CHAPTER-2
THE SLAP
“Boss, don’t worry, I'm here!”, greeted the first goon whose belly Yuvan had kicked like an experienced boxer exhibiting all his frustration on a poor spongy punch bag, a little while ago.
“Let me go!”, cried Eka, turning her head from side to side with her beautiful black hair swaying along. She attempted to untie her hands from the ruthless beast giggling behind her.
“Stop!”, yelled Yuvan, bulging his eyes at the very goon.
“Look at me.” He sighed. “Whatever the vengeance you seem to possess, it is between you and me. So, out of nowhere, why are you bothering a random girl only because she happened to pass by the street? Isn’t this becoming a nuisance now?”
The two goons rolled their throats out in chorus.
“Haha, you can be a great teacher. I bet, your students will certainly obey you. But, do you think we will execute your orders?”, interrogated the other goon.
“Hey, you silly boy”, cried the goon holding Eka. He neared Yuvan, dragging Eka along, this time pulling her hair.
“We aren’t your slaves. Haha!”While Eka was about to escape, the goon pulled her back. He yelled right in her ears resulting in her closing her eyes and pressing them hard.
“Alright. Shall we please compromise? What do you want from me? Why have you guys been behind me suddenly? I hardly know any of you. What have I done?”, Yuvan shrugged, enquiring them like a curious reporter questioning a celebrity after being declared a prime suspect for a meticulous murder.
“Great! Finally, you are here to the point”, acclaimed the goon, hitting his palms to celebrate a high-five with his crime partner who quickly grabbed back his left hand after the interaction, to hold his prey tighter.
“It's simple, buddy. You die and we leave her. Haha!”, the goon revealed, roaring another round of laughter. “Nice deal, isn’t it?”
Yuvan shrugged and held his breath tight for a moment. His eyes rolled hither and thither at Eka pressing her lips hard struggling to set herself free.
“What’s happening here?”, she cried. “It's an important day at school: the first day of my dream job. Let me go! Why am I unnecessarily being involved in this?...”
“Shut up! We want to bag a great deal of money from our client. It's impossible unless we kill this man for which we need you. Haha! A man would do anything for a beautiful woman even if it meant sacrificing his own life…Hahahaa!”, the goon justified his act.
“What! I’m meeting him here for the first time. Are you nuts?”, Eka yelled.
“Hey!”, he pulled her back and squeezed her arms together. “Don’t teach me. I know my job better…”
They were interrupted by a jeep rushing into the street like a latecomer at the airport. Two cops in khaki uniforms with tiny coloured badges pinned to their shoulders got down.
“Hands up!”, they ordered, pointing their guns at both the goons who, at the moment, failed to swallow their fears. They were about to flee when the cops conquered them from the back and grew engrossed in tying them in handcuffs.
“Yuvan!”, called his mother, opening the gate and rushing to hug her son. “Are you alright?”, she trembled, checking his arms and patting his face. "Good that I rang up the local station at the right time."
“Amma, I’m all well. Please!”, said he, patting her shoulders.
“Inspector, it's them and there was another man as well. The three swore to kill my poor son”, her middle-aged voice continued trembling as she clung to Yuvan.
“Sir, they were trying to harm me as well. Please register my complaint along with his mother’s”, joined Eka.
“They deserve an FIR for disturbing the commuters on a busy morning, particularly on a workday like today”, she emphasized, with an authoritative tone as if she were a high-ranked senior customs officer.
Yuvan’s mother nodded as a short cop was busy recording their statements on sheets pinned to old wooden cardboard. “Umm. Huh, they were trying to harass her. They were pointing a knife at her neck…”, narrated the petrified mother.
“Don’t worry, ma’am. We have recorded the incident. Now that the two clowns are under our custody, we will proceed further…”, the tall and fat officer with a dark and thick moustache and a part of his hairy chest exposed reassured his complainants.
“One question!”, roared Yuvan, tossing his fingers and walking towards the goons as they took their seats on the two rear seats of the police jeep. He frowned at the two helpless culprits.
“Who bribed you to kill me? I want to know. Spill it out”, Yuvan commanded, raising his hand to thrash one of them.
“Swara”, confessed the other goon at which his buddy slammed his forehead and turned away.
Yuvan stood dumbstruck for an entire minute as if he had heard something startling such as a sweet kin’s demise, while the jeep departed with the goons joining their hands and pleading to the cops.
"Sorry, sir...Sir..Please..."
“Let's treat you well at the station. Uhhh..Insult to men. Public..public nuisance…”, faint voices of the officer beating the goon’s shoulders could be heard from a little distance.
Tears flooded Yuvan’s eyes as he recollected himself witnessing a beautiful bride’s wedding and setting feet backwards to the entrance with the traditional wedding instruments playing in the background as he wiped his tears before they rolled down to drench his dense beard.
