Raindrops matter to wistful hearts

BETWEEN THEM
Part 8

It was pouring when he woke up....

The usual fresh morning sun was probably overworked.... It was playing hopscotch with the clouds....
Not that Krish complained... It was an entrancing sight.... The mix of gold and gray overhead....

Yet.... the downpour did not look as it would stop....
A dull morning... he made toast.... he was off today...

The toast tasted like sandpaper... And the tea was worse... As usual...
He would never get to making up a decent meal for himself.....

He stood at the balcony..... hands in pocket... his usual style.....
There was the honk of the local school bus.... It brought back some comfort to him.... There were people around.... He wasn't alone ....

He turned around and stood looking into the room from where he was....

He had to put up some curtains before his mom came over.... And had to change the rugs... they were badly tattered.... maybe change the cutlery... rather buy some more new stuff....
And wash the clothes... they were piling up in a heap..... And stock the kitchen... And collect the television set that he had sent over for repair....

He would do none of these.... It was a lot easier to face his mom and get chided than run around in this kind of weather....
Maybe it wasn't.... He remembered her rant-off last time....

He got back to his computer..... The game he was designing was not turning out as he wanted it to.... he was fed up of looking at lines of codes and the animation interface at alternating intervals....

Maybe he deserved a vacation more than he thought he did....

Maybe the fact that he had taken the week off was a good thing...

Except that the reason bothered him....

Not that he didn't love his mother.... Just that he would have preferred staying by himself than have her over for her yearly visit...

And spend the rare vacation being treated like a grown up, hare-brained kid...

Still as he regarded his big yet scantly furnished apartment.... he felt he could have anyone over for just a cup of homemade tea.... to cut out the loneliness....

Even if the tea tasted something like misplaced granules in hot water......