I held my grandfather tight. It couldn't be true. I was tired, that's all it was. I had eaten too much and my eyes were playing tricks on me.
As we drove to my grandfather's house, my gaze was drawn to the sun though I tried hard not to look.
"You are rather quiet, what happened? Got sugar under your tongue?" asked grandpa. It was an old joke between the two of us. I would steal sugar from the jar when I was a kid and refuse to open my mouth till somebody came and sang "Johnny Johnny yes papa" to me. I would then open my mouth wide and say "HA! HA! HA!" Alright, I was five and it did seem like a marvelously amusing thing to do at that time! "Nothing, just tired," I said and smiled. I shook myself and began to hum along with the radio. "Hot day!" said grandpa. "Something is wrong with the a/c in the car, I think.
" I mumbled in agreement. A cold hand crawled to my heart and held it in a vice-like grip. Was it happening?
The sun looked redder than usual, but I never looked at the sun on normal days and I couldn't decide if I was imagining things or not.
"Was it this hot yesterday?" I asked.
"Don't know. I hardly step out of the house these days because of my asthma. It gets worse when I travel in all this dust and pollution," he said.
"How is Laddoo?" Laddoo was grandpa's Labrador pup. His profession was to chew rubber slippers artistically and dig out any plant that dared to put its head above the soil. If he had lived in Ancient Rome, Laddoo would have pointed to a forest and directed troops with the war cry, "Off with their heads!" " Running around like Hanuman with his tail on fi re! Where that dog gets his energy from, I don't know!" smiled grandpa.
By the time we reached home, the sun had gone two shades redder and we were sweating profusely. Laddoo was strangely quiet. He would usually jump around and make a huge fuss the minute somebody came in through the gate. But today, he lay limp on the doorstep with all the sadness in the world staring out of his brown puppy eyes. "Come in, come in, don't pay any attention to him… you better take some rest before he gets back in form and decides you are chewing gum!" said grandpa pushing the door open.
