Fantasy Fable: F.R.I.E.N.D.S

The sun came out pretty good. The heat followed suit.

He loved the sun. Nothing gave him the amount of satisfaction as much as a bright, sunny morning does. He quickly woke up and went for his customary jogging. This one activity gave him immense reconciliation. It acted as a resurrection whenever he felt dearth of motivation. After an hour of his morning workout, he returned home, freshened himself up and got ready. An exciting day awaited him. A day out along with his friends anticipated the day.

He walked along to Alan’s house. Alan is another of his childhood friends, which formed their group. Alan was a lazy fellow, who never loved to have his sleep broken by anybody. He was the modern day enactment of Kumbhakaran. Everybody hoped that Alan wasn’t plotting to scrap up that day’s plan. He was the only one, with his masterly excuses to not show up most of the times, during their group meet-ups.

Akshat reached Alan’s place. His mom opened the door and greeted him. As expected Alan was fast asleep.

“Gosh, you are one piece of a human!” shouted Akshat.

Alan woke up all of a sudden, looking gravely shocked at the wall clock that hung in the room.

“Give me 5 minutes and I’ll be ready in a jiffy!” exclaimed Alan in an apathetic manner.

“You better be!” replied Akshat.

True to his word, Alan readied himself in a little over 5 minutes.

“We have to reach there as quickly as possible. We can’t make everybody wait for us. It’s already late” Akshat fumed.

Alan took out his bike and they both set out. It was a pretty sunny day. The sun shone beautifully over the trees by the street. There was a pale wind blowing too. Akshat wanted the wind to blow away his ailing feelings that were going through his mind. He was still reeling over the events of the past couple of weeks which had left him completely in a wistful condition. He was hoping that spending time with his friends would erase his temporary ailings.

In the meantime, they reached the dhaba, in the outskirts of the city. It presented a deserted look. Maybe because it was too early in the day or maybe for some reasons unknown, but an empty dhaba is still a unique place. Even the manager wasn’t present at the desk.

“It can’t be closed. Otherwise, the gates wouldn’t have been open!” said Akshat.

“There is not even a single apprentice in sight. It seems like a rural version of Hotel California all the way. Mysteries galore!” replied Alan in a perplexing manner.

“But where are our friends? Either we are way too early or they have returned back since we were late. Not a sign of anyone!” exclaimed Akshat.  

The sun was at the heated best. The warmth increased manifolds. They went inside to do some exploration. It was as vacant in the inside as well. The kitchen was uninhabited too. On normal days, it would be filled with the chattering dhaba workers occupied in their work. They knew something wasn’t good. Or maybe, they were over-thinking about it. Just as they wanted to hit the panic button, they saw a car at some distance.

“That’s Aarav! Finally someone has arrived. I hope the others too show up fast!” said Akshat with a sigh of relief.

Aarav, with his authentic driving skills arrived late, quite unusually. Seated with him was Kaira, his eternal friend. Aarav always had a cool penchant associated with him, be it his knowledge skills or all the important matters of the heart. He was like an all-rounder amongst them. Sporting a pair of sunglasses, which made him look like one of the 80s D-grade film villain, he stepped out of his car. Looking rather bemused about what was going on around, he asked in a gratifying manner.

“Babes, why the confused look on everyone? I mean, the place looks rather empty!”

“Quite the revelation, Aarav! We have been trying to figure out what’s exactly going on around here for quite some time now.” Replied Akshat.

“This means we have a mystery to solve around here!” exclaimed Aarav in a supposedly excited manner, fantasizing himself to be a hero dressed in a scoundrel’s attire.

“We aren’t in an Enid Blyton’s novel, Mister. Moreover, who expects mystery in a place like this? The only possible explanation is that this place might have had a police raid and everyone has been taken away!” laughed off Akshat.

“Can’t agree more! But the real mystery is: where is everybody? We were to show up here like an hour ago. Looks like laziness has gobbled up all of you!” sighed Alan, not realizing that no one defined laziness as clearly as him.