He sobbed stopping at the gate, turning back only to scowl at the grand convention hall. He sighed. His face turned boiling red as his eyes went over the metallic bracelet.
“Cheat!”, he grumbled, removing the band with an “S” engraved on its centre. He gazed at every inch of it one last time before throwing it away.
Currently, Eka continued shaking his shoulders and rebuking him, “Hello, mister? I won’t thank you. You put my life at risk. Ok, maybe, you have a deep pain or whatever, thus you don’t value your life..."
"Perhaps, you don’t wanna live thereby inviting random goons to kill you through dangerous friendships…Hmm…I don’t care. But, how will I go now? I’m already late. I’m afraid that I may miss out on my dream opportunity to be seemingly indisciplined. It was supposed to be such a big day.”
“What happened to you? Talk something...Why are you quiet? What did the goon tell?..”, his mother continued enquiring Yuvan.
She pointed at him and shrieked, “And you-you ruined it all. You must drop me on the way to your whatsoever next goon business…such an irresponsible man…”
“Stop!”, roared Yuvan, slapping Eka. His fierce dark eyes seemed to tear her clueless pupils apart. “Can’t you understand how much I’m broken from within? Can't you hear every inch of the bone cracking within me?... Blah....Blah...Blah...Can’t you stay quiet?”
“Yuvan! What are you doing?”, his mother trembled while he turned to look at her and hurried towards his bike.
“How dare you slap me? Do you think you are a majestic VIP out there? Do you think I’m innocent and helpless?”, Eka followed him, returning a wild roar while he got on his bike and rode away, ignoring her behind.
“Wait! Yuvan!”, his mother called her enraged son.
“Hello! This was very wrong, Mr. Yuvan. I swear I will sue you! Wait and watch for the deadly consequences. Coming soon!”, she shouted to the ultimate peak of her voice; her larynx almost disorienting to change her original voice!
She turned around and scowled at his house as his mother walked inside and closed the door.
“Superb! So, this is where you stay.” She thought, looking at her watch and sighing as she nodded and walked away.
********************************************
That morning, Aswitha was busy turning a few pages of an English textbook as she adjusted her clip. She sat at the corner of the long wooden table lying beside the staircase leading to the terrace. The table served the purpose of an open-air staffroom mostly meant for high school teachers taking classes on the very floor.
“Good Morning, Aswitha ma’am!”
Aswitha turned to look up at her visitor.
“Hello, Eka! Good Morning!”, Aswitha wore a wide smile as her golden colored earrings chimed along.
“Take your seat, please”, she offered, pointing to the wooden chair on the opposite side of the staffroom table.
“Pardon me for the delay, ma’am”, Eka began, handing over a file to Aswitha. “A roadway fight on my way obstructed me...Phew! I somehow managed to survive...”
“Hey, come on, why are you reasoning yourself like an elementary school child? I trust you. It happens. These goons…”, said Aswitha, reviewing Eka’s voluminous yet one-page resume.
“Yes ma’am, the goons..Hope you understand…”, Eka concluded, finally taking her seat after Aswitha pointed once again.
“Of course I do. Fights are common around here in this very neighbourhood”, she added. “Shall we now talk about why we are here today?”
Eka smiled and nodded.
“Aye, you have such a beautiful smile”, Aswitha complimented.
“Oh, thanks!”, Eka chuckled.
“Ok, Eka, all I want to know is if you will be interested in contributing towards the mission and vision of SPPS which is to aid the students passing on the borderline or entirely screwing up their exams. We desire to train them better and achieve their targets say up to a seventy per cent…”
“No, ma’am, eighty per cent”, a commanding male voice interrupted them. They turned and stood up as a tall and lean gentleman dressed in formal; a plain white shirt on black formal pants and a black blazer entered the scene. He grabbed the rolling chair at the centre of the staffroom table and took his seat.
“Good Morning sir!”, the two women greeted in chorus.
“Eka, he is Mr.Shankar Reddy, our honorable academic dean”, Aswitha introduced him to Eka who nodded as the gentleman joined his hands together and smiled through his square-shaped glasses.
“It's a pleasure to meet you, sir”, said Eka, nodding as the three lecturers sat back. Eka turned back to Aswitha. “Yes ma’am, I would love to help such rising students who are often overlooked in most other schools. I would be glad to take up such a unique opportunity for our students-the future of the country. Let's help them do wonders.”
“Wow! She seems to have much higher hopes and better plans than the great Shankar Reddy. How could it sound so? Looks like something interesting may happen to our curriculum!”, thought Aswitha, faking a smile and nodding.
“Welcome to SPPS!”, greeted Shankar, sitting afar and raising his right hand towards Eka, “I can see the fire in your eyes.” As Aswitha and Eka stood up and shook hands with each other, Eka rolled her eyes hither and thither.
