In reality we cannot be more different from each other. For instance, my wardrobe has a lot of black, blue and grey while he has neons and camouflage prints. Reptiles give me goosebumps, he breeds them. My idea of a vacation would be a resort by the beach; he was planning his honeymoon in a jungle. French beard was the farthest I would go; he started with an eyebrow piercing. I am all left brain and he is mostly right brain. The point I am trying to drive home is that we could never think like each other and yet so often took the liberty to do so; invariably ending up in a pickle every single time. One such incident was on the day I turned 18.
After spending most of the day with my friends (ARR included), I finally reached home around 8 in the evening. I was on my way to my room, when my mom stopped me and 'handed' me a briefcase. She said it was from ARR who had stopped by earlier and his instructions were clear. She had to personally hand it over to me. "Do not leave it in his room, don't let his sister or anyone else give it to him. Aunty, you.. only you, should hand it to him" were his orders.
"He was with me all day, he could have given it to me then", I wondered. "May be he only got it ready in the evening. Or maybe he did not want to give it in front of them all" I was trying to reason. Although I was very excited to open the briefcase to see what was inside, I knew that with ARR and the peculiar way that 'beautiful mind' worked it was best that I do that in private.
I walked up to my room, bolted the door behind me and set the suitcase on my bed. "What could it be?", I was trying to guess. I shook the briefcase and it sounded like there was glass inside. I decided to open it. I couldn't. The key combination was off. After a couple of tries, I thought I will just call ARR and follow instructions.
I called him and he wasn't around. I waited impatiently. Another couple of tries on the key combination. Birthdays, Phone Number etc. Nothing worked. Called him again. No one knew where he was.
I could not wait anymore. The suspense was killing me. I decided to break in. Went down to the kitchen, took the biggest of the knives and came back to my room. The suitcase looked quite old and definitely tossed around. By the looks of it, I could tell that only the contents of the case were valuable, not the case itself.
I tried gently at first from the sides. Soon realized that they were the toughest areas to get in as they were heavily padded. The center of the suitcase looked the softest and most vulnerable. The underside even had a circular spot right around the center where the leather was faded-almost like a bull's eye -looked inviting. Without much hesitation I sent the knife right through that spot and ripped the case open. Much to my delight, there was bottle of beer, still cold and a few other 'essential' gifts for someone who had just turned 18.
I had finished about half the bottle, when the phone rang. It was ARR on the other end. "Did your mom give you the briefcase?" he asked specifically.
"Yup. Thanks MAAN", I said.
"Wait till you see whats inside", he bragged.
"I know. Thanks a lot for the beer" I said.
"What? but... what? you.. how did you open the briefcase?" he asked.
I told him what I did.
He could not talk. "Dude.. you there" I asked. He still could not talk. I could hear him breathing heavily in the background. Very nervously he said "we gotta a problem, I am coming over".
He was home in no time. He narrated his whole plan. His idea was to have my mom symbolically hand me the beer and the other 'essentials' - almost in a way of crowning her son and wishing him the best as he stepped into his adulthood. This of course had to be done not so conspicuously and so the services of the briefcase were used. He was supposed to come back again, have me open the briefcase, we both have the beer and then he would leave with the suitcase.
The suitcase had to be back home that same day. The next day, his dad would leave for work as usual. He would carry all his work stuff in that very same briefcase as usual, as he had done for the last 16 years. Something he was extremely sentimental about and that something was lying on the floor in my room now with a 12 inch gash running through the center.
Over the next 3 days, we tried every suitcase repair store in the city to see if anyone can perform a re constructive surgery and restore the suitcase to its old glory. Sadly for us, no one was up to it. We finally came up with a very convincing story of how I accidentally ran my car over the suitcase to ARR's dad. I don't think he quite bought it.
Needless to say ARR did not get to celebrate his birthday that year. At least the way he had hoped, for his 18th.
awesome again!!!
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