The friend - a short story

Here's a heartwarming short story on the complexity of human life and how our positive outlook in interpersonal relationships helps in peaceful navigation.

He’s sitting on the sands massaging his right foot with his left hand. He’s always on time. So am I.  We both are punctual. Not just ‘reporting on time’ punctuality. It’s also ‘respecting one’s own commitment’ punctuality. Maybe that’s why we clicked in the first place.

I speed up my pace toward him and nudge his shoulders. He isn’t startled. He glances at me and his smile grows wider.

“I missed you, buddy,” I say. “Of course, you do,” Rishi knuckles me down. I remove my shoes and place them next to his pair.

The spine-chilling breeze slaps our faces and I wince.

“Did you bring your inhaler? The weather’s pretty rough today,” Rishi enquires. “Never mind. You are here to rush me to the emergency room if I pass out,” I say rubbing my palms.

“I wouldn’t help who voluntarily self-harms, Nethan” Rishi snaps. “Okay, relax! I have one in my car,” I calm him down.

My asthma worsened after my recent 3-month expedition with the Russian team to the Arctic region to detect the existence of nanobacteria at freezing temperatures. My pulmonologist advised me to carry an inhaler everywhere I go. My dad, brother, the waitress at Corrigan’s are all keeping an eye on me. Rishi is always extra-protective of me. (Chuckling) He loves me.

“Then, how’s she?” I enquire about his girlfriend Nishitha. “She’s terrific” (pauses) “with Harish”. I already know his relationship is kind of on and off. She now reaches out to Rishi only when Harish is unavailable. Damn, a typical situationship. I realise this but do not say anything to him. Not because I’m afraid that he’ll mistake me but because I know he is wise enough to concede this himself.

Rishi begins “I was hoping Dr. Waters would make me the lead of the ‘beta decay’ project. Instead, he made me an assistant researcher. He also refuses to provide extra funds to procure liquid helium for my ongoing experiment”.

“Did you ask him to make you the lead?” I ask. “He’s firm in his decision and wouldn’t give me any reasons” he says.

“Nishitha is too on and off”, Rishi changes the subject. I nod. His previous talk with her on my advice resulted in blame on him in the guise of empathy. She’s a nice girl though. It’s just the timing when Rishi met her is wrong. It's fucking sad.

“Krish stopped talking with me completely even though I reassured him that I won’t claim our mom’s entire assets just because I solely took care of her in her sunset days” he changes the subject again.

Before I begin to wonder what Rishi’s thought process looks like, he tells me that the paper on ‘Fundamental behaviour of subatomic particles during oxidation’ that he co-authored with his counterpart has been selected for publication. They’re giving a lecture next week on the paper to undergrads at MIT. “That’s freaking amazing” I bounce in glee. But I know it’s not a big deal to him. He’s published 13 papers so far and has given numerous lectures at several prominent universities.

He suddenly becomes stoic and rigid. I finally ask him “How do you feel?”

He glares a contemplative look for several seconds, then speaks “Imagine you want to skip to 2:28:35 of a 3.36 hours video but your fast-forward icon isn’t working and you don’t have a mouse.”

“I’d be stuck, screwed and frustrated” I spill out immediately irritated merely by the hypothetical situation he gave.

“Exactly,” he says looking into my eyes.

I get it. I get that he feels stuck. I nod. I just nod.

I don’t try to give him any advice or solutions. He doesn’t need them from me. Or from anyone.

The way he’s able to look into my eyes while discussing these is enough to show how loved and understood he feels with me.

Isn’t that what we all need? To be understood. I’m glad I could give that to him.

We sit in silence for a few minutes without the urge to fill in. There’s no void between us. We have the same connection when we chatter non-stop and when we do not utter a single word. 

His phone vibrates and it’s Nishita hitting up. She needs him to give her a ride home. Rishi looks up at me and says “I’m happy that at least I could ease her life in some way. It’s always nice to have someone to ask for a favour without hesitation. I’ll be that uh, friend to her". "I gotta go” he gets up.

“See you soon?” I ask.

“Maybe next Thursday” he walks past me shoving an inhaler into my pocket. “I bought one on the way here in case you forgot to bring yours,” he says climbing onto his scooter and drives off.

I smile and keep smiling for a long time gazing in his direction.