“Let’s all click a photograph together and post it online! I would caption it as a mysterious place somewhere in the outskirts of the city!” shouted a voice, which came from the back of Aarav’s car.

It was Ravish. He was lying in the back seat, like a lazy sloth, ready to go to sleep anytime soon!

“There you go! Drama queen at it again. It’s better to stick with your romantic tales!” laughed Alan.

Amongst all of them, Ravish was a person who was a little emotional about various aspects of life. Love came first in that list. Quite knowingly, he had a few unsuccessful recounts on the matters of compassion. And whenever he would make them listen to his numerous tales, he would act like a painfully drunkard romantic hero of the late 90s. Unsurprisingly, he always reserved those moments when he would be amongst his friends in the group.

“Alan, you can’t risk waking up his elongated romantic feelings now. Else, we would be crying away to his sad accounts all day long!” replied Akshat, laughing in the most hideous manner one ever can.

“Ok, let’s go inside and see if we can find anybody. The entire dhaba can’t be left empty altogether!” exclaimed Akshat.

They all went inside. Every possible place was explored by them. They looked like a bunch of clueless criminal hunters in vain. It seemed that the place was actually deserted. They were still puzzled. And their plan to hangout went up in a puff of smoke. If finding the reason for the peculiar condition of the dhaba was a curious case, finding another place to sit the day out became another agenda.

“Let’s move out quickly and not waste any more time. I suppose there isn’t any inquisitive matter out here, after all!” instructed Akshat.

“Yup, he’s right! I’m tired already. Let the Sherlock Holmes inside all of us rest for today!” exclaimed Alan.

Akshat really wanted to have some good, relaxed time with his buddies. Even if he had been sporting a smiling face, deep down he was still fighting the somber part of his heart. If only he could speak with her once. He hadn’t heard from her for weeks now. He always checked his phone hoping one morning she would drop him a message or two. But no! She didn’t even pick up his phone. He was still wondering about what he had done to get this entire disregard from her. Also, he might be entirely wrong with the entire matter. She might be facing some kind of dilemma of her own. He was always optimistic. Whatever the reason was, it was stinging him.

He looked at Aarav and Kaira, the made for each other couple. The look on both of their faces when they are together was quite adorable. Kaira was one of the most understanding people he had seen. She had a solution to any problem they ever faced. Akshat occasionally sought her advice too in topics he had very little knowledge about. On the other hand, he wanted to know how it was to be loved by someone in that manner. He never knew loving someone came at such a cost that he would be missing a dear friend in such a grievous manner.

“Throw everything aside. Let it slide by you, Akshat. Give yourself some priority. Don’t destroy yourself in the process!” said Kaira in a tone of consolation.

“He had a million crushes in the past. He had mini-emotional breakdowns in all of those accounts. So, don’t worry. He would successfully get away from this phase in quick time too!” laughed off Aarav.

Akshat knew this wasn’t possible in this issue. He had grown some great amount of admiration for this girl and now, all this was really taking a toll on him. He wanted to forget it all. He wanted to shed this part of his life. But in his heart, he had the patience to give it some more time. Maybe, he didn’t want to crack down on this precious solidarity too soon.

“I’m going to kill you the next time you behave like a Devdas! This look of yours is horribly pathetic!” squeaked Alan, looking rather sullen.

“Give this poor soul some time. He will rise soon enough. And then, God save all the girls!” laughed Aarav.

“Let’s first find another place to sit out. This heat will kill us all! And I have something to tell you all too” confessed Ravish.

“No, not another of your memoirs. Let’s run away before he wipes us out!” shouted Aarav.

Speaking this, Aarav took off his car with Kaira and Ravish, while Alan and Akshat followed them in the bike.

“You might want to give a call to Shivesh and Samar too! Tell them to stop at the Havalpur Highway Flyover. We will drive together from there!” shouted Akshat, to Ravish from the pillion seat.

“Ok, let’s all meet there!” replied Ravish in a rambunctious voice, which got nullified by the wind.