Lost and Found
It had been a week since the disappearance of Ben.
Cops were coming around here almost daily for the investigation. But no evidence had been found.
There wasn’t any suspect who the police could take into custody for the question. As Ben never socialized, he had no friends, no acquaintances.
Ben was a weird guy, though he was my neighbor we never had a conversation.
I had only seen him sometimes standing on his balcony.
I never saw him stepping out of the house. And I kept wondering, how can such a person disappear?
Did he finally dare going out to get some groceries and then forgot the way home? Has someone abducted him? If yes, then why didn’t that kidnapper call demanding money?
All these questions used to pop up in my head as I lay down for sleep at night.
I had not known Ben personally but his sudden disappearance was making me restless.
I wish I had put some effort into befriending him. The people around have concluded that he escaped because he wasn’t happy here. His family too concluded that he wanted to go on a trip as they weren’t allowing him to go alone he might have run away.
I considered those allegations to be false.
I sensed that there was a flip side to this story that his parents had been telling. A truth that was embedded deep within the layers needed to be uncovered. I decided to try searching if there’s anything that had been skipping out from the eyes of the police. And I had to do it fast before the case was closed.
My investigation of this case started from Ben’s room, this was the only place where he spent most of his time, where all of his secrets must have been buried.
During the night I managed to sneak into his room through the balcony and to my luck his parents were away for some business work. Though, it was astonishing as they cared more about work than their son.
The room had been already searched thoroughly by the police but they couldn’t find anything. So, I had to think the other way. Ben and I were of the same age and somehow I knew how most teenagers hide things. Especially the ones they are attached to. It’s their way of protecting them. I used to hide the letters that Kylie, my mid-school best friend used to write to me, inside my pillow cover and read them daily before bed.
While moving around his room in the dark I stumbled upon a pile of books. Ben was an avid reader. He had a wide collection of books that were scattered on the floor. I started to place them back on the shelf and then my flashlight fell upon this journal. I promptly picked it up, my eyes glistened with hope as it was Ben’s journal. The one that he used to carry with him. But, I was clueless about what I saw inside, it was a sketch of a boy. Ben seemed to love sketching but the weird thing was, he had sketched the same image throughout his journal.
That journal was the only valuable thing I had found amidst the coke cans, Doritos, and candy wrappers littered around the room but that seemed enough as that sketch was not merely a sketch. It was something more, that picture was trying to speak to me. It carried some secrets in it waiting to come out.
I had to find a way through which I could discover who this person was?
I shall ask Jay, he’s a hacker and might be of some help I thought and without wasting a second I called him.
Jay’s research took a few hours and fetched some results. The face in those sketches was of a boy named Rick who disappeared 10 years back and was never found. This was the only information available about the mysterious boy Rick. I had to find out how Ben was connected to that boy?
Things seemed to be getting beyond my ability to inspect. Hence, I decided to reach out to the police sharing the information I have discovered.
As I reached the police station it wasn’t me but the officer who thrilled me with the news.
“Hello Sir, I am June, Ben’s neighbor.”
“Hello, June. Ben has been found and taken to the Christ Hospital, you can go and meet him there.”
“Is he…Is he back?”
“Yes, he is, he was found half-drowned at the nearby Arizona Lake.”
“Holy Lord!! Is he fine now?”
“He was found an hour ago and immediately taken to the hospital, I have not received any updates yet.”
“Well, I must hurry then.”
On reaching the hospital, I couldn’t believe my eyes. He stood there gazing out the window, lost in his thoughts like he always does measuring the horizons. I was hesitant to interrupt him in that moment of solitude then gathered up the courage to go and speak to him about the accident.
“Hey, Ben. I am June, your neighbor… Everybody was worried about you. I am glad that you are safe and back home… I just wanted to know more about the accident, how you fell down the bridge.”
Ben was silent, as if not listening to me at all. Perhaps, he needs some space and time to recover. So I decided to leave.
“Okay, It’s alright. You might need some rest. I’ll come back tomorrow. I umm…I have your journal thought of returning it. I am leaving it here on the desk.”
“Wait…Where did you find that? Did they dig out my stuff? How could they?” Finally, he spoke, in an unusually eerie manner.
“No Ben it’s not the police it’s me. I found it in your room. Was worried about you and was just trying to be of some help.”
