Chapter-1:
. . . Thiruvananthapuram . . .
Mum sits in the front seat, and Will and I are in the back. The taxi smells of detergent, apparently, the driver had it cleaned lately. It doesn’t take us long to get there. We walk into the crowded station. The crowd’s chatter and the noise of the trains, all these sounds are a lot to take in. I feel the heaviness in my chest as my heart begins to race. My feet feel heavy and hard to move. William grabs my hand and walks beside me, knowing all too well about my introverted personality.
Our train arrives shortly, we
get in and find our seats. It feels like my stomach is doing backflips. I sit by
the window to get some air. I hate crowds. Our train makes it there on
time, an hour early to be honest. Mother called an Uber straight to the airport
and turned to us, “We can just browse around the airport until the flight.”
That didn’t seem like a bad idea. The airport market is never that crowded,
only the checking is. I honestly don’t know where the crowd goes. It took us
longer to get there than we expected. We got through the checking and still had
forty-five minutes before our ten-hour flight. We head to Domino’s and order a
pizza. We sit at the table near the door and Mum tells us that she talked to Dad
about my schooling and William's job, “your father said that he’s found you an opening
in the dermatology department, William. Indrakshi, Daniel collected your course
for college. You’ve had a fine break since your boards, you should get to brush
off some rust.”
Our flight’s announcement was
made just after we got out of Domino’s. We hand our boarding passes to the
staff member to check and she lets us onto the bus which takes us to our
flight. The sun is setting into the horizon in the distance, turning the sky
into a reddish colour. We climb the stairs to the aeroplane that’s supposed to
take us to London. We find our seats, mine is by the window looking over the left
wing. Mum hands us some cotton to stuff into our ears, I’ve been on a flight
plenty of times, and I know how much your ears hurt during take-off.
. . .
The air hostesses just gave
dinner. The dinner, like always, tastes very bland. After dinner, I check my
phone, and 10:30 PM is written on the screen. I stare at the wallpaper for a
second, it is a photo of last year’s Vallam Kali, a boat race festival
in Kerala. The festival was always so much fun; I know I’m going to miss it. I
set my phone aside and pulled out the book I was reading. I am an avid reader,
with a collection of nearly seventy-five books by different English and
Malayali writers.
I read for an hour and then the
lights dim out. I place the bookmark between the pages and set the book aside. Our
flight’s going to land at six in the morning tomorrow, I should at least get a
good seven-hour sleep until then.
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