Chapter 2: A letter and a box

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Time is the best healer. Everything was back to normal. I also continued to spend my seven hours of the day playing cricket and shouting, "Bowled Hai!" at least eight times. The atmosphere of the home had also changed; my parents did not fall into any kind of argument. I was pleased, but... leave it!

The new day came, but that day comprised something extraordinarily new for me.

"Mom, it has been fifteen minutes since my friends have called me. I got to go." I said that and rushed out. I saw an old man with a brown complexion standing at the gate. He was thin as a rail, bald, and skinny. He was soaked with sweat and wiped it with the thumb of his right hand from his forehead, and with his left hand, he was holding the handle of the bicycle. He wore the 'khaki' colored uniform.

Before he could say anything, I told him that my father was not at home. He may come later, but his reply shook me with bewilderment and suspense. "I am a postman of the village post office, and I have got a letter for you."

For a moment, last week's incident reflected before my eyes. A drunken butler had made himself crept in the backyard of 'Lallan kaka' and chased his oxen for at least two hours without any reason. They were exhausted and stumbled on the ground with a loud thud. He had also tormented them badly. When the villagers got to know about that, the same was done with the butler, and then he was never seen again in our village. I was experiencing myself as an oxen and that old man as a butler. Just experiencing. Because he had said something that was too strange to believe. A letter for me! 'For me'! Literally!

Then he got his hands in the backpack he was carrying and fumbled for something. I sensed fear. My nerves were giving me various nightmares about what could be inside the bag. He was still searching. What if it turned out to be a dagger, or a pistol, or a headless ghost, or a wolf dog, or a small syringe?

"Yeah, got it! There you go!" He said this when he came up with a brown envelope in his hand, but I was not present there. Of course, I should have run from that place.

I was sweaty and terribly exhausted when I scored twelve runs on nine balls. The boys, supporting and encouraging me, were filled with madness, as if they had never seen such a game. The tenth ball was such that it could only result in a six or four and nothing else, but for me, the result was different-or should I say quite different?

It was out. The stumps were blown away. Everyone's eyes were on me for this preposterous thing, but mine were on that which or 'who' made me out. That man, that same postman, was standing at some distance, gazing at me with a broad grin and beckoning me with a brown envelope in his hand.

I ignored that man and wanted to play more, but the boys' gleeful excitement was too suppressed to do anything. The match was then called off, and everyone was going back, as was I, hiding my face. "You played well. Truly." The man said,.

"What problem do you have? Leave me alone!"

"I just want to deliver this letter."

"So, give it to whomever it belongs."

"As I told you, child, it belongs to you."

His reply again made me wonder. I remember my grandpa's advice not to accept anything from a stranger, but there was something else bubbling inside me. The curiosity. Curiosity about that letter.

"It's from your grandfather."

After what he just said, my eyes were bulging out. I rushed to snatch the letter from his hands, took it, tore the envelope, and read...

"I hope you are in good health. I am a little pale. I am enjoying my farm with your grandma. This trip of mine has made me active again. I forgot my knee jerks and all. I hope to see you soon on my farm, and guess what? While writing, I realized I am ambidextrous. Isn't it pretty cool? I have a gift for you." Then the letter suddenly ended without saying a word. He knew that I was not familiar with those heavy words, and then, too, he had shown off his vocabulary skills to me. Without being much bothered about anything else, I asked that man about the gift.

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