Rudra sat on the school bench as he waited for the teacher to call out his name.
"Vishnu" called the teacher out loud holding a neatly folded A4 size paper.
Vishnu quietly went to the front to receive his paper. As soon as he got to the front the teacher started scolding.
"How did you get so low. I talked to the other teachers and….."
Rudra droned out from the rest of the conversation as he already knew what was coming. Vishnu was a genius at Maths. You could count the number of times he did not get full marks in his current entire schooling in one hand. However, it was the complete opposite for languages and Social Science. Even Malayalam was a bit difficult for him to score
A very embarrassed Vishnu came back to the seat. Rudra patted his back in condolence as Vishnu returned a half-hearted smile. The rest of the class went in announcing the grades of the test that the teacher had given a few days before. Exam dates approached closer, and the room was a bit tensed.
"Don't worry Avinash. As long as you get good marks in Maths and Science, you just must pass the other subjects." As he dangled his feet above the local Kulam (man made local pond. Used for swimming or bathing in the earlier times. Now it is either used as a part of a function or prayer in the temple or to simply swim around in for the locals.)
"Easy for you to say. You got good marks in everything. You get the same as me in Maths and are good in all the other subjects too. And…"
Avinash was interrupted by a couple of other children jumping and somersaulting into the pool. Rudra watched as they frolicked in the pool and tried playing games.
"As I was saying, I don't understand what the point is of all these extra lessons especially social studies."
"I mean it does give us a bit of awareness on our surroundings and history ya."
"I understand that but why the hell am I supposed to write an exam on it. Also, who cares about some useless king from hundreds of years ago?"
Rudra could not really tell much to this as even he was not really that interested in history either. He just mugged up everything to write in that part.
"Well." Avinash sighed. "Now I have to think about how I am going to explain this to my parents."
They both got up and walked to their towards homes. On the way a chirpy little voice greeted them both
"Hey guys. How was the result?"
They both looked at Lakshmi when she asked. Avinash bowed his head in both slight embarrassment and nervousness. Rudra saw this and rolled his eyes. It was fun to tease at the start but now it was getting kind of tiring.
"It was fine Lakshmi. Just need to do better in the finals." Rudra replied
"You guys did at least pass ya. I know you get good marks in everything Rudra, but what about you Avinash? Did you pass in everything?"
"Well, I guess I did." Avinash replied sullenly. Upon seeing his friends wait for him to explain he sighed and continued.
"Well, I did get full in maths luckily my science part also was good in EVS, but the social studies part was a flop. I almost nearly failed in English and just passed in Malayalam too."
"Hmm I guess then you need to improve on that huh. For me I got decent in everything except Maths. I barely passed in that. I topped in Malayalam. English was okay I guess, could do better though." She replied.
Rudra suddenly had an epiphany. He looked at Avinash and then Lakshmi and devised a small plan in his mind.
"Hey, what about we have a study group for a few days?" he asked. Lakshmi brightened up hearing this while Avinash was wondering where he was going with this. Sensing his hesitation Lakshmi explained further
"He is right. Think about it. I can help in Malayalam and Social Science part. Rudra can help in English, and you can help in Math."
Avinash finally realized what was going on and now was agreeing vigorously.
"Yes, that makes sense. Let us do it. What about we start tomorrow evening?"
"Sure, that makes sense. Today I must help my brothers to pick the cashew nuts to sell tomorrow in the market." She replied. She looked at the sun and realized that it was already a bit late and she started running back to her house yelling out a goodbye.
"Rudra have I ever told you that you are my best friend?" Avinash says with stars in his eyes
"Only a 100 times" said Rudra as he chuckled and continued walking home.
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"Lakshmi, your friends have come" Lakshmi's mother called out into the backyard that also worked as their cashew field as she welcomed Rudra and Avinash into the house to sit at the dining table. She was moderately light skin lady with a frail figure that reminded Rudra of Lakshmi with a green churidar and matching white pants.
She served them both a weak chaya and two Unni appam each. (You can call it chai or tea. In Kerala people say chaya but if you say chai also people understand. Unni appam is also known as sweet fritters which is a very common snack in Kerala)
Lakshmi quickly ran in to see them both in her hall
"Ah sorry" she gasped, a bit out of breath "I was looking after the cow for some time."
