The Missing Word: Chapter 5:
27th July,East Street,Allahabad
Saxena House,7 amThe next day Krishna awoke to the sound of someone's very irritating chattering and mumbling. He sat up and rubbed his eyes against the bright sunlight streaming through the bedroom window. As he walked across the room and opened the door to go downstairs, the volume of the talk increased threefold. Resisting the urge to stuff his fingers in his ears, he continued climbing down the stairs and through the door that led to the kitchen. Yawning and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he walked straight to the fridge and opened the door to help himself to some milk. He popped the carton open and was just thinking of grabbing the inviting looking apple when he suddenly felt quietness spread in the air. Noting the evident decrease in the volume of the earlier babbling, he peeked over the door of the fridge to find Naina and the pretty, rooftop girl, sitting at the dining table staring at him. Swallowing past the lump in his throat he gave them a sheepish grin and bolted past them, trying to cover his manly bits, not even stopping when he bumped into Shyam.
Sometime earlier last night:
Inspite of the cool breeze coming through the window, Krishna awoke from a deep sleep sweating like a pig. He peeled off the wifebeater and the pajama bottoms and went back to sleep in his goofy, sheep-print boxers.
The sight of the half-naked boy, wearing only bright lime-colored boxers with pink cartoon sheep on them had caused tears of laughter to stream down Pratigya's eyes. She clutched her sides which were aching from laughing so hard and tried to calm herself down. Naina aunty who was sitting across her moments ago was sitting up from the floor where she had fallen while laughing. One look at the expressions on each others faces and the both of them were laughing again.
Krishna ran into his bedroom and shut the door with a slam. His face was bright red from mortification. Back at his home, surrounded by men, he never had to worry about decency in the morning. He would have to be more careful of what he wore or more importantly hadn't worn to avoid the embarrassing situation he had found himself in this morning. Ignoring his grumbling stomach, he pulled some clothes from the closet and headed straight into to the shower.
Shyam entered the kitchen to find 2 uncharacteristically quiet women, sitting across each other, sipping chai, both very red in the face. The recent attacks of hysterical laughter quite was evident on their faces.
"I take it that you met Krishna?"
Pratigya made a face at Shyam uncle, "please don't remind me..we have just stopped laughing..any reminder of him just cracks us up again."
Holding his hands up in mock surrender, Shyam sat at the table and poured himself some steaming hot chai.
"Pratigya beta, its Krishna's first day of college today.. Can you make sure that he fits in and doesn't get in any trouble? Adarsh is mad at us for letting Krishna stay in our home.."
"Sure uncle..You can count on me.."
Finishing the last of her chai with a slurp, Pratigya stood up and bounded off in the direction of Adarsh's bedroom.
"Can I come in?"
"'hold on'.hmmm..come in.."
Krishna closed the door behind him as he entered Adarsh's room and flopped down on his bed.
"I hate being the new kid.."
"You haven't even started being the new kid yet. How can you hate it?"
"I know all the rituals reserved for kids that don't fit in'was on the giving end of quite a few of them myself..plus, I had a bad start in the morning.."
"Really? What happened?"
"Walked in the kitchen in my boxers and started drinking milk when I realized that I had an audience.."
Adarsh held the dresser to keep from falling down on the floor. He howled with laughter till Krishna threw his shoe at him.
"Oww!"
"You haven't even heard the best part yet, the tall, long-haired girl that lives next door was one half of my dining table audience.."
"What!?..Pratigya saw your almost-full-Monty?..This day just starts getting better and better."
"Pratigya?"
"That's her name..the long-haired chick you are talking about..She goes to our college too..She's my friend..my only friend as a matter of fact.."
"Pratigya? Is that really her name? Suits her, in a way..", Krishna said wistfully almost as if to himself.
Adarsh looked quizzically at a half-sprawled Krishna who had a dreamy expression on his face. He picked up the shoe that was previously thrown at him, and dropped it hard on Krishna's head.
"Oww!"
"Put your stupid shoe back on..we're going to be late for college..", Adarsh called out just as he raced out of his room, banging the door close behind him.
Pratigya..Pratigya.. Krishna was repeating her name in his mind, as if chanting her name would suddenly make her appear and give him the cute smile he had seen earlier. Such a powerful name, full of fire and promise. A name which made the listener look up and take notice. A name which had launched a thousand ships in his heart. A name which he wanted to shout out to the world. The heavy shoe hit his head and for a moment stars appeared in front of his eyes. He stood up woozily, rubbed his aching head and decided to chase Adarsh to hit him back. With thoughts of revenge etched in his mind, he ran towards the door just in time to see it open and crashed into a mini tornado of his own. A long-haired sweet-smelling mini-tornado. A tornado aptly named-Pratigya.
A.N.: I am going to keep postponing the cute KriYa part till I get a decent number of reviews'In addition to being known for not editing my work, I am also known for being quite stubborn..So please review..The muse is hungry and will not wait for the reviews to cool down..