Three Men and a Baby
Was this a good idea? Was there any benefit for this? Was I going to jail for this-yes, but the others-had no answer to them. We all were tensed; what if something went wrong during The Plan? What if one of us didn't reach The Hideout -as Romi named it, obviously- on time? But the biggest question was how was Ruhi going to feel about this?
How was Ruhi going to react to this? Was she going to come in calmly or we do it like an actual abduction. I still refuse to call it "abduction".
"You ready?" Mihir asked while putting on his cuffs, he believed that if we were going, we were going out in style. I glanced at his outfit and then back at mine, a pair of carrot jeans and dusty sneakers, while he, he looked more like my boss. Was he for real? The Hideout is in the middle of the woods, he couldn't expect that cream white shirt and black tuxedo to stay clean for long.
The loud honks snapped me out of my trance questioning whether this was right or wrong.
"You guys coming or do I go and meet my niece myself," Romi's head popped out from the driver's seat in the parking lot outside the window.
"Just wait!" Mihir yelled out the window and started to apply an alarming amount of cologne.
"Ohmygod." I mumbled and facepalmed.
"What?" Mihir whined.
"Just move it. We don't have all day."
*honk honk* "Are you guys coming or not?!" Romi said-well actually screamed earning gazes from the nearby passer-by's.
"Yup, we're coming." I said whilst catching a hold of Mihir's arm and basically dragging him out of his "manly" persona when he started whining like a four-year-old who didn't want to socialize. I could only imagine what the scene would've looked like going out of the house, one fully grown man dragging another fully grown man clad in a suit and blazer who resisted by dragging his heels. Well I didn't know whether Mihir called this "going out in style".
"Shut up and get in the car!" I snapped and gave him the look my Mom used to give me in situations like these, to which Mihir replied with low eyelids and an unimpressed expression. I shoved him inside the car and pulled Romi out of the driver's seat.
"If anyone's driving, it's me." I deadpanned.
"But it's my car!" Romi retorted while getting in the passenger's seat.
"Yeah and I don't trust any of you." I countered.
"But what does tha-"
"Shut up and put your seat-belt on." I interrupted; didn't these idiots see we were clearly running out of time?
"I'm already starting to regret being a part of this." Mihir said trying to retain the crispiness of his blazer by rubbing over the creases.
"Oh yeah speaking of The Plan," Romi suddenly got all excited and shuffled in his pocket to retrieve a crumpled paper and set it flat on his palm bringing it between our seats.
"Is this some sort of spiritual ritual you're performing?" I said glancing at the crumpled paper with extremely large stains of ink and undoubtedly came to the conclusion that it might've been some test paper of Romi's.
"Place your hand on it." Romi said calmly.
"Wut," Mihir said lowly.
"Place you right hand on it!" Romi whined.
"Ohmygod." I mumbled, knowing that this was what I was going to say for most of my life now that I had to be living with these two. Both of us did as he said and I started to doubt his intentions when he placed his hand on his heart and started speaking with a different voice.
"Repeat after me," he adamantly said.
"Ugghh I'm already regretting this." Mihir continued with his childish demeanor.
"You know that suit really doesn't look good on you if you're going to be like this." I replied to his comment.
"Yes it does!"
"No, it doesn't." he proceeded to continue with the never-ending argument when I stopped him, "And don't you dare say it does, I know you have pink striped socks under those polished shoes." I said confidently, to which Mihir involuntarily closed his mouth and brought his knees up to his head rolling up into a cocoon.
"As I was saying, repeat after me," Romi said.
"I,"
"I," Mihir and I chimed.
"Blank."
"Blank?" I questioned his oath making skills after this.
"We're three people over here! I couldn't think of any other common word." Romi reasoned.
"Blank." We said.
"Solemnly swear to be loyal to The Plan for infinity and beyond." He said before taking in a large intake of breath.
"Solemnly swear to be loyal to The Plan for infinity and beyond." I sighed knowing where he got the last part from.
Both of us sent him a 'seriously' look to which he responded, "Whaaat? I watched Toy Story last night; I just couldn't help including it."
"Why am I here?" Mihir asked the supernatural power above us when I started the car.
I sat on the plush sofa staring at the wall empty of any ornaments to make it look better. I now felt weird, we, humans, the most complicated species on the planet dressed up standing barriers between rooms or whatever. It's literally like we couldn't live with a normal looking...ANYTHING. We needed everything to look pretty. For that one second I felt weird to be a human. Wait! Am I going mad?! Have I been worrying so much about The Plan that I'm starting to lose my own sanity? Why am I questioning my own self-existence?
I was broken out from my useless trance by Romi gripping my shoulders and shaking them as if his life depended on it.
"What?!" I shrieked brushing off his hands from my shoulders.
"It's almost 1:30, don't you remember we have to ya' know go and kidn- go and get your daughter so that she live with us for the eternity like a happy little family."
