Ataxia

thirteen

Abhik

2036

I was concentrating hard on the Maximum Ride chapter book in my hands, trying my best to read through the whole thing. I never really liked reading much but forced myself to. I had come back from the hospital about a week ago, trying my best to recover. Dadi told me to relax by reading. The shark attack had temporarily "traumatized" me which was what the doctors came to the conclusion to when I told them I had strange symptoms of water coming from my hands, which I'm still freaked out about, by the way. Everyone thought I was crazy. But I knew I wasn't crazy (even though a crazy person would say that) because someone else witnessed it: Adah Didi.

She saw me produce water from my hands when she interrupted me in the middle of something very important in my room. And she was supposed to knock first. I was trying to pour water into a glass cup.

"Abhik, what're you doing?" She exclaimed when she barged into my room without permission.

I jumped, startled. "You can't come in without my permission. You know Dadi's rules, Adah Didi." I say quickly, the water suddenly stopping it's flow. I hid my hands behind my back, knocking the water cup over.

"But you -- but you ...," her voice trailed off, her shaking finger pointing to the small puddle of water on the floor. "How did you do that?"

"Don't freak out, Adah Didi," I said calmly, holding my dry hands in front of her. "You're imagining this all. You never saw this." Which was a lie but if she started believing that I could make water come out of my hands, Maa, Pita, and Dadi would think we were both playing a prank.

"I know -- I know what I saw." She said shakily, slowly backing away towards the door. "Water was -- water was coming from your hands like you were bleeding or something. Are you bleeding water now? Is this a prank? This is definitely a prank, please stop and tell me this isn't real." Her dark eyes were fearful and scared. It almost made me feel bad for surprising her.

"It's not real." I repeated, knowing better to do as she said when she was psyched out.

"Liar!" She kind of yelled. "I'm telling Dadi you're pulling pranks!" She ran out of the room, shouting. "Dadi! Dadi!"

I rolled my eyes out of annoyance. Jeez, could she leave me alone for at least five minutes? Adah Didi could be such a tattletale sometimes. And bossy. But that was the job of a Didi and I'm still struggling to accept that fact to this day. The doorbell rang which startled me out of my thoughts.

"Abhik, Adah? Could you get that for your Dadi?" She called through the house from the kitchen. "I'm busy making dinner." And she was. It seemed as if Dadi's home was the kitchen more than the actual house. Seriously, she never sat down except for when she was at the table or when she was reading.

"Sure, Dadi." I set the thick book down and Adah Didi tramped down the stairs, and trailed behind her. Adah Didi opened up the front door and there was a man standing there. The first odd thing I noticed was ... the man was wearing pajamas. In the afternoon. I heard from a classmate that in France that whenever someone wore their pajamas past ten, it meant they died in their sleep. Maybe this guy did, judging from his condition. He looked wiped out and like he was about to fall apart.

"What do you want?" Adah Didi said bossily, crossing her arms. "We're sort of busy."

"Forgive my Didi, sir," I gave her a glare. Then drawing my attention back to the man in his pajamas. He was a guest, even if he did dress weird. We had to be a little nice, at least. "She can be a pain in the behind sometimes."

"Don't be rude in front of him, Abhik!" She hissed in my ear which kind of tickled. "You know the expectations Dadi has when guests are over." I rolled my eyes. She clearly follows them.