"Find my son, you goddamned cop!" An old man screamed at the top of his weak lungs, the patience ran out of him. He was done inquiring about his missing son at this police station.

The disheartening news has already fallen on his ears (your son is dead). A father's heart, however, doesn't want to believe it. An inner voice would always assure him. Your son is missing, and these corrupt cops are too lazy to find him.

A flush of agony constricted the old man's heart, spiraling up to his throat. Slowly a jolt erupted in his heart and splitting ache cracked through his chest. His left hand reached to clutch his chest (perhaps to squeeze the pain?), but it was unstoppable. The old man parted his lips to suck in oxygen, red lines criss crossed over his sclera.

Before a word made past his throat, he fell in a heap like a palace of cards.

Some cops ran to catch the already collapsed old man. One police officer held the pulse of the old man. "Let's move him to the hospital asap."

"Another death?" The lead officer said as a hospital stature—carrying the old man—stormed past him.

"Yes, sir!" An assistant cop said, he stood straight like a pole. "The old man's son was missing. The report says that Modern Ecclesiastes influenced his son."

"Ecclesiastes! Ecclesiastes! Ecclesiastes!" The lead cop burst out; an outburst of anger made him slap his thighs. "I want every information about this freak, you understand?"

"Yes, sir!"

"And..." The lead cop shot a glance at his assistant. "Bring me the case study of this missing guy — Rahul."

****

"I will always love you and protect you, Bittu." These were the words Rahul spoke to his little sister. It was the last time they were together before cruel destiny separated them. Forever.

Tears stung Rahul's eyes. His finger reached to wipe off the emotional water. "I still miss you," he spoke to himself with a hoarse voice.

She used to wipe my tears precisely the same way! Stream of tears rolled down his eyes like a miniature waterfall. The memories of separation flooded his mind and heart. The man felt emotional trauma would eat him up, but he gathered himself together. Yeah, he has been doing it for twenty long years.

Destiny parted these two siblings twenty years ago. The old man was not his birth father. Rahul was an adopted son, but most of his childhood was mired with a tragic array of events. Unfortunate enough to plaster long-lasting trauma into his psyche.

Rahul and Bittu's parents met with a car accident. Instant death. This disastrous upturn in destiny left a foreboding impact on their children.

The couple had an inter-caste marriage and was left with no option but to desert the town. Over the years, the couple was blessed with two beautiful children. When they died, children lost their shelter in no time, and what added to their misery, no relative came forward to take custody of these kids.

The rotten tradition has this rule, no mercy on the children who are born out of inter-caste. They are the outcome of sin!

Brother and sister were sent to a reputed orphanage. The local authorities did shower mercy on them, but they ran out of it within a month.

Rahul still remembered he didn't let go of her sister's hand for weeks when they began their lives in the orphanage.

"I'm scared; they will separate us, Big Brother." The poor four-year girl would often end up weeping.

"Is there anyone that powerful to take down your superhero brother?" Rahul would always say whenever his darling sister collapsed in a sobbing heap. The fear did hammer his heart despite the affirming words. What if they did separate us?

That fear came true right after brother and sister accepted and began to live their new lives.

Soon Rahul joined school. The boy promised his litter sister with an assuring voice. "I'll study hard, and turn our bad days into awesome. One day, I'll have you marry a prince. Awesome, right?"

The little sister jumped in ecstasy. Her brother was an awesome superhero.

Awesome, yeah, it's the word he fell in love with, Rahul often envisaged his sister wearing a royal gown to marry a prince, and with teary eyes, bidding farewell to the light of his life.

On a fateful day, when he returned from his school, he called out his sister, but the little girl didn't come running at him like always. Terror crawled hotly into Rahul's throat. His sister was gone!

He jumped down his throat at every authority he knew. They were trying to assure him that extremely wealthy parents adopted her. The couple came in an expensive car and took the little girl to their palace.

The only problem was, the couple wanted to have a girl child, and they paid heaps of money to adopt her.

"Isn't this what you dreamed for your sister?" A generous authority said, comforting devastated brother. "Now, she can marry a prince."

Rahul nodded in between sobs and considered this chain of events as the will of destiny. A smile touched his lips. My sister will get everything I wanted to give her, he thought.

He would meet his sister soon was the promise he received from authority. It's just a matter of a few days.

The moment, however, never came true to life. Within a few days, Rahul met his adoptive father.

