The Summer Visit

Ishita Desai
Nov 2 · 3 min read
Image by Adina Voicu from Pixabay

“My brother is coming today,” I tell my neighborhood friends standing in the parking area of the society.

“Is he coming alone?” my friend asks.

“Oh yes! He’s coming by airplane and my father says there are airhostesses to take care of him during the whole flight.”

“Will he come to play with us?”

“Umm… I’ll ask him but I’m not sure. You see he’s elder than us. He might not like the games we play.”

During most summers Aditya visits us. He stays with my extended family in Faridabad and not with us since the time we’ve moved here. I have asked my mother several times that why didn’t they bring him here with us. She says that the schools here are not as good as in our hometown. They left him there in the care of grandmother and my youngest uncle who is very fond of him. My uncle attends his parent teacher meeting and teaches him everyday. But how can he stay there without father and mother? I thank god that they didn’t leave me there.

“He’s here!” I shout out loud and all my friends look to the gate.

I run towards the scooter where he’s seated on the backseat. While my father parks the scooter at its appropriate place, takes off the bag from the front side, my brother jumps off and hugs me. I climb up the stairs with my brother and father leading to our house on the first floor.

“You know there’s a huge water tap that hangs in the air without any support and pumps out so much water,” I tell Aditya. I bet he hasn’t seen anything like that.

“Yes we’ll go to the Law Garden in the evening and show your brother the tap,” my father says. My father takes me there on most Sundays. There are so many little shops and all of them are always full with colorful stuff of all kinds. Apart from that there are numerous ice cream and popcorn vendors, and we can ride the horse cart too!

My mother opens the door even before we ring the bell. She smiles broadly and takes my brother in her arms. He’s finally here.

“Come, I’ll show you my toys.” I take him towards my room but on the way he turns into the kitchen. Standing in the middle of the room, he looks around, top to bottom like he has never seen the kitchen before.

“First have your lunch and then you can play as much as you like,” my mother is quick to respond from the dining room and orders us to come back.

“Come let’s go, mother is calling us,” I tell him but he doesn’t listen.

He spots the two bottles of toffees that are filled up to the rim. Before I can stop him, he has already climbed the stool and reaches for them. I had told mother to hide the bottles.

“Who gave you so many toffees?” he asks standing tall on the stool.

“I’ve collected them over the year. You’re supposed to eat only one in a day and not more than that. Mom won’t allow you.”

“All of these are now mine. Thank you my sweet little sister” he laughs at me and takes out a handful of toffees, spilling few on the floor and putting the rest of them in his pocket.

The bottle is now half empty.

“Mommy! He has taken all my chocolates!” I shout.

He sticks his tongue out and dances like a monkey and laughs at me!

“It’s okay. You have so many of them. And we should always share. Remember.” She smiles at me and takes us both outside the kitchen holding our hands. All the while he keeps making stupid faces at me and I promise myself to hide the bottles when he visits us next. But now I’ve to start collecting them all over again.