After David and Martha enjoyed their well deserved and due home date, both of them moved to the living room and sat on the sofa opposite the television set. David looked around for Charlie and Anjin and he found them running around the house.
"Charlie, Anjin, stop running around the house and come sit with us, its almost time for 'Stephen's World' to premiere"
Charlie and Anjin looked at each other and both of them knew 'Stephen's World' watching session is a family ritual at this point of time. They have to call it a draw and come to mutual understanding sonehow. Charlie started with.
"I'll share half the cookie dough and you fork over 2 peanut butter cups"
Anjin thought for a second and came up with her own deal.
"Two-third cookie dough for 2 peanut butter cups"
David intervened "Kids only 2 minutes to premiere"
Charlie muttered under his breathe something and then.
"Okay, deal…. Now fork over the peanut butter cups"
Anjin smiled devilishly and the deal was executed.
As Charlie and Anjin sat on the middle of the sofa with David on the left end and Martha on the right end. The entire family was united and ready to watch 'Stephen's World', and the show finally premiered for the night. The show 'Stephen's World' is a typical sitcom tv series and most of the sub-urban families of Neverdon city have made it a routine in their daily life to watch before dinner time. The typical dinner time being 9:30 pm for most families and 'Stephen's World' premieres at 9:00 pm everyday. The show in itself is not unique or path-breaking, but, it is the most family friendly piece of entertainment and the show portrays Stephen a Boy Scout and his friends solving theft cases in their neighbourhood and helping the police with their investigation.
The clock struck 9:30 pm and the day's 'Stephen's World' came to an end. Martha was the first to up and leave the sofa in order to bake breads and re-heat the lasagne with the help of the microwave. After Martha, Anjin also stood up and left for her room and Charlie did the same as Anjin, leaving David still seated in the sofa. As soon as, he was left alone in the living room, David sat up, made his way to the portable fridge and grabbed three chilled beer canes and returned to the sofa with wobbly steps. He laid back on the sofa and turned on the news channel. He kept browsing news channels and sipping beer between ads. As he was doing all this, his phone rang and it took a minutes longer than usual for him to grab hold of his cellphone, because he was under the influence now. A night of drinking with Mitch, then a fancy bottle of wine with Martha and now, one and a half beer cane, David is no light-weight, but he is no Pro also. After a couple missed calls, David finally grabbed hold of his cellphone and saw the calls were from Mitch, he immediately called back. Three rings,
Beep…. Beep…. Beep
On the fourth, Mitch received the call.
"Hey, buddy, I hope you are tasting the gutter water"
"You, Bastard! You know I'm not that type"
"I know that, but you are a light-weight…. So, its natural for me to worry about you"
"No, I'm not a light-weight…. Also, where are you?…. Did you reach home yet?"
"Oh No…. No…. I'm not going to my home tonight…. I'll go wherever she takes me tonight"
"You son of a bitch…. You lucky dog"
"Married man not allowed to be jealous of bachelors…. That's the law, also, let me enjoy this rare chance"
"Okay, then…. I will leave you to the pleasurable night, but don't forget to pack in the soldier"
"Fuck off, mate…. What are you? My Dad or something…. Okay, man, gotta go now, see you tomorrow, bye"
As soon as the call ended, David focused on the tv as a breaking news appeared out of nowhere. The anchor, a woman with blonde hair and an artificial tan, was reporting about a recent case where an expedition party of 5 including two forest rangers, 2 botanical researchers and one local guide went missing in the deep boreal forest of Runcrest, a city with winter climate located in the west of Kashville with a distance apart of merely 252 km. The party departed on 5th April, 2010, which was 3 days from now. The police was tasked with finding the party, on the first day, they collaborated with the local guides and searched for them all day and night with vehicles and when vehicles were unable to be used they searched on foot with high-powered flashlights. On the second day, they found some pieces of clothing of the party members, the police took out their duty dogs and made them sniff the fabrics and followed the dogs, but the dogs were also not able to exactly locate where the party went missing. On the third day, the police, the locals and the family members of the party lost hope and thought may be wild animals ate them and now, the search party was looking for remnants of their body for funeral purpose and unfortunately, till now body parts are still unfound.
David was undoubtedly drunk, but the breaking news almost made him sober. He gulped down water like he was a person who was lost in a desert and finally found a source of water. He shook at the understanding that just shy of 252 km to the place of his new transfer something of massive proportion happened right before he was about to move to the new city with his whole family. David was worried and anxiety-driven, the fact that hill stations make him uncomfortable also did not help with the recent discovery. He went to look at his wife through the door frame, she was about to serve them dinner. Then, he went to stand beside the door of Charlie and Charlie had his face buried in a comic book. At last, he went watch Anjin and he saw her pretending to be asleep or taking a light nap, while, in actuality she was munching on something with the blanket over her head, but anyone could figure out she was eating because of the munching sounds and the massive clue of a torchlight turned on beneath the blanket. David smiled to himself and thought that he can't turn down the transfer and this is his precious family, the best he can do is try to keep them safe and sound to the utmost of his capability.