The Fourth Dimension

Prologue

Rithvik always wins every game. Dhun could not understand this. She was smart for a ten-year-old, and she was sure he was cheating in some way. How else could a boy win every single game they play? When they play hide-and-seek, he always wins by never being caught and running to the main point of the game...

This time too, the kids were playing the game 'name, place, thing, animal'. The rules are simple. You select a random alphabet, and everyone has to write a name, a place, a thing, and an animal or bird starting with that letter.

This time the alphabet was 'U'. That was a tough one. There were not many living things which's name starts with U.

"Unicorn", Malavika said.

"Unicorn is not an actual animal." Dhun scorned.

"I know. But there I no other animal starting with U. And who knows, maybe there is a Unicorn." She smiled.

"There is an actual animal. I have written 'urchin'. Urchin is a real animal." Dhun sai back. The others had not written a name. Then Dhun turned to Rithvik. "What about you?"

"Urial," He said.

"What? There is nothing named that."

"There is..."

"There so isn't."

"I can bet you. Go check the internet. It is sort of a deer, moose thing."

With her urge to prove him wrong, Dhun jumped down from her chair and went to the school library computer. And indeed Rithvik was right.... There was an animal named 'Urial'. "And you knew this all along?" She asked Rithvik in a tone of disbelief. She was sure he was cheating. But how? They all were just sitting on the school grounds only, waiting for their parents to come to pick them up.

"Does not matter." Rithvik shrugged. "I am awesome. You... - a loser."

Dhun scowled.

"How do you win every game?" Dhun asked.

Rithvik just smiled and put his hands in his pocket and walked while whistling a tune. He was just too annoying for Dhun. But what can she do... He is her best friend.

"You never even loose once in rock-paper-scissors...." Dhun followed him. "How the hell is that possible?"

"Secret," Rithvik said.

"What?"

"Say 'please', I might consider telling you."

"Huh! In your dreams... Donkey."

"Oh! I did not know people can call others 'donkey' when they look like a monkey themselves." He pulled on Dhun's hair. Dhun grunted in anger and kicked his leg. Now, this turned into a full-on physical fight, which the teachers had to come to resolve. Later when Dhun's mother came, she had to listen to the grievances of the teachers, standing there with a baby in her hand.

She turned to both of the kids. "God, you guys... You are not six anymore..."

"He started it."

"She started it. She called me 'donkey'."

"Dhun...?" Her mother turned to Dhun.

"He called me monkey..."

"Monkey," one-and-a-half-year-old baby boy in Dhun's mother's hand crooned. He was Dhun's younger brother. "Whatever...." Dhun's mother asked, wiping her forehead. "Where is Roli?"

"No idea," Rithvik said.

"I am here..." came a voice and little Roli walked up to them. Roli was Rithvik's younger sister. She was two years younger than him.