32-B

Ch-3. "Our dungy earth alike, feeds beast as man;"

KARTHIK

HE was looking at me. He was dead but he was looking. He was smug. I had done what I told myself I never would if the situation ever faced me. I didn't help him. I ran. Darkness and blood spewed out of his gut. His moppy hair drenched in sweat stuck to his forehead.

"Karthi, ma give this to your father." My mother said, handing me a cup of tea. At some point I took it and walked across to the open courtyard where Mr. Rama Iyer sat, listening to Karnatic classical music spilling smoothly from the transistor that sat beside him. Everything about him and his settings has always been smoothe. Which is why he firmly believes that I was exchanged at the hospital and his real son was somewhere studying for IIT and making a miniature replica of the Eiffel tower with toothpicks. My legs had lost almost all feeling in the past few days just like the rest of me. He was still inside my head. In my head however I was entering the house over and over again, each time I went over and tried saving him. I covered his wound but ended up puncturing it further, I called emergency but his blood now pooled underneath my feet. My father raised his hand in wait of his tea. He was reading his newspaper. I stretched my hand towards him. This time when I looked around for some medication,the boy suddenly stood up and handed me a revolver. Before I could think I took it and shot him.

"Karthik!" My father shouted. "Tea." He said, stretching his hand . It was then I realised that I was frozen stiff. I gave it to him and ran to the end of the house into the bathroom and washed my face, once, then twice and once more. This was getting out of hand.

"Six." Thunder said. He and Jignesh were leaning against a wall, watching girls pass by and giving them a number between 1 to 10. The thing about quantifying female traits and objectifying them was that anyone could do it, even losers like my friends. Jignesh was rapidly poking Thunder showing him 'a solid 8 and a half', a red thread tied around his wrist from the worship of goddess Durga coming slightly undone. They had ridiculously high standards for people who  had more grease on their hair and faces than on gears in a Bullet."Hey, what were you doing in silverside on Saturday? I'd seen you walking down the road. Grinning like an idiot." Jignesh said. Thunder laughed like a pre-pubescent girl. He was called Thunder for many reasons, I had so far learned in my first week at school, one of them was irony. " Oh- uh. Yeah. I was meeting...somebody."
"We all know who that would be." Jignesh said , they had picked up on the little things between Sunaina and I. I let them believe that that was the whole picture. It wasn't as scary as the truth. "Yeah. Yeah, hey I don't want this out. Let's keep this our secret." I said. I threw towards them a metal tiffin box filled with my mother's famed apams that I had retrieved from my school bag. I wasn't too keen on this but nothing's too pleasant about desperate times and desperate measures. The catch is we have no choice.

"Hi." Sunaina smiled at me, stance  tired and shoulders sagging but a strange spark in her eyes. "Hey, " I said, trying to return her smile. She had caught up with me at the end of maths period, while I was going back to my own class. "Umm, so how are things?" She tried. "Good. Good." I said, hands dug deep in my pockets. "The weather's-" she started.
"Sunaina, can you get to the point. Please?"
"See, I know it's been crazy these few days but I really want things to go back to normal. I mean there's so many fun things we could do! Why don't we give friendship a shot? Without the crazy?"
My mind was ticking as if someone was winding the key in a toy mouse. Something bad was going to happen. She wanted normal. She wanted to forget. She doesnt care? I exhaled "So we just forget about the dead guy?"
"No!" She flinched, then said, chuckling nervously "no, ofcourse not. That is something we all need some time to forget. I mean, we don't have to forget about him. Just, maybe like..... Yeah why don't we just forget about it."
Tick tick tick
"So, anyway what do you wanna do? With this new era of friendship, fun and frolic? We could go out for a movie or something, what do you say? She was still rambling, the shine behind her eye threatening to explode her skull. I focused on breathing. In. Out. Tick tick tick tick. Please no. Please no. Winding. Winding. Tighter. Tighter. Tighter.
"I picked up tennis this summer maybe we could go to the country club-"
I felt the release.
"Shut up." I said, quietly
"I made some friends there too, nice people-"
"Shut up!" I shouted, I felt myself stick my face right in front of hers. I snarled "I don't want to go to your stupid country club, or watch a movie or have fun or frolic." I got closer and  whispered, my voice savage " Because we just watched a boy die. And if that doesn't mean anything to you then maybe you are as cold as the corpse you turned your back and ran from." She was silent, the shine had gone, replaced by the glisten from the tears forming steadily in them. I backed up. " Sunaina I-". She stood up straight and wiped the tear that slid down her cheek. She didn't even look at me as she turned and walked away.
"Hey, everything okay?" Asked a hand  on my shoulder as I watched her bobbed head bounce away. I turned. The man was wearing a brown uniform and a cap tucked under his arm. There were two other guys wearing the same uniform minus a few badges on the front of his shirt.
"P-p-police?" This was something I had thought would have waited until atleast five years or so. Juvie had never been in my thoughts. Until a few days back. The man and his bottle brush moustache laughed at my immaturity. My heart was thudding. "What's your name son?" He asked. I think I told him. "Which class are you in Prateek?" I guess maybe not the right one. "12th." I replied. " Well, Prateek I know this is nerve-wracking but the police are here to help you. You have got nothing to be afraid of. Unless you're a criminal." He laughed. The men behind him laughed. I laughed. "So, we'll be seeing some of you later today, don't get nervous. Do your homework." He said , chuckling. I swear it was a smirk.