The awkward reunion

When Tejas returned to his room, it was past 10 at night. Laksh was sitting at the edge of his bed with his head supported on his hands. Tejas's memory was still very fresh. He didn't look in the direction of his roommate as he sat on his bed.

"What happened, Tej? Why would you do such a thing?" Laksh's eyebrows were knit together, his eyes were squinted closely and his lips quivered slightly.

"I was...," Tejas gulped, "I was remembering some things after seeing a plant." He drew something with his finger, "It had bolt shaped leaves." Then clutching his hands, "It really took me back to some place. But I couldn't exactly put a finger at it." He said all this holding his breath. So he breathed some more and said, "It felt like the most important thing at that time." He still couldn't muster the courage to raise his head at look at Laksh.

Laksh bit his lips and moved his head around. " You are off that duty for some days now. So," he turned around and laid on his pillow, "from tomorrow you will have other set of duties."

"You mean that I am no longer a caretaker."

"No, that hasn't changed. But you will be given less dangerous task, for now."

Tejas thought he would be happy if he didn't have to get up so early anymore and get dressed in the hazmat suit. He didn't love the suffocating and sweaty feeling of the suit. He thought it be great if he never had to return to such a dangerous place. But this time it felt like there could be clues to his past that could help him connect a few dots.

"What will I have to do to get to that place again?" he asked in a low voice unsure if the question would make him angry.

"I don't know," Laksh pressed his pillow on his ear.

Tejas spoke to his device, 'Mr Ghosh, set an alarm for 6 in the morning?'

'Mr. Ghosh cancel the alarm,' Laksh commanded.

'Alarm cancelled.' The device turned off and went into sleep mode.

"Do I really not have to get up early?" Tejas asked a little perplexed.

"No. Just rest. You need to rest." Laksh closed his eyes and breathed heavily.

The next day when Tejas checked his device, it was already 10 in the morning. The sun had lit up the entire room. Laksh was not in the room but he had left a voice note in his device.

"Be ready by 12 pm. We need to go to someplace," the voice declared.

At the time assigned, Laksh met with Tejas at the entrance of the building. Once again, the very sight of the many plotted plants put him on caution.

Until they were completely away from the building, he spoke, "I am taking you to some very important places."

"Ok," Tejas said with widened eyes. They walked on paths that were mostly grass. There were many crowded gardens and playgrounds on their way but for some reason, at that time of the day, most of them weren't kids.

They stopped at a kulfi shop but there wasn't anyone in there. "This shop used to be our place," Laksh said with a sad smile. "A short man with a moustache used to work here. Do you remember?"

Tejas nodded his head declining any of that. The smile disappeared but the sadness remained. "The shop now works on trust system," he went ahead and purchased two chocolate kulfis but not with money, with their devices. Like the people in the station, Laksh too scanned both of their devices.

As they sat there and ate their kulfis, Tejas asked, "Is this the important place?"

Laksh smacked his lips and said, "Kind of! But no..."

He stood up very suddenly. "Let's go!" saying so he marched, licking and taking a big bite of the kulfi. Tejas, who was licking the melted kulfi from his hands took a bite and immediately suffered a brain freeze.

The streets were becoming lesser crowded. Among all the playgrounds and fields, Laksh chose the one with the least amount of people. They finally sat under a huge banyan tree. There were a lot of birds, especially, brilliant green squawking parrots. "This was also one of our spots as well."

"Our?"

"Purvi, you and I. We used to come here everyday when we were trainees."

"Trainees?"

"Yes, Trainees. You were studying to work in the lab, with your mother."

Tejas nodded his head as if trying to remember details. "And you..."

"Well, All you need to know right now is that I dropped out!" Laksh took a big bite of his kulfi.

"Oh!" Tejas moved his eyes back and forth wondering what to ask next. "Who was Purvi?"

"She was our friend. My girl-" he broke into a cough, "my best friend."

He immediately requested his device, 'Purvi's picture.' A girl with two bushy ponytails in a uniform similar to that of Dheera aunty was broadcasted on the tree trunk. She had big eyes and a long face. She didn't smile in the picture. Infact she looked very angry, ready to pounce on the capturer.

"As you might've guessed, she really hated taking pictures. But I took this one anyway," Laksh looked very longingly at the picture. "I did get beaten up after that though," he chuckled.

When Laksh realized he wasn't alone, he looked down feeling embarrassed. Tejas, who was slowly figuring out the nature of their relationship, asked, "What about Trish and her sister? Do you know them?"

"Well, yes," Laksh said with a sigh. He didn't look very pleased when he heard those names.

"Trish told me that we used to be friends," he looked at Laksh, wondering what he thought about that. Laksh avoided his gaze and looked at the branches of the tree.

"Was she your friend too?" Tejas asked again.

"I don't know," he walked and paced himself.

"Why do you always become so angry whenever I mention them?" Tejas was a little offended. He believed that the girls had helped him to get out of the rehab and that he was indebted to them.

"Because they broke our group!" he spoke, loudly and a little angrily. "We used be such close friends until they came."

"Oh!" Tejas bit his tongue. He might have brought up a very sensitive topic.

"Sorry for yelling," Laksh looked at his friend. He still didn't look very happy. "We've had our differences in the past."

"Is it okay if I ask about aunty Dheera?" Tejas looked at him, hoping to receive a positive reply.

Laksh nodded his head. "She was Purvi's mother. She was the one who helped you get into that rehab center."

"Oh! I should be thankful to her then," Tejas smiled as he said that.

Laksh instead looked even more angrier. His face was scrunched up and his brows knitted against each other. "Don't say such things so easily."

He walked around the tree, wiping his hands on the leaves. "It is because of her you look so weak."

"I don't think it was her fault though. Tejas didn't want to eat or rather I might have not wanted to eat so that's why I turned out this way," Tejas tried to defend.

"Can you blame yourself though? You loved your parents, a lot. I don't think you were unreasonable, at all. It is natural to want to know, to be curious and to be angry." Laksh shoved his hands in his pockets.

"You aren't wrong about that," Tejas too shoved his hands in his pocket.

"I think you are the victim they didn't do enough for. You even ended up losing that job you had worked so hard for."

Tejas suddenly began to feel bad for the Tejas who seemed to have changed overnight. "Was he really very hardworking?"

"I have never seen him slack off." He smiled weakly.

"You're only saying that because you were his friend," Tejas pressed his lips and tilted his head.

"If you talked to your trainers, I can bet they would tell you the same thing."

"Then it wasn't fair for him, right!" Tejas crossed his arms and laid his head on the tree.

"That's what I am saying, Tej!" Laksh walked to him, moving his hands aggressively.

Tejas looked at the towering figure of Laksh. He seemed a little scared of some thought that had popped in his head. "I have one more question, but..." he looked down not hiding his dilemma.

"Go on," Laksh said impatiently.

"What actually happened? To my parents. To Purvi."