Square Accounts

Chapter 2

Noel stood transfixed in his place he did not know for how long. Then as if an alarm clock has rang somewhere inside him, the spell broke. He heard footsteps ahead on the gravel road. He did not know what to do first. His now conscious mind told him to first try and save Ashley. He ran towards the edge of the cliff, almost hoping that Ashley would be hanging there from some protruding rock or tree branch below. Despite his vertigo he bent down from the cliff holding the edge with his palms in a hope to locate her. First he could see nothing, all seemed blur to his eyes. Slowly he gained focus and looked into the depth below. To his respite the precipice was not as steep as he had thought. It had slope down and was jagged at several places by rows of red cedar, fig trees and wild rhododendrons, thus breaking the slope into parts like terraces. He could see the crooked figure in the scarlet coat lying on top of some bushes. He has to climb down two intercepted slopes to reach her. The hope of her survival was still flickering like a thin light. He needed someone's help to rescue her. With the thought of a third person he remembered about the perpetrator. He turned to find that the opening near the cliff was wider here and the gravel platform sloped down to meet a road at some distance. There was a SUV standing there, which Noel suspected belonged to the man. The man was getting into the driver's seat. Wasting no more time Noel sprinted to a run towards the SUV. But before he could reach the road the vehicle had taken speed and was running downhill. Within few seconds it took a hairpin bend on the opposite side of the cliff and vanished behind the hill. Noel ran a bit further until he realized that the man was out of his reach. He now hurried back to the cliff edge panting trying to figure out what to do. Though the precipice had a slope, it is impossible to climb down bare handed. He needed some expert help. He decided to try and shout to Ashley to check whether she was conscious. But when he looked down the cliff he got the shock of his life. There was no Ashley there over the bushes. Thinking she might have dropped further Noel ran to the left side and looked down from another angle. Though there were numerous bushes and trees on the slope they were spaced such that one can see further down. Noel could not locate Ashley. He repeated the same from different angles of the cliff. To his fear Ashley had vanished into thin air. Noel's head was spinning now. He slowly walked towards the trail and sat on a small rock. He felt very puzzled, his ears grew hot, his eyes started burning, and the surroundings started spinning. He sank into darkness.

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Noel was lying in his bed now. The staff who had accompanied him on his search had found him lying unconscious near the cliff. Two of them had then helped him back to the resort where he was forced to drink milk and laid down for a doctor check up. Though Noel had repeated the incident multiple times and expressed his grave concern about the survival of his girl friend, the manager reassured him that he will find her and if required he will inform the police. The other two men were again sent to the cliff to search for Ashley, but they returned empty-handed. Noel had again called Ashley's phone this time from the reception land phone for the sake of argument. It was not reachable. He insisted that the man would have grabbed her phone and damaged it. He also tried calling Max for help, but no one picked the call on the other side. The on call doctor diagnosed a rise in his blood pressure and instructed him to take rest, so he was almost locked inside his cottage. But how could Noel rest with Ashley still missing. It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon. He paced back and forth inside the cottage for some time, his shoes making the only noise. He now noticed that his hands and clothes were soiled. He went into the bathroom and ran the wash basin tap. He washed and rinsed his hands and face thoroughly. He took the towel from the wall hanger and wiped his face. His left temple was burning. He looked at it the mirror and found that he had somehow cut himself near the brow. This would have happened when he had passed out at the cliff and hit the ground. He walked back to the room and took out his medicine kit to clean the wound with spirited cotton. Once done he walked back into the bathroom to throw the cotton into the waste bin. As he threw the cotton he noticed a crumpled blue bill paper lying in the bin. Thinking that Ashley would have disposed the dinner bill by mistake, he picked it up. But it was the breakfast bill that Ashley had paid at a road side hotel on their way here. Noel felt a fresh pang of loss and helplessness. Noel again resolved to bring back Ashley with or without help. He crumpled the bill to throw away when he noticed that there was something written on the back of the bill. In a stylish slanting hand Ashley had written "I don't want to see your face now. So I am going out to the market below. Probably I will not be back before lunch. Enjoy your day alone."