Chapter 06 - The Yesteryear Story

He sat there. Just sat, and did nothing. It was a total shock. He was gone for only 5 minutes and it happened. His tiffin-box had been vandalized. The soft polythene bag wrapped around it 5 minutes ago was now lying under the wooden bench, torn apart. The purple and blue plastic cover was ripped off from the hinges that held it tight. Not to mention, to his utter shock, that the 4 sandwiches and the wedges were gone too. There weren’t even morsels of the sandwich that he could see, the thieves had made such a clean effort. He hopelessly looked around, darting his eyes to the windows looking onto the playground, to the classroom door, to the glass wall in the far the corner, to see if anyone was looking. And then he felt a rage slowly rising like a snake hissing out from the pit. Today was the day when he wanted to share the sandwiches with her since she was nice enough to lend him the 5^th, 6^th and 7^th parts of madcap detective series that was all the rage with every 11 year old these days. She was a really good friend and was one of those girls who didn’t ridicule him for being a bit on the chubby size and being really tall for his age. He couldn’t even cry for the fear of being seen by the incredibly pathetic gang of Jaffar and his honchos who, he was sure, were lurking around looking for a chance to pick on him for being friends with the 2^nd girl in class.

Mashroor felt tears running down the cheek. He quickly rolled down the shirt-sleeve and wiped them off.  I am going to kill those bastards. And then feed the dogs in the next building with their limbs, he thought. He had just learned the b-word from their chauffer 3 days ago, and he liked the twang. His mom had dabbed the sandwiches with her special home-made tomato sauce, for he had asked her to. I will kick them so hard, the bastards will remember me every time they go pee-pee for the next two weeks.

Suddenly the end-of-tiffin bell rang. He quickly took the ripped cover and the polythene and stuffed them together with the box into the big side-pocket of his favourite Dino bag. He was finding it hard to fight back the tears of angers and control his rage and helplessness as he heard the mad rush of footsteps crashing through the door. He looked up and saw Rubaena walking in. She smiled. He smiled back through the anger and noticed her grimacing. He quickly wiped his eyes dry. Oh shit, she knows something’s wrong. Can’t tell her now, can’t tell her now! Oh shit!, he thought.

As the other children came rushing in and past him and thudded into their seats, Rubaena quietly moved over to the chair next to him. She brought her bag along, to Mashroor’s surprise; for that was Rasheda’s seat, or at least had been so since the boring math class at 8.00am. Rubaena cleared out her desk and as he craned backwards, he saw Rasheda smirking at him. Okay, that doesn’t look good. Why the hell is she doing that?! She did it with Khaled last week when she put the half-dozen live roaches in his bag right after the break! Mashroor quickly bent down to check his back, but his forehead met the edge of the wooden desk. Bang, and he was almost knocked out.

“Oi, be careful! What are you trying to do? Kill yourself!”

“Ha?! Oh, that… No I was just trying to check my bag and see whether that foul Rasheda had slipped some of her live cockroach friends in there!”, grimaced Mashroor, as he rubbed the already swollen temple, tears trickling from his right eye.

“Aww you are hurt. Don’t act like you’re not. Go see Arifa Miss now. Miss isn’t coming in for another 15 minutes. Go! Run, you dumbo!”
“Nah, not now…maybe after class”

“Oh, so now you wanna be the superhero? So where are sandwiches then, my hero?!” and with that Rubaena started uncontrollably shaking as she tried in vain to stifle her laughter.

“What?!?! Wha…ummm…..what….sa-sa-sandwich are you talking about?! I didn’t bring any sandwiches today!” Mashroor could literally feel the blood rushing to his face and the ears suddenly felt like they have just been freshly baked out from an oven.

With that, Rubaena started laughing even more, her shoulders shaking like the mountains in the middle of a richter-scale 9 earthquake, almost rolling over on her desk, her glasses going askew on her nose. Oh Allah re, she knows! She knows!! Oh dear God how does she!?! She’s gonna tell Jaffar and all the other bastards now!

“Wha..whaa…what are you laa-la-laughing about Rubz?” Mashroor almost cried, this time not just from the aching temple.

“You are too cute Mush, you know! You have no idea how much!” and on she went with another fit of laughter, till the good Naomi Miss came in. Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes Miss! Thank goodness you came in at the right time!

The next 45 minutes were the mini hell Mashroor was not waiting for at all. He could feel Rubaena eyes on him every 3 minutes, and he was getting that scary shiver down his spine. He was ready to be flogged like a disobedient donkey in front of the entire class; what he couldn’t stand, what would bury him is Rubaena telling Jaffar and the honchos what she had discovered. And every time he tried to find out what Rubz was up to through the corner of his eye, he could almost hear her laughing her stomach out. Oh goodness gracious! Mom please come early and take me home! I am getting sick of this!!, almost cried Mashroor.

Naomi miss left right when the bell rang. Mashroor froze completely, for he could not dare turn right and face her. The class was as usual filled with the cacophony of 35 unruly yet amazingly adorable kids of Class III and it would be so for another 5 minutes till the boring Math class started. Mashroor kept his head down on his arms, on the desk, looking at the blurred out desk-corner inches away from his eyes. Suddenly a shadow walked past the desk corner and something quickly flashed in and out of his desk drawer. Mashroor froze, again. After what felt like millions of seconds lost in the galaxy, he slowly put his left hand in and took it out. It was written on a torn piece of paper from their beige math homework copy. And it was a handwriting he knew all too well. And reading the contents, Mashroor smiled and smiled long.

I saw them doing it. I heard them too. You really brought for me? See, you are too cute. I’ll bring some more of the episodes tomorrow.

You a good friend J