Behind the rigidity

Ch 10 : For the sake of fun in life

Ved was seen squatting down on the floor being petrified,his hands rested near his chest in a fist,and he kept looking up at his father with his teary eyes.

"You won't relent right ? Last chance! I want the truth!" Samarth glared down at him with a renewed intensity.

Ved didn't utter a word.

"Alright" saying so, Samarth turned behind and picked up the stick used to even the pillows, kept against the wall .

His one hand now held the stick and the other one contained a certain small white paper.
"Up,NOW !"

Instead of getting up he started shifting under the bed.
Samarth, having had enough, forwarded his hand to drag him out,when Bhavani barged in.

"Samarth ky-.."her eyes immediately caught the sight of a frightened Ved "Ved! Bachcha what happened?Why are you there ?"
She wanted to bring him out but he moved back little more.

"Aaja beta,see mumma is here"

"No use of being soft Bhavani,our son has stopped responding to our kindness.He only understands the language of punishment and scoldings " Samarth said not for once shifting his gaze from Ved.
"And you mister, you're already in a world of trouble right now.So it will be better if start confessing every single thing,or else you won't like if I have to make you do the same" he said pointing the stick at him.

"Samarth please,calm down.He's already so very scared.Please."

He took a deep breath and looked at his son.The picture in Ved's eyes portrayed nothing but fear,sheer fear and he couldn't let his anger take over,at least not at the stage when his own child can't talk out  the matter just because he was terrified seeing his father.

Samarth let out a long sigh.
"Fine, I'm giving you 5 minutes.I'll be in the next room.Come and come with a proper explanation.One final chance to talk.I will tolerate no smart moves.Mind you.Just 5 minutes.Use it wisely."
(He turned towards his wife)
"Chalo"
"But -"
"I said na, let's go"

He held her hand and gently guided her out.
"Samarth at least now tell me-"
He cut her off by handing over the white paper he was still clutching in his palm.

Upon being opened,it revealed another tiny paper folded inside, on both of them,two essays from Ved's syllabus was jotted down with a pencil in a very small font size.
One look at it would hardly be sufficient to make out the words.

Bhavani had to look at it thrice clearly in order to understand what was written.
"Ye toh -"
"These are chits.I got it from the small chain in his bag while I was searching for a sharpener."
"But none of these came in his exam,it was the third one which the students had to write or an unknown paragraph on their own"

"I know.It was sheer luck that it happened that way, otherwise,I can't even imagine what could've happened "

"Meri samajh mein ye nahi aa raha ki why did he even do it?He knew all of them thoroughly.You and I both took his test, didn't we ?And you even made him write some out the syllabus topics"

"That's why we need to know the whole matter.And whatever the reason might be,by his expressions it was clear that he was very much conscious of the thing and is guilty."

"Please don't go hard on him,I understand that this time he's wrong,but he's still a kid"

"Hm, he's still a kid" a weird smile or to be precise smirk came on his face as Samarth abruptly got out of the room.
"Hn Sa-" Bhavani was confused till she saw her husband twisting Vedant's ear hard

"Look at the boy whom you were referring to as 'Kid' Bhavani.The boy for whom you were requesting mercy.I told you to use your 5 mins wisely right and warned you not to make any smart moves, didn't I? What were you doing? Such a grown up oversmart boy you've become haina ?"
The clutch on Ved's ear became tighter with each sentence and Samarth finished the last part with a hard thwack at the side of his thigh
"Aahaannn Sorry Papa I'm sorry"