Chapter 18: All in a day

After a grueling training session Sam and I went to our favorite place… it wouldn’t be so special for anyone else but for us it was really special… It was a place by the canal… to be precise it was below the bridge over the canal…

As kids Sam, Paul, Alex, Max, Jack and I would go there every day after playing … we didn’t go there for fishing or other usual stuffs like smoking… we went there for just staring at the sky… yeah we just did that and nothing else… the bank of the canal was not a plain ground but was slanting… we usually went there in the afternoons… we used to lie down with our arms acting as our pillows… and then it was only staring at the sky…

The clouds flew over us casting their shadows on us and the canal… we cracked many a jokes while lying down… silly jokes as termed by grownups… were they really silly? Oh no. They weren’t. They might have been silly for the elderly but not definitely for us… the moments we shared… they were definitely the best…

“Do you remember buddy, the last time we came here, what Alex did to you?” Sam broke our silence and spoke.
“Yeah I do remember it…”
“He got so jealous that he pushed you in the canal…”

We started laughing… yeah after Jack left me and then my parents I rarely laughed liked that…

“You are laughing dude!”
“Yes I am laughing Sam…”

What happened was that on one fine afternoon all of us were lying down… the girls’ school got over and Evie was returning from her school… she saw me with my friends and waved her hands at me… I waved back… she came up to me and sat beside me… Now Alex had a crush on Evie… seeing her sitting beside me Alex got mad and pushed me into the canal… and hurled abuses at me… I knew how to swim but the suddenness of the incident caught me off guard… seeing me getting drowned Evie started crying… I can’t deny the fact that I enjoyed seeing her cry… I really liked it… after Alex understood that Evie really cared for me he gave her up and jumped into the canal to save me, despite not knowing how to swim… in the end it was me who saved Alex from drowning and not the other way round…

“Old memories pal…” Sam said.
“Good memories…” I replied.
“But let’s get going now… Evie must be back from school now…she must be waiting for you…”
“Yeah…Lets go then but tomorrow we are again coming back here…”

Saying that we went on our separate paths…
When I returned home I saw that the front door was locked… I thought that Evie would be late so I waited in front of the house…

1 hour passed and there was no sign of Evie… where could she be? I was really getting tensed… all sorts of thoughts were coming to my mind… I went towards the door again and checked the lock… it was perfectly locked… I checked again but couldn’t find any difference… I sat down on the steps and kept my hand on one of the steps… I felt something there… it was a piece of cloth… it was a part of Evie’s handkerchief… it had blood stains…

I rang the doorbell but no reply came… then I went to the garden… there was no one… I was going to get out of the garden but then I saw an open window… I thought of nothing else and entered my house through the open window…

Blood was there on the floor… it had dried up… I was really getting desperate then… I was just thinking of Evie’s safety…I ran about the full house checking every room… but I couldn’t find her anywhere… only one place was left to be checked… the bathroom… I didn’t think twice… I went towards the bathroom door and then with my full force I barged against the door…

“What the….” It was Evie’s voice…

The bathroom door wasn’t locked and Evie was in the shower… I collided with the door with my full force but as it was not locked my momentum made me crash with the curtain of the shower… the curtain fell and with it I fell in front of Evie…

“Oh thank God you’re here…”

Before I could finish my sentence I got hit by a cake of soap…then by the shampoo bottle…

“What was that for?!” I shouted at Evie.
“You foolish boy… where do you think you are at the moment?”
“In the bathroom…why? Oh! I am really sorry… I was so worried…”

Again Evie hit me with the Shampoo bottle…

“Now mind telling me what is the reason this time?!”
“You idiot! You locked the front door and went out in the morning… I had to go out by that window… see I also got a cut in my foot…”

She showed her cut…

“And now again after returning back from school I got another cut…”
“Where? Let me see…”
“Here see for yourself…”

There was a slight bruise in her ankle…

“That little cut over there is making you so mad…”

Again I got hit…

“All right… I am sorry… But where is the key of the front door now?”
“Check your pocket…”
“It is not there… Oh wait… yeah… I found it…”

Silly me I never checked my pocket… the key was there all along…

“But to say the truth Evie, I was really scared today… I thought that…”

Another time I got hit… this time a punch on my head…

“Now what was THAT for?!”
“This is the bathroom and I am taking my bath…”
“So?”
“You fool! Is a boy supposed to be in the bathroom when a girl is in the shower?!”
“Oh! I am so sorry I am leaving… but… make it quick… I am too exhausted… I also have to get in the shower… or…”
“OR?!”
“If you don’t mind we can do this together…”

This time Evie picked up the shampoo bottle again…

“Whoa… I am leaving…”

I was really in a very good mood… never before did I say such naughty things to her… But Evie had got down from the bathtub… she was coming towards me… I ran towards the door… that scary look on her face gave me goose bumps…

“I will get out of this room then surely you can’t come out like that and beat me…”

Evie threw down the bottle… she was going red… she was blushing… she realized that she was talking to me the whole time without having any sort of clothing…

“All right I am going…”

As I was going out Evie held my hand and pulled me back…and then closed the door with a bang…