The SUN - One shot

Glaring Good

Anay's POV

MUMBAI...

The city that never sleeps, the city of dreamers, the city of dearth and dare alike... Its a rumbling machine which may seem like its way out of its life but which you know will continue to run until forever.

It was the love for this city and the promises of a bright future which seemed to be hiding just under the horizon that had brought Baba here back in his healthy days. 

Here was where they had started their journey together. Here is where they had fallen in love, here is where they had struggled, here is where they had been at their lowest and here is where they had chosen to fight back and rise. 

I try hard to search through the flimsy veil of memories of her that I have from childhood in the same way as I try to find the sun behind the bright rays on a noon. I always end up scrunching my eyes. Yet, I know its not a waste exercise because I know the sun is there and so is she, Aai, safe in my shaky yet real & existent memories.

Slowly getting up from the roof of our dilapidated small house, I head down after having my morning cup of sunlight as the big bell rings signalling the start of a new day.

****

Juhi's POV

Arrogant Ape... Brute bad... Complete Cat-shit... Douche Dart...

I smile to myself as I hear my steady flow of English vocabulary. On learning how big a part of my personality was dependent on my capability to string English words together, I had given myself the first task of finding some good words to describe anything bad.

Hell! You have even managed to keep them rhyming! Atta Girl!! - my voices retort.

I giggle to myself and start walking merrily to school looking towards the familiar spot at the school entrance where I have become used to receiving my morning bout of liveliness in the form of someone's bright smile. 

Lately, I had become used to starting my day at school by witnessing that beautiful smile on his happy face. So there ain't anything magical or special about it. It wasn't a scene from a Bollywood movie where a gentle breeze starts twirling around the hero and the lights start focusing on his million watt smile with his honey laced voice ringing with laughter in the background.No! It was a simple smile. Ordinary. Casual. Simple. But more than anything it was comforting. Like waking up to your as always old bedroom after a bad dream or inhaling the smell of mangoes on a summer afternoon. Oddly familiar and comforting. And hence like the creepy girl I had become, I came to find my peace in it.

So when I walked today to a strange frown on his face, I could not help but bother. Looking around I now felt the air charged with a different kind of mood - less chaotic, less lively and was it fear that I smelled here?

"Hey!" I call out to him

"Hi Juhi!" Anay shouts back, somewhat hurriedly.

"You alright? And everyone else at your family?" he asks

"What are you talking about? Of course I am good" I say,  "Glaring good!" I add as an afterthought to show my impressive vocabulary.

"Sounds good then. But you sure?"

"Yes. Wait why? Was something supposed to be bad?" I ask, now worried

"There has been a bomb blast in a nearby area" he drops the shell.

****

Baba = Father (in Marathi - a regional Indian language)

Aai = Mother (in Marathi - a regional Indian language)

A/N

Hey Guys,

If you are reading this still, I wish to thank you endlessly for being with me so far!

You are an  amazing reader!

Regards,

Yours truly!

P.S. - Let me know if you would like more of Anay's POV. 

(Oh and by the way, all mistakes in language and vocabulary by the protagonist are intentional)