Chapter Forty one - Sama

Atharva could not grab hold of his parents. After kids had grown up, they were accepting more and more riskier jobs in a bid to earn more. So the kids would have normal childhood. Initially, it was only dad, slowly mom also accepting these kind of jobs. Inspite of all of them begging and saying vehemently that they didn't need to have that much money to live normally, happily, the parents continued their risky jobs.

The Singhvi kids were also stubborn. They didn't want to burden the family. From the time it was legally allowed to be employed, all of them had worked part time while attending the school. Sama, being the eldest had faced the worst. She had to study, look after brothers and work part-time. That's why she started working full time soon after finishing basic compulsory education.

By the time it was Atharva's turn, there were more earners in family. That's why he dared to dream of entering Saint Augustine inspite of it being premiere institute.

Sama was practically second mother to Atharva. So when he couldn't reach his parents, his next call was to Sama.

Sama still favoured her unisex oufits, so that they could be reused by her boys( brothers). Though it stopped after the boys shot up in height, becoming taller than her, the habit was hard to break, according to her. Atharva had another theory for that.

It was night at her side, wherever that place was. Though she said she was gofer for the diva, technically she was gofer of one of the diva's assistants. Wherever the diva went, her entourage including Sama would go. So Sama might be 10 miles away from home or over millions of miles away. Now he was worried about disturbing her at work. But she signalled she would be free in few minutes and cut the call.

When she called back, he could finally see her clearly. Her clothes were wrinkled here and there, her tidy black hair trying to break free. Her face had thinned a bit but her clear amber eyes were sparkling. Was her work making her happy and satisfied? Or was it because he had called?

"Oh my, Oh my! Look at this! Our prodigy had finally decided to come out of the ivory tower! What, Sir? Finally remembered that you have a family?" Sama started pulling his legs from the go.

"Snap it out. You used same words last time too. And that was less than a week ago." What things he had to hear before he could share his happy news.

"Oh my, oh my! Look at this! This peasant only knows these words. What to do? What to do now? "

"Sister!!!!!"

"Fine, fine. You still can't hold yourself back. No wonder I can't stop teasing you.

Tell me how are you? Are you still in college? Was there any problem? Do you have enough money? Let me transfer you some for now. Give me few hours, I can send more. How much do you need?"

"My goodness! That was once! When I joined here. Some four years ago. I only asked for some thousands of credits because I needed to buy uniforms fast and I had used most of my money as travel expenses. Since then, every time I call you, you want to give me credits. "

She waved her hands to push his allegations away. After few minutes of joking, she became serious. "So tell me, what's the matter? I remember your results need still some time for declaring. I know my penny pinching little brother. He wouldn't call just because."

" Well, I signed a million credit deal. So I wanted to share with you."

"Wow, oh wow! You are good! Even in part time job, you have walked out such a big deal. I am pretty sure that in addition to bonus, they will work extra hard to retain you when the results come out."

And this was the proof of life beating the heck out of a person. She couldn't even think that he was earning a million credits in a deal. True, if someone had told him a week ago that he would be earning a million plus in credits in a deal, he wouldn't have believed it either. Guess, the life had beaten a heck out of him too.

Sama was still building castle in air, albeit a small hut 🛖 like castle 🏰. She had even decided where to spend the bonus (on himself).

"Don't buy the clothes yourself. Wait for me. I'll avail my leave and we'll go shopping. You don't understand style or fashion."

"True." What can a brother do when his sister is talking a mile. Answer in single words to give her a pause and let her continue talking.

"And, you suck in bargaining."

Really. That was a shocker. He had done nothing but bargain in past 2 days inside the game.

Wait. Maybe it was because it was inside a game. The probability of him sucking in bargaining in real life was very high.

So for next fifteen minutes, he finished his daily routine while his sister continued talking. Somehow he lost the drive to tell her that the bonus she was thinking of spending was around a million credits, though he would definitely not spend everything on spending.

Yet talking to her, listening to her gave him a feeling of content. Also, few ideas on how and where to spend the money.

He would obviously pay a part fo education loan. He should spend some money on himself but that would be taken care by sister. Now, how much to set aside for each of the family members? Should he purchase a house? Or keep something aside for studies or business ideas if one of the siblings were inclined in that direction?

Choices, choices.

When he had no money, he had to choose the least expensive yet a short term investment type with long term returns. Now, when he had money, he had no idea how to spend and where.