Rudra simply nodded as she then excused herself to take a bath and get ready. Meanwhile Avinash simply took out the maths textbook to see where he would start from.
"Ahah, you both were here huh." Said a slightly sun burnt man from the entrance as he took of his sandals. He took of the thorthu (thin cotton towel) from his head and looked around looking for Lakshmi before he hears noises coming from the bathroom and realized. He simply plopped onto the nearby sofa and reached for the TV remote that was on the nearby coffee table.
"Da manushya, poi kulik, pinne ningal TV kaanu."(Hey man, go take a bath first, then watch TV) His wife yelled from the entrance of the kitchen.
"Oh, calm down woman. I will go to bath soon. I just want to rest a bit. Either ways Lakshmi is in the main bathroom."
"Ahah, there is one behind the house also, no? Go take a bath there. Don't stain the sofa covers with your sweat"
"Let the boys go first. Then I will go."
"Fine but don't sit on the sofa. Sit on the chair."
"Ok, ok as you wish." He said as he went to sit on nearby chair. He took a quick look at both of them and what they had in their bags.
"Ah you came to study huh. How is class? Are your studies going well?" he asked
"It is going well Anand uncle."
"Ah that is good to hear. I know that you are good at Maths as I have seen you from when you were a baby but make sure you do well in other subjects too ya." Anand said with a simple smile. He then looked at Rudra and then remembered something.
"Ah you know English well don't you Rudra? I got an English letter from my cousin in America. She basically left Kerala when she was young to Bangalore and then America, so her Malayalam is not that good. I asked Lakshmi mol to translate it, but it was too hard for her too." He said as he got up to reach for the nearby cupboard. He reached to the top shelf and took out a torn envelope with a paper inside and handed it to Rudra. Rudra wasted no time in opening the letters as it was very rare to see letters from foreign countries, especially America in their community.
Opening it he could understand why it was difficult for Lakshmi. Even with twenty years of English behind him, Rudra found himself stumbling through the cursive waves of the letter. Each word felt like a challenge, yet somehow beautiful in its rhythm.
Rudra spent a few minutes translating the letter before Lakshmi came into the hall and then gave it back to Anand. Rudra and Avinash followed her to the guest room where there was a bed with a few chairs and a table in the middle. All of them got a chair to sit on before taking their books and starting to learn.
"Ok so we will learn some maths first. So here in chapter 3…" droned on Avinash.
Meanwhile
Anand hugged his wife by the waist from behind in the kitchen, and she let out a startled yelp. On realizing who it was she calmed down and continued cutting the vegetables as she asked with a small sly grin.
"What happened dear?"
"Nothing just wanted to hug my wife."
"The children will see dear."
"Oh they will be busy with studies and what not" He nuzzled his chin against her upper trapezius and whispered softly into her ear. "How long has it been since we got some time alone together?"
"Hmm maybe take a bath and then we will see about that ya."
"You promise?"
"Fine dear. Now your work in the fields might be over but I still must make something for tomorrow. Go take a bath and I will make some coffee for you."
There was some silence for a while. Anand for some reason peered outside the glass-shuttered grilled windows.
"Dear, what is wrong?"
Anand looked a bit dazed but on hearing his wife's voice simply smiled and said
"Nothing dear, just thinking of something."
"Well maybe it is time to think of a bath. You really need one"
"Fine woman. As you wish"
'Did I see some rustling of plants outside?' Anand thought as he walked away.
'Eh whatever. Must be some cat or the dog.'
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"Sorry guys, I have to leave now. I have to go to the temple tomorrow, so I need to sleep a bit early" said Avinash packing up his stuff
"Ah sure. I will leave after completing this chapter too. What about you Lakshmi?" asked Rudra
"Well we will go to the temple probably day after tomorrow. Not much clue really. We aren't too punctual with temple visits"
"Ok guys bye" Avinash waved as he left the house for his own
Soon they finished learning the last chapter and were simply talking about school and friends before Rudra's spider sense went off in his head
'Shit I think there is something outside.'
"Hey Lakshmi, I have to go to the bathroom ok."
"Sure, there is one at the back of the house. That should be free."
Rudra thanked her and acted as if he was going to the bathroom, but instead sneaked out through the back door and looked outside.
"Hmm is this really what I sensed?"
