Soothing the Heart of the Sea

Chapter Five

Yamuna left the practice room a little later and head to her carpentry class.

She was fifteen minutes late. Lucky for her, so was the teacher.

Yamuna took carpentry because she felt that if ever the boat got damaged, she would know a little bit on how to fix it.She enjoyed it a lot too. She loved fixing things, it gave her a feeling of satisfaction to see something broken repaired.

There was only one thing she disliked about her class - Myna.

Myna was a girl Yamunas age who also took the class. Yamuna thought she was the bossiest person she had ever met.

Usually, Yamuna ignored Myna but currently,Myna was her partner in the project they were working on

You''re not doing it right Yamuna",complained Myna, when they were sawing a piece of wood,"Let me show you"

She took the saw from Yamuna and began sawing furiously at the wood, chopping it uneven.

Yamuna rolled her eyes.

She managed workin with Myna's squabbling until the end of the class and then went back to the school boat.

On the way back, most of the children were either reading or talking.Karu was beating Ganesh at chess.Yamuna was watching them. She got bored after a while, it was no fun watching a one sided match, and saw Rajan standing alone on the deck.

"What's up Rajan?",Yamuna asked as she approached him.

"Oh hey Yam" ,He said,straightening his tshirt,"Nothing,I'm just thinking about what Miss Chameli said.I have been thinking about it all day and I just wondered...what if what she's saying is true?"

"Oh come on,you can't possibly be starting to believe her. She's a nutcase.A total nut job."

"I Don't know Yam, I'm kinda scared"

"What you need,i s a good cup of hot chocolate and a hug",said Yamuna,hugging Rajan

"Ay my tshirt's getting crumpled!",protested Rajan

"There,That's the Rajan I know."

Rajan smiled and said,"I'm going to go change out of my crumpled clothes so if you want to give me another hug,go ahead."

"Rajan, you're the biggest clean freak I have ever met",said Yamuna laughing

She gave him another hug. Rajan was her closest friend but he had seemed extra quiet today,which was really unlike him as he usually was yelling about how untidy everyone was .This Chameli lady must have really unnerved him though Yamuna didn't really see why,she thought that Rajan was sensible enough to know that what she had said was complete rubbish.She decided to ask him when he came back from changing out of his "crumpled" clothes.

"Rajan,why are you thinking about Miss Chameli's idea so much?"

He looked at her seriously.

"My grandma once told me a story about the sea coming alive.It went something like this", he took a deep breathe and started," There was once a land far away ,in another planet. The people on the planet did not respect the sea. They dumped their garbage in it and treated their planet so badly that they killed most of its creatures and coral and everything. One day, the sea could take no more,t had been angry for a long time, constantly hitting the shore,but now it was super upset. It grew into a huge wall and swallowed the land with the humans on it.It swallowed the entire planet and then swallowed itself."

He took another deep breathe and looked at Yamuna.

"Ok that last bit was exaggerated",said Yamuna.

"Yamuna," he sighed,"forget it"

"Ok good, I have a better thing to talk about",she ran to the classroom and took the old book from her bag where she had kept it after farming and went back on to the deck.

"Look at this!" she said.

He ran his hands over the hard bound cover and opened the book. It was filled with strange writing that looked like squiggles.

"Yamuna, do you know what this is?",Rajan exclaimed.

Yamuna shook her head

" Me neither.", he smirked.

Yamuna rolled her eyes,now frequently adopting Karu's expression

"But I'll try my best to find out, I'll ask my grandma, she'll know."

"Thank you"

Now most of the children had got off and Yamuna's stop was next. She gave the book to Rajan and took her bag and waited at the side deck.She sighed as the boat approached her house, it had been a long day. The boat stopped and she climbed onto her houseboat.

Home at last.