ARSHVELLO

Aarav's restlessness

Aarav couldn't sleep the entire night. He tried but failed. He was feeling suffocated, stuck, his body was trembling in a strange feeling. He wasn't aware of the feeling. Around three o'clock, he heard a noise from downstairs, maybe mom had come back. Does checking  out some papers take that long? He opened  half of his eyes, heard someone coming towards his room, quickly closed his eyes, pretended to sleep. The door got opened. A ray of light entered the room. It was Lymine. Though his eyes were closed, but he was sure that it was mom. He could feel it. Lymine looked at Aarav for once,  he was sleeping facing the window side. Then moved towards the reading table. The half-opened eyes of Aarav could  see a shadow on the wall, moving towards the reading table. It was mom. But what was she doing at his reading table at such an hour? After sometime Lymine turned back at Aarav,  gently smiled. Aarav missed that smile. And she was gone closing the door, trying not to make any sound.
Aarav fell asleep at 4 o'clock. But couldn't sleep much.  Some noises woke him up at 6:30. It was coming from downstairs. He didn't even fresh up,  went to downstairs to check it out. He saw some labours moving out their house's furnitures one by one. They took out a dressing table and shifted on the truck, which his dad had gifted his mom when she was pregnant with Aarav, to see her child growing. And then they took out a reading table, on which his dad used to explore the entire world through books. He still remembered the day when dad was reading books at night with his glasses on, near the window, he used to come to him and irritated as much as he could, so that dad stopped reading and go to bed and told him fairytales. But his dad was smart enough, he was never irritated. Instead Aarav used to start reading the book  with his dad getting tired, sitting in his arms, later he fell asleep there. Dad kissed on his forehead, he mumbled in sleep,  dad gently smiled over his face, and later he fell asleep again. Aarav didn't get what was going on. Were they about to shift into another house?
- "Mom, what's going on?" He surprisingly asked his mom, who was directing the labours.
- "Nothing. We had a lot of furnitures. So I thought of selling some old ones." She said without meeting his gaze, he waited.
- "A lot of furnitures? When?"
- "Your breakfast is on the table. Go and get freshen up or it'll get cold." She totally ignored Aarav.
- "I've not got my answer yet."
- "I told you nah? We had enough furnitures. They were booking the space for no reason. So I sold them off. What's wrong? Go and get freshen up." She said sharply.
Aarav didn't say anything more. But he knew they never had a lot of furnitures, never after the bloody accident. He came back to his room, looking dull, not satisfied with mom's decision.  Suddenly he remembered the last day's proposal. It made his face duller. He got  freshen up, had his breakfast. He had a lot of assignments left. His school was on a holiday of one month, it could be a summer vacation, but it was too long as they just attempted  exams before the vacation.  So a lot of assignments were given from the teachers. It was absolutely  irritating. He didn't like assignments at all, as all the answers were available on internet. What's the benefit of copying? Totally a waste of time and energy. But unwillingly he had to do it. So he sat down on the table, took a deep breath, opened drawer to put out the questions and papers. He was paused for a while, as he could see a note dollar there. He was sure it wasn't his. He was bad at saving money. He took it out,  it was a note of twenty dollar. Who put it right there in his drawer? He showed it to his mom, to ensure if it was her.
- "It isn't mine. Why would I put money  in your drawer? I've  mine." She said with an unmistakable voice, quite confident about it. Then she focused on chopping the vegetables with a sharp knife.
- "That's my question too."
- "You might've kept it yourself and forgot as always." She explained, still focused on chopping.
- "No, I didn't." He justified, his eyes were serious.
- "How can you be so sure?" She finished chopping the carrots, and moved on with tomatoes.
Aarav just kept quiet. Couldn't say it, he wouldn't be saving money as he needed it badly, for his half-made robot.
- "Why are you quiet?" She asked meeting his gaze.
- "Because I need it badly. I will never be keeping it and forget just like an idiot." His voice was on a different vibe.
She gazed at him. He seemed serious.
- "For what?" she focused on the first sentence.
- "Ryan told me about a new science fiction novel. I want to buy it." He lied. Though he had always been a bad liar.
His mom gently smiled, the smile was so strange. Did he crack a joke that she was smiling? It didn't look like that.
- "Why are you smiling?"He asked, surprised.
- "You'll never grow up." She sounded serious, as well as funny.
- "Do you want me to?" He was searching for her gaze. But she ignored.
- "Maybe.........."  She finished off chopping.
- "Or maybe not."  She sounded serious this time too, and ended up meeting his gaze.
Aarav was lost for a while, wasn't expecting the answer. He always had heard from mom that she never wanted him to grow up, but what happened this time? Why did she want him to grow up on a sudden? He didn't make the conversation further.