CHAPTER 12

Arjun’s dream of walking hand in hand with a beautiful girl got sliced off before he could see the face of the beauty beside him as the sunlight shot right through the window, sharp enough to burn his face if only the window was a concave lens. Though he wished he could complain, Ira’s morning face, much stunning than the sunrise staring down at him with a wide smile and a sweet good morning wish made it one of the best mornings of his life. She had become one of Arjun’s favourite people in the world.

“Coffee?” she said, holding out a cup of coffee.

Arjun took the cup from her hand and commented, “You call yourself my coach…..seriously coffee….when I’m dieting?”

“Oh God! Aju give that cup back.” she said, face palming.

“Too late missy.” he chuckled, as he sipped on his coffee.

By the time Arjun freshened up, the breakfast was ready. This time Ira made sure she didn’t forget about Arjun’s diet plan. Instead of dining on the table, both of them grabbed their plate and sat across each other, switched on the TV and watched ‘FRIENDS.’

“This show is a classic, isn’t it? Never gets old. ” Arjun said, turning to look at Ira who was in turn looking at him concerned.

“Arjun, what have you thought about the situation? Where will you be staying? You do know you can’t stay here. Have you informed Kavya that you’re alright? How are you going to manage?”

“Yeah, I informed Kavi. Other things you just asked, I honestly don’t know.”

“If distance is not an issue, then I’ve got a place you could use.”

After lunch, they headed together to the place Ira had talked about earlier that day. Ira took Arjun to a house that had the vibe of the modernised 90s. It was close to the beach, barely at a half a kilometer distance. Behind tall compound walls and a huge gate, the house was built on the centre of a small patch of land which had numerous plants grown surrounding the house. Most of the plants were weeds, but a striking tall mango tree stood in front of the house which was the reason for the amount of shade one could feel. It looked as though the house was unoccupied for years. From the outside, the house was an ivory building. The door and the window frames were of chestnut brown. The house emitted a character of its own.

Ira and Arjun walked to the door as Ira pulled out a key from her purse, took a deep breath and unlocked the door. She pushed the door open and the pair stepped inside. The entire house was dusty and empty except for the few cardboard boxes that lay packed on the floor. Ira bent down at one of the boxes and tore it open. She pulled out a photo frame that had a picture of a slender woman and a plain man smiling at a cute baby girl in between them. Arjun looked at the picture over Ira’s shoulder.

“This is my family house, passed over to my dad from my grandfather. After my father’s death, we left this house unoccupied. I couldn’t bear with the overwhelming memories that filled the air.” Ira said.

Arjun gave a tender squeeze on her shoulder and walked around checking out the house. It was a double bedroom house.

“Do you like the house?” Ira asked, popping behind Arjun.

“Yeah, it’s alluring. But it needs a make-over.”

“I can take care of that.”

The next few days, Ira and Arjun stayed inside Ira’s home so that they wouldn't be sighted by Ira’s nebby neighbors. Kavya kept a constant touch with both of them to get her updates on her brother. Meanwhile Ira had hired two people to clean up her family home. Arjun looked for furniture online for the house. But he didn’t want to spend too much money and couldn’t ask Ira either as she had already spent a lot for him. So for the time being, he settled with getting himself a bed, side-stand and an almirah. The coaching was also put to a pause, till Arjun’s case got managed.

The furniture Arjun had ordered arrived and he was all set to move to his new home on the weekend. When Ira and Arjun got to the house, it looked unrecognizable. The walls were repainted. All the wasted plants were uprooted. Only the mango tree stood upright, that too, neatly trimmed. The bare ground was laid with interlocking bricks and a new badminton net was tied along with the court lines drawn with paint.

On the inside, the house looked brand new as though newly built but the essence of the house was still intact. His room was set as he wanted.

His room was butter yellow. The wall just opposite to his bed was sponge painted with various shades of yellow and had prodigious quotes from several books painted in black which was the reason Arjun wanted that room to be his.

“Seems like someone has stolen my room.” Ira said, looking around now-Arjun’s room.

“I knew it must have been your room the moment I stepped in. But no it's not stolen, just borrowed.” Arjun said, raising his brows.

“Smart.” she smirked.

“As always.” he said, winking. “Anyways what’s the rent?”

“You are actually a duffer, aren’t you? Rent, my foot.”

“Ira, you didn’t ask for any fee for my coaching, now this house. Come on ya!”

“Okay, pay me with a brownie from ‘The Chocolate House’.”

“I’m giving up on trying to pay you.” Arjun said, falling back on his bed.

“Good choice. But I still want my brownie.”

They spent the rest of the day just hanging out, unpacking Arjun’s clothes and pulling out old stuff from the boxes which could make the house feel like home.

“Just one last touch.” Arjun said, hanging a picture of Ira and her parents at his room along with the pictures of his family that hung above his bed-head.

“Aju..”

“Ira..”

She beamed at him for the gesture and turned away when Arjun’s phone dinged. Ira grabbed his phone from the bed and passed to him.

“It’s an email from my boss. Oh shoot, I haven’t still reported to the office. My applied absence was over a week ago.”

