It was bright, brilliantly bright as the sun shone in the clear blue skies. We ran across the dusty roads as we chased each other in a game of tag. Our clothes were that of the cheapest cotton as it flew along with the breeze that bought in the hot waves of sweltering heat.
We were drenched in sweat, but that didn’t bother us as we ran and ran until he caught up to me. And so we tumbled down the cool grass of the garden that we often visited on such days. We lay peacefully under the shade of a huge banyan tree sings song of folklore and poems taught in school.
It was then we heard the bell, a distinct sound we wouldn’t miss no matter where we are. We looked at each other giving wide smiles as we rushed back to our adobe to ask for a dime. “Dear mum, oh mum please give me some money, it is the ‘Kulfi-man’ and he looks in a hurry”
She would then smile at me and look inside her pursue and hand me money and I would rush out at once. “Wait! Oh wait,” I would yell as I run from my house down the stairs to the roads that lay bare. I heard him coming too from the other side of the street. I saw the ‘Kulfi-man’ stop and smile sweetly at us. We rushed at once and grabbed our sweets.
We then ran once again in the game of tag when he laughed and laughed and claimed this was his best summer yet. I smiled back as we played some more games in the field, from hide and seek to ludo and badminton too. The days were minimal as we enjoyed our time. He didn’t make a fuss nor complained about me when I splashed him with water or played pranks on him. He just smiled and said “This is his best summer yet.”
It’s been a while now since I last came here. I sit below the banyan tree now twice as much broad, my hair now grey as they flit silently across my face. I close my eyes, and I can still remember his face, smiling serenely at me he had said one last time, “This is my best summer yet, for I had you by my side.”
I blushed not regardless knowing the depth of his words, but they ring in my ear like echos of the past. A tear slips down as if to shake me from a dream, I open my eyes and out come a stream. ‘Tis was the summer that was the best I had too, because it was the last in which I had him too.
Written by Simran Daniel
