Endless Road (Wattys 2015)

Part One: Chapter One

Part One

2008-2009

Chapter One

18th June, 2008

I'm not good at change. I know it exists, I know it's the only constant, but I have always been reluctant at accepting change, be it good or bad. So that Sunday evening on a rainy June day, only three weeks into the new school year when I was forced to face it, I reacted in the only way I knew. I pushed back.

"But mom! I've been using it since forever!"

"I know, honey, but I had to throw it away. Honestly, it was beginning to resemble a patchwork quilt. A poor one, at that." My mother had her hands deep in dough, kneading it as she said this.

"But it was my favourite school bag!" I stomped my feet. "And it was mine ever since I can remember." It had held everything- from books to my gigantic lunchbox, even my shoes one time when I'd broken them. It was huge. I would never get a bag like that again. I couldn't believe my mom had thrown it away. How was I ever going to go to school without it?

"I've got a new one for you; you don't have to worry."

"I don't need a new school bag. What I need is a big, comfortable sack to carry all my stuff in." And something familiar to take with me on a jittery third week to school.

"Don't fret, darling. You'll like the new one quite as well. Now, what else was I going to tell you about school tomorrow?" she wondered aloud, her brows drawing together. Her head had tilted that way it always did when she was trying to remember something. My mom was even more forgetful and scatter-brained than me. I only forgot putting off light switches when I walked out of rooms; my mom, on the other hand, could lose entire roads and forget people's names and the places where she kept her things and all. As she struggled to remember what it was that she was going to tell me, I occupied myself by sulking and placing my chin in my cupped hands, flopping down on the island counter and resting my elbows on the cold marble edge.

It was close to dinner time, but dad wasn't home from work yet and Surya was out there somewhere, doing whatever he did. No one ever knew where he was and what he did, but somehow, we were all okay with it.

"Oh, yes!" she exclaimed, quicker than usual, "You're going to drive with our new neighbour's son tomorrow. I met Mrs. Saxena at the market today, and we started talking. Her son is your age-did you know that? And he's in the same school as you."

I stared at her for a moment, blinking rapidly. "Our new neighbour?" I choked out. "The family that moved here four weeks ago? The Saxena's?"

"That's what I said. There's no need to be so dramatic."

I wondered whether my mom had forgotten that he was already in my class, and that I wanted nothing to do with him or his family, for that matter. I straightened up and shook my head slowly. "There's no way I'm going to school with that... with that monkey."

My mom stopped rolling the dough and raised her eyebrows at me. "So you do know him?"

"Know him?" I snorted. "Mom, he's in my class, and the very first day he attended school, he locked me in the storage cupboard. For ten whole minutes. I could have asphyxiated to death! I'm not going to ride with him to school. We're not even friends." Well, that wasn't exactly true. We had talked a couple of times, after he'd apologized to me for the whole storage cupboard debacle, but I hadn't yet forgiven him. He would call out to me in the hallways and save me a seat in the canteen, but I hardly paid him attention. So we weren't really friends, but for some reason, he kept acting like we were. He was an idiot. I didn't have to think about him at all.