"Yeah." Was all said, even when I didn't listen to a word he said.
"You guys do know that this is an escape from the world right, and we're not supposed to be here chit-chatting about The Plan rather we should actually be going forward with it right?" Mihir said walking in putting his aviators on, the man clearly couldn't let go of those things.
"Yeah." I repeated, still thinking about walls for some reason.
Shagun's POV
I started to worry, Ruhi wasn't home and- with much effort I contacted Raman's home and found out that he was also not at home. But, it was highly unlikely that their paths crossed, she went to school every morning and returned every afternoon like every other normal day. The bus just might've been a little off schedule.
An hour passed and not a sign of Ruhi. I called the school God knew how many times and the stupid call wouldn't even reach them. How could they be so irresponsible!
I couldn't take it anymore, I drove to the school to find out what the hell was going on!
"Hey you!" I clicked my finger towards the peon.
"Yes, Madam." He hesitantly replied.
"Where's your Principal's office?"
"Down the hallway and to the right."
I went down the hallway and threw open the wooden door, "Where's my daughter?!"
"Excuse me?" A woman with semi-circle shaped glasses threw me a face of question from the other side of the desk.
"Really? Because the last time I checked, you were in charge!"
"I'm really not following you, ma'am."
"My daughter came to school today and she isn't home yet! I called your office and no one was answering. I don't even know whether she even boarded the bus or not!"
"Ma'am you must be mistaken, the conductor counts the number of-"
"Oh just be quiet, I didn't come here for you to reason with me, all I want is my daughter!"
"I'll call the office and see whether she is there, she could've missed boarding the bus and is down there."
[center]***[/center
The car ride was silent, no cheesy knock-knock jokes no obnoxious laughs no useless questions. It felt as if the two idiots weren't even in the car! And the answer was quite well known. A girl in pigtails hugging her green and pink backpack sat at the back, with a speechless Mihir.
He was very good with kids, but that day, he was silent. Not only Mihir, but also Romi, they both were the ones who socialized with the younger lot at a party. But the sight of her trembling self didn't give them the guts to do anything. I questioned if she even was scared of me, because she didn't do anything, literally nothing. She was the kid in the lot who was silent but inside just couldn't be quiet about anything. She from time to time turned around placing her knees on the seat and looked in the dickey. I felt it was strange until she uttered the words, "Are you okay?" in that tone. I knew that tone. That tone was reserved only for one person, Sir-sleeps-a-lot.
Romi who was beside me leaned in and whispered, "Are you sure this is still a good idea?"
I whispered back, "This, is no longer an idea, it's The Plan, and yes, I still feel we should go ahead with this. Not that we have a choice, the whole Delhi police would be after us now."
"I think we should stop and walk on foot, moving in this car isn't safe." Mihir said leaning in, not that he had to. Ruhi was busy in her world with Sir-sleeps-a-lot with her back towards us.
"Good idea, The Hideout is not far away from here too." Mihir chimed. God! It's like Romi has some sort of psychiatric powers where he could come with the most clich names but we would still stick with it.
We all got out of the car with a shopping packet in tow. It now after almost a year did it strike Romi that we went shopping that day for Ruhi. Seriously. She was in a school uniform and that raises suspicions. Mihir and I huddled Ruhi up into the washroom of a petrol station. After moments of tangled hands from both sides of the door and woven cotton -somehow- caught in Mihir's hand whilst the process, my daughter emerged from the stall clad in the attire that suit her best, a frock. Her bright colors didn't quite blend in with the bland blue walls of the washroom. She still hadn't uttered a word, not even a sound came from her mouth. I had started to question our actions and recalled what Romi had said a few days ago, "She won't be happy."
We walked on the side of the stranded street, no cars no people, nothing. The sound of her shoe buckle was the only music that could be heard throughout the entire walk. Romi tried to bring in a few jokes that were -for him- considerably good, but... "Hey,"
"What?" She smiled and looked up at his -for her- tall body. Not for me, I'm still taller than him.
"Do you want to hear another joke?"
"No!" Mihir and I synced.
"Yeah, why not, I mean your other ones have been... well just continue."
"Knock-knock."
"Why is he my brother?" I asked God whilst looking up amongst the stars.
"Who's there?" She asked cheerfully.
"A cow goes," That grin laid upon his mouth, I knew that grin, Oh god!
"A cow goes who?"
"No, a cow goes moo." He said revealing his epic jazz hands to show how much thought and effort he put into that. To which, I was surprised, she laughed, SHE ACTUALLY LAUGHED. That was the only reaction seen coming from her in the entire evening.
Romi looked at her in surprise, eyes wide and mouth agape. I guess he held pride that he was the one who earned the first reaction from her otherwise expressionless mood. He sent me a look, it was un-describable, the content filled in his eyes after he saw her looking upon the ground still trying to control her laughs. And from then on, I knew we were going to be getting along real well.
Current Affairs
Real Estate
