MOONBOW

SURPRISE

The day after, the Supe and I were sleeping on our bunk beds. My mouth was tingling and alive as if I was still kissing. We would have slept for more time but the Bomb awoke us at 9:00 with three knocks.

"I need you all to go to the hall," he said.

Different thoughts were coming in my mind. Don't expel me, I thought.

Don't I have just begun to kiss her?

I heard the Supe rolling over above me. "What's wrong?"

Something terrible has just happened. "The Bomb said and then closed the door. We walked across the gym to the hall. All the teachers were there, but I didn't see Ms. Dhingra.

"I don't see Ms. Dhingra," I told the Supe.

"Poor lady"

"I guess she died and we all are here to mourn for her," the Supe added.

The Bomb walked up to the podium and said, "Is everyone here?"

"No," I said to him. "Moonbow isn't here."

"We can't start without Moonbow," added the Supe.

The Bomb looked me. She was crying noiselessly. Tears just rolled from his eyes to his chin and then fell down onto the floor.

The Bomb looked down and bit his lower lip. "Last night, Moonbow died in a terrible accident."

For a moment everyone in the hall was silent, like never before. Then the Supe bent crying, I looked at his bushy hair.

I thought: It's my fault.

I thought: I'm weak.

I thought: I'm going to live without her.

I stood up and ran outside. I ran till the time it exhausted me. But nothing much came out. She's not dead. She's alive. She's alive somewhere near the pool. She can't leave me alone. She's just playing on us.

And then I felt better, because Moonbow had not died.

I walked back to the hall where everything was melodramatic. I saw Kunal with his head buried between his knees. The Supe was yelling. He would inhale and then scream. Inhale. Scream. Inhale. Scream.

The Supe and I walked back to our room. I didn't sleep that night nor did the Supe.

The Supe turned his face and looked into my cold eyes, "I can't breathe."

But he could breathe I know, but he was not willing to, as his best friend had died.