A cool breeze caressed her face as she awoke. She stared at the Kumaon foothills through her window. The mighty Himalayas loomed in the distance. It was awe-inspiring, but Radhika was unaffected by nature’s grandeur as she was preoccupied with the thought of what was to come. As the bus trundled through the meandering roads and hairpin bends, the smell of pine trees soothed her agitated mind. The temperature began to drop as she reached Haldwani, a small town in the foothills, and she could feel a strong chill descending upon her.

Dwelling upon the events that brought her to this point, Radhika realized the extent of her love for Madhav. Despite his condition and her own emotional problems, she felt they shared something pure that transcended their circumstances. She saw glimpses of this purity shining through the dark patches in their tumultuous relationship. It was worth fighting any battle to save what they had.

The bus reached the Nainital bus depot a few hours later. Radhika googled the exact location of Nainital Hilltop School and booked a cottage nearby. She bought plums from a roadside vendor and ate them as she walked through the town, observing life in the quaint hill station. The Christmas and New Year crowd had just left. The streets were deserted except for a few stragglers wandering about. Despite the snowfall, there was bright sunshine. Radhika sat on a bench under the naked sky, silently and slowly letting her thoughts melt into nothingness.

She stood up and hit the road again, eventually reaching a narrow, rocky trail snaking up a mountain. It was a steep trail, and she walked so fast that she could hear her heart pounding in her ears. She smiled, feeling alive.

She finally took a taxi and reached Nainital Hilltop School, perched high up on a mountain. She could see the tranquil pear-shaped Naini Lake from atop the hill. She looked up at the huge school building, adjacent to a church. A narrow lane ran between the church and the school, leading to a hilltop. Was that the same hill? Radhika got out of the taxi and walked towards a big gate that guarded the school. The wide path that led to the main building was bordered by lush green trees. There was a crest on the main gate, same as the one on the envelope that contained Madhav’s letter.

A security guard came and asked Radhika, ‘Madam, may I help you?’

‘I have come to meet the principal,’ she said. The guard was an old man. It occurred to her that he might have been around for a while so she decided to question him as well.

As she filled in her details on a register at the gate, she asked the guard, ‘How long have you been working here?’

‘It’s been twenty years, madam. I live in a nearby village,’ he said.

He seemed forthcoming so she decided to explicitly ask him what she wanted to know. ‘Do you remember an accident that occurred at the hilltop behind the campus? It involved a boy in a wheelchair,’ she asked, reading his expressions carefully.