Chapter 9

Athira Patel

I stood in front of my house thinking about what my dad is doing while ringing the bell. After a few minutes door opened to reveal my dad who stood with only his shorts and drinking juice from the cartoon.

"Dad. How many times I need to tell you to use glass for drinking juice. You should not drink directly from the carton like that." I said snatching it from his hand and going to the kitchen to find the glass for him. "Did you eat breakfast?" I asked pouring the juice in the glass.

"No. Just woke up a few minutes ago. And you know me well to know how lazy I can be on Sunday mornings. So please don't ask me to cook today" He said entering into the kitchen and taking a seat on the breakfast table. I placed carton back in the fridge after pouring the juice in the glass and walked back towards him to give his glass of pineapple juice.

"I asked if you ate or not. who said anything about preparing. This is my last day here, let me cook for you today" I said sounding emotional looking at him. He caught my left hand and nudged me to take a seat beside him. I sat beside him and hugged him from sidewards. "I am going to miss you dad" I said sniffling.

"Shh. I thought my princess became strong nowadays. But look, she is the same crying baby as before." He said hugging me back and placing his right hand on my head. "I am going to miss you too my princess. But this is what you have dreamt all along and worked very hard for this day. Now you cannot be emotional like this, It is the day to celebrate, not to cry. Common, Will prepare some breakfast. I am feeling very hungry" He said making me stand up along with himself and patting me in the back. " I am proud of you my girl," He said kissing my forehead smiling.

"What do you want to eat?" I asked after composing myself and entering into the kitchen once again.

"Not your omelette again. Maybe Poha or Parathas?" He suggested looking at me. I know that those two are his favourite and he would suggest them.

"Sure. Will go with Poha for now." I said getting the required ingredients from the fridge for preparing it. I started chopping vegetables "Do you know, that yesterday in the pub I met someone and for the first time I got attracted to this someone very quickly?" I said looking for a pan.

"Wow. Now I can definitely say that he is an interesting person if he got the attention of you." Dad said laughing. "So, what happened then? Did you both talk with each other? Exchanged phone numbers? Should I expect any news in the near future?" He started firing back to back questions without giving me a chance to explain.

"Dad!!! Stop it ok. None of them will happen. Ya, only one thing that we spoke yesterday. But nothing else will happen. I cannot get distracted from my goal. So I said to him that I cannot be in contact. That's it. Nothing else happened. So hold your horses together." I said all at a time in one sentence without breaking in the middle. I released a deep breath after saying it and looked at my dad. He is staring at me with an unknown expression on his face.

He started laughing without saying anything. Now I am confused about what happened. Why everyone is laughing at me after saying about Abhilash. "You kissed him," Dad said still laughing. To say I was shocked is an understatement. I didn't think that my dad would have caught it immediately without even saying it.

"No... I mean Yes... Shit... How did you know? I never told you about the kiss part." I asked confused while looking at him.

"Even if you won't say it, I can know it by looking at your face princess. Your mom used to have the same look on her face whenever I used to kiss her. You are same as your mother. It's easy to identify you both. You both are like an open book to me" He said smiling and coming towards me.

"God... Dad! it's embarrassing to talk about my romantic life with my own father. Please leave the topic" I said covering my face with both my hands. I cannot believe that is was that easy to find out by just looking at my face. I must have looked like a rotten tomato.

"Ok Ok. I won't bring that topic again." He said removing my hands from my face "Now common, Cook my breakfast. I know that you have already eaten yours at Rishi's. Probably that tiger prepared it for all of you." He said handing me the vegetables which I have chopped awhile ago.

"Ya. I ate mine. You know too well about her and us." I said adding the vegetables in the pan and mixing them with a wooden spoon.

"Yes. I even know that they are coming today night to our house to spend the time with me. Am i right?" He said standing proudly thinking he is correct.

"Wow, dad. You are a genius. Yes, they are coming. Now everyone is busy with packing. Even I will do mine after preparing your breakfast" I said adding Dehusked Rice into the pan and started mixing them with the vegetables to get even.

"Oh yes, I forgot. You need to pack your stuff right. Go and do it, princess, It's almost over. I can manage it from here" He said trying to take the spoon from my hand.

"Dad. It's over. You just go and sit. I will bring it within two minutes" I said stopping him from taking it from my hand. He nodded and released me by taking salt from the shelf. He added some salt to it and I am mixing it while dad got the plate and spoon for himself from the cupboard.

I switched off the stove and placed poha from the pan into the plate which dad is carrying. He went to take a seat on the table while I placed the pan in the sink and turned on the water to get it wet.

"Now go and pack your things Athi," Dad said eating his breakfast. I took a glass of water and placed it in front of him and nodded my head in acceptance and went to my room to pack my bag.

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After three hours of shuffling and removing, I have completed my packing with two big bags and one backpack. I wanted to take one family photo with me so I went to search for my dad and ask him to give one of our family photo to carry it with me. I looked in the hall and kitchen first to see it is empty, so I entered his bedroom without knocking, knowing that he will be in his room. He was standing in front of the study table holding something in his hands which I cannot see it correctly because his back is facing towards me.

I walked towards him and stood beside him looking at what he is holding. There is a photo frame in his hands of some couple holding each other and smiling at the camera. I cannot recognize them since I haven't seen them before.

"Who are they dad?" I asked him looking at the photo. He startled listening to my voice and dropped the frame on the table.

"God, you scared me." He said placing his right hand on his heart.

"Sorry," I said smiling innocently and taking the frame from the table.

He composed himself before saying "They are both your Mother's and my best friends. We are a gang of 6 members when we're in college." he said looking at the picture with a distinct look on his face.

"Oh. So where are they now?" I asked looking at the picture sounding curious. Because I never got to listen to their college life since I was busy in my own little world.

"They are not alive princess," he said looking sad at the picture. "They both died in a car accident 22 years ago," He said looking outside the window thinking. He rarely looks sad. I think they are really good friends since my dad is hurting even up to today thinking of them.

"I am sorry dad. I should have not asked about them. I didn't know that they are..." I didn't finish the sentence knowing that he can understand it.

"It's not your fault princess. It was in the past and no one was able to do anything. It was on the spot." he said patting my shoulder. I hugged him by placing my head on his chest. He hugged me back saying "I miss them sometimes. That's it" smiling and releasing me from the hug.

"Now, done with your packing or not?" He asked changing the topic. I remembered why I came here in the first place.

"Dad I need one family photo of us to take it with me," I said looking at him to which he nodded and went towards his cupboards.

"Here. Take it. In this pic, you are only of one year, but I think it is a beautiful picture of us" he said extending his hand holding the frame.

I went to stand beside him and took the picture in my hands. Indeed it was a beautiful picture of us. Dad and mom were 20 years younger than now and I was still a toddler. Dad is hugging mom and she was carrying me in her arms posing for the picture. They looked so happy together that it made me smile looking at them.

I took the picture with me to my room and placed it in my bag packing it. Riya called saying that they will be here within an hour and said that they are bringing the lunch with them and not to prepare it at home. So me and dad got some time to spare. We took a seat on the couch and switched on the TV to see some movie. I slept on the couch placing my head on dad's lap and drifted off to sleep.

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