40 A Pit dug by Kranthi

Five little ducks

Went out one day

Over the hills and far away♫ ♫ ♫

Mother duck said

"Quack, quack, quack, quack"

But only four little ducks came back.♫ ♫ ♫

Four little ducks

Went out one day

Over the hills and far away♪ ♪ ♪

Mother duck said

"Quack, quack, quack, quack."♪ ♪ ♪

But only three little ducks…

"Morning Tya," Aditya woke up to the usual 'wake-up' call as he rubbed his eyes and stretched himself.

"Good morning Adi, I have a doubt?"

"What is it?" Adi yawned as got off the bed. The winter was about to begin so the room was cool and comfortable causing him to feel refreshed as he took deep and slow breaths. A small smile spread over his face as he felt excellent to some reason.

"Adi, why do you think that each of the little ducks did not return to mother duck, but in the end, all of them return at once?" Tya asked seriously as if this concerned the secrets of the universe, which somehow became quite cute when accompanied by his adorable voice.

Aditya's bright smile turned to a bitter smile as he rubbed his head trying to think of an answer which would satisfy Tya. "Maybe they wanted to play 'hide and seek' with their mother."

"Oh, looks like the mother duck lost the game then," Tya stated earnestly.

"Yup, don't feel bad for it" Aditya concluded this morning Q&A session.

Only when Aditya looked at his face in the mirror did he find the reason he was feeling pleasant when he woke up.

'What happened to the swelling?' Aditya touched all over his face as he looked at the perfect condition of his face in the reflection. He then inspected his body and found to his surprise that all his wounds had vanished. In addition to that, he felt that his limbs became more pliable, flexible and strong. Aditya's eyes lit up as he asked, "Tya, was it you?"

"What?"

"My wounds, did you cure them?" Aditya asked with anticipation, he could not think of any other reason. He had thought that it would take three days at least to cure all these bruises and inflammations.

"No, it wasn't me who cured them?" Tya shook his head from side to side.

"Then, what could have happened?" Aditya muttered perplexedly.

"Adi, though it was not me who cured your wounds, I might have something to do with them been cured quickly," Tya said while rubbing his gaseous chin with his small, cute fingers.

"What happened?"

"It's this, yesterday night, when you slept I was bored so I started studying your body just for the fun of it, I usually do it every night before sleeping. I saw that your body was somewhat different from before. Some new substances were being created in your body which was helping cure your injuries. You know that I felt sad for you yesterday when I saw you being hit multiple times, right? So, I tried to stimulate your body to create more of these substances which were converging at your wound sites. Surprisingly, it worked and your body created more of 'these' substances, maybe that was the reason that your wounds were cured rapidly." Tya explained diligently.

"what are 'these' substances that you are talking about?" Aditya asked in a baffled manner.

"I know them, I feel them, I can even recognize them but I don't know their names so I am not able to speak accurately about them," Tya muttered apologetically.

"It's okay, Tya, you have done nothing wrong," Aditya consoled Tya as he knew that Tya had a kid's delicate mentality and was prone to get hurt easily.

Aditya who was far better at understanding Tya knew where the problem lied. 'looks like I have to buy some professional medical books.' he thought

Although Tya was the biggest nerd he had ever seen, Tya had difficulty in communicating and passing on his knowledge due to lack of sufficient vocabulary.

It excited and scared Aditya immensely when he thought of the knowledge possessed by Tya who had lived for millions of years doing nothing but learning.

Aditya cleansed himself and sat on his bed with his laptop as he started coding some simple games for the fun and testing his degree of learning at the same time. Aditya was starting to realize the potential of his learning ability as days passed on. He felt that he had underestimated this power the most from the start.

Aditya's finger danced on the keyboard at a pace which would shock any professional career typist. He was typing 300 words per minute which could be described as leisurely for him. He was applying the knowledge of programming, calculating the rules, deriving the algorithm and typing at the same time.

He created a 3D Tic Tac Toe game in a matter of minutes. Afterwards, he went on to create an AI for acing Dino game in google easily reaching more than 20,000 score. Everything seemed so easy to him as he did not face any hurdle in reading codes and algorithms of these games and understanding ways of breaking them.

Aditya's eyes lit up as he wrote a program for acing chess. With his memory and calculative capabilities, he did not find it difficult to achieve this. But to his shock, it took him a full three hours of programming to create his ideal version. Aditya smiled mischievously as he created a membership for this AI in Internet Chess Club while signing up for the one-month free membership. He wanted to see which position his AI would reach. He also programmed it to be as humanly as possible by making some errors from time to time and not streaking to the top in one go while crushing his opponents. It was fine as long as he knew the prowess of his program, he did not want to attract unwanted attention for himself.

When Aditya was watching his program quashing its competitors on the net interestingly. Kranthi (White Buffalo) and Rahul (little pig) were climbing the stairs which led to the penthouse as they discussed animatedly.

"Big brother, do you think Aditya big brother would agree to this?" little pig asked hesitatingly as he followed Kranthi.

