Lost in the Sand Dunes - 2. Chapter 02 - Vanished

Chapter 02 - Vanished

“C’mon Sean, just give this a chance. You never know, maybe something good will come out of it.”

Sean shot a glare towards Michelle where she was perched up on the corner of his desk. She was tossing the quartz he used as a paperweight from one hand to the other.

“Give me that! You’ll break it,” he grunted, snatching it out of her hands and shooting another glare at his colleague.

Michelle was a fellow biology professor at NYU and though they had become great friends, she still found ways to annoy him every now and then. Most of those annoyances manifested from Michelle trying to hook him up with one of her acquaintances. Somehow she had got it in her pretty little head that he needed to find someone to settle down with and she was just the one who would make it happen.

“I really don’t have any interest in going on a blind date, Michelle. I have better ways to spend my evenings than making awkward small talk with a complete stranger and pretending like we have things in common.”

“Aw c’mon, Sean. You can’t knock it until you try it,” she said, brushing a lock of auburn hair behind her ear. “I promise you’ll really like him. Trust me, you guys have a lot of things in common.”

“Who has things in common with whom?” John asked as he barged into Sean’s small office without knocking as usual.

Sean threw his hands up in exasperation. “Don’t you guys have any work to do? How can you guys have so much free time?”

John waved his hand at Sean to be quiet before turning back to Michelle. Sean let out low growl, making Michelle giggle.

“Hey John, how was your Thanksgiving weekend?”

“Great, Michelle. Spent it doing the horizontal Tango with a visiting keynote speaker from the UK, if you know what I mean.” John waggled his eyebrows.

“You’re such a dog, John.” Michelle said, mock punching his arm.

“Flattery will get you everywhere,” John grinned. “Now continue with what you were saying before I graced you peasants with my humble presence.”

Michelle let out another giggle before continuing. “I was just telling Sean about a friend of a friend of mine who I think would be a perfect match for him.”

John’s eyes lit up with a teasing glint. “Ooh do tell,” he said, shooting Sean a smirk. Sean barely stopped himself from throwing the paperweight he was still holding at his best friend’s head.

“Okay, well like I was saying,” Michelle continued, “my friend Mai from the Asian Studies department was telling me about a friend of hers who she thinks needs to find someone.”

“And why does she think that?” Sean replied a little more snarkily than he intended.

This time it was Michelle’s turn to glare at him. “Because,” she said, her tone serious, “according to Mai, his partner of five years passed away three years ago.”

Sean stared at Michelle in shock, guilt at his early response washing over him. Even John looked uncharacteristically subdued.

“Mai says he hasn’t been with anyone since then and thinks it was about time he moved on,” Michelle finished sadly.

Sean took a deep breath. “Look Michelle, there’s no way I can compete with someone’s ghost, so why even try? Besides, if he’s not ready to move on, then why force him? He’ll get there at his own pace.”

“Yeah Michelle, I’m with Dorkanoid on this one,” John agreed, using his nickname for Sean. “Maybe it’s best to let this one lie.”

“No it’s not,” Michelle responded fiercely. “Don’t you guys see, after a year of pestering, he’s finally agreed to let Mai set him up on a date. Just please, Sean. Even if things don’t go beyond a first date, this is a big step for him. The least we can do is help him out when he’s already showed the courage to move on.”

Sean stared at the conviction shining in Michelle’s brown eyes for a few moments longer.

“Okay, Michelle. I’ll do it.”

“Great!” Michelle yipped, a grin spreading over her face. “Don’t worry about anything, I’ll call Mai and we’ll make all the plans for you guys. The only thing you’ll have to do is actually show up.” Michelle got up from his desk and started making her way to the exit, already pulling out her cellphone from her purse.

“Wait, Michelle!” he called after her.

“What?” she asked impatiently, turning to look at him from the doorway.

“What’s his name?”

Michelle smiled. “Thomas Parker, but he goes by Tom.”

***

A sudden loud blaring of a car horn jerked Sean awake. As the last remnants of his dream faded, he found himself in unfamiliar surroundings.

For a while he stayed where he was, lying on his stomach on an extremely uncomfortable bed, before the events of the past few days caught up with him.

“Oh Tommy,” he moaned. The ache in his chest almost making it impossible to breathe. He wanted to curl up in a ball and let the tears that were threatening to escape flow freely. He wanted to go back in time to fix all the wrong he had done two weeks ago. To take back the actions that had hurt Tommy so much that Tommy had chosen to leave him. The very thing that caused Tommy to accept George’s invitation to India.

Sean closed his eyes and stifled a sob. If only he had been able to change that one moment, none of anything that followed would have occurred. If only he’d known what kind of consequences his actions would have had, he could have prevented himself from taking them in the first place. Whoever said that hindsight was twenty-twenty couldn’t have been more correct.

Finally gathering his wits, Sean pushed himself off of the bed. No matter how much he wanted to wallow in despair, he couldn’t give himself that liberty. Not when Tommy’s life may be depending on him.

So unpacking his duffle bag and pulling out his toiletries kit, Sean made his way to the washroom that Vrijesh had indicated the night before.

“Oh wow,” he muttered after opening the door. The “washroom” was a tiny square room with both the floor and walls covered in cracked tiles. In one corner was a tiny sink with mirror on top, another corner held a faucet sticking out of the wall with a large red plastic bucket in front. This Sean realized was the “shower”. The third corner where he expected to find the toilet was empty except for a hole in the ground. He was confused until he realized that the hole itself was actually the toilet.

“Shit, talk about culture shock.”

