That One House In The Woods

The vacation (?) begins

That one House in the woods (Ft. The Indian cricket team - Some of them.)

"Umm... Hey, Jaddu?"

"Yeah Bhai?"

"What the dickens are we doing here?"

"Who says dickens?"

"Oh shut up, Kohli!" A thwack made a satisfying, well, thwack, which echoed around the woods and made Jaddu from Jamnagar laugh something fierce. "Stop crackling like a fool, Jaddu!" And the chuckles abruptly died.

"What did I do?" A spectacular whine and earned the man with the wild curls a lot of irritated and some astonished looks.

"Cackled like a fool," Hardik added, rather unhelpfully. He looked at the house standing in front of them, complete with a dead tree in front and grimaced. "But seriously Jaddu Bhai, what are we doing here? What even is this place?"

"Getaway!" Jaddu waved his hands around and made quite a show of the presentation. "It is the perfect getaway!"

"In the middle of the woods?" MS asked sceptically. "Why?"

"Are we sure that it is safe?" Rohit looked more worried than MS, if that were possible. "I am really tired and need to sleep. I cannot be chasing ghosts through the night."

"Why does Hardik call Jaddu as Bhai and not me?"

"Virat!"

Another satisfying thwack and MS jiggled his hand.

"Sheesh! You have a hard head!"

Virat ran a hand gingerly over his head and tried to feel for any lumps. "No. That is Rohit. With a hard head. You are just being mean to me!"

MS rolled his eyes and dragged his trolley. "I am really too old to take your shenanigans! What made you invite me, Jaddu, and why on earth did I agree to this madness?" The latter half, he spoke to himself.

Moving forward, he pushed at the door and it opened with an ominous creak. MS frowned as a cloud of dust billowed and he hurriedly waved a hand to disperse off the grime.

"When was the last time someone lived here?"

Jaddu seemed to be giving some serious thought to the question. "I don't know whether anyone ever did!"

"For real?" Jinks looked up from where he had been rooting inside a rusty letter box. "Why would you plan a getaway in such a place?"

"Be careful with that box, Ajinkya. You will..."

"Ouch!"

"....slice your hand open." MS shook his head in exasperation, dropped the luggage and walked over to the man who was looking at his hand in some fascination, and a good deal of distress. His hand was bleeding something fierce and MS gently held it.

"That would require a tetanus shot, Bhai." Ash said; he had gone to scout the surroundings and was welcomed back by Jink's shout. "It looks bad."

"It is bad." MS went back to bring in a Dettol, a wad of cotton and an unopened bottle of water from his satchel. "Come here."

"It will hurt." But in contrast to, had it been Virat or Rohit or, worse, Hardik, Jinks offered only the most minor of protests and hissed in pain as MS washed the blood.

"What did he do now?" Virat asked, delighted with the fact that, for once, he was not the one who was in trouble. "That is a nasty cut!"

"He is your friend; the IQ is not that far off."