MY FIRST STORY- CHAPTER 6

“kausalya supraja rama purva….”
M.S.subalakshmi’s voice woke me up early in the morning with her hymns of lord ram. My grandmother always made it a point to rise up before the sun and offer her prayers to all gods that ever were present since the starting of time. I lazily looked at my alarm clock. It was 05:20 in the morning. Personal best, I thought to myself and dragged myself out of the bed, and went through the usual morning “duties” that I had to finish.

I stepped out of the house by 6:30, after my grandmother pampered me with a heavy breakfast of hot idlys to make it to my stop. I saw jealously at my little brother Santhosh still in bed. As I started walking towards my stop I felt my cell vibrate, and was treated to a morning delight, “good morning dear” read the message from Kavi, and my morning languidness was history.

But it brought back, the grotesque things that were in the bag yesterday, right in front of my eyes. I pushed it out of my mind and had a wonderful journey to college, all the while, the cell vibrating every ten seconds, with the words
“1 New Message
From: Kavi”.

Gaurav and I met at the class and we kept the topic away from yesterday’s lunch. I avoided it purposefully, but didn’t know why he did. And I was reminded of his queer expression on our way back to class after lunch, just before Kavi interrupted for talking to me privately. But I was preoccupied about the second lunch I was to have with Kavi, I was secretly counting the minutes to it, and when it did come I was the first out of class to make my way over to the canteen,
“Hey!! Where do yo’ think yo’ are goin’ lover boy?”
I heard Josh’s voice behind me, I turned, and grinning at me, all four friends were standing with their lunches wrapped in neat bags, in their hands,
“Hey sunny come on, we are eating somewhere else today”
Kavitha said with joy brimming in her voice. Before I could tell them, I haven’t brought my own lunch; they took me off to their haunt.

It was a deserted class in the 6th floor, and it seemed it was their luncheon room. No wonder I haven’t seen Kavi in canteen before yesterday, I thought to myself. As soon as we entered, Gaurav, Aruna and josh took one side of a table while I and Kavi took the other.

“I haven’t brought my lunch guys, I tried to tell u that, but you wouldn’t listen”
I said. And josh who had already started on his chicken fried rice said in a muffled voice,
“It does pay to have a girl friend you know”
Spraying me with chunks of chicken and rice. And Kavitha took out a lunch for two from her bag, smiling at me. Unable to remember when I have ever been this happy, I started on the lunch.

As we had our lunch the talks were normal, in time I started to think if all that happened yesterday about the paranormal things were just a dream. Kavi was jus then telling me how she had done the lunch for me specially, when I remembered,
“Hey guys! Kavi was telling me about how you guys have to be open about things, so I need to tell you something”
All three friends turned to me with mild interests on their faces, except josh, who was still busy with his lunch.
“I got to tell you, I am not a pro in this ghosts and stuffs. Only after my father died, I got the Ouija board….”
“Ouija?!?! Yo’ gotto be kidding me!!!thats kid’s stuff”
Josh said, resurfacing from his lunch, displaying yet again his sarcastic nature. Loath is the simplest word that might be the least to define the feeling I had on this guy.

“For all the research and the books I have read, it’s not a device to contact the spirit, but just one of the oldest board games”
Josh said in his as a matter of fact voice and again diving into his lunch without waiting for a reply. It was when he again looked up from his busy lunch that he realized that all his three friends were glaring at him,

“Wouldn’t you just let him finish?!?”
Aruna scolded, and asked me to continue. Though I was deeply hurt by what that bam-pot just said, I was never a person to stick up for myself. And in my father’s issue, it was even worse, yet I resolved not to show my weakness in front of Kavi, and so I continued,

“My father died in a car accident…. Hit by a drunken truck driver… And my mother, unable to bear the loss of my father, became…. Depressed… And…”
“You mean she lost her marbles, isn’t it…?”
Josh again cut across me. This time, Gaurav was the one who lost the cool and shouted at him, and Josh retorted,
“Come on I was just tryin’ to cheer him up making fun of it…”
“Anyway” I continued, “she got herself admitted in the hospital and its grandma who is taking care of me and my little brother… after a few days I went into my father’s room, and there in his locker, to which he had given me the key when I was 12, and told me I will know when to use it…. I found the Ouija board. And with it I found a letter from my dad, with a single line… “I WILL ALWAYS BE THERE WITH YOU”. Along with it, a book explaining how to use the board. And since then I have been contacting my dad through it several times to ask for advice and that’s just sums up my expertise with the paranormal activities…”
I finished in a hurried voice fearing I may break down if I continued longer. Kavi silently held my hands under the table, and that little touch gave me more comfort than the hundreds of hugs my grandma and all my relatives gave me to console me. All were too sad to tell anything, and we finished our lunch in silence. We packed our boxes and we strolled out of the room one by one, when I was about to go out of the room, josh put his hands on my shoulder and stopped me,

“Don’t think yo’ are in just becoz yo’ got them all watery eyed, yo’ think yo’ can by your way in with sympathy?? Think again buddy, if yo’ wanna get in, yo’ gotta work for it. Today eve yo’ gonna miss the bus. We have other plans. Meet us at the cemetery by 3.15. You have a few unfinished business”