The Trip and the Jubilant Turn

Hardik's punishment

Night had fallen and it was a nearly full moon and Rahul suggested, "Can't we go for a walk now?"

Shikhar had been rummaging about everyone's luggage. "Do you know we hadn't quite grasped the food situation!" he cried in alarm.

"We did bring some food," said Rohit.

"It'll not last one day!" said Shikhar, and the horrifying truth in his words started to dawn on everyone.

"S'ok, we'll go to find some market tomorrow morning," said Ash practically.

"Let's go now," said Jassi.

"Yeah, and all the markets will be open for you at 9 in the evening," said Hardik.

Jassi looked chastened, and Bhuvi said, "You all could go for a walk, since you're clearly so restless."

"Good idea!" said Jassi, and Rahul and Hardik jumped up at once, and Yuzi pulled Kuldeep up.

"A walk through the hilly roads?" said Kuldeep, alarmed.

Hardik pulled Kuldeep by his other arm towards the door. "I'll push you off the side."

"If you do I'll--" began Yuzi fiercely.

"Someone ought to go to chaperone these kids," said Jinks.

All the seniors looked at Bhuvi, who was surprisingly good with the kids, and who rebelled at once. "I'm tired too!"

"Ok," conceded Virat. "Don't get lost, don't fall off the cliff or push anyone off--" He sent Hardik a glance, whose cocky grin was almost bursting out of his face."--and come back within an hour."

"Can I stay back?" Kuldeep asked Yuzi in a small voice as Hardik and Yuzi was dragging him out.

"It's not like a bus driver, Kuliya. We'll walk on the safer side," they heard Yuzi saying comfortingly, and the seniors staying back exchanged an indulgent smile.

____________

The kids walked on the winding road going upwards; the weather was divinely beautiful and so was the view, and after a while Kuldeep stopped clinging to Yuzi quite so badly.

Hardik was in full form as usual. They came across a waterfall, and as Yuzi and Kuldeep were bent over some unusual rocks, Hardik put a light damp hand on the back of Kuldeep's neck.

Kuldeep yelled and jumped away, and then he saw Hardik in one of his crazy laughing fits, and made up his mind extremely firmly that he was also going to pull something like this off on Hardik before their trip ended.

Then Hardik tried to push Jassi into the spring under the waterfall.

"Hardik!" shouted Rahul in horror as Jassi fell in with a tremendous splash and pulled Hardik in with him.

"Are you completely mad?" said Jassi furiously even as they were holding on to each other desperately in the ice cold water.

"S-s-sorry," said Hardik, his teeth clattering, and he began to realise that it had been a very bad idea (but only because Jassi had managed to pull him in as well.)

Rahul, Kuldeep and Yuzi hauled them out, and they sat down and attempted to dry themselves in vain, and Jassi kept shooting dark looks at Hardik, who had already begun to recover and looked suspiciously close to exploding with laughter.

"Don't be mad, Jass," coaxed Hardik.

The water had gone into Jassi's ear badly and he shook his head trying to get it out.

"Can you hear me? JASSI, CAN YOU HEAR ME?" yelled Hardik in Jassi's ear at the top of his voice.

"NO, I CAN'T AND I DON'T WANT TO!" roared back Jassi.

"Ok, ok," said Hardik placatingly. "You get the water out of your ears, we can sit here till then."

"Don't you dare try anything on me," warned Rahul.

"Not today," promised Hardik.

"You know those stories--" said Yuzi suddenly. "How someone spots a beautiful butterfly and goes chasing after it and ends up getting completely lost?"

"Heard of them," said Kuldeep, snorting. "Why?"

"Isn't this the perfect place for that to happen?" said Yuzi.

Rahul, Hardik, Kuldeep and Yuzi had started laughing again, and Jassi, who was honestly oblivious to what Yuzi had said, suddenly did spot a pretty black and silver butterfly.

"Look!" he cried, pointing frantically at it.

They all looked, and of course, as Jassi was standing up to take a better look, his friends were convulsed with laughter.

"What happened?" asked Jassi in confusion.

Hardik stretched over, caught Jassi around the waist and pulled him down again.

"You're not going to go chasing after it," said Rahul darkly and the rest continued bawling away with laughter, leaving poor Jassi completely in the dark.

____________

They had been out for well over an hour, and as they trooped into the bungalow, they found Virat sitting near the door in a resigned sort of way.

"I should've known you would come back two hours late and make us sick with worry," he said. Then he noticed Hardik and Jassi dripping water all over the carpet. "And what happened to you two?" he demanded, exasperated.

Jassi did not have the heart to snitch on Hardik, especially because Hardik had been sneezing and sniffing continuously during the walk back.

"We fell into a spring," he said generously, and they had to listen to Virat bhaiya scolding them as he dragged them to the bathroom and told them to dry themselves immediately.

After Virat left, Hardik gave Jassi one of his bear hugs, still sneezing, and Bhuvi came by just then.

"How did you two manage this?" he asked. Before giving them the chance to reply, he fetched two dry towels and said, "Dry yourselves, quick!"

Hardik sneezed so violently that he had to sit down for a while, looking exhausted. Jassi did not say 'Serves you right!' but Bhuvi knew them both too well to not guess what had happened.

"I don't know when you'll stop doing things like these, Harry," said Bhuvi, half scoldingly, half caringly, because poor Hardik did look miserable.

Jassi couldn't supress a delighted grin.

___________

After dinner, Hardik stumbled to his bed and lay down, but Bhuvi came in with a glass of warm water and pulled him up.

"Sleeping with damp hair will only make it worse, you idiot!"

"Bhuvi," begged Hardik, and went off into a coughing fit.

Bhuvi handed him the water and put his arm around Hardik as he drank it.

"Just stay up for half an hour, it'll soon dry," said Bhuvi soothingly.

After a few minutes, however, Hardik fell asleep in the sitting position itself, slumped against Bhuvi, and the latter sat there till his stupid best friend's hair dried.

Staring down at the sleeping Hardik, who looked much more peaceful than ever when awake, Bhuvi knew that he would never learn to behave maturely.

But he wouldn't want him to. Not really.