Morning came by soon but not much had changed. The room was almost windowless, say for a tine vent just beneath the ceiling that let me a small amount of light. The dull morning atmosphere did not help much to improve her mood. She felt hollow, something she hadn’t felt in quite some time. It was a mix of emotions that had overwhelmed her and over the night had slowly eaten away at her heart. She stopped thinking and quietly went through the motions of a daily life.

Her new workplace was a small square building sitting on the outskirts of the city. It was just three stories tall and quite small compared to the giant warehouses she had visited before. However, the key feature of this warehouse is that it sits on a highway that is essentially the aorta of the road network south of the country. Its main purpose is to act as resting place for goods and trucks in between journeys. This also makes it a great place to keep a check on the logistics of the traffic passing through the highway.

Isha felt a little anxious thinking about the new girl. She had been the only girl in her team ever since she joined three years ago. While the other boys did their very best to make her comfortable, they couldn’t fill the void of having another woman as a companion. So, when they told her that a new member would arrive, she couldn’t help but feel excited, even if it was for a short period of time.

However, after the first interaction with the team, Monica’s personality seemed to have completely changed. All the energy seemed to have vanished leaving her looking dull and lifeless. She had heard a lot about her from her colleagues in other offices, many described her as an energetic but shy person. But when the first day came to end, Monica did not appear to be anything like what their peers described her to be. Isha felt that something awful had happened to her. She could see the sadness in her eyes, looking as though she would burst into tears any minute.

But she did not know what to do about it. Ever now and then, she would try to prod Monica to speak up, but she could not break through the shell that Monica had retreated herself into. It was Thursday already and the week was soon coming to an end. By Saturday, Monica would be on a bus and on her way to her next destination. Isha couldn’t help but feel disappointed if her short time here ended like so dully. She wondered if perhaps she should just let it go and hope things turn out okay for her.

‘Any progress?’ her manager asked.

‘Well, I got through a few files from yesterday…’ Isha began but was quickly interrupted.

‘No. Not about that!’ he said, ‘I meant about our temporary member.’

Isha shook her head and sighed. ‘No. She still won’t say much. I don’t know why but I have a bad feeling about her,’ Isha said.

‘What do you mean?’ he asked.

‘Like something that isn’t supposed to be happen, happened,’ she replied.

‘Well...’ he began with a hesitant tone, ‘she is a girl who is travelling alone all the time…’

‘And…?’ she said with pout.

‘Come on now. Even men face troubles when travelling,’ he said defending himself. ‘You are best option to find out what happened to her.’

She remained silent for a few seconds, pondering on what she could do. ‘I can try. They told she was a shy person. Maybe it is something she doesn’t want everyone to know,’ she replied.

‘Well, there is not much we could do about that. The least we can do is make her last two days a little better,’ he replied.

Time healed Monica’s heart, albeit slowly. Her chest did not weigh heavy anymore and she was now able to stop thinking about the events of that night. It still sent shivers down her spine every once in a while but it wasn’t something she couldn’t handle. She had pretty much blocked out the outside world, unwillingly to interact with it any more than that was needed. But now, she began to think more about her new colleagues. She felt terrible that she had to shut them out like the way she did. She remembered their names, or at least she hoped that she did. There were only two more days left before she would have to leave once again and one of those days was coming to an end.

Monica began to feel anxious. She felt like she owed them at the very least an apology, but she had no idea how she would approach them. However, it was like the gods were listening to her, as one of them approached her on their own.

‘Hey… busy?’ Isha asked.

Monica had been couped up in her small cubical, staring into the monitor all day long. She looked at Isha’s face a second, completely dumbfounded, but quickly shook it off and said, ‘oh no! It’s fine.’

Isha felt a bit relieved. She wasn’t really an outgoing person and making small talk was always an uphill task for her. So, she felt anxious when she was asked to bother someone who was completely closed up. She smiled softly and asked, ‘you want to go out for a cup of coffee? The others have left for the day.’

‘Really? How late is it?’ Monica asked, looking at her watch.

‘They had some work outside. It is okay if you are busy,’ Isha said. ‘No! Don’t say that!’ she screamed at herself for she knew she just might have shut down the opportunity to talk to her.

‘I am free. Where do you want to go?’ Monica replied.

Isha sighed out loud in relief.

About half a kilometre from the warehouse was a fancy roadside café. It was attached to a petrol station on the left but had its own dedicated parking space and outdoor seating. Sitting on a busy highway, the café never had any problem with customers. Today, however, the place was unusually empty.

Monica had bought herself a cup of Cardamom tea while Isha had a cup of iced latte. ‘Monica, can I ask you something?’ Isha began.

She knew it was coming but she wasn’t prepared to face them with answers. However, this was the moment she was asking for, so there was no backing out now. ‘Firstly, I must apologise to you and others. I know I have been looking off lately…’

‘No please. There is no reason to apologize,’ Isha interrupted. ’We just wanted to know if something was wrong,’ she said in her extremely soft voice.

Monica smiled and thought for a moment. ‘Things haven’t been good at home lately. Got into a fight with my… parents,’ she lied.

‘Was it about marriage?’ Isha asked.

It was not where Monica was planning on going, but she thought she might as well ride the train of lies. ‘Yes,’ she said as she nodded.

‘I understand. Have been fighting with my parents over it for five years now.’

The number of years, caught Monica off-guard completely. ‘Five? Isha, how old are you?’

Isha rolled her eyes and whispered, ‘thirty.’

‘Oh. I got a good amount of time,’ Monica said and sipped her tea.

‘Don’t tease me!’ Isha exclaimed.

The two chuckled for a good few seconds before calming down. ‘I hope that is all. We were scared it might have been something more,’ Isha said.

‘Sorry for scaring you like that. I just wasn’t myself.’

‘It’s alright. Tell you what. We can go out for dinner tomorrow. It would be an easy way to get along with the guys.’

‘Alright. I am down for it,’ Monica replied.

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