Chapter 03

“Oh my god, What happened to you my darling child Raveen! Oh your handsome face!”

Mihindu’s mum, Somalatha, screamed at the very sight of Raveen. Raveen smirked at us and ran towards her. 

“Some boys started a fight with me aunty” Raveen said, and let me be very clear; made the exact face when u hit your pinky toe on a corner of the table. 

Mihindu and Sekara weren’t anyway new to Raveen’s dramas. This is how he got all the love. 

Somalatha dragged a chair outside and made him sit on it and ran back in to the house. It was a small house built with bricks and mud. The small garden was kept clean & tidy.

Around the house there were few Kohomba trees* growing tall and it kept the house cool and comfortable at all times. Mihindu’s mother was growing vegetables in the back of the house and always occupied herself with it. 

Somalatha came back outside with a wet piece of cloth and some turmeric to clean the wound on his forehead, while she was wiping his wailing face, she turned towards the two friends angrily;

“And you weren’t there??”,

Raveen smirked.

Mihindu snapped at Raveen, “Oh you son of a…” Sekara pinched Mihindu. 

“Anyway, mother, Raveen got us bread, can we have breakfast soon”

More points for Raveen.

“Oh Raveen putha, you shouldn’t have”

“Oh aunty, I couldn’t help” 

She blushed with happiness. 

She mixed the turmeric powder with a bit of water to make a paste of it. After applying the paste on his wounds, Somalatha grabbed the bread and went inside to put it on the table with the spicy dhal curry she made.

“Putha shall I make Polsambol too?”

Sekara looked at Somalatha’s tired eyes, and his eyes wandered off to a small old statue of Lord Buddha, almost unrecognisable, yet the oil lamp was burning well.

“It’s fine Nanda* The dhal curry alone must be quite tasty”

Her face lightened up and she stroked Sekara’s head amiably.

After a heavy breakfast, the three friends started walking towards Sekara’s home. Raveen cherished these walks as he doesn’t like to live in the middle of town. Mihindu lived quite near to Sekara but Mira’s house was nearer to Sekara. They were passing Mira’s house but she had classes all day, so they knew she wasn’t home.

“Oi Sekara, It’s a shame your girl wasn’t there to see you fighting”, Raveen chuckled.

“You know for someone who got beaten up very badly, you sure got some words left”

“Okay, okay she isn’t your girl”

“Yet” Mihindu added laughingly. They ran off to avoid Sekara’s temper throws, Sekara chased them until home. 

Raveen halted by the fence all of a sudden, Sekara’s sister was reading outside. Raveen was looking at her like he was hypnotized. Nimesha had straight short hair and she always wore dresses to highlight her curvy body. She had a small face, round eyes and full lips. She was studying very attentively, and she was rolling the pencil between her fingers, at times, she stopped and alarmingly wrote something down. How Raveen has wished he was the pencil!

“That bugger is up to no good Sekara, The woman is the most annoying and has ratted us out in too many occasions!”

Sekara shook his head in agreement. Sekara and Mihindu went to the back of the house to get the bicycle leaving Raveen unattended. 

“ Hello Nimesha”

She raised her head slowly to see who it was and continued reading the book.

“Oh, hi Raveen, what happened to your face ?” she asked with eyes fixed on the book and no change in her tone. 

“I got into a fight”

She raised her head and, after one hard look at his face, started laughing insanely. 

His heart sank.

“Oi aren’t you coming? Going to the repair shop, well, unless you want to be with the witch, be my guest,” Sekara yelled at Raveen.

Shamed, Raveen walked towards his friends. 

After repairing the bicycle, Raveen went home as he was feeling feverish. He assured Sekara and Mihindu that he will go to the hospital if the pain didn’t subside.

Sekara started paddling home with Mihindu sitting on the top tube. Sekara was deep in thoughts but Mihindu couldn’t shut up about how the fight went. 

“You've got to calm down in fights Sekara, in one of these days you are going to kill someone”

“And it could be you if you don’t shut up about it Mihindu” 

“Pffft” Mihindu was annoyed. 

Sekara dropped Mihindu by his home and asked to meet near the canal tomorrow. 

“Can you please let Mira know too?” Sekara tried to push those words with no force at all but Mihindu understood the assignment well enough. He winked playfully. 

“I got it brother!”

The lunch was ready when Sekara arrived home. There was a fish curry; fresh fish from the lake, jackfruit curry and leftover Polsambol from the morning. As he opened rice cooker, the smell of cooked rice filled his lungs. Sekara loved the smell of cooked rice. It was his definition of a home; to feel the smell of freshly cooked rice. His father has brought a packet of rice and it was laying there on the kitchen table triumphantly. No one else had eaten yet but his stomach was growling at the sight of food. He served the first spoon of rice to his father’s plate and kept it aside. Sekara’s mother used to do it every time as a sign of respect for the elder in the family. 

While he was eating, Nimesha popped her head out from her room,

“So what’s wrong with your friend?”

“He got beaten up today. What is it to you anyway?”

“I felt bad for laughing”

“You must be, he fought with those boys because they had stolen his mother’s watch”

“Oh, whatever”

Nimesha crawled inside her room again and sat on the bed. She felt bad for laughing at Raveen without even knowing the reason. She was always too quick to judge people but immediately regretted it. She never wanted to make her parents worry,  so she never went off track. She always focused on studies and it made her care less about the people around her. After sometime she went numb for any human connections. Even though there were many men coming after her in both university and in the village but she never even entertained the thought. It didn’t mean she never had feelings. It meant she carried a huge responsibility to support and save this family. Nimesha wasn’t in love with Raveen nor did she have any feelings towards him. Moreover, it wasn’t respectable for an older woman to fall in love with her younger brother’s friend; it is Tissamaharama. But despite her uninviting characteristics, Raveen was the only person to constantly approach her. So she knew what she did was wrong and silently blamed herself. 

Sekara was biting his lower lip and taping the battery to his old tired phone. The backcover seemed useless after taping. He has gotten a message from Mihindu. 

“Raveen has gotten sick and his father has admitted him in to a hospital in next town. He is fine and will be coming home tomorrow. It was all because of the beat he took. It’s hilarious that the bastard has taken a slap from his father for running his smart mouth at the hospital. He won’t meet us tomorrow, Mira said she will”

Sekara felt happy that Raveen was going to be alright. Even though his father wasn’t so close with him, he loved him at his own distance. Raveen is too childish and sensitive to realize that.  Sekara’s heart was jumping up and down like a ping pong ball by the thought that he is getting to see Mira tomorrow. He always felt like a child around her and he knew no one else can bring such feelings to him. 

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Kohomba Tree - Neem Tree

Nanda - Aunty in Sri Lankan Style