Ataxia

Chapter 9

Abhik

2036

"I'm going out!" I called my Pita and Dadi in Hindi after quickly throwing on my trunks and shirt and put sandals on my feet and snatched a towel from our crowded closet. I was in a rush and afraid I would be late if I didn't move my butt and get out the door!

"Abhik!" Dadi shouted back and I immediately sighed, knowing it was coming. "Don't you dare go out that door without breakfast!"

"But Dadi --" I started.

"Beta, don't make me jump into this!" Pita yelled in reply. "Dadi deserves more respect. You never speak to her like that." He continued as I dragged myself into the kitchen. It was brimming with the smell of ghee and samosa, though Dadi hadn't made anything besides upma today.

"And why are you in such a hurry on a Saturday?" Dadi asked, setting a plate of homemade upma in front of me and Adah, my Didi, who was scrolling through her phone. Ever since she got it for her birthday, she had been staring at its luminous screen relentlessly. It was not only a cause of jealousy, but also really annoying that she never pays any attention to anything besides her small machine. Not even me, Pita, Maa, or Dadi.

"Nice moves, Abhik," Adah Didi said, still looking at the screen.

"Shut up!" I hissed. "I did fine!" I glanced back at Dadi, who was spooning the upma onto two other plates for her and Pita. Maa was gone at the hospital early today, as usual, so she normally doesn't join us for breakfast. "Kaden asked me to pick him up today. We're going to the beach for a swim until around eleven."

"Well, you're just going to have to wait. You know how important spending time together is to Dadi. Now eat." Pita insisted, picking up the upma with his hands. Pita was right. Dadi is alone at the house all the time and she's always needing attention, like any grandmother. But she runs the whole house, so I don't complain. Usually.

"Yes, eat!" She exclaimed, sitting down to join the rest of us.

I sighed heavily in annoyance, wishing I could leave already. Why did my parents and Dadi force me to do this even with Dadi's loneliness? That's what senior centers are for. Our family did want to start spending more time together. With me being on the swim team and Adah Didi doing anime (which I honestly didn't even want to mention) and book club and both of us on the mathletes, everybody was really busy. So maybe this breakfast thing had some kind of benefit ...? No, not really. This was just a waste of time!

I ate as fast as possible before Dadi said, "Abhik, you'll get a stomachache. Don't eat so fast. You have time, you know." She laughed at her own joke just to replace everybody else's laughing. Because Dadi's jokes were not funny. Ever. She had the strangest of proverbs to tell and conspiracies about America because she's the kind of woman who likes to gossip.

I scooped the last bit of upma into my mouth then took the plate and rinsed it, slamming it into the sink. Bolting out the door, I didn't hesitate to leave without hugs from Dadi. It was rude, but I had to leave. Kaden was waiting on me.

"We love you, son!" Pita called before I shut the door in a rushed manner. I didn't answer back, which was also a pretty jerky move. I'm Indian-born-American, which just means my parents are from India and they moved here to America before I was born, my Didi was the same way. It was hard for me, struggling between choosing from my American life I was born into and the Hindu life I grew up in. Everyone, my teachers, parents, Dadi, my friends, expect different things from me. And I didn't know who to be.

I jogged all the way to Kaden's house, which was about a block away. My neighborhood was in Corpus Christi, Texas. My family was by the beach and near a small business, Vivek's Little India, which was where we got all of our ingredients for celebrations and food. When I finally made it to my best friend's house, I rang the doorbell desperately, hoping Kaden would not be angry with me for being late.