Boys

I wrote this in a hurry before the story frizzled out of my head - its in its raw form without any corrections or re-writes to make it beautiful to read - wrote it in one go so please ignore the mistakes -

The incessant coughing woke him up from his hallucinations and he slowly tilted his head to see the dark green stained army overalls and dusty black boots. A smile appeared on the edge of his, “even now, you wake me up with that god awful sneezing.” He went back to their childhood when winters made the cough worse and nights generally meant hot water with menthol and balm. He still smelt the strong smell of the balm when he thought of their mother. Funny how things turn out, he thought.

Slowly without moving his back, he reached out to his backpack and ran his fingers in it till he felt the smooth round steel can and offered it across. “This is as best a remedy as we can have any day, don’t finish it off like you always do, its special, more than 10 years old.” A hand reached out and he got a glimpse of the bent finger he was the cause of god alone knows how long ago,…those were better times, those days they played football the whole day. “Hey A, whatever happened to Ameya? Did you guys get married, I never got the invitation.” the owner of the bent finger whispered out. The crisp English now had a tinge of the middle grounds, the words came out as though almost from the throat, more of a guttural heavy voice, so different from what he could remember. A… A? A & A+...thats what it had been, childish sibling rivalry had sprouted out nick names for them. He was A & the younger fellow just to get onemanship had gone across the house writing A+ across the walls to introduce himself. The thrashing he got from Pa later didn’t matter but the names stuck & they called each other that all through college too. He patted his chest pocket and slowly pulled out a photo with a woman & two boys smiling away at the person taking the photo. They were at a beach & it had been a clear blue day. “Here, Amar is the younger one, on the right; he reminds me of you all the time, the same nautanki, the same smile, he even broke his front tooth last year; almost the same age when you broke yours I think.” The pain that shot up his spine brought tears to his eyes and he barely was able to control the scream that almost escaped his lips.

He didn’t know when he had fallen asleep or what time it was now, the dust had dried on his eyelids and glued them together. He slowly rubbed his eyes, vaguely remembering his dream of Sara. It was always the same, the same smile, the same green salwar and the spot of red that suddenly appeared on her forehead as he stared into her dark brown eyes. The whirlwind that followed, he didn’t care about, all he wanted was revenge. He slowly looked down on and saw that the blood had clotted, the pain in his twisted broken leg had ceased. Amar looked up at the sun and felt its warmth as tears slid down his cheeks. Why… why? What had he done to deserve this, have everything taken away from his life? Sara, Ma…. “Bhai…” he called out and heard no response. Was he asleep? How badly was he injured? How long ago had he seen his face? He had to see him right now. Slowly he shifted himself & felt the pain in his stomach, bent down to straighten the shredded leg. The urge had become too strong, he didn’t feel the pain anymore, he didn’t notice the wound open up. He slowly pulled himself towards his brother, he could see his black shoes and the dust covered camouflage pants. He winced as he felt something scrape out as he dragged himself closer. There he was, looking at him with those soft eyes, those eyes that were so reassuring. As he moved closer, he saw the iron rod and wanted to turn away but couldn’t. The iron rod had pierced his brother close to his lungs and ripped through him almost cutting him into two. A deep sorrow grew within him, the pain felt like it was choking him and he couldn’t get himself to close his brothers eyes. And then he saw the coin in his brothers hand, the Sholay coin which they had melted together one summer break. They had felt invincible then, they had their fate in their own hands with that coin. He wrapped his fingers around the coin and slowly lay down on his brothers lap. He had always been there for him, the elder brother, the loving bhai… and he smiled knowing that he was joining his brother in another world where they would melt coins together again and live their invincible lives together.