“Well, I don’t think highly of your actions.”
I was stunned, I just couldn’t take in his harsh words. I turned around to defend myself. He was there five feet away, with a fierce look on his face. I froze for a moment. A fair freckled red-headed boy pierced me through his darting eyes. Before I could say a word, I fainted.
I woke up and found myself in my bed. I was baffled by what I had seen. The boy in the hospital wasn’t Ben. He resembled Rick the boy in the sketch. I was getting more restless, and I called Jay.
“June, I understand your concern, but there could be a possibility that Ben resembles Rick.”
“No, Jay, this conclusion of yours doesn’t satisfy me.”
“June, have you seen Ben before?”
“Yes, I have seen him so many times standing on his balcony.”
“I mean the face, have you seen his face, will you be able to recognize him if you ever get to see him?
“I have no clue what he looks like, he used to wear a hoodie, I could never get to see his face.”
“Then how can you be so sure that the boy in the hospital wasn’t him? The police found him drowned in the river. They could recognize him as Ben obviously because they have known that he indeed is Ben. Girl, you are thinking too much, take some break.”
I was left in a dilemma, I paused for a moment and closed my eyes. That face was still there. Those obsidian eyes looking at me fiercely. Maybe Jay is right, I am overthinking. I consoled myself and went to sleep.
The next day while I was sipping my morning tea an idea struck me: if there was any boy named Rick who disappeared 10 years ago, then it must be in the records.
I hurried to the police station and requested Mr. Peter the officer to help me with the records while explaining everything to him.
I searched through the stacks of records and there it was the file of the missing boy Rickson Lucas. Same obsidian eyes, and red curls. The address is Ben’s address.
“Mr. Peter, do you have any idea about this?”
“Possibly they were living here 10 years ago, in the house that belongs to Ben’s family now. Mr. and Mrs. Lucas must have been disturbed by the disappearance of their son and had sold the house to Andrews and left this town.
“Yes, and then Ben would have discovered Rick’s stuff like his photographs and journal which he got obsessed with.”
“But then how did Ben drown?”
“I believe it was just an accident, Ms. June.”
“Sir, I have another concern, would you believe it if I tell you that I saw Rick in the hospital yesterday.”
“You must be hallucinating. Perhaps because you have been too carefully examining those sketches.”
I couldn’t figure if that was a sarcastic remark that Mr. Peter made or did he actually mean it. Was I indeed hallucinating?
I thanked him for the help and headed back home.
Ben was back with his parents, I decided to go and visit him. I was a bit afraid after that aggressive behavior he showed in the hospital, I gathered the courage and knocked on his door.
A boy with mysterious emerald eyes and a serious face opened the gate.
“Hi, I’m June. I’ve come to see Ben Andrews.”
“Yes, I’m Ben. how can I help you?”
I was scared to death, I wanted to scream in his face and run away, however, I gathered courage and got in.
I told him about everything that had happened and then got to know the truth.
“Rick accidentally drowned in the Arizona Lake and his body was never found.
The loss of my best friend was traumatic, I blamed myself for persuading Rick to go cycling with me. After his disappearance, I requested dad to move here, as I wanted to stay close to Rick.
Since then I have isolated myself from the outside world. I sketch Rick’s face whenever I see him. He lives here in my room and says he hates me as I was responsible for what happened to him. He wants me to set him free by finding his body which is still there in the lake and give him a funeral, that’s why I went to that lake and drowned myself. So possibly the boy you encountered at the hospital was Rick. Although I used to believe that it’s just me who could see him. Perhaps, he was trying to keep you away from me.
Everything is so stressful, I can’t sleep at night. He’s always around there and his presence makes me lament more when I see him in that misery.”
Ben needs to move on from this loss, or he’ll keep trying to drown himself thinking of him as the culprit. Thinking this in my heart I held his hand and made a promise to be his friend in need. Hesitatingly he placed his hand on mine and smiled…
The next day I reached out to Mr. Peter along with Ben. We informed him of everything that had been happening and requested him to search for Rick in the lake.
He called the team and the search began. It took two days for them to discover his body but the efforts didn’t go to waste.
We had finally found him and gave him the funeral.
That day Rick visited one last time to say Ben thank you, and bid him farewell, and soon faded into the light.