“Wait. Am I doing something wrong? Firstly, why is SPPS comparing students? Each one has the potential to achieve different types of goals. Shouldn’t they win the freedom to pursue what they wish? Should schools necessarily revolve just around passing exams with flying colours? Isn’t life beyond exams?... They seem to be prioritizing marks and grades more than the student’s mental peace…”
“Ma’am, I have a doubt.” Eka’s cloud of thoughts was interrupted as soon as Chanda arrived. She smiled at the high-school nerd standing beside her.
“Baby, can we please talk later? I’m inviting a new English teacher to our school”, informed Aswitha.
“Ma’am, just a minute. It's regarding the marks allotted to my previous assignment…”, said Chanda, opening her assignment notebook.
“Chanda Reddy, please leave now”, added Aswitha, ignoring her student and turning to Eka. “Eka, please meet Kokila ma’am downstairs. You must begin with a demo class. That’s our school’s norm.”
“Sure, thank you, ma’am”, Eka thanked, taking her file back from the table. She was about to leave when Chanda turned her assignment pages at Aswitha.
“Ma’am, can you please recheck? I have written it all-I mean everything that was asked for…”, complained Chanda.
“Chanda Reddy, baby, 8 is very good”, squealed Aswitha, in extreme excitement. She turned to Eka and Shankar, putting forward the same question,” Isn’t securing an eight out of ten good?”
Shankar smiled and nodded, scrolling through his laptop while Eka forced a smile.
“Why do I smell something fishy at SPPS?”, she thought.
“Now, leave, baby. Isn’t it time for lunch?”, stated Aswitha, patting Chanda amiably with a wide smile, as the long bell rang aloud in the background.
While Aswitha left with the fat textbook in her arms, the helpless teenager headed towards her class; her eyes down at the gravelish tiles of the corridor.
“What happened, ya?”, enquired a tall and handsome spectacled guy standing with arms around his short spectacled bestie who always bulged his eyes and pressed his lips together; his signature expression for everything that happened around him, may it be grief, may it be joy or whatever emotion you feel-just name it and this would be his consistent reaction!
Chanda looked up and sighed at Sanjit. His friend turned to him, whispering, “Aren’t you here? What will happen to her?”
“Shut up, da. Yuvek, idiot! No time sense uh!”, Sanjit confronted Yuvek, hitting his head from the back.
“I am spineless. That’s why they have been targeting me. Why me?”, Chanda complained, sobbing a bit; hardly a tear was evident.
“Oh! It happens, ya. What to do? Chilax!”, commanded Sanjit, in his coarse voice, as he opened his palms wide and shrugged. His eyes happened to go over Aadita entering the classroom.
“Hey, Aadita! How much did you score in the English assignment, ya?”
“Ten”, said she, leaning forward. She was purposely loud enough for Chanda to hear.
“Is it a perfect ten?”
“Yup!” She scowled, checking out Chanda from the back and marched with her lunch bag upon her shoulders.
“Awesome!”, Sanjit acclaimed her, gesturing for a thumbs-up at which Chanda scowled secretly at him.
“At last, you too!”, she thought and walked away.
She sat on her usual bench. Her so-called bestie was busy relishing the mouth-watering vegetable balls with fried rice for lunch.
“Have some”, offered the white girl in a high pony. Chanda chuckled and shook her head. Yuvesh neared their desk and took Chanda's assignment notebook. He skimmed through the pages while Sanjit suddenly joined and accompanied him.
“Actually, ya, you are right. You too deserve a perfect ten even in the previous activity where we had to write about memories of our grandparents correlating with 'How I Taught My Grandmother to Read' ”, supported Sanjit, at which Chanda sighed.
“True, she has done it well for as long as a dozen pages, ensuring both quality and quantity. Not sure what more Aswitha ma’am expects?!”, added Yuvesh.
“What else is happening here? It's nothing other than bias”, thought Chanda.
“But why would ma’am do this, ya?”, discussed Sanjit. “After all, didn’t we all join the school at the same time this year?”
*********************************************
Meanwhile, Yuvan threw the door open, barging inside his cabin. Racks were housing a dozen each of a variety of balls-volleyball, throwball, basketball and a couple of indoor games including a carom board on the desk by which Yuvan hurried to grab a seat, boxes of chess boards, ludo, the popular business board game and lastly, to mention not, every high-school boy’s favourite: the cricket bats!
“Urgh! Life sucks!”, Yuvan grumbled, snatching a ball from the side shelves. He breathed hard, bouncing the ball hard on the wall; every time it returned to him, he threw it with even greater force as if he were rehearsing for a sports fest at a global level.
Drops of sweat not only accumulated in the form of wet dots on his fair forehead but also soaked his sexy hairy hands as if he bathed in sweat.
Dear readers,
Hi, I’m Nahya here! I’m new to Matrubharthi.
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