Chapter 3: The diary

Entire day, Jason stayed by his mother's side as she feared he might disappear again. He had forged out a smile on his face. In fact, All the time, randomly, all the happenings kept piling up in his mind in a chaos blocking all other kinds of possible thoughts. He tried knocking at the wall once for testing its 'state of matter' but Clara saw him and as an outcome; his room was locked and he was forbidden from entering his room. "you are using your dad's room from now on. We can get the room upstairs cleaned for you as soon as Mat returns from abroad." Clara had believed that he was gone to abroad so easily because she wanted to. Obviously, she too knew it somewhere that Matthew will probably never return. Moreover, she knew it best that Matthew never had any ability to teleport through walls.

Next day morning, Jason sat on the armchair that his father used to sit on. He calmed his mind and thought everything in an order. On assimilating all random thoughts, he suddenly remembered of Scarlet. He had already known it from the beginning that they were actually a part of a long chain of happenings and mishap, while many of the other segments were still to be discovered-both knew it well. But the thought that out of these segments, Jason's father had become one; had only struck him afresh. Now that he knew it, he could just no way ignore it and sleep well. At nine, he set for Scarlet's home. Clara allowed but only when he kept in touch with her every twenty minutes. Scarlet's mother opened the door and was way happier than scarlet to see just the ideal guy she'd been looking for her daughter. Though in actual, she had seen nine guys to be turned down by scarlet and nine of them were "the most suitable son- in- law" and Jason was 'only' tenth. Scarlet was rather ungrateful to the guest. In fact she had even beaten the door on Jason's face upon seeing him and mentioned, "I will pretend I never saw you at my door." However, Jason, who mostly smiles under every light rather looked grave and Scarlet looked worried at this. "s-sorry! I shouldn't have said so. I-I remember you Jason, don't worry, okay!" "you remember everything now?" Jason looked graver. Scarlet saw her mother's prying eyes and received Jason inside while adding, "Eh- No, I couldn't learn everything. Besides, there were too many difficult words in the project; I couldn't even pronounce them. So I just stopped thinking of it for a little while." When Mrs. Amber's prying eyes got somewhat less prying, Jason seated on the camelback and scarlet only stood spinning the Plutchik's wheel of emotions. Both stayed looking for the other to start the conversation while amber was preparing tea. "I know you never wished to see me here but I have some issues that we need to settle together." Jason finally started. "Ah! I knew you must have some serious issues. But… i don't think I can be helpful for you and besides, I already told you I know nothing." Saying so, Scarlet nodded and laughed in bewilderment. "my father disappeared." Jason grew gravest. Scarlet was shocked. In fact, a clear saudade swept over her face and turned her pale. "your father too?" scarlet uttered in a low voice. "I am to be blamed. He only tried to stop me but never returned. I didn't even know. Even my mom was sent to a psychiatric hospital, I just brought her back." Scarlet saw, Jason's eyes looked red. He hid his face in his palms and almost sobbed. Scarlet rubbed his shoulder and solaced him, "Don't worry J-Jason, your father will return home, just like you did. He will sure do." Scarlet said it but realized quickly how desiccated her words were. "I need your help, please!" Jason said in a firm voice. He looked too much firm. Denial couldn't turn him down. Scarlet didn't know him well but felt like she knew this firmness. "you won't be easy then? Alright I will help you find your father." "But remember, it goes to nothing. There'll be clues though but those clues lead to nowhere. Only gives you hope but no outcome." Scarlet too, looked grave this time. "How do you know? How do you so confidently?" Jason's eyes grew larger. "I looked for an answer too. Few years back." Jason's large eyes were now fixed at scarlet with peculiar desperateness to know everything. He didn't utter a single word to prevent interrupting her. "Do you know Francis Evert?" scarlet asked in a broken tone. "Of course I do. The prodigious scientist of the era, a philosopher and the only writer who has written 199 volumes of satire, 204 of mystery, 30 of political thriller, 34 of chick lit but none of mystery genre; Yet calls himself a mystery writer… But what about him?" "Did you know he went missing ten years back?" "oh yes, yes I heard it from my mom. She used to read his chick lits, so she was mad when he was reported of sudden disappearance." In less than a second, a sudden impulse hit his instincts while scarlet gazed at him. "Scarlet Evert?...could it be possible that…" "Francis Evert was my father who disappeared similarly as you and your father did." Scarlet's throat felt choked while she continued, "I also tried to search for him but I finally submitted." "Submitted?" Jason spoke after a long pause. "Yes, submitted. All those clues, created more clues and this clue making business extended until I finally gave up one day. You Jason… picked it up from where I left. but I agreed starting over again only because you look more determined than I did." Jason felt being stuck in a big mess. Both were hysterical at the situation, wanted to talk but neither one speak a single word, not even moved much. Jason leaned his head on the camelback, fastening his eyes at the glass chandelier hanging from above. Suddenly Scarlet broke the silence, "By the way, my father had written mystery books, nine mystery books." Scarlet declared boldly. "Really? But I read he hadn't." "Yes he never published them though. Nobody knows about those books but I can show you for 5000 $" scarlet laughed, just to ease out. "Really? You are talking to a millionaire Miss Scarlet Evert, 5000 is nothing." He grinned too. Scarlet showed him all the books: Days Of Crime, Incarceration, Mercy, Sabaoth, Entangled, Null Way, No Man's Land, Invasion, Origin ends.

Jason fluttered the pages of all the books one by one slowly while he muttered to himself, "why would he not publish all these books…when he was a prolific writer after all? Why would he not want people read them?" Jason looked lost in thoughts so Scarlet ruffled him up. "Scarlet, is there any other thing your dad gave to you?" Jason suddenly demanded, coming back. "No, there are his clothes, pens, notebooks, there's nothing significant for you." "nothing? There might be some letters, notes, slam book or- may be diary?" Scarlet suddenly remembered and quickly mentioned, "Diary! Yes there is a diary, I forgot. But, you won't understand. I mean I had seen it before but it doesn't make sense." But of course, Jason is a 'see and believe' type guy, so Scarlet had to bring the diary and show it to him. Jason opened the diary and found only some letters, "D(27)-I(200)-M(156)- E(36)-N(57-S(43)-I(90)-O(100)-N(400)" one letter with a number in parenthesis on one page- covering Total of nine pages; rest all pages were empty. What could it be?