The last rays of the summer sun were disappearing below the horizon as Charlie boarded the train.
He looked at the darkening sky, but could see only a vague image of a woman he was about to see.

What would she say to him, Charlie wondered. Apologise? Too late. What would a woman, who abandoned her eight year old son to run away with her boyfriend, say to her son after all these years? She had left a note ,"Go to Margaret".

And he had ended up in an orphanage where Margaret, their neighbour, was a counsellor. In the initial years he kept hoping that there would be some word from his mother. But gradually that hope had faded. He had pushed the question that burned inside him deep down In the caverns of his mind.

He was now about to get married. He wanted to slay all his ghosts before he started on a new emotional journey. So Charlie had taken the help of Steve, who too had grown up in the same orphanage, and was now a private investigator. Steve had found her in a ramshackle government accommodation a few hours from where he lived.

* * *


Charlie stood impassive watching the gaunt pale woman professing regret. When she stopped, he asked that one question which had burned inside him for so long.

"Why didn't you take me with you?.

"He didn't want you with us", she whispered after a few minutes.

"Did you ever think of me or what happened to me?"

She waited and said in a small voice."I knew Margaret would take you to the orphanage".

Charlie's jaw clenched.

"Have you ever loved me?"

She blanched, if it is possible for her to be blanched.Then she started whining.

Disgusted he got up and walked off.