Not Her

26. Absence ...

"Roll no. 21?"

"Present ma'am!"

"Roll no. ... "

Her voice resonated in the silent classroom, the students sitting restlessly on their tiny chairs as Khusi took the attendance. It had been 3 weeks since Khusi was made the class teacher of UKG, and so far she had been able to keep her sanity intact. 

Dealing with children was hard, but dealing with small kids ... she needed another level of patience for that sort of duties.

"Roll no. 28?"

Silence.

Khusi's eyebrows furrowed as she checked the row. 

Roll No. 28 : David Joshi.

He had been absent for the last 6 days. 

Not bothering too much about it, Khusi quickly finished the task in hand and looked over the class. Another teacher was already hovering near the door, to start his period.

"Okay kids, now I don't want any kind of complaints from the other teachers that you were misbehaving or chatting during the class . If you manage to maintain zero complaints for 7 days, there will be a surprise gift for all of you next week."

The class roared with cheers and enthusiastic comments as Khusi smiled inwardly. Zeeniya had been giving her a lot of tips recently regarding how to tackle those kids and so far everything was in control.

Khusi collected the attendance diary and was just about to walk out of the classroom, when Yuti's voice caught her attention.

"Yes Yuti," Khusi asked, leaning down a bit. The tiny girl reached only upto Khusi' mid thighs.

"Miss, one student is not coming for over a week now."

Khusi's eyebrows shot up at the little girl's protective tone. She passed her a smile and sat on her knees in front of her, gesturing the other teacher to go inside and start his class.

"Who is it?" Khusi asked.

"David," Yuti replied, fumbling with her skirt. 

At the familiar name, trepidation arose in Khusi's heart, but she didn't show it in front of Yuti.

"Is he your friend?" Khusi's eyes raked over Yuti's face. She somewhat looked familiar but Khusi couldn't put a finger to where she had seen her.

"Yes, he is my boyfriend. But that's not the main point. We have to bring him back to the school. He can't stay at home all the time."

Yuti's words caught Khusi's attention. She felt as if Yuti was saying that it was harmful for David to stay at home. She swallowed down her urge to chuckle at the term boyfriend. 

"And why do you think so, Yuti? Maybe he is sick or out of town?" 

To Khusi's words, Yuti shook her head. "No, he never leaves without informing me. I am sure he is in some kind of trouble. Please Khusi ma'am, you have to help me to save him."

Khusi couldn't help but laugh at the seriousness in Yuti's words and her expression. She was sure there was no reason for them to worry about David, but for the sake of calming down Yuti, she promised to look into the matter.

• • •

Her knuckles hang in the air in front of the door as Khusi puffed out a shallow breath, cold sweat dripping down her forehand. After trying to look for the contact number of the students for hours, and failing, Khusi didn't have any other choice but to discuss the matter with the principal.