Siblings are not Bad

“Siblings are not Bad” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by T Aswini Patro, D.A.V. Public School, India.

Siblings are not Bad

It was the night that I cannot blank out for my lifetime. It was the night of 10th January and I was attending a party at Nisha’s house who was my closest and dearest friend whom I know since my school days. She was a faithful and understanding companion of mine. All my other buddies were also the attendees of that chilled party. We were dancing, singing, enjoying, shouting and celebrating. But, something wrong happen during the merriment, which completely stopped our amusement. All love me and I too love them heartedly. There was a silence and all things were dumb at their places and people were standing as statues after the message of my brother Robin that ‘Something wrong has happen please come fast to the home’, and the message ended there, nothing else was written or no further message was sent. I was shocked at that quite moment and also too nervous as what happened???

When I couldn’t say anything my friends asked me, “What happened, why you are silent tell us anything please….” But in my mind, something else was going on and I rushed to search a cab. I tried to contact them and also phoned my family members but none attended the phone. It was dialing dialing but none responded and some family members’ mobiles were switched off. From my hostel to my hometown it was a distance of 40 miles and it will take around 1 hour to reach there through passenger trains. I was living in my hostel and was completing my master’s degree in business administration. It was really tough for me to stay away from my family as I haven’t separated from them since my childhood for a long time. But what to do, there was no option left for me after the completion of bachelor’s degree in business administration. There was no college in my hometown for my further studies so, I have to move to the nearby cities for my bright future.

No reply from my family frightened me, so I made a plan to move to my home. Therefore, I rushed to my hostel to carry some money for emergency and packed my luggage within no time. It was around 9 o’ clock and there were limited person in the huge railway station of four platforms. The next train I enquired from the station master and swiped from there to the approaching train’s platform. The minutes spent in the train were horribly for me. After successfully getting a seat, I took a deep breath and thereafter the faces of my father, mother and brother flashed in my mind and I turned emotional.

A strike came to my mind about Nisha’s party that how embarrassing it was the moment that I don’t told them anything and shed tears and was vanished from that place with not a single word uttered. But what could I do as the message just gave me a 220 volts shock. But it was really bad of me for not giving a message and departing from that awesome party. I thought of messaging and informing them but then my conscience told me that why should I disturb them and change their moods into sadness by spoiling the atmosphere of the party as they loved me a lot. We get holidays very rarely as due to the coming exams, so we were left with few months for our separation from the college and friends so we were enjoying that short span as good as possible. We were trying to lift the time slowly and steadily so that we could rejoice for more time and in that why should I disturb them. I thought it would take me time to reach as it was a night time but I reached at the right time. After stepping at the station I felt myself in danger as there were no people to drop me at my place and I haven’t moved alone in this night time or travelled a long distance at this peak moment. I searched for a cab or taxi, but disappointedly I could not get any. I searched around 20 minutes. I roamed here and there, which made me mad. I was already tensed because of the terrifying message. Now I am not getting any taxi to my place.

To my good fortune, a cab from the woods stood before me asking where to drop me I said my residential address and prayed to god all well. At that lonely road, our cab broke the silence. I started chanting prayers in between the distance I travelled from the station to my house in the cab. By the sake of god, the cab driver was a good and noble man. I saw my father and brother to be standing outside the house, I asked them what happen. But they were stood still and pointed towards the door. I opened the door and I was fully amazed. It was my birthday surprise planned by my brother and cousins jointly helped by other family members. There were no words for me to thank them but I also got angry on them for terrifying me. Then they told that one of my uncles was following me since Nisha’s house and he also arranged the cab.