Ever since then, Rahul never saw the face of misery. His father showered him with happiness.

Years passed by. Rahul did inquire about the whereabouts of his sister at the beginning. The orphanage authorities always warmed his heart with happy news: the girl is studying in a prestigious college; she has been living abroad ever since her parents adopted her.

Nothing much different happened with Rahul. The destiny cuddled him in her laps. His new parents were the most loving people he came across. They provided him with top-notch education, all the luxurious, more than his birth parents could do.

Over the years, the separation of his sister didn't bother him much. In the back of mind, he knew she's living a beautiful life just like him — the one she deserved and could feel proud of it.

"Rahul, hop in, man. Let's go for a ride. We can't spend our entire vacation boozing."

Twenty-six-year-old Rahul took a gander at his friends. "I love to watch the changing patterns of the tides over a can of beer."—He hoisted the beer can in his right hand—" You guys, go ahead without me."

"What!?" The guy who was on the wheel said, shrugging. "We're in freaking Thailand, bro. You're gonna miss the most interesting part of this trip."

"Don't be a bloody killjoy, Rahul." The other two friends said with a muffled voice.

Rahul took the last chug from his beer can before thrashing it in the bin.

"Alright, shotgun!" he sat next to the seat of his driver friend.

The friend was a heck of a rash driver, but little it did matter to Rahul or other friends. He stuck his head out of the window, flowing air tore through his hair, and a smile broke across his lips.

Life was good.

***

The car rode through a red-light district and stopped at a particular cathouse. Rahul protested at first since a highly moral father raised him. But the self-control fell apart when an extremely sensual-looking lady presented him with a flying kiss, laced with a wink.

Rahul did the hanky-panky that his friends brought him here to do. All of them experienced a whale of a time.

"Look at the blushing face of this guy!" One of Rahul's friends threw a jeer. "A son of a downright moralist committed an immoral act."

"What!?" Rahul shot daggers at his friend and pretended to plaster anger across his face. "I came here just because of you, guys."

"We should pay a visit here again before going back to our India," a friend said.

A smile laced with blush touched Rahul's lips.

They did come again. Rahul selected the same girl he had for last night. Within minutes he did the thing.

"Would you take me with you?" The girl said. Her voice was as sweet as nightingale's chirp.

It was the first time she spoke to him. The smile came from Rahul's stomach and broke across his lips, and in no time stretched into a grin. "I can't do that even if I want, you know it better." He slipped into his shirt and jeans.

"The other men are filthy, it hurts a lot."

A lump of disgust and guilt hit Rahul like a ball. He looked at the girl, and a wave of nearly passionate love washed over him. "I'm sorry," he mumbled his helplessness.

"Please, help me. These people are filthy. I've been through a lot in my life." The girl's eyes held genuine pain. Each word voiced her suffering.

Rahul walked up to her and sat next to her. "Me too. I can understand your pain, but—"

"You know," the girl interrupted. "My parents died when I was four. My brother and I lived in an orphanage for a few months. The cruel destiny separated us soon. I was adopted before him, but after a couple of years I was sold to a sheikh. I lived with him for years, but he got bored with me, and I ended up here."

Terror seeped into the chambers of Rahul's heart and trip-hammered against his chest. It blocked his throat as if someone poured hot lava inside his mouth.

His shivering hand reached to the girl's cheek. "What's... name." The words barely formed.

"My name?" A faint smile came on the girl's lips. She was habituated with derogatory terms. "My big brother used to call me, Bittu."

Rahul felt a blackness crept over his vision. It came like a dark curtain, twirling his eyes upward into the sockets of his eyes. He fainted.

I will always love you and protect you, Bittu.

*****

Rahul committed suicide that very day. His guilt turned him into a puppet that led him to jump over a bridge.

Now there were theories wafted like clouds about the real reason for his death. Some said he went to rescue his sister, but faced death saving her.

One rumor, however, never ceased to send a chill down anyone's spine who came across it. Modern Ecclesiastes visited Rahul in his unconscious state. He explained to him the pointlessness of life.

Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. Everything is meaningless. Everything is pointless. Your love for your sister was vanity. What brother couldn't recognize his sister? You never loved her more than yourself. That is why you never tried to find her again. This is the ugly side of this world; humans are the most selfish creatures. Greed and lust governed us, and there's no cure for this. Don't you trust me? Look me in the eye, and I'll show you the truth. All... Is... Vanity.