Happily Ever After

Chapter 2

Five years later.....

Niru was improving his English day by day. Within one month, he learnt to speak very fluently! He also did all the exercises I gave him. Even the errors in his work reduced day by day. I am truly amazed by his eagerness to learn English. Even his mother was astonished by his progress.I told them not to let anything leak out to dad. So it was a secret; between me, him, and my servant. In return for my English lessons, Niru used to teach me singing and guitar. I was surprised when I got to know that I can sing pretty well!! I am getting on really well with the guitar and I can play a few songs. Every time dad used to go on "drug business", he used to sneak into my room and teach me the guitar. Well, I did think I was alone, but that's all gone now. God does make things right for everyone!

Today is a day like that. Dad went on some "drug business" to Pakistan, and told me that he'd be back by a week. Yeah! Full free time! He left with all of his henchmen (safety problems arise when you happen to go to a business trip like that). So that left only me, my servant and Niru. Besides it was holidays.... but, I had to study. O/Ls were to be held next month. Got to face that pretty well! Oh! I almost forgot! My not-so-twin brother was facing his SSC next month! All because he is my not-so-twin brother..... . It's pretty boring to study alone, so I'd rather call him to my room to study. I leaned on my balcony to talk to him. It went on like this;

"Hi!"

"Hi!"

"Good day, isn't it?"

"Yes kumaaree."

"Stop calling me kumaaree."

He chuckled.

"Too many things to study?" I asked, glancing at the book he was holding.

"Hmm." He seemed to be studying too hard.

"I was wondering, if you could come to my room to study...?"

"Is it okay? I mean your dad and all?..."

"Yeah! He's not in the house for a week, remember?"

"Yeah, sure!"

The next thing I knew was that we were studying really well and all facts seemed to enter my head and settle itself. The both of us studied hard all week, and it was giving out its results pretty fast. The week ended as if a daydream. It was so perfect! Soon it was dad's arrival day. Me, Niru and my servant waited at the door waiting to welcome them. They didn't arrive in the morning, neither afternoon, nor supper. We were starting to get worried. But as soon as the sky darkened, four jeeps arrived, followed by a van. I recognized the jeeps as my dad's and his henchmen's vehicles, but I couldn't recognize the van. The jeeps were emptied, everybody got down. Two men got down from the van and opened the dickey and they took out a coffin.

Wait...... Wait a minute...... Is this really what I'm seeing? I pinched my arm and rubbed my eyes. I couldn't believe it. Dad and his henchmen were shedding tears as they followed they followed the two men with the coffin inside. Me and Niru exchanged puzzled looks. I was like, "Hello, could someone please tell what is going on over here?" The three of us (me, Niru and his mother) gathered around the coffin to see who was dead. The two men opened the coffin and.........I heard someone shriek very loudly. It was my servant. I turned to look at Niru, clearly not understanding what was going on. He stared at the dead body, with a look of horror on his face. I finally realized who it was..... . It was....Niru's father. Suddenly, the mother jumped on the dead body and the son started crying. "I'm so sorry, I couldn't do anything at that moment," dad said, pausing to take a deep breath. "There was a shootout during our meeting......supposedly from the drug lord in England. He wants to take over my place,...and somebody tried to shoot me dead, but he," dad said pointing a straight finger at the dead man, "took the bullet for me." There was an uneasy silence. Then my dad, turning to the widowed mother and son, said in Hindi, "You two will sleep in my house from today onwards, in honor of our dead friend, servant, father and husband." He told me and Niru to sleep and whispered in my ear to console his sadness. See! My dad can be good at times. It was really kind of him to tell them like that. I put my hand over Niru's shoulder and said in Hindi, "Please, don't be sad. God will make things right for everyone. " I took him to my room. He sat on the bed and looked at me, his face expressionless. I just couldn't do anything to console him. If I was giving any advice, I would be bossing him. I tried to think from his point of view, but I couldn't. Each person is unique. But all I knew was that he was very sad. He lied on my bed and fell asleep. I took a cloth, pillow and a blanket and prepared a small place to sleep and lied on it. I just couldn't bear to see him like that. He was my best friend, after all. I don't want him to switch on his "extremely sad" mode and end up in a mental asylum, like those people in TV. I turned to my bed and stared at his face, wishing that I could understand him.

Well, the funeral was held quite soon, on the request of my servant, because she said that Niru would mentally break down by looking at his father's dead body everyday. She had got over it somehow. As the body was being burnt, tears rolled down the cheeks of the mother and son. Niru seemed to be a bit better the next day. I told him to get back to his own senses and start focusing on SSC, because his father would have expected him to have good results. He got over it day by day. Soon SSC+O/L day came, and the two of us had studied really well. The both of us were having the same exam center. Me and Niru exchanged wishes for each other to do well. It was pretty frightening, but I managed to do the paper well. The fear in me continued two and a half weeks. At last after the exams were finished, I felt my head lose its weight.

Here comes the most exciting part of after exams. Results! That was the most exciting night ever! Now that Niru has a bedroom next to mine, we can talk easily, by a window in the wall that separates our rooms. His room isn't that nice, since it looks like a servant's room, but he and his mother are happy with it. He jumped to my room through the window, at 1;00 in the morning, as we discussed, to check the results. The results were posted at midnight, so it might be easy for us to check them now since one hour has passed. As we loaded the results page, my heart stated to beat against my chest. I thought that it would have been the same for Niru. First, we checked local SSC results. The results were posted lowest to highest, so it took us some time to check the results. Oh my god! Niru was the first in the country! He couldn't even believe his eyes! I hugged him. Then he asked me, "Adira, do you think father will be happy about my results?" I replied, "Of course, Niru . Your father is really happy right now." Then we checked the Cambridge O/L results. Wait... I couldn't see my name. My heart was beating faster. I dragged the cursor lower and lower, until I could see my name. Yeah! I had 9A's!

The next morning, we told both of them of our luckand they were really happy with it! Well, I really can't believe Niru's luck!He got a scholarship to my school! He chose science, since he wanted to becomedoctor and do a service to the country. I had already chosen science, butthere's an option to choose whether you would do biology or mathematics, so I wentfor mathematics.