GULMOHAR IN THE TREE

Chapter-6

Next morning, when it's 4'o clock, he wakes up unconsciously, his eyes heavy below the lower lids. A sway of wind passes him, so fast he has to cover his face to shield from dust and pieces.
He sees a blue light covering all over him, the swing swinging slowly, his bare feets cold. It's too early to get up for him, though he pushes himself out, heading to bathroom. After several splashes of water, Ved sees his face again and again in the mirror - one new pimple, a scar of  older one, few pores and the curly hairs  of his newly forming beard for which every other relative he knows teases him. The case was last night too with Mr. Prabodh, when in reply Ved had blushed unconsciously, his cheeks and lips all turning red and warm.
It's during this that Dia crosses him again, he is bewildered, an ache in his stomach and limbs, a restlessness, a throb in his temples and throat parched, as if he has given a speech nervously.
Half an hour later, he is back in the room, it's still blue in the sky, Ayush still sleeping, covered in the damp light falling through windows. Somehow, Ved comes to hate these intersections of the nature, during this only he feels the time shifting, more fast and paining. Sitting on the edge of the bed, his diary open in his lap, he peers through the window, sound of a truck somewhere on road, blowing horns, rest of vehicles following it.

It pains him to be like that, to pass each day in anonymity, every other thing seems to bother him. He slowly reads the words, his lips waving. Suddenly, he raises his left index finger and bites the tip. He starts thinking about Dia, sitting beside head of his brother, waving his head with his manly palms. With each passing day, it seems his memory is becoming clear; at first her conscious controlled smile, like Sunlight on an autumn afternoon, netting through her golden-brown hair, her big charming eyes, as clear as calmed lotus floating in deep water, the pale white of her face like the freshness of an aftersleep, reflecting everywhere. The scent of her, so familiar, he longs for it everytime he breaths, like a smell familiarised on a road somewhere.

He sees the first line of Sun coming up, forming the light of dawn, making his heart pump faster, his cheeks glowing warm and red, wind gushing past his ears, for a moment he can listen his lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub, in the distant endless horizon, he sees himself and Dia, walking, laughing somewhere in the hills together, maybe Darjeeling.
          Now he knows, he is in love........

"Hah!" He gives a sigh, wiping the sweat on his forehead.
Hurriedly he gets up and puts his diary back on the table, then checks his phone, charged to 100% last night. It's 5:10 am, the weather report informs a clear sky with 40%humidity and some drizzle in the evening. Scrolling the screen, he plays a song, keeping the volume one.