Beyond the Beats

Chapter 33. People like her

"Oh, look who is here!"

"Bhoomi, where were you? You won't believe how much I missed you!"

"I will ask Eknath Bhau (brother) to increase your daily wage, so can you come regularly?"

"Now, now, let's not waste any more time. If we slack off like this and someone overhears us complaining, we may lose our jobs."

"Who will dare to fire us?"

"What are you waiting for, Bhoomi? Get on with the work."

I picked up the bundles of light wires and nodded at the light technician uncles. Unlike me, they had very big grins on their faces, and as soon as they saw me, they dumped the heavy work on me.

I grabbed the stairs and aligned them with one of the multiple trees standing proudly in the vicinity of the function hall.

I put a light bundle around my neck and began climbing the stairs. If my mother hadn't fallen ill due to changing weather, I wouldn't have been here. As I reached the top of the stairs, I took a deep breath. The air was chillier as the rainy season had begun its onset.

As I started wrapping the lights around the tree's wide bark, my mind was also getting twisted by a number of doubts.

My mother seemed to be falling ill a lot nowadays, my father was doing more double shifts than usual, and my niece Srishti wasn't doing well in school either.

Akshay's younger brother, Rahul, went to the same school as Srishti, and it was him who had told me that Srishti was getting bullied in school. I couldn't believe him at all.

Srishti was just a four and a half year old kid, and imagining small children her age bullying her was unbelievable. And even for her small age, she was really strong-headed. She wasn't the girl to sit back in case someone troubled her. Instead, she often got scolded by Dhara Di for picking up fights with kids older than her.

She was a smart kid too, but according to Rahul, he found Srishti zoning out a lot of times.

What can such a small kid be worrying about? I need to talk to her. I will take her to an amusement park once I get free.

I was almost done wrapping the lights when my stairs shook wildly. Due to my earlier experience, I didn't get much scared and hugged the tree with my full strength. I knew someone must have crashed into the stairs, so I looked down.

I was going to tell that person to leave because I wasn't in the mood to exchange even a word, but when I saw Hriaan flashing his sparkly teeth at me, I felt like he did it on purpose.

"Am I on your hit list, Hriaan?" I asked as I climbed down the stairs.

Surprisingly, Hriaan held the stairs and even gave me his hand to hold for support.

"It wasn't me this time, Shorty," Hriaan said.

He pointed his thumb to his left, and I noticed his pet dog, Roxie, wreaking havoc over the place. Along with Roxie, there were some smaller dogs, following him around like a gang.

"Roxie gets too much excited sometimes." Hriaan smiled with pride.

I pursed my lips. "Is it another party for him?"

"No. Mom is holding a celebration for the inauguration of the animal hospital she is sponsoring."

"Wow, that's really great."

Hriaan scratched his head. "I know, right?"

I nodded and continued with my work. I thought that Hriaan would remember what I had told him about my employer's rules and would leave, but he accompanied me to the next tree. He carried the stairs and helped me to stabilize them in line with the tree.