Trip trip

0430 hours, Sunday, 7th of July 2008. Dark unknown room.

The incessant ringing of the mobile finally succeeded in provoking movement in the inert form sprawled on the bed. A hand slowly stretched out from under the blanket and advanced in the direction of the source of annoyance. Nightmares might have changed its orientation and hence it had to do a lot of groping. Finally it emerged victorious and with efficiency put an end to its annoyance. The hand retreated to its warm and cozy position with its prize. But before it could assume the property that is also attributed to some gases the object in hand started demanding attention.

“Hello?”

“You are still in bed!”

“Paddy? What time is it…”

“Its nearly 5.”

“Why are you calling me now?”

“The trip! I knew you would forget”

“How could I forget?”
[Not after two calls, five messages, an equal number of emails, a reminder on the cell I didn’t remember adding and a holler not to discount the incessant verbal reminders during lectures yesterday]

“So why are you still in bed?”

“Fucking bastard… [almost all the words that parents shouldn’t hear from his mouth within 5 seconds], the trains at 8 and I will be there at 7:45. Another call and you would wish you were dead.”

Without waiting for any response the line was cut. The form shifted till it found a comfortable posture.
0745 hours, Sunday, 7th of July 2008. Restaurant by platform no. 1.

Three apparently disgruntled teenagers sat around a round table[Unlike the one famous for historic reasons this one was actually round] looking at their coffee cups. To be sincere one was looking at the bottom of his empty cup, the other was thinking about the quantity of moles of simple sugar he could intake [diabetic…poor fella; the one with the empty cup was already ordering another one] and the third was comparing the movement of froth bubbles in his cup as the cup cooled to that of migratory patterns of herbivorous dinosaurs of the Triassic age [As many would have correctly guess afterwards that’s this is the one that the group called Psycho]. After enough caffeine had been pumped into his system to numb the effects of sleep deprivation the teen who we have associated with some unique gases spoke.

“4:30”

“4:35”

“04:39:49:66, give or take a few microseconds the relay system from the phone to the watch may vary according to Temp…”

He was interrupted by a average looking kid
“Lucky bastards he started with me, 4:20”

“Hey where is the Baggage” [his twin brother with whom he had nothing but looks and parents in common]

“Oh I asked him to buy some chow, tickets and meet us on the train; Just distancing him from psycho don’t want to get brained do you?”

“Paddy was getting the tickets…”

“He dropped out asked me to arrange things”

“We get back we thrash him alright”

To a stranger the group would look like they were performing some ceremony by nodding.
The group moved towards the train and someone must have cracked some joke as they all went into fits of laughter. Only some words filtered through “sack”, “dozen tomatoes”, “chilly” work the rest on your own.

Psycho spoke as they entered the train
“In train accidents 60% causalities are those who are not regular travelers”

“Hey Psycho, how many times do we have to tell you, you got no sense of humor”

“Actually he is not joking it’s a proven fact, statistics also show that …”

Baggage his hands full with bags was explaining…