Chapter XX
The Last Seat: The Lunch Box Journal
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It was a cold winter morning, the wind was a little chilly, the sun still resting beyond the horizon waiting for the first light to break the dawn. Aryan woke up with a jolt, startled that he was looked around, and checked the time on his phone. “Shit” was what he said next. His usual sleeping mantra of waking up early in the morning was simple- do not sleep. And no, any amount of alarms couldn’t help him, especially if he plans to wake up early. His no-sleep game was going strong. 1AM, the laptop’s bottom was heating up like a molten lava, but that didn’t bother him from giving it a little rest. He put some more movies on download and went to take a shower. 2AM, the season that he had downloaded earlier that night had completed half of the first episode. By 3 AM, two episodes were down and as he checked the time, he thought there was a long way to go and that he could definitely make it to the morning, looking a bit sleepy but still he will be one time. One thing he didn’t like was being late. More than being late, he hated making others wait for him. And that was the reason he just wanted to be on time, if not early. 3:30 AM, he was feeling a bit dizzy but that was nothing new for him so he was sure he could fight it for another hour which is when he would take a bath and everything will be all fresh. 4 AM and he found himself almost dozing off on his bed. So, he decided to sit and watch the remaining of the 5th episode or was it 6th. He had lost count by then and he wasn’t even sure what he was watching. The laptop was playing the series or perhaps it stopped at the end of the last episode and he wasn’t even sure what was happening. By the time it was 4:30, he found himself falling and that was when he checked the time and assured himself that it was just 30 minutes away. So, he looked at his dizzy state and thought it wouldn’t hurt much to take a just a second of nap and then wake up again in 30 minutes. No biggie. He knew that sleeping at that time would just make him senseless for another 4-5 hours and no amount of anything and everything can wake him up. Despite knowing his weakness, he decided to take a power nap. How hard could it have been? A second later he woke up with a jolt. What felt like a second for him was close to two hours. 6 AM; he was supposed to be at the meeting point by this time. He could hear the car horns outside his home. He thought that his friends might have come to his home to pick him up since he was not picking up his phone. Aryan had a couple too many missed calls from two people. He got ready in a jiffy and informed them that he was on his way. He just ran outside in-between all this just to check if they aren’t just outside his home and all his bluffing would backfire in his face.
He got the auto just in time and it was sheer luck that the guy wasn’t trying to exploit him especially at that hour of the morning since there are no much autos they just triple the fare to make the passengers struggle. It’s a fun little game of theirs that they play every once and then. Nonetheless, he reached the discussed meeting point just in time. By in time, he reached before the other guy who was supposed to meet them at the same point. The other guy Gautham, came a little late than usual planned time, making Aryan let out a sigh of relief that no one was ‘apparently’ waiting for him by the time he arrived. Gautam was carrying a humongous keyboard to practice for the music performance that he and Akhil were giving later in a few days. Neil had stayed up at Akhil’s house the previous night since that was the start of the journey and the car that they booked for the day was supposed to be picked up close to Akhil’s house. The journey started a bit later than expected but they thought it could be covered in record time once all are on board and the journey finally starts. The next stop was the office where the remaining trip-mates were supposed to get on board since they stayed close to the office and also Gautham could keep his musical instrument at the office before they begin the journey. Sameer and Madhav came just in time to be picked up while Gautham kept the Keyboard at the office. Their plan was to attend the marriage and come back to office close to lunchtime. The journey was close to three hours and they wanted to make in time for the marriage or else it would look like they came all the way to eat. Everything was almost set, but one more person who wanted to join didn’t arrive at the meeting point yet. After a few calls and not picking some of them, he finally said he was on his way. Sensing that this is not exactly what would happen, the rest of the gang decided to have breakfast in the nearby shop. Dosa was the item of the day and they gobbled one after the another without any break. They spent a good amount of time eating those dosas and this gentleman was still nowhere to be seen. After a few more calls, he said that he was on his way. Now, this was something they were not able to believe. But they gave him the benefit of the doubt.
They spent the next half hour replanning their trip and trying to make a decision whether to go ahead on the journey without him. Everyone was pissed. And their getting pissed off levels were increasing with each second the gentleman in question wasn’t picking up their calls or giving any other information. They thought that the gentleman could have just told these guys to carry on that he overslept, but instead he picks up one of the ten calls to tell them that he was on the way. He had been on the way for the past one hour and a half. And after a while, they have had enough. Meanwhile, they decided to get the car fueled up to cut the time and it was sort of an ultimatum that unless the gentleman calls them by the time they get it filled up, they will just carry on the journey without him. They filled the car and there was still no call from the gentleman. So, as discussed they will be carrying on the journey without him. But then as they were about to start, they got the call from him that he was almost reaching the office and will meet the rest of the gang after parking his car. The whole gang sighed knowing about this new development. They were all ready to carry on the journey but this put a break to their just formed plan. And even though he said he was pulling up at the office, they weren’t sure whether to fully trust him or not. But with their hands tied behind their back, they had no other choice but to give him this last and final chance. They pulled up again at the meeting spot and waited. The gentleman wasn’t still there. Everyone held their heads in their hands and prayed they he showed up at least now. And yay, he finally showed up, after a while. And since everyone settled themselves in the front and the middle seat, the only seat remaining was the last one. So, it was sort of a punishment for this gentleman. The finally started after such a long wait.
Gautham driving skills gave few a few chills while the others cared less. Since this was a rented out car, there was a speed limit on the car and if one were to cross that speed limit they had to pay an extra fee for going over that limit. This was one limiting factor for Gautham, or else he would have taken the needle to the max that the car would have let him. He might have touched that aforementioned limit a time or two. But still, he decided to go just below that limit. The gentleman had skipped having breakfast as it was planned earlier that they would have breakfast somewhere on the way, but his delay forced the other people to have the breakfast near the office. So, he was hungry as hell. The journey was shorter than expected because of Gautham’s speed skills. They were a bit late to marriage even though they reached in lesser time due to the gentleman’s morning drama. After greeting the just married couple they headed to the dining hall since the gentleman was dead hungry.
They greeted the couple one more time and they started back on their way back since they had to get to the office on time. The gentleman wanted to drive the car because he wasn’t as interested sitting at the back. Even though it would have been unfair to make him sit in the same last seat again, all the others adjusted in the front seats like earlier. The only difference being Akhil behind the wheel instead of Gautham, while the gentleman took the same last seat. And to add to his troubles, the afternoon was hotter in November and the sun was a directly falling in the rear seat where he was sitting. While the other people felt bad for doing this to him, but no one was willing to take his seat there. The return journey didn’t long either like the onward journey. They reached just after the lunchtime. Since they ate at the marriage, they weren’t feeling as hungry when they reached the office late in the afternoon. Without further ado, they continued with their daily work of the office, but a certain gentleman was sort of angry at the whole group who left him in the last seat but was successfully concealing it.
… to be continued.
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December had some new things in store for the folks at the office, the biggest of it being the Secret Santa
The Lunch Box Journal
-ajaykontham
