Short Stories Collection

It Happened One Summer

I hate summers.

It is my least favorite season of all seasons.

The scorching heat, the sticky sweat, the glaring sun and the killing humidity that the City of Joy Kolkata has to offer at that time of the year, not a fan. Not even by a long shot.

The good thing about summers, however, is eating ice-creams. Loads and loads of it. That too daily. Without my mom going paranoid that her only off-spring will catch death due to a slice of heaven that is part ice- part cream.

Oh, by the way, I am Sneha Deb and this is my story of the summer when I had just gotten promoted to Class 11th. It was my summer breaks and after years of spending, what was theoretically supposed to my two months of blissful vacations, shuttling reluctantly between Science and Math's tuition classes, this year I was finally free of them. I was officially an Arts student now. Thank God for small mercies. And the Indian education system too while I am at it.

My family was not going anywhere on vacation courtesy my parent's job in the private sector, and my two best friends were out of the city for the whole summer too. So after waking up late, lazing around and watching all the television I wanted through the day, I added gearing up my darling two-wheeler scooty in the evenings and driving up to my favorite ice-cream parlor to my routine. For the sole purpose of satiating my daily craving for Vanilla-Butterscotch-Sundae that was a specialty there. But I stumbled upon something else there too. Or someone, I should say. That was where I met Kian Roy for the first time in my life. An ice cream junkie like myself, he happened to visit the ice-cream parlor almost regularly. And coincidentally at the same time of the day too. We started smiling and waving at each other. Exchanged our names as well.

But our big breakthrough came when one day I decided to get a little adventurous and ordered Double Chocolate Chip Sundae, which I had written off long back as weird and had instinctively stayed away from it since then. They call them instincts for a reason I realized that day when I got sick and started throwing up like a fire-truck later in the night. Turns out my body really hates chocolate. That made me wonder what kindda girl am I? Chocolate intolerance? Is it not THE sacred binge of the female population around the globe? But anyway, I got over the disappointment in my femininity quickly and went back for my daily dose of goodness after three days of sick-break. That was the first time when Kian approached me and struck a real conversation. He was worried about my absence. So sweet, isn't it? I also got to know that he had been after owner-aunty at the parlor to give me a call. She did not have my number though.

He SO liked me. And I liked him back. Needless to say, that was friendship calling to us on the top of its lungs.

The fact that he was 9 and I was 16 did not deter us in the slightest. He loved Pokemon. I loved Pokemon. He hated brinjal. I hated brinjal. He was a fan of Hrithik Roshan. I was Hrithik Roshan's shameless virtual stalker. His favorite color was red. Mine was in the same color family, orange. He loved to talk but had no one at home to talk to. Ditto. And as if all that was not enough, our favorite ice-cream flavor was same too.

So basically what I wanted to say is, we clicked. Big time. We started timing our meetings. He lived nearby and walked to the parlor and I drove there. We even selected a particular table in the parlor for ourselves which the owner aunty was only too happy to reserve for her regular loyal and cute customer duo. Though I had to concede that the proud shorty was way cuter than me. Not that I was going to tell him that. He already had way too much attitude for a nine-year-old. And why not, he was the cute boy with a cuter dimpled smile that could stop any girl's heart. I was sure he will become a rotten handsome heartbreaker someday. But for now, I just wanted to pinch his chubby cheeks and bundle him up in a blanket and carry him to my home forever. I never did that though, before you ask. I don't have kidnapping tendencies, thank you. But all said and done, sweet adorable Kian became an integral part of my life in mere three weeks.