All he saw currently were a bunch of cursed spirits in the form of a few flies near the trees. He knew that they weren't even strong enough to be called grade 4 and was slightly confused
'Maybe I guess. There is about 7 to 8 of them. It is weird as these guys usually don't fly that close to each other'
Rudra looked around for more clues, but one finding nothing shrugged his shoulders and shot a web at one of the flies. On capturing it, he pulled back immediately and crushed it within his palm. The other flies upon seeing this either rushed to fight him and some chose to flee.
'Ok got to dodge this. If they are cursed spirits representing malaria or something then one bite would be enough to land me in the hospital for a few days'
Rudra weaved between the flies as they tried to bite him. He jumped on the nearest banana plant and rushed up. As the flies followed him, he kicked of the trunk and flipped over them. The flies rushed past him as he fell.
However, this was according to plan.
Mid-fall he shot webs strands at all of them and then as he came down whipped them towards the ground. Most of them died on impact and the rest were crushed beneath Rudra's feet. Rudra shot two webs at the nearby trees and sling shotted him self after the fleeing insects. He simply caught them mid swing and started crushing them in his palm.
'Ah the muscles on my shoulder blades hurt a bit. I guess my muscles still haven't completely developed' thought Rudra as he landed. He looked down moping at his own inadequacy
'Damn, I thought that push ups would help though. Well at least I killed most of those flies. One or two escaped but they shouldn't be much of a problem' thought Rudra as he walked back. His spider sense was ever so slightly ringing but honestly, he could see nothing that could warrant his attention.
Rudra came back to the guest room to a strangely silent Lakshmi. Upon prodding her on what was wrong she hesitantly asked
"Rudra…. Can I ask what were those white things that you shot from your wrists?"
Rudra's eyes widened in surprise as he realized someone saw him.
'Shit. Is this why my senses were ringing?'
"Uhm what are you saying. I can't shoot anything from my wrists."
She frowned and puffed up her cheeks annoyed, aware that she was being lied to.
"Don't lie. I went to the kitchen to get some water while the lights were off. I saw you from the window jumping around and shooting something from your wrists."
'Ughh damn. I got careless. That too on my second actual fight. Should I just retire already?'
"Ok I accept I did that. But did you see anything else?"
Her face grew a bit paler and her hands shaking a bit. She clutched her skirt whit white knuckles as she grew teary eyes
"Oh god you can see them, can't you?" Rudra said finally understanding what was going on.
Her light brown eyes stared questioningly at him before Rudra gave in.
"Don't worry. Sure normal people can't see them but the weaker ones at least don't attack people directly. Just stay away from them and avoid eye contact and you should be fine. For some reason they are not very aggressive unless they know you can see them and normally just feed of resident cursed energy"
"What is this cursed energy?" she asked him in confusion.
"Ah well it is like this. Think of the fact that whenever a person feels sad angry or any negative feelings, they release an energy which is invisible to most people. This is cursed energy. When there is too much of that energy, a creature is born from that energy which is called cursed spirit."
"So those things you fought were cursed spirits?"
"Yes"
"What feelings made them"
"Who knows? Probably someone really hates flies or something."
"Oh ok. So then how did you fight them"
"Well, you see some people are able control their energy and use it to fight. Think of this energy like a bucket of paint. You coat that paint over your body and then for some reason that paint makes you stronger."
"So you can use cursed energy? Can I use cursed energy since I can see them too?" she asked excitedly.
'Poor girl. She sees all these horrible things and now finally has an explanation.'
"Well not really. Did you try focusing that energy and something come out of it?"
"Not really. I never knew you could do that."
"Ok then I guess I will teach you the basics of it I guess."
"Oh, thank you Rudra. You have no idea how much this means to me." She said hugging him tightly.
"Don't worry about it." Rudra said awkwardly patting her back
'Damn, I never was that good with kids. Will I be able to teach her? Maybe I should take her to Mariamma. Ya she would know what to do. I guess before that I will just teach her a bit of the theory or something'
Suddenly his spider sense rang faintly before disappearing once again. Rudra looked around and then out of the window from the corner of his eye so as to not worry Lakshmi but found nothing.
'Am I just imagining things?'
"So then what can you do Rudra? How do you fight it?"
Rudra smiled as he loved his abilities and didn't mind showing off. He stuck his feet on the wall and start walking up as he explained.
"Well as you see, I have the abilities of a spider...…"