Bypassing the “toilet” for now, Sean walked to the sink to brush his teeth. Looking at his reflection in the mirror, he was taken aback by the many changes in his face. There were dark circles beneath his green eyes and a sallow color to his skin beneath the brown stubble. He had lost a lot of weight on his face, making his cheekbones even more prominent. Not surprising since he had constantly been forgetting to eat the past few days. The only part of his body that seemed the same was his torso, but that was most likely due to the extended hours he had spent in the gym since Tommy’s departure. Trying to work himself into exhaustion so he wouldn’t have to think.

After brushing his teeth, Sean stripped and turned on the water to take a quick bath. He noticed a smaller bucket lying in the larger one that could be used to pour water on his body. He took it out and waited while the larger one filled up with water. Dipping his hand under the faucet, he jumped as he realized it was ice cold.

“Fuck,” he exclaimed. He was wondering whether to give up and forego the bath, but he felt too grimy to do so. As he was preparing himself to take a freezing cold bath, he noticed the white contraption hanging on the wall near the faucet.

“Oh shit, it’s a water heater,” Sean chuckled at his stupidity. Turning it on, he leaned against the wall as he waited for it to do its job and made plans on what to do next. He’d forgotten to check the time on his watch when he got up, but he figured it wasn’t too early to go out and find something to eat. After that he could find the police station that was handling the case—the one Sapna had mentioned. He thought back to the phone call that had set everything in motion.

***

Sean staggered through the door of his condo, feeling as though his world was coming to an end after his latest appointment with Dr. Wilker. No, that couldn’t be right, because his world had already ended when Tommy had walked out on him after he caught Sean in bed with John. But then why did it feel like the walls were crashing down on him again, threatening to bury him under the rubble.

A shrilling noise was piercing Sean’s head and it took him awhile to realize that it was the phone ringing. He didn’t want to pick it up; he didn’t want to talk to anyone unless it was Tommy.

Sean’s eyes opened wide in surprise. “What if it is Tommy calling?” He rushed and picked up the phone just as it was about to go into voicemail.

“Hello? Tommy?” he asked, panting.

“Hello?” A woman’s voice came over the phone, sounding far away. “May I speak to a Sean Myers?” There was static over the line, and though the connection wasn’t clear, Sean still managed to pick up the slight accent in the woman’s voice.

“I’m Sean Myers. Who is this?”

“My name is Sapna Sharma, I’m calling from Jai Narain Vyas University from Jodhpur.”

“Oh hi, what can I help you with?” He was extremely confused why someone would be calling him from a university in Jodhpur, somewhere he had never even been.

“I am trying to get a hold of Mr. Thomas Parker. I have tried his home phone and his office number, but have had no luck. It wasn’t until a woman at the New York University Asian Studies Department told me about your...” The woman hesitated before adding with distaste in her voice, “relationship, that I got your number and called here.”

Sean’s confusion was growing by the second. Why did this lady want to talk to Tommy?

“I’m sorry uhh Ms. Sharma, but I haven’t seen Tommy for a few days now. We...we had a falling out,” Sean managed to say, his heart clenching in his chest.

“Oh.” Sapna seemed annoyed. “Well if you hear from Mr. Parker, please let him know that it will be in his best interest to return here to Jodhpur, or matters will only get much more difficult for him.”

“What? Tommy's in India?” Sean was shocked. He clutched the phone tightly in his hand. “When? Why? What’s he doing in Jodhpur?”

Sapna let out an annoyed huff as though he was wasting her valuable time.

“Mr. Parker joined an excavation that was already in progress and being led by George Martin of NYU one week ago from today.”

Sean swallowed hard. To get to Jodhpur at that time, it must have meant that Tommy left pretty much right after he caught Sean with John. Had Tommy always been planning to go to India? If so, why hadn’t he mentioned anything to him? Or had his decision been made in the spur of the moment?

Sean came back to his senses to realize that Sapna was still speaking over the phone.

“As you may know, this is a joint project with NYU and our university. Everything was going smoothly and we were ahead of schedule, as we had already managed to excavate many of the artifacts. Those items that were dug up, were to be sent to Jai Narain Vyas University to be catalogued and kept safe until the whole project was completed.”

“I don’t understand,” Sean said, frowning. “What does all this have to do with Tommy?”

“Mr. Parker is wanted by the Jodhpur police for questioning. It would be in his best interest to oblige,” Sapna replied, coolly.

“WHAT? Why is that? And why do you think he’s back in America?” Sean’s heart was beating rapidly, and a feeling of dread was starting to wash over him.

“Because Mr. Myers,” Sapna started with exaggerated patience. “Two days ago, Mr. Parker along with one NYU and one JNV grad student were sent back to our university with a local guide. They were to take some of the newly uncovered artifacts back to the university for safekeeping. We had discovered that not only were these particular items an important historical find, but they could potentially be worth a large sum of money. We thought it best to take them away as soon as possible from the excavation site where they could unintentionally be damaged, or if someone chose to do so, easily stolen.”

Sean could feel the blood rushing to his head; his hand was sweating where he clung to the phone. He instinctively knew that what he was going to hear next was something he was absolutely going to hate. Yet he somehow still managed to ask the next question.

“What happened when they got back to the university?”

“That’s the thing, Mr. Meyers,” Sapna replied. “They never made it. Mr. Parker, the two Grad students, and the artifacts they were transporting—they all vanished. All that was found was the body of the local guide somewhere near the outskirts of the city. According to the police, he had been shot straight through the head.”

Sean’s world completely shattered.

To be continued...

Feel free to discuss this story here. I will also start including pictures in this thread to give an idea of what Jodhpur looks like for those who have never been or heard of it before.