"Of course not, who would agree to such a request, you idiot, that is why we have to display a high level of technique and intelligence to achieve our goal." Kranthi chided little pig as he huffed and puffed while climbing the stairs step by step.

"Big brother, you are really sharp, I thought that you would request big brother Adi to accept your request. If you can't make him do as you request, your great reputation in our class would take a big hit." little pig said while nodding.

"Shh, you idiot, he might listen if you speak more loudly, shut your trap and follow me silently," Kranthi said sternly as he entered Aditya's room without knocking.

"Adi, what's up."

"Hey, white buffalo come to watch this chess game, its exciting." Aditya nodded at Kranthi and little pig smilingly as he shifted to another position allowing space for them to sit and view the game.

"Oh, whose batting?" little pig sat excitedly as he saw the screen.

Aditya looked at little pig and back at Kranthi with wide open mouth.

Kranthi shrugged as he knocked little pig on the head, "Idiot, don't you know chess? You are a disgrace, frankly I don't know know how your genes survived the natural selection, okay repeat after me"

"Okay, Big brother." little pig answered obediently while rubbing his head at the place where it was knocked.

"It is an indoor game."

"It is an indoor game."

"It is a board game."

"It is a board game."

Aditya was also slowly nodding at Kranthi's small crash course until

"Its played using dice."

"Its played using..."

"Stop" Aditya hit Kranthi's head with force as he yelled.

Kranthi rubbed his head just like how little pig had done a moment ago, he said, "oh, is it played using cards? I must have forgotten."

"Stop, forget about it," Aditya said while holding his head distressingly. What would happen if some foreigners heard these words, chess was invented in India for god's sake.

"Okay, Adi I got some good news for you, you will definitely feel happy about this," Kranthi said while keeping in mind to know about this chess when he went home.

"What is it?" Aditya closed his laptop as he started wearing his mechanic clothes. He thought it was better to get back to his cars rather than having a 'constructive' discussion with this white buffalo.

"I got my father to give permission for you to take up engine repairs." Kranthi said smugly as he had an expression of 'praise me immediately' pasted on his round face.

"Oh" Aditya was truly a little surprised at this. He did not expect uncle Ramlal to allow him to touch the engine after staying for more than just a week.

"Of course, who do you think I am. I just had to catch my mom when she was in a pleased mood and get her to persuade my father." Kranthi said with a wide smile.

"Oh, and why would you help me?" Aditya asked with suspicion in his eyes. He did not believe that this white buffalo was a selfless and broadminded fellow.

"Adi, don't you know that you are my one and only best friend since my childhood, how can I not be concerned about you?" Kranthi spoke with a trembling voice full of emotion.

'This fellow is seeing a lot of south Indian masala movies,' Aditya thought as he patted Kranthi's shoulder as he said: "Okay, I know that I am your only best friend, so thank you for helping me, white buffalo."

"There is no need for thanks between us Adi, let us go to the garage immediately, I heard there was an engine replacement job to be completed, I want to see if your prowess has become rusted." Kranthi did not allow Aditya to reply as he grabbed Aditya's thin and bony palm with his large and fluffy hand and dragged him along.

Although Aditya did not totally believe his friend he also felt a little excited at being able to touch the core of a car as it would be too boring otherwise.

It was a Suzuki sub-compact car, 2010 model which needed it's engine replaced. Aditya looked at the brand new 1.2 L K series engine which was to replace the old one.

"Good job, white buffalo, keep it up," Aditya patted his friend's shoulder and started working on it.

He first removed the exhaust manifold and then the intake manifold. He also detached the fuel injectors as he hooked the engine puller chains to the old engine.

He got a hydraulic engine hoist with the capacity of 2 tons along with an engine leveller to attach to the chains and lifted the engine from the engine bay.

While Aditya was working with the engine, a little bit of draining oil splashed on his clothes, hands and a little bit on his face. While he was sliding the new engine into the transmission accurately which was the hardest part of this process, Aditya saw Kranthi taking some photos. He did not mind it and went on with his work.

He cranked the leveller to tilt the engine to get it in right place. He then bolted the transmission after which he put back the exhaust and intake manifold while hooking back the alternator.

The process did not take more than 10 minutes given Aditya's efficiency.

"Adi, come let us take a selfie, let this moment become a precious memory for you officially entering the core of our garage from today onward." Kranthi wrapped his meaty arm around Aditya's shoulders and tapped his mobile while Aditya gave a calm smile.

"Why do I feel that you are been extra caring today," Aditya asked with a smile as he wiped the oil off his hands with a rag.

"What are you talking about? I have always been like this, okay I got to be in school, bye." Kranthi waved his hands without turning back as he rushed back to their home which was nearby while little pig followed him.

Aditya was puzzled a little but shrugged it off and got back to his job.

Kranthi hummed as he posted on the social networking site (FB) all the pictures of Aditya working in the garage and his selfie with him."Bastards, you did not believe that Adi was working in my father's garage when I said in the class, didn't you? Now, what can you say about this?" Kranthi muttered as he tagged the 'Rocking 12th graders' group to his post with a caption.

'The generous me helping a poor friend'