EAT AT JOE'S!

It was a normal April morning. As usual, I got up early for school. After a ten kilometre or so bus ride, we arrived at  the school. Being a third grader, I didn't roam about and went straight to the class. What could possibly happen on a normal day? Meet friends, learn whatever the teachers teach. Playabout during recess, and of course be careful not to get into trouble. Where would a child from third grade know that it was going to be a memorable day in the child's life? Not even an adult would have known. Where would he know that he's going to meet a friend who will be with him for the next few years. Well this day was like that.

The science teacher smiled at me looking at my notebook, "Sweet work! Boy. You just need to work on your hand writing and diagrams a bit."
"I'll do that alright.",I replied quickly.
I'm not a person who likes a sweet conversation, especially with a teacher. The teacher was lucky to get four words as an answer, because it is usually just a single word, mostly 'okay'. After sometime, a peon entered the class knocking at the door. The teacher walked to the peon. They had a brief conversation. After the conversation, the teacher turned to the class(the students)and told us that a new friend(as she said it)was going to join us that day. Since the class was a mixed class, with boys and girls(boys and girls got separated when I went to fourth grade). The girls wanted their 'Prince Charming'(as usual, they get bored of the boys in the  class pretty quickly).

Well, the girls did get their prince, but not what they expected of him. A tall, frail boy, who's afraid of dead rats and black cats(he still is), shaggy hair, very cramped shoulders(that has changed), big face and brown skin. He stepped in, delighted and astonished by the roar of the class(if you're a student you'll understand why we roared). The teacher held his arm and said with pleasure(she loved talking),"This is Joe! He's going to be with you guys for...............I don't know how much time, but I'm sure you'll help him out and.......you know take care of  him while he's new to the school."
Sure, sure! We'll feed him bottled milk while he's still new,I thought to myself.

He took his place next to another boy(lucky for him). He took out his books from his bag and stared at the teacher as if asking for help. The teacher approached and started explaining to him what had to be done. Then she looked at me and told Joe," He's a clever boy, if you have any problems you could ask him for help. You could take his notes, they're complete. But, I'll warn you, you'll have a hard time figuring out what is written."
"Me!", I shouted.
"Why ever not?"
"Because I've never helped anyone like that. I don't know him. How can I trust him with my books?"
"Don't worry, if at all he doesn't return it, tell me."
"Right!"

That afternoon, after school when I was walking towards the bus that would take me home, I saw Joe coming towards me. He held out an arm and I shook it reluctantly. He pointed towards the bus area and said,
" Could you help me find my bus?"
"Number?", I asked
"What?"
"Your bus number."
"Oh! Bus number sixty one!"
"Well according to me, it should be few buses away from my bus. I can't tell you the number of buses, because not all the buses between my bus and your bus is in use."
"Whoa! What a tongue twister! You must be having good pronounciation for that!"
"Pronunciation!",I corrected.
"I have come from Pune, in Maharastra. We didn't pay much importance to all these things over there. Got to get used to it, you know."
"I understand"
"Okay! Bye, I'll find the bus, see you tomorrow!"
"I'll be seeing you too"
He laughed at that and we went to board our buses.

A few weeks later Joe came to me and told me that he had shifted. He also said that he had to change the bus he was travelling in. On asking which bus, I was surprised to hear that it was my bus! He assured me that we were going to have great lot of fun. I wasn't convinced, but I smiled. I was kind of happy to have one more bus-mate, but I was unsure whether he'd make a good one.

Even with all my doubts, he turned out to be a good friend. He was not just a good friend but a best friend. He also lived quite close to me, and we had great fun playing video games and going to a park next to our place once in a while. One thing we loved was making up stories and acting them out or making our toys the actors. We were good at that. After all we had to be good at that otherwise, what's the fun? We used to amuse each other by making up silly jokes.

I remember once when his mom asked me how he was at school. I was more than just dumbfounded. Joe was embarrassed. I somehow said something and got away with it. I could see the relief in his face when I finished. He wasn't that mischevious in school, but I would have been biting my nails if my mom had asked that question to him, even though I wasn't really mischevious in school either.

My tenth birthday wasn't a grand one, but he was the one who showed up. No one else. It was working day, so you know how busy people are. We went to eat out and also went to the gaming center in a mall. We really didn't do much, but hanging out with friends is completely different from hanging out with family.

Diwali is a festival in India also known as the 'Festival of Lights'. We don't celebrate it as in India because we have only a day as holiday for this particular festival. Joe came to my house some time before this festival in the year 2009. He had shifted a bit farther from my house and I had not seen it. He invited me and my family to his house during the day of Diwali. I looked at my mother who was present there. She shrugged and said,"Why ever not?"

Few days later we were at Joe's house. His mother offered us sweet snacks as goes the tradition. We ate to our heart's content. After that me and Joe had fun playing with some toy airplanes he had bought. Then it was time to take leave. Joe turned to me and said, "Had fun eating at Joe's?"
I smiled.
Even today I cannot forget 'Eatin at Joe's', whenever I see him. We have a completely different definition for fun, but what matters is that we're still together and fun is fun.

Hasta la Vista,
K