The Bucket List

Chapter-9

I wake up to the beeps of my alarm – 7:00. I absorb the surrounding.

Oh yeah. Party. Drinks. Dance. Music.

Naina is sprawled beside me and Kyra has her leg on top of her. Dhriti is far away in the corner from Kyra's kicks I presume.

I shake them one by one in an attempt to wake them up but they just won't budge.

"Oh, baby. Where were you?" Naina mumbles still asleep but doesn't wake up.

Exasperated I leave and start cleaning the hall. After I have done picking up the leftovers, I pull out all the decorative arrangements to make the place look decent the way it was earlier.

I put the glasses back in their place and bury the empty vodka bottle. I wonder how they would have bought it from the shop, what would have they say.

Sell us alcohol old man!

I picture Kyra demanding to the shopkeeper. It's funny, I laugh to myself.

Or maybe they just stole it from their dad's cupboard.

I must be prepared for the hangover. Hell.

It's 7:15 already. I should better get ready. There is a lot to do. And even pack for that ridiculous forest camp.

They are still asleep when I return from the shower. Now there is only one thing left to do.

Splash!

A bucket of water lands on all three of them.

They bolt upright drenched and shocked.

"MIRA!" they yell altogether.

"As if I had an option guys", I say defending myself. "I'll bring you all tea."

I gawk at Shekhar as he takes our history lesson, reminiscing the previous night's conversation.

Something is going on between Professor Shekhar and the assistant.

I cringe once more before the bell rings and we walk out of the room.

"Are you going camping tomorrow," I ask Alina in the corridor?

"With this flu –", she sneezes.

"It's okay I can see," she blows in a napkin.

"I need extra tissue papers", she uses the last one to clean her mouth. I turn my face away. "Will you accompany me to the first aid room?"

"Sure."

We take the stairs up to the second floor and turn left.

She coughs. "I'll fetch you. Just be here."

"Thank –," she sneezes again. Damn, she got it bad.

The sharp scent of sanitizer fills my nose and I hear someone groan in pain. "Hell!"

It's Karthik.

"You boys play so barbarously", the nurse says treating his wounded forearm.

"We won the match anyway", he flinches from the ointment.

"It was just a basketball match."

I clear my throat to grab attention. "Can I get some sterilized tissues and a nasal spray please?"

He looks towards me with the same usual – calm – unreadable expression he always carried, giving nothing away. Then his eyes shift back to his wound.

The nurse disappears behind the door of the medicine cabin.

It's already been three minutes since she hasn't returned. The mood of the room is unattractively quiet, the very first time the silence doesn't seem appealing.

He tries to pick up his jacket from the floor and wince.

"Here," I say handing him his jacket.

How rude? He doesn't even thank me.

"Does that hurt?"

"What does it look like?"

His dark eyes glint with humor though I'm not sure.

"Bad", I say looking at the long deep cut with a layer of liniment.

"The rock went deep eh?"

The nurse emerges back into the room. "Thank you", I say taking what I asked for and turn back to him.

But he walks out twirling his basketball on his middle finger.

After giving Dhriti a couple of lessons I decided to walk down to my apartment. Walking on the sidewalk along with the spring breeze is very pleasing.

I stop on my track listening to little kids, of three and four giggling. Through the railings, I peer past the sidewalk. There is a house, and by marking the surroundings it is too old to be here. The plasters are coming out and there are black and green spots on the walls.

The only thing adorning this old dwelling is the kids who are chasing each other in the front lawn, tossing, rolling, and laughing at each other. They illuminate it.

Taking a few steps forward I reach the big gate of the property and to my surprise, it says; Happy Orphanage.

And one second later I find myself inside it.

The grasses are wet as if it has just drizzled. With petite steps, I move forward.

A ball spinning towards me stops just at my foot. A little girl with two plaits comes hopping towards it but stops as she sees me giving me a bizarre look from her innocent doe eyes.

Oh girl I won't hurt you.

Slowly I kick the ball towards her. It reaches her leg jumping as a dog runs to its master. Her eyes twinkle and she gives me a wide grin before taking the ball and running away.

She melts my heart.

I smile at her purity.

But she...not only she but her other mates too, they look malnourished. And it pains to think about their living conditions.

"Do you need something dear?" an old lady asks me. She is wearing a white sari and Christ's cross around her neck.

"No um. I was just crossing and got here. These kids are lovely."

"Hm. Everyone says that but seldom contributes for them." She smiles at me and her eyes wrinkle yet it fails to mask her disappointment. "I'm Nancy. The caretaker."

"I'm Mira. I'm a student."

"Thought so", she nods and walks away.

The next moment I'm fumbling through my bag to get even a penny and to my luck which impresses me for the first time, I do. I find two hundred and fifty rupees at the bottom of my notebook.

Surely they aren't enough but still would do something. "Madam!" I shout behind Nun Nancy hoping she would understand the financial status of a student.

She stops and looks at me baffled.

"I did find some value in my pocket," I say forwarding her my hand which contains three folded old notes. "I would feel gratified if you put it to good use."

I place the money in her wrinkled hands. A surge of emotions passes her eyes making my fingers knot in anxiety.

"You are a generous, child. I wish you get what you deserve."

I smile at her kind words and walk to my place with a feeling of utter contentment. Seeing those kids smile makes me want to think, even they don't know how special and precious they are. They don't know they are light to someone's darkness. Maybe this is why kids are kids.

Yet some people abandon them.