Suramya

Prologue Part 5- Kavi.

"There." I attach the bandage tightly on his bicep.

The child sniffles once and asks in a small voice, "Done?"

"Yes. Done."

"But it didn't even hurt." His eyes twinkle with the former tears.

I smile gently and pat his head. "Told ya."

He tries to smile back but its comes out as a weak one.

"Now, you take some rest. I have to go to work." I strap my footwear around my feet. The right one's kinda broken but oh well. I'm still able to walk in it.

"You're gonna be late. The contractor's gonna be bad to you." The child pouts.

"It's alright, Abhi, I can handle it." I reassure him.

Abhi is my neighbour's kid. He's one of the sweetest kids I've ever known (well I think all the kids are adorable but yeah he's at the top of that list.) Abhi met with a little problem today, accidently bumping into some metal bars. It wasn't something serious but his skin peeled off a bit. But all he needed was a bit of dressing and consolation, nothing else.

"Goodbye, Abhi." I wave slightly with a small smile which eventually grows when I see his enthusiastic wave and grin.

It takes a few minutes to reach the construction site. When I reach there, I spot my parents piling up bricks to get the work started and I walk over to them.

"I'm here, maa." I tell my mother as I take the cement-filled tub from her hands.

"Did the contractor see you?" She asks with an extremely worried expression.

"No, maa. Relax-"

"You useless lad."

Spoke too soon.

I turn around and see a big man standing in front of me, chewing tobacco and wearing multiple gold chains and rings on his body.

"Why are you so late today? It's an everyday thing for you now isn't it?" He eyes me up and down with a sneer on his face.

It was not an everyday thing. This is the second time in the entire year I've been late. The first was because Abhi was sick and I was giving him medicine.

"My neighbour-" I try to reason but get cut off by his dismissive wave which was followed by:
"Ah. Excuses excuses. Half of your daily wage has been cut off. Now go! Do your work properly." He spits his tobacco on the ground, gives me one final disgusted look and walks away.

"Saale mote. It's not like he gives us a crore per day too. Half of the wage means nothing." My mother throws a glare at the contractor, who's now metres away from here.

"It's fine, maa. Let's just do our work."

—🏹—

"Pari!" I quickly push her aside and dodge the pile of bricks that fall off.

"You should be more careful, Pari. You could've gotten hurt." I say sternly.

"Sorry, Kavi." She frowns slightly.

"YOU, BOY!" The contractor runs towards me with a look on his face that reads only one thing. Bad news.

"Did you do this?" He points at the pile of broken bricks lying on the ground. He has a threatening look on his face.

"It was-" Pari starts but I stop her by putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Yes, I did."

He grabs me by the collar of my shirt and yanks me away hardly.