In the stage play, some evil soldier was standing opposite to the peasant who was the leading actor of the play. Peasant’s wife was standing close to him. The evil soldier said to them,

“This is our land, we rule over you slaves.”

“I spit on your reign.”

The soldier rushed to kill him with the sword that he was holding, but the peasant’s wife came in between and stood right in front of the peasant and got hit.

Oh, my God! Carl said while standing up.

He left the seating area with utmost hastiness as if he was disgusted by the show. While running towards the exit of the theatre, he said,

“This is the exact scene that happened in Brad and Martha’s life. And it cost them everything.”

He came outside the theatre and started crying.

After a while, he looked up at the clouds and said,

One death caused this family the sanity of a normal person. And two kids living in a foster house without their parents forever. •