“What does the email read?” Ira asked, going on her toes to peep at his phone.

“What the...Ira am fired.” Arjun mumbled, his face expressionless.

“What...no it can be. You can still have a talk with your boss, can’t you?”

“It would be of no use, all my settlements are already made. Now I have no ties with that company. What am I going to do?” Arjun said, his face white as the late December moon. He felt ashamed of his carelessness.

“Aju, it’s going to be fine. We can face it together.” she said, squeezing his arms. And gave him a concerned hug.

“I won’t take another penny from you. I created this mess, now it's mine to clean. You have done more than what I could ask for.”

It had been a week, neither could Arjun get another job nor get adjusted to his new usual. He struggled with his glutting emotions of loneliness and helplessness. He played badminton all day long, practicing over his limits gave me a weird kind of relief. When Ira was around him, he felt alright but after going back home, the silent walls made him scream for someone’s company. His sister had visited him once and brought along with her the left out belongings of Arjun including his laptop, bike key and his lucky wrist-band. She was pleased with the house but was concerned looking at how miserable Arjun was. Arjun couldn’t help anymore, he was mending his bruised feeling by torturing his body. He skipped meals, laid awake at nights, worked out till his body became sore.

It was a warm Wednesday morning. Arjun was supposed to be at the court by that time but Ira had asked for a little delay in practice. Arjun was texting his friends when the doorbell clinked.

“Kavya can’t be here, it’s a working day. Ira said she was busy with some work. Who could be this unexpected guest?” Arjun spoke to himself as he opened the door. It was not ‘a’ guest, it was four of them. What was uncanny than that was the fact that they were not guests, just people at service who were delivering furniture to his house.

“Wait, excuse me. I didn’t order for any of these. You are at the wrong address guys.” Arjun said, to the men at work. But none of them paid attention to his words. They kept bringing in furniture. A familiar piece of furniture landed on his living room and he recognized it at once, because he slept on it for days. As the people arranged the house fittings, Arjun hurried out expecting to come across a well-known face.

“Hi duffer. It took you this long to figure out to whom those things belonged?” Ira said, furrowing her brows.

“If I’m a duffer, you are duffer’s best friend, which makes you a duffer too. Now tell me what hell is going on here?” he asked, shocked-happily.

“Taking into account your view about us being the duffer-duo, I think we could still rightly conclude that I’m moving in with you from the looks of what’s happening around us.”

“Ira, you loved your home.”

“But I love you more.”

“Ira..” he said, his eyes starting to fill up.

“Aju..” she said, taking a step closer to him. “How could you think I’ll let you suffer alone when I promised you that you’ll always have me by your side?”

The brief moment in which they had lost themselves in one another’s eyes was disrupted when one of the helpers spoke.

“Ma’am, all your belongings are kept in the place you asked us to.”

“Thank you, here is your payment.” Ira said, as she handed rupees seven hundred. to him.

Ira and Arjun walked into ‘their’ home. Arjun was floating with happiness.

“Now the house looks complete.” Arjun said, smiling at Ira.

“Ha-ha...on that note, will I get my room back?”

“Not a chance.” Arjun said, sneering.

The living room was complete with a L-shaped couch, the couch- table placed in front of the couch at a distance where the legs of the person sitting will reach if stretched out and a rectangular framed brown TV rack stood along the wall opposite to the couch. The rack was spacious enough to hold all of Ira’s books and trophies.

The room beside the hall was the kitchen which looked like one, now that it was tidily arranged with utensils and containers of ingredients.

The other bedroom had Ira’s bed and cupboard occupied with her clothes. All the interior walls were of butter-yellow and white combination except the one wall facing Ira’s bed which she got reprinted with various shades of blue using a sponge.

“Oi! So you had an idea of moving in with me from the beginning, didn’t you? That’s why you got the wall painted the way you prefer.” Arjun exclaimed.

“Yeah, I knew you would find it hard to live alone. Thought if you couldn’t manage it, I’ll move in.”

Not only was the wall painted with various shades of blue, Ira had also got a wall shelf embodied to it and she placed the pictures that she had found from the old boxes along with the handmade artifacts collection of hers.

“Hey, I totally forgot about your gift.” Ira said, rushing outside.

She opened her car trunk and pulled out a medium sized box which was gift wrapped. Arjun hastened forward and took the box from her hands assuming it to be heavy.

“You are full of surprises Ms. Ira.” Arjun said, chuckling.

Just as Arjun placed the box over the couch-table, he knelt down and ripped the wrapper off. He found the best moments of his life inside the box. The box was packed with photos of Ira and Arjun together. A minimum of a dozen photo frames laid in front of his eyes. He picked one by one, reminiscing the memories. His favourite picture among the rest was the one in which both of them were wholly drenched.

They had danced their minds out, howling and singing on the middle of a deserted road at night in the rain. They were high on madness that night. After which it became a ritual to get wet whenever it rained, even if they were not together at the moment.

“Thank you...for everything.” Arjun said, feeling blessed.

Ira beamed at him and they proceeded to hang the pictures in a random fashion on the wall beside their couch in the living room. Everything was perfect, just perfect.

Arjun knew he was finally home.