Unscripted Adventures

As I bent down to remove my shoes, my eyes landed on an unfamiliar pair—shoes that didn’t belong to anyone in my family. I was excited. Who could have arrived? I stepped inside my house, and spotted a backpack resting nearby. Confusion ran through my mind. Did my cousins come over? I was about to head to my room, when I saw two people hiding behind the couch. I started walking towards them, when they suddenly jumped up and said, “SURPRISE!!!”. 

It took a second to recognize her, and then I realised – it was one of my friends from the USA; I hadn’t seen her since forever. I was filled with a mix of emotions – happiness, shock, nostalgia, and excitement. Her mom was filming, so we could get my reaction. All of us huddled in one huge group hug, and then finally pulled away. I ran into my room and quickly freshened up and all of us sat down to eat lunch. 

We talked about so many things – the small childhood memories, school, food, and much more. I asked them why they came to India – turns out it was for a visa appointment for her mom, so they decided to stay with us for a night. 

After that, we took a bunch of photos to document the moment, and some of them turned out to be us just making fools of ourselves. My sister went to her class, while my friend and I just continued taking photos and talking. Soon, my sister’s class finished and we went downstairs to the clubhouse to play badminton and ping-pong.

We ate dinner, watched TV for a while, and fell asleep. The next day, my sister had school – but I didn’t. So, I had my friend fro the rest of the day. We went out to Cafe Nilofur with our parents. We hardly ate anything – we were too excited to be together for that. Then, we went back home and did some artwork – a card that had our handprints on it, just for documenting more memories. 

We made some bracelets and just continued talking – we had way too much to catch up on. My sister came back home, and we all had lunch. After lunch, we watched TV for a while, and went back to my room to relax. Our moms came in and told us that she had to go. Our mood suddenly changed to sadness – as if somebody turned on a switch for it.  My friend and I didn’t display much emotion, but on the other hand, my sister was crying a river. 

My mom and I dropped them off at the hotel, and there I said my sad goodbyes to her, both of us promising to each other we would stay in touch.