Just in a day

RIVAAN

RIVAAN

We went inside the aquarium, it was an underground aquarium. To be honest, i have no clue why this place was a secret as it wasn't the most unique place or anything but again maybe the forbidden factor about it made it special. I saw Tira sitting in front of a giant fish. Well okay I don't know anything about the tropical or aquatic world but I do know that she was happy. She looked at my side and patted at the desk she was sitting at, asking me to sit with her. I sat next to her and asked,

‘When was the last time you were here’.

‘My 15th birthday only, it was the first and last time, so i guess it's been 6 years’. She took a pause and sighed, and continued,

‘Maybe when you are stuck to IV drips and dialysis machines most of the time, you don't realise how long it has been’.

She must've notice the somber look on me when she said

‘Hey, please , you don't have to feel bad for me, especially today, when you promised me that i can see the places i have never been so i guess it's all worth it in the end’

‘I guess it is, are you sure you are fine, do you need anything’.

‘It is and I'm fine, however, can you please tell me the next place you are taking me ?’ She asked

‘No, that will kill the fun’, I replied

‘It will, but sir, what if I have been to those places?’

‘Oh, that's a good point. Wait, we could do one thing , tell me all the places where you have been’. I said.

‘Okay that sounds fun’. She replied with excitement .

As soon as she started listing the places she has been too, i mentally started crossing my answers.

Murals and brushes. ( an underground art gallery, it was a known place but nobody could get in except the 5 founding families’.)

The heirlooms and handlooms.(It used to be a palace which is a ruin but there is  a secret staircase that leads to the hallway, where all the antiques and the royal family’s belongings are kept. I have a friend from this family hence I knew about this place.

The fortune teller tree. (It was a tree, well more like a fake tree inside a jungle, where a tarot reader sits and predicts your future and makes you a fool’.)

Folk tales and tails.(It was a shelter for animals that had interiors inspired by folk tales. It was more of a hotel than a shelter as it has millionaires and billionaires as their donors.)

Midnight Cafe.(It was a coffee shop that is only open in the morning till lunch but its aesthetic and interior give it the effect of midnight even outdoors sitting as well.)

And the list goes on and on. She had perfectly valid reasons as to how she knows these places.

‘Well, my father is a constructor so he built half of these places or his friends told him about these and my grandfather was a historian so he worked at these sites for research and all that stuff. i'm sorry you seem upset, we don't have to do all of this, you must be busy, let's head back and i'll take a cab from there and to be honest i had fun today, thankyo-’.

I interrupted her, ‘Tira, i'm not upset and no one is going anywhere , i promised you and i know how to fulfil that promise. Also, dont say sorry, it is not your mistake or anybody's mistake. Don't worry about anything, it's your day, just relax and enjoy’.

She smiled and told me to wait for a second and then grabbed her bag and took out a handmade scrapbook kind of notebook.

‘I have pictures of me at all the places I went , basically my birthday pictures as I was allowed to leave the hospital for a day or sometimes even a week, Do you wanna see it’. She asked and by seeing that smile and shine in her eyes, i would've said to anything like anything and this was the one thing that i genuinely want to see so i turned to her , tucked her hair behind her ears and said,

‘It will make my day, so yes, absolutely yes’.