Chapter 4 : I feel really happy that Alu has a teacher like you.

The constant tapping of my feet comes to a halt, when I see little Alekya giving me a worried glance. I need to calm myself down, or the little girl is going to get jittery herself. But I can't help myself! I told Rajiv that I'll be there by 6:00 pm to help him out and I'm super late!

It's already 5:50, and no one has come to pick up Alu yet. Maybe they didn't receive the message about the changed timing for today, cause Aarti is never late.

I pace around for a few more minutes, and mentally try to calculate. It takes 15 minutes on my scooty to get there, but unluckily for me my scooty is at the auto repair shop, and if I get lucky and get a cab now, with all the traffic, it'd still make me half an hour late, and I'm never late! My friend is counting on me. I need to do something, just sitting around will only delay me more.

"Hey Alu, sweetie, who's coming to pick you up?" I ask the seven year old, who has now taken out her coloring book and is busy creating a modern day Cinderella by coloring her hair purple and dress black. Guess she got bored of waiting.

"Amma said, appa was coming to pick me up today," the girl replied with a bright smile, probably excited about her father coming to get her. I hate to burst her bubble, but I see no choice. I walk up to the kid's register and note down Alekya Sharma's address. V-Block! Great!

"I'm sorry sweetheart, but your dad seems to be running late, let me take you home, ok?" the sweet girl agrees without a word. She is such a delight!

After locking up and depositing the keys at the reception, I ask Ganesh to convey the message that I took Alu home, in case someone comes looking for her. I take the little girl's hand, and together we fast walk, or more like I try not to drag the little girl in urgency, towards V-Block, all the while she tells me about things at her school.

By the time, I knock on the door number 0512 of V-Block, I'm pretty much shaking. I've never been this late in my entire life. The door opens a few seconds later, revealing, to my surprise, the elevator guy, with sweaty face and a hammer in hand.

Oh! So, this is Aakash Sharma. He didn't seem like a father the other day though. Ok! anyway, Mr.Sharma is now looking at me with surprise and confusion evident on his face, and his confusion increases when he sees his daughter at my side.

"Mr. Sharma, hi! I'm Dia, I'm Alekya's art camp teacher. There seems to be a little miscommunication. Today the class was only till 5:30 pm, so when no one came to pick her up by 6:00, I decided to drop her off," I say, as Alu rushes past her father, inside her house.

Seeing that my job is done here, I open my mouth to say a farewell, when my phone blares to life, startling both me and Mr.Sharma.

"One sec," I hold up a finger and answer the call, immediately hearing the frantic voice of my friend, "Dia, where are you? Are you okay? You are never late!" he fires at me immediately.

"Calm down Rajiv, I'm on my way, I'm so sorry for the delay, there was a misunderstanding at the camp. I'll be there in half an hour, if I can get a cab. Again, I'm sorry," I pacify him with a few more words before hanging up to see Mr. Sharma patiently standing at the door.

"Right! I'm sorry about the call, I really need to leave. Good day Mr. Sharma!" I say and turn around, ready to pull out my phone and book an Ola, when "wait!" Mr. Sharma calls out.

"Sorry I couldn't help but overhere your conversation earlier. It's prime time, and getting a taxi at this hour is a nightmare, so let us offer you a ride. After all, we are to blame for your predicament," he gives me a small smile. It was really generous of him, but I couldn't possibly accept the offer. It's too much.

Then again, he has a point. If I wait for a taxi, I won't be reaching 'Swaadh' anytime before midnight.

I give him an awkward smile, "only it's not too much to ask," I say.

"No problem, let me get my keys, and we're all set to go," he says, before going back inside. He comes out, a minute or so later, holding his key set in one hand and Alekya's hand in the other, "let's go," he says and together we head to the parking lot.

At the parking lot, when I see him heading towards a motorcycle, I get confused, "We are not taking your car?" I ask, remembering Alekya drawing a picture of her family in their car. I assumed we would be using one now, and that is the only reason I agreed to this. I just don't feel comfortable riding a motorcycle with a stranger, it feels weird.

"No, I don't own one, this is all I could afford, I'm afraid," he says, getting on the bike and lifts his daughter to place her in front of him on the front tank. When I just stand there awkwardly contemplating if it would be too rude to back out now, he politely and patiently asks,"Any problem, Ms. Dia?"

Yup! It would definitely be rude to back out now, so I hesitantly walk up to the motorcycle, get on it placing a hand on Mr. Sharma's shoulder for support, and immediately withdraw my hand once I've got on. I sit placing as much distance as I could between the married man and me, and hold the back handle of the bike for support. Hope Aarti doesn't mind her husband driving me.

Soon we are zipping through the city prime time traffic, with me giving my ride directions to my friend's restaurant, while the father and daughter have a conversation I couldn't hear due to the wind and traffic.

When we stop at a red light, Mr. Sharma turns to his right a little so I could hear, and asks, "If you don't mind me asking Ms. Dia, I'm curious about something, I thought you were an art teacher, how come you are going to a restaurant for work?" Curiosity evident in his tone.

