Memories in gold against a purple sky

Where I belong (Nitish-Venky)

10th May, 2024

Nitish had forgotten how scary debuts were.

IPL debuts.

Because he'd played for the same team for years. Years. As far back as he could remember. So he'd made his debut long, long back. So long back.

He wasn't supposed to feel debut jitters today, lying awake in bed for hours till dawn was approaching.

And yet...

Tomorrow, he was going to walk into the squad (against MI, which made it worse), displacing Angky, who'd played so well in the ten matches he'd been injured. He was going to be the first major change in a successful team. What if he ruined the balance? What if he hurt the winning team?

Why was he thinking of KKR as a winning team instead of his team?

He'd had a good debut for KKR, though, he comforted himself. He'd dismissed Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in consecutive balls, a feat few people had ever achieved. So even if it was another debut, surely he could do all right...

But he couldn't bowl tomorrow, he remembered.

He flexed his previously-broken fingers in front of his eyes in the darkness. They were healed enough to bat, but Gauti bhai had said he was going to be their Impact sub, to avoid straining them while fielding.

He'd been out for a month and a half.

KKR had won nearly all their matches in that period. Comprehensively. He was walking in and he was going to ruin the balance. He just knew it.

His stomach felt hollow, like he hadn't eaten in a week. He also felt absurdly close to tears. In what might be his last season with his team, he wasn't even playing. And his team was having its most successful season in history without him anyway.

Nitish sat up before his eyes could well up, furious with himself.

If he couldn't sleep, he might as well warm up for the match tomorrow.

__________________

Venky woke up with a start, hearing a series of thuds from the ceiling.

He glanced at the luminous face of his watch: it was half past 4. That made the thuds concerning, since it could not be made a human.

It could be ghosts.

Suyash and Rinku were always complaining about ghosts. Did they hear such thuds from the ceiling? wondered Venky.

The frequency of the thuds increased.

Venky took up his phone to call Rinku, but came across Nitish's contact first, and paused. Nitish was presently in the room above his. If Venky was hearing thuds from the ceiling, maybe Nitish could hear them from the floor.

He called Nitish. The thuds stopped. Nitish picked up on second ring.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Can you hear thuds from your floor?" asked Venky. "Wait--were you awake? At half past floor?"

"Yes."

"Well then, can you hear thuds from your floor? 'Cause I can hear them from my ceiling," said Venky.

"I have no idea whether you're being sarcastic," said Nitish with a yawn. "But sorry anyway, I realize it wasn't a good idea to do jumping jacks in the middle of the night."

"Wha--it was you?"

"What did you think it was?" demanded Nitish. "Ghosts?"

"Um, yes, I did," said Venky. "Rinku and Suyash are always on about them, remember?"