046 Changes

"I'm still shivering." Lakshmi aunty complained to me.

She was truly scared. I felt sorry for her. But it was unavoidable. At the same time, mom was glaring at me. I knew I was going to be punished severely when we get home. Even Anu and Doodu might get punished.

Knock... knock...

Someone knocked and entered the room. The new guy instantly attracted the attention of everyone. Because he was huge.

Even bigger than uncle Johny. He was tall and weighed at least 100kg. He even had a big beard.

"Why are you hugging my wife you little rat?" An unfamiliar raspy voice filled the room.

I knew this guy. He was none other than the husband of Lakshmi aunty. He is actually handsome and scary at the same time. He always had a stupid smile. I had a very positive memory of this guy. Even after the divorce, he continued to take care of Lakshmi aunty. Especially when the hospital was suffering from the scandal, he did everything to protect Lakshmi aunty.

"Are you jealous?" Lakshmi aunty teased him.

Dad was still outside making calls. Mom watched us with an awkward smile.

"Why would I be jealous?" He replied without thinking.

Dude!!!! When a woman asks whether you are jealous, either act jealous or praise her.

"I heard you created troubles for my wife." He sat down and glared at me trying to scare me.

"No. No.. You trouble.." I replied in broken words.

"What? You dare to call me 'you'?[1] Come here little rascal." He tried to take me from Lakshmi aunty. I hugged her neck tightly and made sure he won't take me.

"Fine. But you see, your Lakshmi aunty likes me more." He continued annoying me. But I didn't completely dislike it. Because I clearly had the upper hand in this situation.

I turned towards Lakshmi aunty looking for an answer. She just looked at me smiling.

So I started acting. My lips quivered and my eyes were  filled with tear in an instant.

"Don't cry. Don't cry. Achootty is my favourite." She immediately consoled me.

I looked at uncle Vijay victoriously.

"Is he doing this intentionally?" He turned towards mom and asked in disbelief.

Mom nodded helplessly. "It's better you don't compete with him."

"How can I lose to a milk smelling baby?" Uncle Vijay wasn't ready to surrender.

I had an idea.

"Do it." The fiery red devil on my left shoulder told me to do it.

"Do it." The pure and innocent angel on my right shoulder also told me to do it.

"Lachu... Ummma..." I demanded a kiss from Lakshmi aunty.

Lakshmi aunty laughed and gave me a kiss.

I looked at him again.

"I am not allowed to call you Lachu and he is?" He completely ignored the kiss and raised another issue.

Lakshmi aunty glared at him and he went silent. Clearly, she wasn't happy about the complaint. Only then did I realize that even her husband was not allowed to call her like that. I have no idea why it was like that. Probably another interesting story.

"That's two out of three. Now only Prince is left. Hahaha..." Uncle Vijay was embarrassed and he tried to make a joke to hide it. Except he did a pretty bad job.

It took me a moment to understand what he meant. He was saying that two males in our family had already fallen for Lakshmi aunty and the only one left was Prince.

Suddenly, I felt a bit better. I always thought my dad was dumb and always said wrong things. But this guy was on a completely different level. It's a miracle that he is alive with that tongue of his.

He realized that he made a mistake. So he made a zipping gesture on his lips and went silent for a few minutes.

I stayed with Lakshmi aunty and Uncle Vijay till evening. It was fun. Uncle Vijay was pretty good when it came to playing with babies. Uncle Vijay and I played a lot together. He also told me many stories. I was absolutely sure that he would make a great dad. (Maybe not as great as my dad. But still a good one.) In between, we ate the biriyani. Lakshmi aunty gave me a bit of it. I was happy.

Since I was fine, we came back home by night. We all got punished. Anu and Doodu got half their toys taken away for a week. They were sad and complained to me. I hated this way of punishment. I really didn't want Anu to be punished for something I did.

I was punished by almost eveyone. Mom took away my toys and scolded me. Jeemma scolded me till my ear became numb. She also brought me in front of the medicine box and gave me a small slap on bum. As for Anu, she simply turned me around and spanked me till I was crying for mom. Dad and Doodu pretended to be disappointed in me.

The punishments were a lot more severe than I expected it to be. I consoled myself as I had no other choice.

At home, I learned the full story.

Apparently, dad wasn't trying to reward the nurse. He was taking her away so that she won't report anything to the police or media. I thought my plan had failed. But fortunately, dad was a lot more intelligent than I expected him to be. He found the scam that was going on in the pharmacy.

Sekhar bought cheap drugs from the market. Then he manufactured fake strips of costly drugs and sold the cheap ones in those fake strips. Just because the pill is cheaper doesn't mean its effect is bad. So no one found it for a long time. For years, he ran this scam and made millions.

The vitamin tablet I pretended to eat was also similar. Mom got it from the pharmacy during one of her visits. It was actually a cheaper pill in the fake cover of a costly vitamin C strip.

The nurse was sure about her experience. So she felt something was wrong. Dad noticed it and he took her away. The nurse spent the evening with mom. It wasn't forced. But she wasn't really happy about it.

In the evening, around 5 PM, the pharmacy closed. In 15 minutes, all the medicine in the pharmacy disappeared. Three hours later, all that burned in a cement factory that had dealings with Jeemma. Also, Jeemma became the owner of the pharmacy.