"Firstly, please call me Dia, adding the Miss makes me feel like my rigid high school history teacher. As for the working at a restaurant, I went to culinary school with my friend, the owner of the restaurant, and I lend my hand sometimes in his kitchen. Teaching art for kids is a simple enough task, one that I enjoy immensely. This other friend of mine, the apartment president's wife, asked me to take a few classes in summer to keep the kids busy. I guess they liked my program, cause they made it a regular thing after summer ended," I explain the long story, hoping that I didn't bore him to death.

Only after finishing did I notice that we were already moving, and I had subconsciously leaned a little closer while talking. I immediately sit back straight.

The next thing I know, we are parked in front of the two story building with 'Swaadh' written in english, with a hindi style font, on it. I check the time to see that we made it in less than 15 minutes. I am only 20 minutes late, that's a tiny relief.

I get off the bike, and turn to the pair and find them giving me smiles, as if proud for helping me out. It was an adorable sight. "Thank you so much to you and your sweet daughter Mr. Sharma, if it wasn't for your help, I'd still be waiting for a cab," I say with a bright smile, which immediately dims when I see the man giving me a confused look.

"Oh! First of all, you don't need to call me Mr. Sharma either, you can call me Abhay. Secondly I'm not Alu's father, that'd be my forgetful brother Aakash," the man says, completely catching me by surprise.

"Oh wow! I thought you were Alekya's father the whole time, I didn't know she had an uncle who lived with them," I say, still trying to rearrange my thoughts. So he is not Alu's father, he is her uncle, also a Mr. Sharma. That would make him Aarthi's brother in law. Okay then. "Anyway thanks for the ride," I say again.

"Oh no, I don't live with them, it's just temporary, I wasn't present much in Alu's recent years, which I'm trying to remedy, so she might not have talked much about me yet. She did tell me about you though, " he explained smiling, to which Alekya just nodded smiling herself.

I smile back in return and say, "it was nice meeting you Abhay, but I need to get going before my friend has a mental breakdown. Have a good night both of you."

I turn around and take a few steps towards the entrance of the restaurant when a weird thought strikes me. Wasn't Abhay the elevator guy? What was he doing in Y-block when his brother lives in V-block? Why did he have a hammer in hand when he opened the door? Why haven't Alu, who talks to me about almost everything never mention an uncle before? How do I believe if he truly was her uncle? Oh God! What if he is some sort of a serial killer? Or a kidnapper? I can't leave the child with him, without knowing this identity for sure.

So, I turn around and head towards the bike, which he was just about to start, when he sees me and kills the engine. "Need anything Dia?" he asks with the polite smile he has been wearing the whole evening.

"I'm really sorry, but I can't let you take Alekya with you," I state in an authoritative voice. He immediately frowns, "is there a problem? I don't understand," he tilts his head to the side, while Alu looks at me pouting, "but I'm hungry," she says, immediately making me pout myself internally. Cute! But she'd have to wait.

"Look, it's nothing personal, but I don't really know you and have no proof of you being her uncle and I'm not going to take the seven years old's word for it, who could've been easily manipulated or scared into telling it. So, if you can wait a minute, I'd like to verify it with her mother," I state assertively, not leaving room for argument.

His expression changes from confused to, what looks like mildly amused. He looks younger with the amused glint in his eyes... Okay Dia! Not the point! "Fair enough, I have nothing to hide, do what you need to do," he agrees, crossing his arms in front his chest.

I take out my phone, and when I find 'Aarti, Alu Mom' in the contacts, I press the 'video call' icon and wait as it rings. Aarti picks up on the fifth ring, and her surprised face appears on the screen, "Dia! Hi! Is everything ok? Sorry for not picking up Alu, My brother in law texted me saying you dropped her off, thank you so much!" she rushes through the explanation. Okay! So there is a brother in law, but is the man sitting in front of me the brother in law?

I turn the camera to the pair sitting patiently on the bike and say, "oh no, everything is fine, just wanted to assure you that Alu is safely with Abhay, who both kindly offered to give me a ride," I don't mention the testing part, so as not to worry her. When she just waves at them and tells them to drive back safe, putting my worries of Abhay being a criminal at ease, I disconnect the call.

"Again sorry for the inconvenience, it's nothing personal," I explain to the still amused looking Abhay. Why did I have to get into another weird situation with him, again? Wasn't once enough?

"You both can dine here today, on the house, my treat, for giving me a ride and cooperating with my 'verification'," I say, the words flowing out of my mouth before it could register in my brain.

Alu immediately lights up, she expectantly looks at her uncle, "can we? Please?" and there goes the puppy eyes. He hesitates only for a second before nodding his head, "okay then."

Parking his bike to the side, he gets off and after he helps his niece off the bike, we walk into the restaurant, "pick any table you want, and order anything you'd like. I can make Alu's meal a little less spicier," I give them a bright smile, and ruffle Alu's hair, as she rushes past me to the table by the large aquarium and wave at Abhay before turning around, towards the 'staff only' door.

Before I could take a step though, I feel a soft, barely there touch on my elbow, almost ticklish. I turn around to see Abhay smiling, a real, genuine smile, unlike the polite and amused ones I've received till now.

"What you did earlier was really thoughtful, caring and responsible. I feel really happy that Alu has a teacher like you," he says, leaving me stunned, making my heart swell with pride and, is it joy..?

"Thank you, it means a lot," I say, looking him right in the eyes, to show the sincerity behind my words. He gives me a nod in return, and we both part ways, me towards the kitchen and him to his niece, with big bright smiles.