Chapter 2

“Zia, again? You dreamt of him again?”

My beloved mom asks me curiously as she is making breakfast for us. She is a bit different from a normal parent as she does not try to interfere in my life but always supports me with my choices. She has always been like this. Except for my childhood and rebellious stage of life where I was quite rude and annoying.

Those were the only time she ever was angry with me and even hit me because I insulted her and didn’t eat food, especially when she was doing so much for me and I was being an ungrateful brat. But now we are just two crack-heads who love food and K-Drama’s. Well I am obsessed with K-Drama and she is obsessed with books. So we meet half way as I will never like all the books and she will never be obsessed with K-Drama and K-Pop.

“Yes mum, I did. This time he talked with me. I think” I said as I tried to recall the dream.

“What do you mean you think? Anyways, did you ask his name? I want to know!!!” she asked excitedly. Her voice is similar to me, chirpy but a mature version.

“I can barely remember what we talked about because it is just a dream.”

And as I say that she sighs in a dramatic manner “Goodness I think I am more looking forward to when you actually meet him than you are.”

“That’s not true. I am looking forward to it as well but I don’t know if he really exists or is just someone who is a fragment of my imagination. And you know well enough that I am a daydreamer. It is a possibility that he is someone I created.” And that possibility is high as I do have a habit of daydreaming and imagining scenarios that won’t exist in reality.

“Again, with your psychology talk, you really know how to get the romance out of it.”

“Well, I have been a psychologist for almost 5 years, what are you expecting?”.

“But think about it, what if he is your soulmate? That’s one thing you still believe in and you do want to find him.” My mum says with dreamy eyes which makes me cringe. But I still smile at her as I think, well one thing my mother doesn’t know is that I have stopped believing in it. Long back, when my heart was shattered due to the two guys I had dated. I am done with romance and love. The only romance I have now is the one existing in my head.

As I am spaced out with this thought, mother stuffs my face with sandwich which she made for breakfast. “Finish your breakfast soon as you are going to be late for work. I am pretty sure you need to be in the office by 10:00 and no its-”

“Oh my god! I am late! Gotta leave soon” I take the sandwich and leave for work while eating the sandwich in the lift and reach my car in parking lot.

Our house is not that big like a bungalow but a three BHK apartment; consisting of hall, kitchen, and three bedrooms, one mine, one mom’s and one converted to study and library, as we have way too many books. We both love reading. The only difference is that she loves books and I love comics, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. But the common we have is still the classic Asterix and Obelix; every time I read it, I find new puns which makes it much more fun. The number of mills and boons we have has exceeded a shelf and now reached one full cupboard of romance, my mum’s collection ! But being my mother’s daughter, I have a cupboard full of COMICS! Favorite still being solo leveling and One piece.

I reach my workplace, criminal department, NYPD. Being a forensic Psychologist, I normally work in courtroom being a witness or help detectives solve cases. As we have not many forensic psychologists, my workload is no joke. But it’s fun, I get to solve cases and learn new perspectives to look at one case. As my experience is not much I am working under department head, but he is the most wonderful individual I have met. The knowledge and experience he has is beyond my understanding. I totally admire him. He has immense knowledge, and is normally calm even in tough situations; like the one time with a serial killer who was a copy cat of Ted Bunty. He was a serial killer who killed women teenagers and young adults and was captured and executed for the murders he had committed. The way James, department head of Crime Investigation Department (CID) handled the case of copycat killer made me feel that I still have a lot to learn and experience before I can be called a professional forensic psychologist. Being his second in command, with specialization in profiling and witness stand testimony, is still a huge achievement in itself. Especially as I am still just 26 years old.

*knock, knock*

Startled I look at the person knocking on my desk, to see my colleague looking at me like he has a lot of questions for me.

“Good morning, something to ask?”

“Good morning, Zia. Here is the data regarding the case. Chief wants a report by today, can you debrief me about it? To write the report?” Ryan is my junior who is younger to me by 2 years. He has amber colour eyes and neatly trimmed brown hair that makes him look very smart. Not handsome but a charm to impress people. Many female employees in NYPD have a crush on him. Looking at him makes me feel that I have raised him well.

Chuckling at him I tell him about my point of view on the case of recent drug den that we had raided. He jots down the details to make the report.

“Zia, have you found any leads on the reason for recent drug trafficking? It has spiked a lot in recent months.”

“Yes, I had heard about that. That den we raided was the 2nd one this year.” Indeed, it has spiked a lot. If this keeps going on there are going to be a lot of problems for future generation.

“Yes, it is sad. That too, this problem is going all around the world.”

“It is sad. But who am I to complain? I used to smoke in college too. It was difficult to quit. And I don’t think I would have had were it not for my mother who I didn’t want to disappoint any further.”

“Disappoint? You? I don’t know anyone more competent than you in this field. I am not joking, at the age of 26 being at this post is amazing.”

“You can say that because you didn’t know me in my college.”

“Oh! I want to know about senior’s college times.” Ryan asks with curiosity and amusement in his eyes.

Laughing I answer “Well the reason I started smoking was similar to many ‘peer pressure’, I didn’t know how to make friends, so landed in bad company and was influenced to smoke, and got addicted to it. It took me a year to recover. But I wanted to because health is important. That’s when I realized that I had wasted so much money on cigarettes. And that’s how it was. Now go do that report.”

“I really hate writing the report. Field work sounds more fun.”

“Sure, you are gonna say something different once you start the field work. Appreciate what you are doing now, later you won’t have any regrets.”

“Tsk, fine. Bye Zia. See you in the party in the evening.”

Ahhh~ I miss those days as junior when I just had to write reports and do paperwork. I loved it. Field work is such a drag especially when you have to see dead bodies or abused children or drug dens. Interrogating the witness or victims of the crime scenes always takes a toll on anyone’s health.

I really miss those days.

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