Beauty and the Boy from the East

Chapter 3 ~ Danger hidden.

She repeated her question.

~

“As a preteen I was very quiet and solemn around my father. He sensed it too at times, and would tell me to play games with Aditya.  But he didn’t know what Aditya was really like. He didn’t know what he did after school or that he sometimes skipped school. He’d go around whistling at girls he thought were pretty. At one point, he joined a gang and started taking up drugs. He took me with him and for and when his father found out, he slapped him. It made him more rebellious. He was 15 now. I was just 12. The gang were actually very nice –as long as you agreed with them. The leader, Rohit Khan, was an 18-year old young, good-looking man. He taught us the ways to steal and didn’t believe in education. I skipped school once a week with Aditya to see this new life. It was exciting. All my anger Rohit Khan fuelled for hate to the police officers. When I questioned the honesty in stealing, he laughed and told me how they only stole from the rich, the ones who have so much money they don’t have to work and have huge houses. The sort of house you live in.” The girl looked extremely uncomfortable as I continued on.

“For a few months we did that, picked pockets and suddenly life was so much better. We had the security of the gang. If any of us got hurt, we made sure there was vengeance. I learned how to fight with a knife and wield even a sword I’d stolen. It was hard to hard these artefacts from my father. Sometimes, I think he suspected but didn’t want the proof. Didn’t want to know I was slowly turning away from the education he worked so diligently to pay for. But one event made me stop it altogether. Aditya had been flirting with a girl when her father came. He got beaten up. He opted to go to my house instead of his own. I didn’t know what to do, so I poured water over his wounds. I used a bit of alcohol as an antiseptic on them and tied my mother’s old shawl firm around his arm. Rohit called me and told me I must seek vengeance. I disagreed, saying the same thing would happen to me. He spat out coward and told me to fight him. I returned with only one scar on my right eye. But I had returned the same favour, to both of his cheeks. After that, Aditya and I were not allowed there anymore. With the money I had stolen I bought a cotton ball to cover my eye and sunglasses to hide my eyes. When I returned, my father was waiting. Half-angry, half-lovingly he lectured me and forced a promise that I would never endanger my life again. He turned to Aditya and forgave him, but warned he would not let him get away next time. As my best friend turned to leave, he gave me an apologetic pat on the head and disappeared.

While we were alone, my father told me a story. He told me of his older brother who joined a gang and was murdered as a result. I think he wanted to scare me, but I wasn’t scared. I was too old to be scared of trivial topics such as death. If it was him, or Aditya or Shimla I would care more. Shimla, I felt a hot burn rising in my heart as I thought of her. I wasn’t sure why I cared about her so much. I guess being in the gang exposed me to the hidden females in our community. They were actually everywhere if you looked in the right places. And I saw mothers feeding their babies; I looked away when I got embarrassed. Some of the mothers I saw were no older than 16. Shimla was a pretty 12 year old like me. She was the very few who attended school. We became friends after a funny incident. It had been a hot day so our teacher had let us go out early. As a part of my routine I went to get water, when I noticed Shimla was heading the same direction. She began dogging my footsteps, probably feeling like I was some sort of protection to her.  Because I was now 13, I began growing taller rapidly and in my free time I would lift heavy weights as a source of income, so my body was becoming more built. A few of my friends admired me for my looks. The scar on my eye made me look even scarier. Even the older children respected me as they heard my story of fighting Rohit. A lot of the girls would tease me playfully and under my school desk I occasionally found presents from various admirers. I laughed with my friends as we tried to guess who they were from. But Shimla had been different: she was the only girl who played with us. She was very fast and agile. Even when we played tag, I could not always get her. But as I formally introduced myself to on our journey for water, she seemed different. Alone, shy and almost- helpless. Her eyes reached only to my neck. In her responses to me she was very blunt.

“And so,” I laughed, “he bought the same dog I’d stolen from him.”

Shimla just pointed behind me, her eyes huge and scared.

It was obvious why as a lethal horned animal charged at me, missing me by centimetres. I was running for my life, cursing the fact I was wearing a red t-shirt. Shimla was laughing as she ran with me, till we got to the water hole. The bull stopped and began to drink. Breathing hard I turned to fill my bucket. Shilma was busy stroking the vicious animal.

“What’re you doing?”

“It’s a cow. A male one. It’s holy.” She explained, as she began filling her bucket too.  I’d never seen a cow of that size, though I knew her information was accurate.

On our way back, much to my displeasure, she led the bull back to our houses. She prayed to it and left.  As I travelled home I realised my father wasn’t very religious. I guess he never got time. Everyone here respected cows and temples. Even those who couldn’t afford much usually had a small symbol to pray to every day. We didn’t but we were still Hindus, and each Diwali we would go visit a temple and pray. We’d try selling items there too, since temples were where rich or poor you were to be respected. You were equal there. The Gods did not condemn you for your looks or your income.”

“You still haven’t answered my question yet,” the girl in front of me said. “What about Shimla? Did you love her? What did you see in her?” Her voice became suddenly cross.

 ...

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(I'm not sure if this should be a short story or not yet, depends in you guys >:D )