Healthy morning sun rays had already made full entry in the room through the window.
Bob Lee, underneath white bedsheets, was woken up by his mobile phone ringtone from a deep sleep. Right beside him, when he turned his face, was his new bride, Nadia Browne, covered under white sheets, deep in sleep too.
"Zrrrrr....!" The mobile phone continued to snooze.
Lazily, he threw a hand on the bed side table where the phone was and fetched it.
"Mum calling," the phone screen displayed when he took a look.
"Damn," cursing like he never wanted to hear from his mother at the moment.
However, he answered the call.
"Pardon me!" Too eager, while the phone was on his ear, he raised and sat upright on the bed.
His mother's voice seemed too nervous and worried behind the phone.
"What are you talking about?" He weared an inquisitive face as he asked, to understand his mother clearly well.
Loud and mad, "I said my grandson and your wife Ishtar are nowhere to be found; not in the kitchen preparing breakfast, not anywhere on the compound, not even in the laundry room when I imagined maybe she'd be washing some clothes!"
"You really need to calm down mom," Bob Lee couldn't manage the pressure from his mother's voice tone.
"Don't tell me to calm down!" She yelled, "my grandson is missing and you're telling me to calm down! This is all your fault if I'm to say!"
Bob Lee could feel how bitter his mother was behind the phone.
"How is it my fault? Are you saying Ishtar is not old enough to take good care of her baby and herself?!" Triggered by the blame, Bob Lee got very agitated.
"Am saying if you chose to be a father instead of going on to marry another useless woman for her beauty, maybe the family would have been in good shape right now. I hate how you decided your body to make decisions for you instead of your brains!" Mother got pissed off, she lost control of herself.
"Mom, I married Nadia Browne because I love her and you know it," calmly, he tried to clear the air.
But the grownup woman wasn't ready to listen.
"I don't care about that hell of a woman that has made you loose your sanity, better find my grandson for me!" She commanded and ended the call on spot.
"Can you imagine!" Bob Lee, confoundedly exclaimed.
Nadia Browne had already stretched her body muscles out of sleep, awakened by the phone dispute.
"Babe, is anything the matter?" Inquisitively, she asked.
"I think I need to go," he told her, "my mother needs my presence urgently."
Within an interval of one hour, Bob Lee's two seater posh automobile was on the mansion compound parking.
His face got twisted in a nervous anticipation by the presence of many men in uniform from the police department who were standing in different areas on the compound. He rushed inside the house to meet his mom.
"Where's my mother?" Bob Lee asked the officer who was standing next to the stairs, down.
In a direction where the officer pointed a finger, he rushed and bumped into the room.
Here his mother was and two other security officers from the police department. On monitoring the situation at hand, they were having a closer eye at the camera footage.
When he noticed that his mother's eyes were wet with tears, "what's wrong mom?" Afraid and worried, he asked.
"She didn't even tell me!" His mother talked.
"Tell you what?" Bob Lee asked, more in fear.
"She just chose to wake up, pack some stuff and left with my grandson _ the video footage tells it all," mother whined.
Bob Lee rushed infront of a monitor to see for himself. And clearly, the video clip reports Ishtar walking towards the main gate with her baby in hand, pulling a black leather suitcase on rolls and a backpack on her back, looking back over her shoulder at the house.
"I need my grandson to grow in my arms." All mother's worries were on her grandchild.
From that moment on, the days that followed were misery days for Bob Lee's mother.
Lonely nights on the balcony, sipping on a glass of whisky in hand, she stood and gazed miles away. Occupied with infinite thoughts, hopes to get her grandchild shrunk as days went by.
Although Bob Lee had employed as many maids as possible to watch over her and treat her like a queen she deserves, sunny days were so sad and boring as the moon in dark clouds with no stars around.
There reached a time when Bob Lee wasn't paying visits anymore and total loneliness became the order of the day.
Sometimes she tried to reach out to him on phone, but he couldn't pick which kept her wondering why.
"It can't be my son ignoring my calls!" She wondered after making a phone call, "he'd never spend a week without checking on me!"
For Nadia, a lady he loved unconditionally, Bob Lee was driven to buy new house, where both of them stayed as husband and wife, thus leaving the presence of his mother, fully for the first time.
"Nadia Browne!" mother growled angrily, filled with hatred for her new daughter-in-law, blaming her to be the cause of abandonment and dismantling of once a united nice family.
Ishtar had already settled in with a new family which was so loving and caring. Pixie could often times assist her with taking care of the baby, comfortably dedicated like it was hers.
However, most of the times Pixie could stare at Ishtar with adoring eyes like she's fond of her. Pixie's endless earnest gaze always kept Ishtar questioning her mind, "why does she suddenly face away shyly every time I catch her staring at me?"
One night, after Pixie had laid Ishtar's baby in bed to sleep, she turned and looked at Ishtar with fondness. Ishtar was busy in the mirrior making up her face, preparing for bed since it was bed time. When Ishtar stood up from the mirror, her eyes caught up with Pixie's eyes, and this time round Pixie did not shy her face away like she had always done.
"Is everything alright?" Ishtar wonders, with a need to know why the fixed stare.
However, Pixie never said a word, only for her to continue staring at her as she slowly took steps foward, closer to her. At zero distance, after she had closed the gap fully, Ishtar got stuck. Her heart began to race nervously, not aware of Pixie's intention.
She tried to take a step backwards to space herself but Pixie gently grabbed her by the hands not to. The situation was so tense and confusing in the quiet bedroom.
Ishtar chose to surrender to whatever that was coming up next.