❝summertime,
and the livin's easy.❞
JUN 19,
one month and twenty
days after the funeral.
STRANDS
of hair appeared on the screen, then two big brown eyes, and finally, a little boy with tanned skin proudly showing all his teeth. with her phone in the air to hide the sun that was blinding her, nisha felt a smile form on her lips at the sight of her little brother. although she had already called him yesterday on facetime, her role as a big sister could not prevent her from feeling this lack of being away from him.
"hello nisha!" shouted arun into the microphone of rebecca's phone, excited to finally be able to talk to his big sister again.
"hi love!" she returned his greeting just as energetically, feeling her cheeks stretch all the more under the pressure of her lips, "where's mum?" frowned nisha, not seeing her on the screen.
the phone then turned in birmingham, she finally saw her mother in the kitchen waving at her. arun refocused the camera on him and said, "she's making my favorite food but not for you because you're not here," he stuck his tongue out at her in a childish way that made nisha laugh and shake her head.
her brother was a real chatterbox and she got to hear his whole morning told and all the drawings he had created in his art classes, from dalmatians to tractors, she had to comment on them one by one —much to her delight. after a while, arun's tongue finally seemed to be exhausted and he offered his big sister nothing but grimaces, which she returned with gusto while laughing.
"where's jude? i didn't talk to him yesterday," a small pout appeared on the little boy's face and consequently, nisha got up from the deckchair where she was comfortably installed to go to the living room where toby and jude were having a tough battle in a video game; she had been hearing their screams since earlier.
leaning against the bay window that separated her from the room where the two boys were fighting for the first place, nisha waited patiently with arun until their game was over so she could finally come and bother them. not even two minutes later, jude finally noticed his best friend's presence not far away and gave her a small smile, but when he saw arun's brown bush through the screen, his smile multiplied into a radiant one.
with their game over, the two men got up to join nisha on the sofas of the terrace so that they could better converse with the child who was eager to tell them all about it. with the young woman wedged between the two boys who were both leaning over her screen, arun started talking again and repeating word for word what he had told his big sister earlier.
"i've got practice this afternoon, i can't wait!" exclaimed the little boy, speaking more to jude than to the others, knowing that football was one of the subjects that bound the two together the most.
and indeed, they didn't stop. consequently, nisha and toby went about their business without worrying about the current call. while she had decided to flick through the tv channels hoping to catch a good program, toby had gone out to do some grocery shopping.
long minutes later, a heavy lump slumped down beside nisha and before she knew it, jude's face was in the foreground of her vision. almost in shock, the girl quickly pushed him away, swearing that if he did that again, she would not be so clement. but her words only triggered hilarity in the player, who knew full well that he had a significant physical advantage over her, and that she would therefore be unable to do anything against him.
