Here's a new chapter. Thanks for reading the previous one. Hope you will enjoy reading this one too.
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Aruhi saw her father give her a fake smile.
"Rahul's family has not reported anything to the authorities about his disappearance, nor do I think they will," Rajesh told his daughter,Aruhi. He rested his hand on her shoulder and said, "Your fault is you went alone and spent all night away from home without permission. I hope learnt your lesson."
Then, he got up from her bed and started leaving. On his way, he spied the poster for the science competition on her wall and stopped. " You have to win the competition this year, Aruhi, so focus on that for now. Now come downstairs to eat," he said while leaving.
After her father left, Aruhi checked her phone. Pradeep was still offline. She could not understand what she should say to him, so she just sent a "hi" and left it at that.
The wind was seemed colder by the minute and the temperature in the room was falling slowly. It was the month of November. Winter was slowly setting in. By 8 in the evening the wind had picked up quite a bit of speed.
Pradeep's windows were open and the cold seeped into the room. His evening snacks sat cold on the corner of his bed. The little light in the room was because of the full moon outside. Pradeep laid on the floor of his dark, silent room, with his hands and feet spread wide, eyes towards the moon the way moths are attracted towards flames, lost in thought. A diary laid by his hips, where he was trying to finish his poem.
The room was getting a bit too cold and Pradeep started feeling the chill of the November air. Shivering, he reached for the quilt on the bed and tried to pull it towards himself. Unknown to him, he had mistakenly pulled the bedsheet as well which caused the plate of food to fall on him with a crash. Startled, he shouted out loudly, as if the ghost of Tiraha had come back to haunt him.
Hearing his shouts, his mother came running to the room. Upon seeing the food spread on his clothes and scattered all over the floor, she drew in an angry breath and started scolding him for his carelessness. After some time, when her anger had boiled down, she left him to clear the mess.
As soon as his mother left, Pradeep got up from his place on the floor and started cleaning the mess. After all, he had told his mother that he would. It was better than spending another hour listening to her lectures about how he should be more responsible, at least. While cleaning the room, he also remembered that he had to wish his clothes as well. With a heavy sigh he started cleaning again. After his room was cleaned, Pradeep sat down against the bed and sighed deeply.
His eyes fell on the poster lying on his table. "Are you innovative?" He had totally forgotten about that! It was that science compitition that happened once every 5 years. He had saved up a lot of money for participation fees.
Pradeep remembered. Aruhi needed two partners to participate in the competition. She had forced him and Sameer to take part with her. He didn't really know why Aruhi wanted Sameer to participate. He himself usually came at the top of the the class so that was probably why she wanted him on her team. And anyway Aruhi made the machines using Pradeep's grandfather's diary, so she obviously needed him. "Selfish witch, " Pradeep said to himself. But what else could he do? After all, he himself gave the diary to her. He love the selfish witch.
He quickly opened the chain of the secret pocket in his bag that he made himself and took out the hidden diary. His grandfather's old worn diary, where he wrote down all his secret inventions. Pradeep himself never understood all that was written in the diary. He never got all those formula's and everything. He was good in studies only because of his really good memory. He could remember almost anything if he read it. But understanding it was the problem. However Aruhi could understand it with no problem at all.
Aruhi had also done a few small inventions using this diary. Using the money she had got from her inventions, they had had a lot of fun and had also taken part in the competition. Pradeep also believed that, if he gave the diary to Aruhi, she would stay busy with her inventions and would forget the incident in Tiraha. The hellish days of Tiraha were in the past, they could not change them. But if they put their mind to it, they could work hard and try to better their future and be happy.
