Arnav Singh Raizada was once an innocent boy, prankster, and mum's boy. His lifestyle was a true definition of a fairy-tale. SHEESH MAHAL's prince. As he continued in his fairy-tale world, reality gave him an excruciating and tedious call. Suddenly...
"...Beautiful sunsets need cloudy skies." - Paulo Coelho.
"Akash, NK, what time do you two want to wake up?" I say in a loud voice. They wake up with a jerk. "The Alarm has been ringing and ringing. But you two just don't want to wake up." They sulk, leaving the room. I finish getting dressed, then check their homework. Due to sorting the clothes late at night, I did not get time to do it.
Mami comes in holding an A4 brown envelope in one hand and another her children's lunchbox. She has wrapped a shawl over her nightwear sari.
"Morning." She yawns. "The documents you asked for." She places the envelope on top of NK's books. "I bought everything; you chose which one is important." She turns to leave.
"Mami, wait."
I head to the closet. I pull out a sock—It is where I keep my money when I cannot take it to the bank—underneath the piles of my folded clothes, on the shelf. I untie the knot of the sock. I take some money from the electricians' fee.
"Give Di this money for her pooja's preparation."
"When you have the money, why were you giving Anjali bitwa a hard time?" She takes the money and departs.
I sort out the documents and keep the necessary ones in a file inside my school bag. And leave the rest in the envelope. I pack Akash and NK's books, including lunch boxes, in their bags.
Once I drop them at their school, I leave for mine.
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Khushi is by the stairs on one leg on top of the other, joyously singing Jake and the Neverland Pirates theme song and pasting pictures on a poster. The poster is laid on her lamp. I quietly sit beside her. She turns towards me and smiles. We share a side hug. I ask her to continue the singing while I take out my harmonica from my bag—I carry it every day thanks to Khushi—I join her; since Khushi sings the song all the time, the tune has become familiar. At the end of the song, she slides her neon green lunch bag to me; on the side of the bag is a flack inside a net pocket.
"Today's breakfast is instant Oats Meal and a banana. You have to do the mixing by yourself. Genieße dein Essen(enjoy you your food - in German.)"
"Danke. (Thanks.)"
Khushi now brings me breakfast and lunch, takes my books from the locker, and drops them in my period class, in case I am late. I told her the troubles the day after Mama lost his job during one of our board games. She also gives me a ride after school, even when she has to stay late. She wanted to offer a ride to school too, but I declined; the last thing I wanted was to be too dependent and become the centre of the neighbours' gossip, again. The day I invited her over, I made sure the park was almost empty.
