Tu Hi Yaar Mera

3. He was not alone!

"There is nothing more beautiful than someone who goes out of their way to make life beautiful for others."

~ Mandy Hale

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"Bachcha Party!" Swara called out loud and in came a train of kids but all too silent to be believable. She narrowed her eyes at them. Was that the silence that prevailed before the advent of the storm? Hardly four or four and a half feet tall, this gang of Lilliputian troublemakers was something not to mess with!

"Why are you guys so silent?" Swara asked cautiously emphasizing on each and every word as she scanned the faces of each and everyone of them. And that was when she noticed it. With a bated breath she asked, "and where is..."

"S-Swara di! We...," stammered a young girl hardly eight years old with her eyes shining with unshed tears and her nose all red, quite possibly because of continuous sniffing and rubbing.

"Aarvi, what happened?" Swara asked as she got down on her knees in front of her and caressed her hair. Aarvi had started trembling and it wasn't too difficult for Sujata to understand that something was wrong... utterly wrong.

"Just take a deep breath and..."

"AAAAH!!"

Even before Swara could complete, a loud holler was heard at the end of the hallway and next came the sound of several things crashing on the floor. Her eyes widened the very next moment as she looked at the kids but all of them had their heads bowed down. And even without looking at their faces, Swara knew that they all had been crying.

Without giving it a second thought, Swara ran towards the room at the very end followed by everyone else right after her.

"Pari," Swara shouted, knocking the door anxiously. "Please open the door, bachcha."

The way she pleaded held Sujata by surprise. The girl she had met hardly few minutes ago, the one who seemed so lively and optimistic, looked so scared at this very moment. She looked terrified beyond measures as if she was about to lose her most precious possession.

'What's wrong?' Sujata's inner self questioned but before she could word it out, a loud cry resonated in the hallway.

"Pari! Pari!" Swara was on the verge of tears as her knocks on the door became even more frantic. No, please, not again!

"Please someone get me the key," she shouted without even looking at everyone else who by now were standing right behind her calling out Pari's name.

And soon enough, the spare key to the kids' room was brought. Wiping the tears off her face, Swara grabbed the key hurriedly to unlock the door from outside. The kids' wellbeing had always been her utmost concern, so, the first thing she did after earning the minimal sum of money from her part time job was changing the lock to the kids' dormitory.

The moment the door was unlocked, they heard something crash against it before Swara could open the door. Signaling everyone to step back, she opened the door cautiously making sure that nothing else was being thrown their way again.

The plight of the whole dormitory took everyone by surprise, or more like shock. Every thing that seemed a bit smaller in size was tossed in every corner of the room, mattresses looked disheveled as if someone had tried to pull them off the bed but couldn't do so, water was spilled all across the floors and the jugs were tumbled down under the beds, and then hiding in the darkness was a little girl huddled up in the farthest corner of the room.