Taduno's Song Read Online Free Page A

decided to walk home. He covered the six-kilometre distance in two hours without paying any attention to the bustling city life that raced past him. He arrived home tired and consumed by fear for the woman he loved.
    Aroli was sitting on his doorstep waiting for him, glancing through an old paper in a distracted manner. He rose to his feet when he saw Taduno approaching.
    None of his other neighbours paid him any attention. They busied themselves with their evening chores, their curiosity about him having died since he re-emerged into the world. As far as they were concerned, he was now one of them, having shown that he could survive seven whole days without seeing sunlight and without running mad or hurting himself.
    â€˜I haven’t seen you around all day,’ Aroli said, after they had exchanged greetings.
    â€˜I went out to attend to an urgent matter.’
    â€˜I see.’ Aroli sounded curious.
    Taduno fiddled in his pocket for his keys and opened the door. ‘Please come in.’ Somehow he managed not to show just how troubled he was.
    â€˜Wow!’ Aroli exclaimed the moment he stepped into the house. ‘Looks like you’ve been doing a lot of cleaning. The place is spotless!’
    â€˜It took me seven days to achieve,’ Taduno said.
    â€˜Was that why you locked yourself away?’
    â€˜Not really. Yes, I did a lot of cleaning, but it was more a time of soul-searching for me.’
    â€˜I see.’
    â€˜Take a seat, please.’
    They sat opposite each other.
    â€˜You said you went out to attend to an urgent matter?’
    â€˜Yes, I have been trying to follow Lela’s trail.’
    Aroli sat up. ‘What have you discovered?’
    Taduno hesitated.
    â€˜You can trust me,’ Aroli assured him.
    â€˜Lela was not arrested. She was kidnapped.’
    â€˜Kidnapped by who?’ Aroli asked, a frown on his face.
    â€˜By the government.’
    Aroli’s jaw dropped. ‘Where did you get that information?’
    â€˜From a certain sergeant in a certain police station,’ he replied, not keen to reveal his source.
    â€˜I don’t understand. Why would the government kidnap Lela?’ Aroli scratched his head.
    â€˜I asked myself the same question, and the answer is not so pleasant.’
    â€˜Which is?’
    â€˜Security agents arrest you if you are believed to have committed an offence. But if the government sees you as a threat, they kidnap you.’
    Aroli scratched his head some more, slowly, his brain ticking loudly. ‘That means Lela must be in grave danger.’
    â€˜You get the picture.’
    They fell into silence.
    â€˜What are you going to do?’ Aroli asked, at last.
    â€˜I intend to find her.’ Taduno’s voice was grim with determination.
    Aroli shut his eyes tightly, as if trying to erase a bad memory, perhaps a reality too difficult to accept. ‘I don’t know how to put this,’ he began, uncertainly.
    â€˜Put what?’ Taduno raised his brows in question.
    â€˜You showed up claiming to be somebody we know. We all see you as a man who has lost his identity – in fact, a man who has lost his mind. But I have been worried since that first morning, and my mind tells me something is not quite right.’
    Taduno remained silent.
    Aroli continued. ‘You know too much about us to be a stranger, too much to be a man who has lost his mind.’
    â€˜What are you driving at?’
    â€˜I’m worried that it could be the rest of us who have lost our minds. I’m worried that a man who has lost his mind cannot be as sane as you are. You know so much about us, yet we know nothing about you. Is it possible that we are the ones who have forgotten the past? Honestly, I suspect that this could be the case.
    â€˜Tell me about your life. I mean the life you used to live before we forgot you. I need to know about you. I need to know so that I can remember all that I have