BETWEEN THEM
Part 5
It had been exhilarating.... He wasn't going to deny that....
Watching the race had been a real thrill.. It brought in a thrill that for long he hadn't felt.... almost since he had seen her again....
Krish frowned.... Why was he comparing everything that he came across with her?
A small kid was bawling somewhere.... He turned around and saw it...
A little girl with her brother... a lean lanky boy around ten..... was standing at the entrance to the corner shop.....
Krish guessed she must have wanted to go in.... it was a cookie shop and maybe her brother refused....
His eyes moved to the window display.... A large collection of cookies and chocolates.... ready to make even adults drool...
Somehow the shop attracted him.... and he realized why......
He turned away and walked down the lane as fast as he could....
All he wanted now was someone's company.... Even Raghu had left long back.... After all he had a family here to get back to....
It made him sadder.... the loneliness....
The very same place he had always wanted to be in.... His own World.... His own lonely place....
It was like the place was tired of him and wanted to throw him out....
The cookies..... And his past.....
He wanted to forget it all.... as fast as he could....
A deep tucked away memory arose somewhere.... A Christmas tree and an angel on top of it.....
A fortune cookie that he had picked up from under it.... The words in it....
Krish shuddered.... These days it was haunting him.... the angel on top of the tree... and those lines..... the lights and the confetti... the deep silence somewhere in him.....
And her....
That long ago night.. The only year when his family celebrated Christmas to try out something different .... The warmth of that eve...
And he had thought about her..... as he picked up the cookie.....
He had been surprised.... She was no one to him..... just a classmate.... and at that exact moment he wondered how she had come up..... clear as a crystal in his mind...Her smile... Her Self ..
He had read the lines and picked up his gifts... some toy car models and computer games.... and made his way to his room after spending very little time with his family..... He wanted to show them he was least interested in all this... That festivities did not matter to him.....
But for all his apparent indifference, he had avoided looking at the angel.....
The games had been lost long since..... but the piece of fortune paper remained....
And every time he took on something major.... he read it again.....
Still, the angel haunted him..... And so did the lines..... And Shriya's smile....
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