I don't know the details. According to what I heard, Sekhar had no choice other than to sell the pharmacy for a cheap price. He didn't have any complaints. After all, cleaning up the mess he made would cost a good amount.

Dad was a lot more intelligent than I thought. He actually found the issues and even managed to buy the pharmacy for a cheaper price.

Dad convinced the nurse that he would do a better job with the pharmacy. She also got a salary hike. I will skip the boring details again.

I was happy with the outcome.

Till I met Meera.

About one and a half months after that day, Lakshmi aunty introduced me to Meera. Her daughter!

The eventful day I spent with her changed her mind. For the first time, she got a good experience of being a mother. She spent the entire day feeling horrible for her mistake. The feeling was extreme because I wasn't her child and the accident happened when I was in her care. She felt guilty towards my parents. This helped her realize the issue with adopting a child from their own family. Because the kid would have another pair of parents and she can never be 'the' mother of the child.

I was excited and disappointed at the same time. I was happy that the biggest issue in their marriage was solved. But at the same time, I was unhappy that I won't get the same attention I used to get from her.

Lakshmi aunty was having a bit of trouble connecting with the kid. So she started visiting us so that Meera can make new friends. At the same time, she wanted to support mom. Anita's mother also joined as she was also their friend. Slowly, the awkwardness between them disappeared.

Days and weeks passed.

I got pretty familiar with Meera.

She was a big hugger. She would hug everyone she likes. She would hug whenever she was happy or excited. It was something taught to her by her elder sisters in the orphanage. Soon, her hug was famous in our circle. In no time, everyone was competing to get her little hugs. This made her parents really happy.

I was always met with the judgy eyes of Anita whenever I got a hug from Meera. I also felt a bit awkward. After all, hugging my wife in front of my ex-girlfriend was pretty complicated. To hide my embarrassment, I tried hugging Anita. That didn't end well. I won't  tell the details even if you ask me.

Other than this, many small and large incidents happened at our home.

One day, Doodu jumped in front of a bike when he was crossing the road. He got only a small injury on his paw. But he got scolded really bad by dad. After that, he was extra careful whenever he crossed the road.

Another day, he accidentally swallowed one of his toy balls. Luckily, dad noticed him struggling to breathe. Dad forcefully opened his mouth with one hand and pressed his abdomen. The ball came out. After that, dad replaced all the small toys of Doodu. This was a mistake from our side. Doodu was growing up pretty fast and we failed to notice that his toys were a bit small for him.

Another notable incident was that a friend of Anu was transferred to child care. Normally, this wouldn't have caused any issue for us. But there was one small detail that attracted the attention of the teachers. The kid who was transferred to child care dialled 1098. After talking to the kid, we came to know the full story.

In school, Anu found that her friend's parents punish her a lot. So Anu advice her to call 1098 on any phone if she is ever scared or in danger. One evening, her father came home drunk and mom was angry. So mom left for her own home. The angry father slapped the kid. The kid hid under a table and called 1098. Within an hour, the police came and saved the kid.

Everyone applauded Anu for what she did. But there were also some who criticized Anu. According to them, Anu's action separated her from her parents. But dad was in no mood to listen to that he literally chased away those who criticized Anu. Once the issue with others was handled, there was another question left.

How did Anu know about helpline 1098?

After asking Anu this indirectly, dad and mom learned that this was taught to her by Lakshmi aunty. They were a bit angry at Lakshmi aunty. But they decided not to do anything. After all, what she did was the right thing.

Another notable change was the growth of Prince and Priya.

Every day morning, I would compare the size of their palm with mine. There was no visible change. But I would still feel them growing up pretty fast and healthy. Priya was the first to roll and crawl on the floor. Prince was a slow learner.

Every day, I spent a lot of time talking with them. I also play with them everyday. I would run around the room and both of them would chase me on all fours. We all would laugh loud and enjoy. It was pretty fun.

I can tickle both of them and make them laugh uncontrollably. One interesting observation is that Prince would laugh if Priya is laughing. If Priya is laughing loud, Prince would join her for no reason.

You have no idea how much I love playing with them. This will be even better in the future as we grow up.

Since dad was at home, we played together a lot. We also fought a lot. To my dismay, dad found that I get jealous when he spends more time with mom.

This was something even I hadn't noticed before.

Once he found this, he deliberately started hugging or kissing mom when I'm around.

How can I not get angry when he is doing this just to irritate me? So I would chase him, punch him and even bite him. But he has big arms and he would easily overpower me. Still, he would continue wrestling with me for fun and I would try my best to bite him.

Sometimes, Anu would join us. The dumb girl may not even know what's happening. She would see a fight and join it just for fun. Once she joins, the fight would be a bit more fun. Doodu won't join us. Instead, he would run to mom and snitch on us. As for mom, she was extremely happy to see me jealous. She was really enjoying it.

One of these days, I'm going to teach him a lesson.

Even with Anu's help, I could never beat dad in wrestling.

In the blink of an eye, months passed.

Prince and Priya took their baby steps. They also said their first words. I will tell that story next time.

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Thanks for the support

I am going through some arranged marriage proposals. It's awkward and embarrassing. If I knew it was going to be like this, I would have found a girl myself when I had a chance.

Anyway, please pray for me.

[1]: In our language, Malayalam, there are different forms for the word 'you'. Depending on the level of respect, one has to choose the word.