The Trip and the Jubilant Turn

Phenol's siblings

It was still pouring with rain as the bus sped through the congested city part of Dharamshala.

Jassi's phone was blaring the song 'Baarish' from Half girlfriend and he was absentmindedly staring at the raindrops falling on his outstretched palm outside the window.

Jaddu leaned over his back seat and said in an extremely loud voice, "You're looking quite lovelorn, Jassi!"

Jassi jumped in alarm at the voice near his ear, and then started looking embarassed when he registered what Jaddu had said.

Then of course, everyone started badgering him with, 'Who is she? Who is she?' and poor Jassi had to protest for over ten minutes, and just when he had got them convinced of her non existence, Jaddu, Hardik and Rahul started with, 'But you want a girlfriend!'

"No, honestly I don't," said Jassi hopelessly.

"Look at this picture," said Jaddu gleefully, showing them the nice picture of Jassi's detached demeanor he had captured.

Rohit, who, for once, had been wide awake, slapped Jaddu on the back, and even Virat joined in teasing Jassi when Bhuvi, who had had his nose buried in his book, looked up and sent a glare at everyone crowded around Jassi in a lay off my little brother kind of way.

No one in the team could disobey Bhuvi when he looked like that, so they did lay off poor Jassi, who gave Bhuvi a grateful smile.

After 45 minutes, the road started sloping up as they entered the mountain range.

Kuldeep subtly gripped Yuzi's hand as the bus tilted up. Everyone knew that Kuldeep was terrified of the taking-off and landing part of a plane journey, and Yuzi guessed that it was just a general fear of heights.

Hardik, who was sitting across KulCha, sent a snide glance at Kuldeep's scared face and came to sit on his seat's handlebar.

"Why d'you look so scared, Kuliya?"

"Don't call me that!" said Kuldeep vaguely, but by now Virat bhai's nickname had sort of stuck.

"Why do you look so scared?" persisted Hardik.

"How can you not be scared when the bus is going upwards like this?" asked Kuldeep, genuinely mystified.

"Yes," said Hardik gravely. "Actually we should be scared. You know, a friend of mine from school was going on a trip like this once..."

Yuzi looked at Hardik warningly but Hardik ignored him and continued cheerfully, "And it was raining that day too...and then the driver had a brainfade..."

Virat turned back from where he had been talking with Rohit and Jinks, as did most of the others.

"...and the bus literally fell off the mountain over that side--" Hardik pointed at the fall of the hill across the window beside Yuzi.

Kuldeep sent a terrified glance at the window and his hand tightened around Yuzi's automatically as Yuzi glared at Hardik.

"And there was another friend of mine," said Hardik, thus proving with finality that he was entirely incorrigible and senseless. "He was newly married, too, and..."

Hardik suddenly noticed that everyone around him--Virat, Bhuvi, Rohit, Jinks, Ash, and of course, Yuzi--was glaring at him with unusual ferocity, and he deemed it best to backtrack at once.

"--and they went on a nice mountain trip on Dhauladhar, and came back safely," said Hardik warmly.

Kuldeep couldn't help a grin at that, though his face was still white.

Of course, the grin convinced Hardik that Kuldeep hadn't been scared enough, and he started ominously, "Not all--"

Then Jaddu cut in, saying loudly, "Did I ever tell you guys of my pet ghost back in Jamnagar?"

"No!" said Virat over enthusiastically, if only to stop Hardik from scaring poor Kuliya. "What's his name?"

"Phenol," said Jaddu without blinking an eye.

"Chemist ghost," snorted Ash.

"Yes, he used to be a chemist before he died," said Jaddu seriously. "Not by falling off a mountain, Kuliya," he assured.

"How did you meet him?" asked Rohit, unable to keep the sarcasm from his voice.

"It's a true incident, Ro," said Jaddu.

Bhuvi had put away his book long ago, having realised that his friends' nonsense was far more entertaining than Sidney Sheldon, and he smiled painfully and said, "Of course it is, Jad. Please continue."

"One day I had gone out to bring water from the well in our area, five minutes from my house, and suddenly I heard a laughter like..."

And Jaddu went off into such an utterly maniacal peal of laughter that the driver hit the brakes suddenly and looked back in alarm, certain of a medical emergency.

Jinks motioned at him that everything was fine, and Jaddu continued his laughter with no indication at all of stopping, properly getting into the role.

Within one minute, every single person inside the bus except the horrified driver was rolling with laughter, because Jaddu's was the most infections laughter they had ever heard.

For the next hour, the entire bus could be passed off quite well as Phenol's siblings, and Kuldeep forgot to be scared, and Bhuvi didn't even think of taking up his book again, and Rohit didn't feel sleepy, and the journey passed without a hint of boredom.

A/N: I'm editing Ash into the story, because the Indian Test team isn't even imaginable without him, and anyway, I love Ash.