BACK IN REALITY

CHAPTER 5

In the morning, Samira's eyes opened at 7:30am. She looked at watch and thought 'What! So late!... Oh. Because of last night. Never mind. I always have tomorrow.' Samira believed that getting up early made the day longer. So, to keep her holidays long, she always woke up early.

She looked around. The water was almost gone. There were few puddles in some places. She decided to let her friends sleep and moved the table, opened the door and freshened up. She went back up to check whether her friends woke up. She met Urvi on her way. She asked her if the others were still sleeping. She said they were not sleeping, but just lazy to get up and will soon be downstairs when they won't find the two. She then pulled Samira downstairs along with her .

As she said, the four came down after a few minutes. All of them had freshened up after a while and were in no mood to have breakfast. They were sitting on the sofa and chatting away. Just then, Dolly entered the hall and saw them on the couch and said "Hi! Good morning." All of them said in a chorus, "Good morning." Dolly said "Did you sleep well last night?" Sara said "Better than ever." while everyone else was smiling.

Before Dolly could say anything else, her mom arrived and said to her "Whom are you talking to Dolly?" Dolly signalled towards the six miniature beings. Her mom was speechless. She just looked at them in awe. Dolly said to the six, "This is my mom, Mrs. Hazel." Samira said "Hello Aunty." Hazel could just greet her back. She then said to Dolly, "Are they your friends?" Dolly nodded. Urvi said to Hazel, "You're much more beautiful for your age, aunty." Hazel laughed and said "Thank you, my dear." She then turned to Dolly and said "They can stay here for as long as they want. They are also the members of this family."

Dolly said "Thanks mom. But please don't tell Dad about this. He'll never let them stay here." Hazel said "Don't worry. He won't know about this." Saying this she walked off and mumbled "Beautiful. So sweet of her." Dolly turned to her friends and said "What's the plan for today?" Anaya said "Nothing special." Dolly excitedly said "How about we hang out together?" Hita said "In your PINK room? Doesn't sound good." Dolly said "We can hang out wherever you want."

Sara said "You know what, let's do that in the evening. We don't feel that feeling in the mornings." Dolly agreed to Sara's plan. She looked up and gasped. She looked down at them and said "Dad's coming. Let me hide you." She held out her palm and everyone climbed on to it. She put her palm behind her and stood up. The fat man came closer. Dolly said casually, "Good morning." The man said the same and went inside the kitchen. Dolly sighed with relief. She brought out her palm in front of her and said to the group "You're safe now." Urvi said "Thank you."

Just then, they heard the man's voice calling out to his daughter. She put the six back on the couch and said good-bye before dashing towards the kitchen. Sara, Anaya, Hita, and Jacqueline's faces were clearly projecting their hatred towards the man. Samira said "What has he done to you that you hate him so much?" Sara said "You don't know him Samira. He is a demon, not a man." Urvi said "What makes you say so?" Hita said "He's the most selfish person I've ever seen. I never thought that a man would not care even for his own family."

Samira said "What do you mean?" Jacqueline said "There are many examples. He does whatever he wishes to do and never thinks of any other person. Last year, Dolly came first in her college. He first of all didn't congratulate her and on top of that, he didn't permit her to go on the two-day trip the college had organised. He said that everyone comes first in their colleges and it doesn't make them capable to go on excursions." Samira said "We can't define it as selfishness. Maybe, he loves his daughter a lot, so he's afraid to send her on a two-day long excursion. He might not be wanting to show his love and maybe that's why he didn't congratulate her."

Jacqueline raised her eyebrows and said "Did I mention that he used beat her when she was young?" Urvi said "What? Beat? Why?" Sara said "Because she forgot to bring him his tea in the evening." Samira said "That's ridiculous." Anaya said "There's more. He even used to beat his wife earlier. Thankfully, it has stopped now." Samira and Urvi couldn't believe their ears. Hita said "Both of them hate him so much, that they feel like killing him."