THE CLOUD'S CHARM

CHAPTER 23 - part1 - WEEDING AWAY

WEEDING AWAY

Even though he woke up early morning to the pretty sight of a sleeping Megha curled up in the chair, the rest of the day didn't turn out to be that pretty, atleast till now. He had to suffer Guru's lecturing on precautions to take before going to meet a deadly gang, the chief gardener's scolding for being late for the morning shift and finally, his mother's chiding for not calling her since yesterday.

He was too shocked at the fact that Guru scolded him quite strongly in spite of being his subordinate and hence, didn't argue back. He was not irritated, but rather touched by Guru's concern and left the quarters without a word. He endured chief gardener's scolding also silently in order to maintain the disguise and started weeding the entrance area gardens despite the headache which started to surface slowly. By noon, it had developed into a splitting headache, but he still continued his work after a quick lunch in the canteen.

It was then that Guru came in search of him. His mother had called in Guru's phone as he hadn't called her yesterday. After a few worried inquiries, she began chiding him for not taking care of himself and the usual request to return home. Mohan felt his temper rising, but tried his best to control. He told her firmly that he won't return till his mission is fulfilled and forbade her from visiting him, saying it would ruin his disguise. As his mother kept on, he lost all the control finally and lashed out. After taunting her to come if she wanted to ruin his mission, he cut the call angrily.

After dismissing a disgruntled Guru, he turned back to his work. Eventhough his anger was still boiling over, he had no choice other than to fume silently and vent it all on the weeds which he plucked out of the ground brutally. Thankfully the sky was overcast with grey clouds and prevented him from getting scorched in the afternoon sun.

The familiar sound of excited chatter interrupted his silent brooding: Megha and Nanhi were coming in his direction.

"Green Uncle!" Nanhi shouted joyfully as soon as she saw him and ran to him.

"Is that my little Bud? Come here." Mohan dropped the weeds, wiped his dirty palms on his already dirty pants and extended his hands.

"Nanhi, don't- " Mega started reprimanding on seeing his condition, but before she could complete, Nanhi had jumped into Mohan's hands. Mohan caught her joyfully, but on hearing Megha, he gazed at her, fearing an explosion. Nanhi's white frock was now adorned with flecks of mud and grass. Megha stared at him irritated for a moment, but seemed placated by the look on his face and limited the scolding to an exasperated sigh and disapproving head shake.

"Well, I'll bathe her anyway by evening, so it's okay, I guess." She uttered in an off-handed manner.

Mohan got time only to give her a grateful smile, for Nanhi began feeling his forehead, neck and cheeks with her tiny palms, apparently checking for fever.

"Hey, I'm okay Nanhi." He assured her.

She stopped her checking and instead fixed a glare at him. Mohan was puzzled by the sudden change from concern to disapproval.

"Why didn't you call for me this morning? I got pieces of your phone from Nana-Nani's room and Chachi said you had come." Nanhi said, folding her tiny arms together across her chest and regarding him like a teacher who had just caught a student for not doing homework.

Mohan saw Megha covering her mouth with her hands, clearly trying to control her laughter.

"Oh, so Megha knew there's already some chiding coming my way on Nanhi's behalf. That's why she was lenient with me today. How do I cool down this Miss Spitfire's niece?" Mohan thought frantically. He had had enough bad experiences for the day, he certainly didn't want to add an angry Nanhi to the list. Before he could come up with a decent excuse, Nanhi began talking: