Chapter 37: The Vanishing

 

The bell had rung. But what stood behind the door wasn’t Raman.

It was the transport officer from Raman’s school.

I stood frozen. My face must have lost all colour.

He said, “Ma’am… Raman sir left the office about 15 minutes ago, saying he was going upstairs to the residence… We thought he was with you.”

The words stabbed through my chest.

I couldn’t respond. I just stood there, numb.

My breath caught, my heart skipped a beat. I knew. I don’t know how, but I knew…

He was gone.

Gone from the building, maybe even from this world.

I grabbed my phone with trembling hands and dialed his number. No answer. I dialed again. And again.

I ran downstairs, barefoot, not even caring who saw me. I rushed to the gatekeepers.

"Sir gaya the building round pe... par abhi tak wapas nahi aaye," they said.

He had gone to inspect the building around 20–25 minutes ago. But no one had seen him return.

I sprinted out onto the road, looking in all directions, eyes scanning every face in the distance, every possible street corner where he might have gone. But there was no sign of Raman.

He had disappeared.

Panic tightened its grip around my chest. My breaths became shorter, heavier.

I called my sister-in-law, barely able to speak. “Raman’s missing…”

She paused, then said, “Mummy-papa are already on the way to Ludhiana.”

I kept trying Raman’s number. Still no answer.

Then, after a while…

Switched off.

I stared at my phone in disbelief. I knew his battery had been low. I kept telling myself, Maybe it’s just that. Maybe it’s just the battery.

But somewhere inside, hope began to slip away.

Soon after, I got a call from Rimpy, my brother’s close friend, who was working as a carpenter at the school.

“Didi, please come back to the school house. We’ll search together.”

I rushed back.

With Rimpy and a few others, we searched the campus—every room, every corridor, every empty corner. We checked the CCTV footage.

It showed Raman leaving the campus gate…
At exactly 3:16 PM.
The same time I had last seen him talking to his senior from the rooftop.

That one frame in the footage felt like a punch to my chest.

I fell to my knees.

My eyes stared at the frozen screen, but my mind was screaming.

Why did I go inside? Why didn’t I run down just five minutes earlier? Why didn’t I hold him tight and never let him out of my sight?

I kept praying.
I kept cursing myself.

Somewhere deep in my soul, I began to feel the truth I didn’t want to believe.

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Reflection:

There are moments in life that don't feel real—like time freezes and your breath becomes hollow. That day, every second stretched into a lifetime.

In those moments, I was not Rabia the wife, not the professional, not the mother—I was just a soul desperately trying to hold on to a love slipping like sand through trembling fingers.

3:16 PM.

I will never forget that time.

Because that’s when my world shifted.