Page 49 of Since You Came Along

‘It was the summer when I was in third grade,’ he began, his voice tinged with nostalgia. ‘Dad was away visiting relatives, so it was just Mum and me. That afternoon, Abhay came over, and we started watching our favourite cartoon, Tom & Jerry. In one scene, Tom slid across the floor, trying to catch Jerry. Abhay turned to me with the most serious expression and asked, “How do you think Tom slides across the floor like that?”’

Her eyes widened with interest.

‘I told him the floor was slippery, obviously. We were both curious, so we began thinking how could we make the livingroom's floor slippery and came up with an idea.’

‘Oh God,’ she said between giggles. ‘This is going to be good.’

‘So, we gathered all the talcum powder we could find, emptied it on the floor, and tried sliding on it.’

Meera was laughing so hard now that tears streamed down her face. Raghav stole a glance at her, his heart soaring at her delight.

‘But that’s not the worst part,’ he added, struggling to keep his composure.

Meera stopped laughing, her eyes wide with anticipation. ‘What happened next?’

He relished the suspense for a second before revealing, ‘We realised the floor still wasn’t slippery enough. So, genius Abhay mentioned how he always slips during his bath.’

She gasped. ‘No!’

‘Oh yes,’ Raghav continued. ‘We got Mom’s body wash and buckets of water and poured it all over the floor.’

Meera doubled over, wheezing with laughter. At one point, Raghav had to pat her back to make sure she wasn’t choking. She asked, between gasps, ‘Then what happened?’

‘What do you think?’ he said, his own laughter bubbling up again. ‘We slipped, bruised ourselves, and couldn’t even get up. Just as we were trying to help each other, Mom walked in. She yelled, then slipped, and we got the scolding of a lifetime. We spent the rest of the day wiping the floor.’

‘Abhay is a genius!’ Meera declared, wiping her eyes.

‘Oh, sure,’ Raghav said. ‘Because of him, Mom whacked me.’

‘And whose idea was the body wash?’ she asked, raising an eyebrow.

He paused, then mumbled, ‘Mine.’

Meera grinned and mimed a mic drop.

As their laughter faded, he asked, ‘What about you? Favourite childhood memory?’

‘My fourteenth birthday at an orphanage for boys.’

‘It was an orphanage my mum had volunteered at for some adoption cases. She went there once and fell in love with the kids. We celebrated my birthday there, and it’s still the best celebration I’ve ever had.’

Raghav smiled, intrigued by the softness in her tone. ‘What did you all do?’ he asked.

Her eyes lit up as she replied, ‘Some kids were my age, and some were older. We did loads of activities together. In themorning, we had an hour to paint whatever we wanted, so I helped and taught them how to paint.’

As she spoke, the car hummed along the winding road, the sprawling hills of Matheran.

‘That sounds lovely,’ he said sincerely.

‘Oh, it was! But the best part was the gifts!’ she exclaimed, bouncing in her seat.

‘What gifts did you get?’ he asked, leaning closer.

‘Handmade greeting cards! Some of them made little crafts like a penholder out of ice-cream sticks, and even imitation jewellery, like bracelets. I loved everything so much, it made me cry.’

Raghav recalled the pen holder made of ice-cream sticks on her desk. He’d always assumed it was some random keepsake, but never guessed it had such a special story behind it. ‘You still have the gifts,’ he said.

‘Duh! They’re the most beautiful gifts I’ve ever received. How could I not? That bracelet is so pretty.’

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