1"The letter from the hell"

            ‘Now what are you going to do Mahi?’ Shreyas asked Mahendra. Shreyas was trying to have a serious conversation with Mahendra. Mahendra was holding a letter trying to understand something.

            ‘Why don’t you confess in front of your parents?’ Shreyas asked further. They both were sitting in the park of “The residential colony number 17”. The swing-seats were swinging by howling wind in a nearby playground. Mahendra rested his back on a pew and closed his eyes.

            ‘Why is weather like this today?’ Mahendra asked trying to change the topic of discussion.

            ‘Are you stupid or something? This is not the troll or joke that you can do to make fun of anyone. This is some serious shit right here.’ Shreyas tried not to snap.

            ‘Yeah, I know. But you know the truth, I don’t want to go in that boring-ass school or whatever it is.’ Mahendra replied waving off his hand.

            ‘But you got the letter from the school. That means your parents must have requested for your admission. You can’t just deny this. I mean you’ll hurt your parents’ feelings.’ Shreyas tried to explain.

            ‘I didn’t ask them to do it. I don’t want to go there, they knew it too.’ Mahendra said.

            ‘Yes, I know.” Shreyas sighed. “When did you get this letter?’

            ‘Just now. Even my parents don’t know about this…” Mahendra replied. ‘Wait!’

            ‘What? No.’ Shreyas stated. He knew what was coming. ‘You can’t fool your parents.’

            ‘Why not?’ Mahendra said with excitement. ‘I mean, how can I fool them when I haven’t told them about this? They will simply assume that the request for my admission has been rejected this year. That just means I am not fooling them, they are getting fooled.”

            ‘Wait… what?’ Shreyas frowned. ‘Wait… joke around, this is serious.’ Mahendra was already walking down his home. They were on street in front of identical houses. “The residential colony number 17” was looking beautiful that day. Shreyas and Mahendra were neighbors and friends since childhood. They had completed their basic education in the same sub-school. But now it was time for finding out their skills and talent and develop it.

            ‘You know that we need a break. It’s just the third day after completing sub-school.’ Mahendra tried to explain his point of view. ‘And that’s not school, the letter I got is from a type of prison. A jail. Tell me, why me? Not a single friend of ours have gotten this letter. They generally give one year of a break after completing sub-school, and it’s only been three days. So why me? And tell me, if you get this letter right now, will you go there?’

            Shreyas mumbled something which was not audible, he felt the silence in his voice. He had nothing to say because he knew that he too was not ready this early for the future that Mahendra was going to face if he accepted the letter.

            They were almost in front of their houses, the two-story building with three bedrooms, a hall, a kitchen, and a storeroom. The hall, kitchen and store room was on ground floor and while all the bedrooms were on the first floor with bathroom and toilet attached. The beautiful identical houses ware creating scenic on “Main Street” of “The residential colony number 17”.

            The little haze present in the air was adding a darkness factor in climate. They both were approaching their house when Shreyas saw the post-van stopped in front of his house and put the one envelope in letterbox.