The (L)unch #AtoZChallenge

His eyes were red with fury. She was unmoved. There was a smirk on her face, a sense of achievement on having marked her territory in the house. His books and notes were all over the place. He walked up to her and said, “I will not forgive you for this.” She replied in a cold voice, “Its time you left.” He stormed out of the room shouting at the top of his voice, “I am never seeing your face again.” She was in tears the moment he was out of sight. The sound of the door slamming pained her more than the wound on her hand. She calmed herself, and cried to sleep. He slept downstairs without having dinner.

It was 9 when he woke up. She was already gone, and the loneliness started creeping in. He regretted how he had behaved last night, but argued with himself, “She was very irrational.” The debate did not last long and he wanted to be with her and apologize. He refused breakfast and went to his room. His books had all been placed back in the racks, as they should be. This was not an era of mobiles and video games. To distract himself, he picked up his sketchbook and lost himself in it. It was about to be 1 pm when he was called out for lunch. He was getting impatient every passing moment. He was missing her terribly.

The last call for lunch was rather a warning. That if he doesn’t come downstairs, he is going to stay hungry for rest of the day. He walked down, straight up to his granny and lay with his head on her lap. She understood him instantly. Softly caressing his hair, she asked him, “Why do both of you fight so much?” He didn’t answer, and continued looking aimlessly outside the window. She consoled him, “Just few more minutes.” He looked at the watch again. A cab honked outside, and he spring to action. He ran outside and could see her opening the steel gate.

He ran towards her smiling. She rushed in and hugged him tightly. Granny had come to the porch and was smiling at the two of them, they were inseparable. He pulled out a card he made for her, with a drawing of both enjoying a ride at the local fair. She was delighted on seeing this, and pulled out a packet from her bag. It was his favorite sweet, which she got packed for him especially to apologize for her behavior the previous evening. He whispered to her, “Did you finish your tiffin?”

“No silly, how can I when we always have lunch together? I knew you would be waiting for me” She replied with a wink. He smiled as they held hands and went inside the house. Granny had seen this scene almost every time he visited them. Just two weeks of vacation in a year, is all that he had. In these few days, they would exchange stories of their school, play all the games they had, fight like animals, and again make it up to each other the following day. Everyday was a fresh beginning at this tender age of five. They walked past Granny and asked her to join them for lunch, the lunch he would never have without his only cousin sister.