TRUE LOVE (PART 2)

CHAPTER 7 (THE MYSTERY)

For dinner, Disha had arranged a large twelve-seater rectangular dining table for all of us to sit together. At the head of the table was where Rohit Sir sat. I was sitting on his right side, and  Aly sat beside me on my left.

"I want to congrats Disha for your lovely wedding and want to thank you for inviting us all to witness, starting of a new phase in your life. I want to say, God, bless you with all the things you desire and fulfill all your wishes and may you both have a happy married life ahead." Rohit sir gave his blessings for Disha and Rahul.

We all smiled and our eyes burn as Rohit sir gave his blessing to the soon to be married couple.
He continued,
"And also, I want to say, God bless each of you sitting here.
Every day I pray for your happiness and prosperity for each one of you. I'm grateful to God for making me a part of your lives, and I'm so proud to witness you all grow into remarkable individuals. I believe all my wishes came true when I see each one of you smiling and happy." He said emotional and looked at each of us one by one.

We were quiet, and he continued smiling.
"You all still call me Sir, I was your teacher long back, and you all treated me more than just a teacher, you respected me and treated me like family. I will always be thankful. God bless you, my children." He stopped; wiping his tears.

"Thank you so much, Sir. It is our honour that we are your students" Disha told him immediately and patted on his hand.

I gave him a big smile and raised both my eyebrows. Teasing him, Sir laughed and so did the rest of us.
"You're a very naughty girl" sir said, laughing along with me.
"I don't want to grow big." I reminded him in a soft baby
voice and he clucked.

The rest of the group didn't understand our private joke;
they looked at each other for an answer
"Indeed, but you grew big, you grew into a beautiful, smart, independent and kind woman. I have always been so proud of you" Rohit Sir said with pride.

"But I still stand on my words. I wish I never grew big" I told him softly, leaning towards him.
He smiled, and I looked down at my hands.

"Sir, you knew Jasmin & Aly from before you met any of us, please tell us her secrets," Dishaa asked Sir and she winked at me,

I stuck my tongue out at her. She wanted to know the secret, why I was such a calm and relaxed person, the reason for me being kind to others. The secret about my frequently used words; It's okay

"Yes, yes, we want to know," everyone said at the same time.
Rohit sir looked at me I shook my head left to right; No.
"Don't listen to her, please tell us." Aly encouraged Rohit Sir.

"Cheater," I said to him under my breath. He winked.
"Okay, okay." Sir started and everyone was quiet to listen to my childhood story.
And I buried my face in my hands.

"It was the second week of Junior KG. I still remembered
that day. You all know my Son?"
He asked. All of us replied, "Yes."
"Well, my daughter-in-law was pregnant with three months and due to some complications; they had just lost their unborn child. Everyone in our family was sad for our loss," he whispered as if he was still in grief and continued.

We all were quiet; no one knew about this. Disha and girls looked at me with an obvious question in their faces. Did I know about it? I shook my head slightly answering no I didn't know.

"So, I was sad; children were playing outside, and I was just sitting on the chair and looking at all the kids, I was thinking one day even my grandchild would have had played in one of the school's like this. Then I saw Jasmin walking slowing towards me." He paused.

Now he had a smile on his face as if it was his favourite part. I knew this part clearly. So, I smiled, Aly looked at my direction.
"Jasmin didn't like to walk; she hated it. But she had to because she also couldn't sit in one place for long." I giggled and everyone joined me.

"So, she came to me and raised her hand and said up, in
her baby voice. First, it confused me, but she was so adorable little thing that I couldn't resist, so I picked her up and she sat on my lap."

"There was only one chair, and you were sitting on it. I didn't want to stand," I interrupted him.
"Shh" Disha made a sound. I raised my hands in surrender.
"Yes, I know now" he answered, smiling and continuing.

"What happened why are you not playing? I asked her, she looked up at me and said, i'm scared.' I asked her 'scared for what? She pouted and said something that made me wonder if she was really four years old." He paused again for a dramatic effect. It made me smile.

"What did she say, Scared of what?" nidhi asked with
curiosity. Everyone was waiting for him to continue. He
looked at me and everyone did too.
I just pouted again and said,
"'m scared of growing big,"I said in the same baby voice
and pouty expression. Everyone burst into laughter along with Sir and me.

"Then what happened?" Aly asked.
Sir seemed excited as he answered.
"I laughed at her too for what she said first, but then she
looked at me like she would cry so I stopped laughing and patted her back and asked her 'my sweet little girl, why are you scared of growing big?' I asked her for a reason. And she replied, If I grow big, I will be sad too, just like you and mamma."

Everyone stopped laughing now, sir waited for a moment reading their faces and continued.
"Yes, I was shocked too, so I asked her 'What makes you
think I'm sad?' Her reply was, 'Why are you not smiling?
You sit here like a tree, so still' she asked me in her broken English, that's was fine because she was only a four-year-old, but her thinking made me smile and I gave her a big smile,

She was so happy to see the smile that she clapped. Then she jumped from my lap and bounced." He said, still amazed.

Everyone was laughing, and it made me blush. I buried my face in my hands again. But Aly pulls my hands away
from my face. I looked at him and he was having unexplained emotions on his face. And seeing his face, it distracted me.

And I found myself losing in his eyes.
"Sir, you know what? She still does that, she still asks
us to smile, and she always knows the right time to ask
that" Avika said, with amazement and breaking my ultra
connection.

I looked at her; I had to smile and now I felt a bit
embarrassed.
"Yes, that's true." Nidhi agreed with her and so did others.

"I like it when people smile" I replied innocently.

The waiter had already served us food, so to distract myself from all the attention, I eat slowly and others were discussing my smiling theory.

Aly was quiet too, and he kept looking
at my direction. I tried very hard to not catch his hand, but it was hard as he was sitting beside me and I could feel a current flowing between us.

Right then, when I thought about his hand, he got up slightly and dragged his chair softly closer to mine. My breath hitched; rising hairs on my back giving me chill as he came closer to me. It was already hard enough to be sitting beside him and not touch him, and now he closed the little space that gave me the strength to not
touch him, but that space was also closed now and all I could think about was his leg touching mine. I looked at my food, trying to calm myself.

"When did they become friends ?" disha asked pointing
at me and Aly. Breaking the tension between us and I
sighed.

We exchanged a looked, and we both looked at Sir.
He thought about it for a minute and I looked at disha with one eyebrow raised and her eyes moved at Aly then at me and winked; making me giggle. At first, I tried to control it but failed and I burst out laughing.

Rohit sir continued, in his high pitch voice.