...

“And what purse are you talking about?” he asked, in turn.
“My purse got snatched in the Old City a few hours ago and I followed a dark jacket to a bus where I saw you…bound to make obvious conclusions, wasn’t I?” I replied.
“Dark jackets aren’t rare, you know” he retorted “I was in that bus, except I was heading here as I had figured out the clues. In case you were wondering, I got another package with another can of Spring Cola.”
Oh! Now it was making sense and there was one thing which was blaring at me- I had messed up!!
Yet again, the door swung open and Ms. S. uttered a shriek “Oh! There he is!”

An old man, dressed immaculately and not looking in the least like he had been held prisoner for a few days- there he was- Mr. Shah!
I blurted out- “Mr. Shah! What about your disappearance and the press and…?”
He looked at me kindly but quizzically and everyone else was looking at me like as if I had suddenly sprouted a few more legs or hands.
I drew him aside and told him everything- right from my “false impressions” to my chase and my imaginings. He laughed long and loud and cleared the air by saying that the cause for his “disappearance” was his secret trip abroad. “I felt tired and overworked…but couldn’t take a break because I had a lot on my hands then…so I just took a vacation without telling anyone, not even people closest to me.”
And the suddenly-withdrawn money was to invest in a venture.
“And now I need to make some more! That’s why I agreed to this tie-up with Spring Cola in the first place.” He said, his eyes twinkling.

All the running around, heart- pounding- in- terror for nothing, after all! And only one thing had been responsible for all this- my overactive imagination!!
He looked on as a look of extreme disappointment spread over my face- there wasn’t even a hint of adventure in the whole thing. I had gone through so much for nothing!
“You do like Spring Cola, don’t you?” he asked, surprisingly.
“Yes, its one of my most favorite drinks, in fact.” I replied, wondering where this was going.
“Then I’ll make sure you get a prize, at least, for all the efforts you put into...Er… “finding” me! Very amusing, indeed. Well done!” he chuckled and handed me a largish object wrapped in shiny wrapping paper.
I looked down at the thing, without the least curiosity or excitement, totally contrary to Dark-Jacket, who was positively skipping with excitement at his prize and was busy asking for Ms. S.’s autograph.
“Go, on! It’s especially for that imagination of yours! You can use it to spin tales,” Mr. Shah urged me.
It was a laptop!
“Thanks!” I said, as the last bubbles of my luridly multicolored dream burst and faded away in the distance.