Blank Pages

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 28; the 28th Edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. The topic for this month is 'BLANK PAGES'.

R

hea was sitting in a corner scribbling something in a tiny diary. This was her most prized possession and being an extreme introvert it helped her to share her feeling which was not possible normally as she hardly spoke to anyone.

Her parents had abandoned her when she was only 6 months old on the steps of this orphanage. Sister Daisy was her mother since then and her only family was the thirty seven other orphans in the old building off the highway. They had a huge compound in which Rhea used to take strolls, often talking to sparrows and gazing at the numerous patterns that the ants used to make. Other kids used to find her a bit eccentric and tried to ignore conversing with her. Not that it bothered Rhea as she liked to keep to herself and spent time just wondering how beautiful the gifts of nature were.

She hardly used to play with the other kids and always used to sleep late. Many a times Sister would find her in the corridor mumbling strange words. It would really freak her out and she would lovingly take Rhea to her bed. Sister was a good natured lady and made sure that none of the children had any trouble. It was tough times as there were not many sympathizers of the orphanage and there had been rising cases of abandoned children. She had appealed to the local administration that had willingly helped her by providing the extra land joining the plot to the orphanage at free of cost.

Sister was also getting old and would often fear what would happen to the facility after her death. There had been rising cases of violence and crime in the local neighborhood and she made sure of the security of the children by having an armed guard at the entrance. She also advised children not to venture out alone without permission and she had given strict instructions that everyone is to be inside the building by Day fall.

Rhea on the other hand never paid heed to the warnings not because she was undisciplined but because she was lost in her own world and her thoughts. She used to see strange people when she was out of the orphanage and it often made her wonder that she was like a frog in the well. She wanted to be free and on her own. She wanted to explore the world and let the uncertainties of the universe shape her life. But she was stuck in a godforsaken place with irritating children and a hyper sensitive guardian.

Other children often used to freak out in Rhea’s company as she always used to mention how she would break out of the place one day and they would be left there as miserable as they already were. Sister used to get bothered by these comments of the little girl but never paid attention as she felt it was a passing phase and the girl would start talking sense as she spent more time there.

But contrary to everyone’s expectations one day the things that girl told came true. On a stormy night when everyone was busy shielding their homes and hoping that the weak glass window panes won’t break a shadow crept out of the orphanage compound and ran out of the gate only to turn on the bend round the highway never to return again. It was not until the morning prayers that Sister could make out that they were one short of the full attendance. At first she thought that the girl must be hiding somewhere in the compound or must be sleeping somewhere in the building. As minutes passed into hours she had to call upon the local police station and report a missing person complaint.

Police came over to the building with a preconceived notion that the child must have been kidnapped. After all there was an alarming rise in the kidnapping cases where children were sold off across the border and they had been wondering when it is going to strike the orphanage. They started questioning everyone including the other kids and if they had noticed any unknown person in the compound last night. As the weather was not good everyone gave a different account which in turn gave only a hazy picture. The watchman was almost sure he had seen a man with a rifle ready to shoot him down before he had taken out his tiny revolver and shooed the man away. The watchman though confessed he had sold off the bullets to buy some liquor and the gun was only a showpiece now. Police felt it better not to question the drunkard watchman anymore as it would only complicate the case further.

The children seemed to give interesting stories but the most believable ones were those in which the children had seen some unknown figure in the dormitory the previous night but had refrained from raising an alarm as there were all sorts of people who used to come meet the Sister. There were some odd stories also in which children claimed that Devil had taken Rhea away as she always used to mumble strange chants. But the most ridiculous argument was given by the girl who used to slept next to Rhea and according to her Rhea had ran away on her own due to some trouble which she never disclosed.

On further investigation the police came across a diary which Rhea used to maintain. It was really strange how they could have missed on this evidence earlier as it was on the top of Rhea’s book pile. Sister was distraught and wanted the police to get Rhea from the hands of the perpetrators as soon as possible. It had created a sense of panic and fear amongst the minds of the kids and they were not very forthcoming to talk now. Moreover the atmosphere in the orphanage had completely changed and children now took every step with caution. It really disturbed the local administration as the orphanage was really close to their heart and they took great pride in its functioning.

As the police read the diary they could hardly make out what Rhea wrote. She had very beautiful handwriting but her word connections were horrible. It was almost impossible to make out what she wrote in that diary. On some of the pages there were strange symbols and on the other pages there were just numbers. She had a habit of writing every day except on Thursdays. Police deduced this as the pages on Thursdays were always blank. One of the investigators pointed out that the writings on Sundays were generally very relaxed whereas those on Wednesdays were the most odd. The ones on Fridays were generally filled with poems and quotes.

All in all they concluded the following-

Sundays - Relaxed writing describing how the day went

Mondays - Random writings about the nature and description of other kids

Tuesdays - Strange symbols that led the reader to believe something dark and ominous

Wednesdays - Hurried writing with strange numbers and strange unconnected quotes

Thursdays - Blank untouched pages

Fridays - Sad images drawn on the pages

Saturdays - Pictures of birds and their descriptions

This was a common pattern and all the investigators agreed to it after much deliberation. They were really curious about the blank pages on Thursdays. Strangely Rhea went missing on a Thursday and they felt that the clue to the case lie in diary and what was written behind those blank pages. It was as if Rhea wanted to say something through her diary and her writings but it was very difficult to decipher. They tried questioning the Sister and the rest of the kids about anything that was special about Thursdays but were successful in drawing blank faces only.

After a few months of brain storming they decided to rest the case as the writings must have been plain and without any agenda. Rhea was known to be a bit eccentric and such a mysterious diary was only making the matters worse. Sister made a huge hue and cry about the case being closed but finally relented to the police’s versions and decided to take care of the rest of the kids.

She had to forget the girl as a bad dream. After all Rhea’s disappearance had given her quite a few nightmares.

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