‘The number’

My mom came into my room to wake me up when I didn’t come downstairs for lunch. I didn’t want to get up, but she was not willing to move until I was sitting up straight in front of her. So, I dragged myself up from the bed and went to the bathroom to freshen up.

“Sid, you are getting lazy these days,” she said while making my bed.

“I didn’t sleep all night, mom,” I replied while yawning.

“What made you stay awake the whole night?” she asked. I couldn’t tell her that there was this girl who was keeping his son awake every night.

“I was just reading the novel,” I made an excuse.

“You should take care of your health Sid, the novel could wait until morning,” she said.

“Okay, I won’t stay awake late in the night from now on,” I replied. I was not in the mood to do any reasoning with her when I was still half asleep. I came back to the room after freshening up; mom was not there. I went downstairs to grab some bite. I checked the time on the wall clock in the hall; it was showing ten minutes past three p.m. I really slept for quite some time; mom is right; I have become indolent, I thought.

“I’m going to the market. It will take some time. If you need anything, give me a call. Everything is there in the kitchen, go and eat something, and also let me know when should I say Mrs.Verma to send his son to do some study?” my mom said and asked in one breath. She was standing there, waiting for my response, and I was standing there to make some excuse to get rid of that situation, but what could I say to her; she knew I was totally free for the whole day.

“Tell her to send Aniket after an hour. I will finish eating by then,” I replied.

“Okay, good, I will convey your message to her,” she said and went out of the door. I grabbed a few things from the kitchen to eat and sat on the dining chair. My mind went toward the wrong number while eating. I thought to ask her about that guy who picked her cell phone. There were many new questions in my mind at that moment; I wanted the night to reach as quickly as possible so that she could call me, and I ask her every last of the question, but six and a half hours were still yet to spend there. Teaching Aniket was a considerable choice of option for me to pass the time. I was ready to spend at least three or four hours teaching him. I finished my lunch and started waiting for Aniket.

Aniket was studying in the sixth standard. Usually, I didn’t like to be around kids, but he was different, very calm, and shy. I saw him many times playing with his friends in the park, but I never saw him making any noise while others were always shouting and laughing at one another. He was also good at his studies. I never needed to work much on him to make him understand any topic; his grasping power was remarkable, that might be the reason I liked teaching him.

I was waiting for him, and the doorbell rang. I saw the time again; it was showing ten minutes past four p.m. He was right on the time, as usual. I was going to get up to open the door when the bell rang for the second time, quite unusual. He never rang the doorbell twice. He always waited patiently after ringing the bell the first time. I opened the door; Aniket was there along with his sister. She was standing on the door in front of Aniket. She was the one who was ringing the doorbell.

“When would Aniket be free from his class?” she asked without even any greetings. I found that a bit rude but didn’t say anything.

“I’m not exactly sure but might be after three or four hours,” I replied.

“That is quite long. Aniket will get tired,” she said.

“Don’t worry; I will give him some breaks in between,” I said while judging her worry.

“Can you please call when he gets free so that I can come to receive him?” she asked. There was no need for her to leave Aniket on my door and receive him from here; he lived just two houses away from my residence.

“But I don’t have Mrs. Verma’s number, and mom is also not home. I’m not sure when she will be back,” I replied.

“You can have my number,” she said. I had seen her a few times in the street or the market but always from a distance. I never talked to her in person. I didn’t know anything about her, and I was sure she didn’t know anything about me either, yet she got ready to share her phone number with me, which was quite strange.

“I don’t have my phone with me right now,” I said honestly.

“Don’t you worry, Aniket will give the number to you afterward,” she replied and looked back at Aniket. He nodded his head in the assurance that he understood her.

“I will wait for your call,” she said and went away. Although she said that sentence quite ordinarily yet it affected me in some way. There was something mischievous in her eyes when she said that, and which I couldn’t miss, but I couldn’t understand that either. I was staring at her going away until she went out of my sight. Aniket was standing there looking at me, waiting for me to take him inside, and I was staring at her sister; it made me quite embarrassed. I opened the door for him, he went inside, and I went after him. He sat on the sofa, his usual place, and started taking out his books from his bag. I sat beside him; my mind was still under the influence of those eyes. I shook my head to bring back my attention toward Aniket. I started teaching him a few questions of Mathematics and then gave him a few to solve on his own.

“Was she your sister?” I knew she was, but I asked to start the conversation about her.

“Yes,” he replied without raising his head from the books.

“What’s her name?” I asked.

“Sneha,” he replied.

“In which class does she study?” I asked.

“She is in the last year of her graduation,” he replied. So she is almost my age, I thought. I never cared about anything related to her or any other girl in my neighborhood, but that day she made me a bit curious. Though Aniket was answering my every question quite innocently, yet I wasn’t sure how far I could go like that. In a few more responses, I got to know about her college and the field in which she was doing her graduation. I wanted to know more about her, but I was out of questions by then.

After teaching him about one and a half hour, I gave him a few minutes’ break. I turned on the TV for him and gave him the remote to watch his favorite channel; he started watching cartoons. I left him on his own and went to my room to pick my phone as I had to take Sneha’s number; I felt a bit excited about that. I let Aniket watch TV for about twenty minutes and began teaching him again. I didn’t ask him any further questions about Sneha and indulged myself in teaching him. He started yawning after a while, and I realized it was time to pack the books. I checked the time on my phone; it was showing twenty minutes to seven p.m. I also wanted to have some break by then. So, I finished the class and asked for Sneha’s number. He grabbed out one of the notebooks from his bag and opened the last page of that, and showed it to me; her number was written there.

“Why did you write this number on your notebook?” I asked him.

“I didn’t write it; my sister did. She bought a new number today. I haven’t remembered it yet, and also she said you would ask for her number, so she wrote it here,” he replied innocently. That was quite weird. How did she know that I would ask for her number? I mean, I could have my phone with me when I opened the door, and I could feed her number at the same time then, how did she know that I would ask it from Aniket only?