The midnight train and the boy

A December midnight, last suburban train, after a few stations I am all alone in the coach. A very young boy of Sixteen, Seventeen years gets into the train. I am surprised and asked where he was going, he smiled. The boy was dressed in a black and blue woolen sweater with formal pants, sitting just opposite to me. Suddenly, after a few moments of silence the boy asked where am I going and I answered that I am going back home. Like this our conversation started. It was tremendously cold outside. The boy was going to his grandmother, who was ill. My station arrived. The boy was also getting down in the same station. His name was John. We got down at Dehra, and the station was  without a soul in that cold night of December. We were searching for a cab and suddenly I found myself alone and John was missing. Immediately I found my briefcase was also missing, inside it I had my clothes, as I was coming back from my aunt’s house and there was also a diamond ring, that my aunt gifted to me. I found the entire incident of suddenly missing John and my briefcase very strange.

                           A cab came in front of me after sometime but I have no money left with me, everything was in the briefcase. I called the cab thinking to pay with phone pay, thank God I had my phone left with me in my pocket. Finally, I reached home. I started illustrating the entire incident to my parents and while illustrating, I realised, while getting down from the train John took my briefcase in order to help me and he actually had no luggage of his own. Then, the entire thing was clear to me. John actually stole my briefcase. I called the police and informed the incident and described the boy.

                                   The next morning, I found a letter on the floor of my room, dropped through the window. The letter was a threat to me. The letter threatened to Stop the police investigation. The police arrived in my house the same morning. They read the letter. The police says, there is a gang, stealing in the midnight train. The boy might belong to that gang. Three days have passed, and the police was also investigating the case. Finally, the police found the young boy , John. He says that he was very poor and his only living relative was his ill grandmother, his parents had passed away few years back. In order to make his grandmother’s treatment every night in the midnight train, he steals belongings of the passenger who is alone in the coach. The boy, John, was actually not a thief that belong to any gang, his poverty drove him to theft. He confesses to the police saying, “I have stollen the briefcase and found a diamond ring in it but I am unable to sell it in order to get money. I feel guilty.”  He also says that, on that night he followed my cab and on the next morning threw that threat letter through the window out of fear. 

                           John gives back the briefcase to the police and my belongings in the briefcase remained intact. The police leaves John as he confesses. Next morning, the door bell of my house rang. I am surprised as I open the door. It was John on the other side of the door. He said crying that his grandmother is now dead and he had no one who would take care of him. John was a school dropout. He left school few years back when his parents died. My family and I felt very pity for the poor boy. Now, John is a member of our family as my parents adopts him. He is again admitted to a school. He is in a healthy life now.