Chapter 9: The Man in the Margins

By the next morning, Mritika was ready to leave for Hyderabad. She booked a flight for 6:00 PM and closed her laptop with a sigh. Just then, her eyes fell on her uncle’s old diary—worn, familiar, the one he used to scribble in whenever stress or loneliness crept in.

She picked it up.

The first few pages were filled with memories of her childhood. How he struggled to get her to eat after her mother’s death. How he had to read The Famous Five: On a Hike Together for the third time just to get her to sleep one night. How helpless he felt watching her sit on the terrace for hours, staring blankly at the sky.

There were happier entries too—his pride when she scored 91% in her Class 10 CBSE exams, her first day of college wearing her mother’s dress, her first job offer. He had written like a parent, not just an uncle.

Mritika flipped through the pages casually, reading some, skipping others—until one line stopped her cold: