Neel Dervin and the Dark Angel

by Neeraj Chand

  The speed of the training was intense, yet Neel was amazed to find that he was able to keep up. It seemed that the DoctorFahim"s explanation had given was correct. He was able to recall all the lesson he had been taught by Arjun and the other trainers. It was getting easier to control his senses the more time he spent exercising his body, and all the time he had alone to himself after his mother went to work in the morning was spent in practicing as well. He had not seen Doctor Fahim or Divya for the rest of the week, even though he knew they were observing him from the room over the gym. The knowledge made him even more self conscious and anxious not to make a fool of himself while training.

  On the last day of the week, Neel was put through his exercises by his trainers. He was finishing his sixtieth lap around the field when Arjun called for him to stop. He walked with Arjun over to the smaller field to work on the bars again.

  Neel had told Arjun about the incident at the bazaar. Arjun had explained how his strength differed from a normal person"s. “Physical strength is not as simple a concept as you might believe.” he said. “ You have a lower level of strength, like everyone else, that you use for the normal things like touching and holding things. But when people have to use more force on an object, they automatically use their upper level of strength. For you, that upper level of strength is now much higher. So where a normal person can push at a car with all his strength without anything happening, you can push that car upside down with yours. It happens automatically for you, just like everyone else, and that"s what happened at the bazaar. As you train, it should become easier for you to learn the limits of your upper and lower strength levels again to decide where you should use each level.”

  The workout now was intense, and smooth. Neel "s balance had improved beyond all recognition. Whether it was the superior memory, or because the novelty of the whole experience had not yet worn off, or perhaps the fact that he was very earnest about what he was learning, but the movements he performed now were confident and automatic. As he jumped from barrier to barrier, raced along walls and rolled neatly to a dive, Arjun watched his progress, and was glad to see that it was all becoming instinctive, and a part of his muscle memory.

  “You"re going back to school from Monday, right?” Arjun asked him once the session had ended and they were returning from the field. Neel nodded. “After a week.” He sighed. So much had happened in that one week o f such incredible nature that he almost felt that a stranger would now be going back to the school.

  “Well, yo ur visits to Swan labs will have to be curtailed once you add school to your daily life.” Arjun said. “It"s been decided that two hours after school will do from now on. We"ll meet at the usual place at two, and you"ll be dropped back at four.”

  Neel nodded slowly. All that day he had been thinking about school. He would need to be completely in control there, all the time. And after a week of training he felt much more confident now that that he would be able to do so as long as he was careful. At any rate, he was hoping for the best. Turning around, he focused his attention on the tall bluff twenty feet away, and prepared to jump.

  * * *

  Neel woke up the next morning and sat up in his bed with a sigh. It was back to the familiar routine. He got up and went to get ready for school. He put on his uniform of white shirt and navy blue pants, and a blue striped tie with black shoes. He went downstairs to find that his mother had made him two sandwiches and a glass of milk, and was busy packing his lunch.

  “Are we feeling all right today?” she asked when he came down and greeted her. “ Totally.” Neel said as he handed her his school tie. His mother knotted it carefully around his neck.“You know, it"s really about time you learn to do this on your own.” she remarked. He grinned as he sat at the table and began wolfing down the sandwiches.

  “Slow down. You"ve got time. Is Aryan going to ride with you to school?” His mother asked.

  “Uh huh.” Neel nodded through a mouthful of sandwich. “I called him yesterday. He"ll meet me at the intersection.”

  “Well, you have a good day. Don"t over exert yourself, and come back home safely, all right?” his mother said, giving him a one armed hug.

  “I"ll try.” Neel grinned.“Bye, mom.” He left the house with his school bag over his shoulders and got on his old cycle.

  He reached the crossing half a mile away from his house where Aryan was waiting for him on his own cycle. “About time.” Aryan called out to him as he rode up. “It was really boring going to school alone. You want to trade cycles?” They often swapped cycles on the way to the school. Aryan"s cycle was much more expensive and better looking, not to mention much easier to ride. Neel enjoyed the smooth working of the gears, while Aryan enjoyed the challenge of racing on Neel"s cycle, whose chain had a habit of slipping off at crucial moments.

  “No time, I don"t want to be late on my first day back after a week.” Neel said. “So let"s go.” They took off together across the intersection. The morning air was fresh and invigorating. Neel checked himself just in time from bursting into his full speed on the pedal.

  “You"re feeling completelyokay now?” Aryan asked him as they weaved through the traffic. Neel winced every time a horn blasted nearby. But it was something he"d had to get used to.

  “Oh, sure. I mean,” Neel amended hastily. “No, not completely. The doctor wants me to sleep and take rest after school till five. Just to make sure.”

  “Till five!” Aryan said in surprise. “But you"ll still be going to the coaching?” “ Unfortunately.” Neel said with a grimace. “I won"t be able to come out in the evenings for a few more days.” He hoped it would only be a few days. Arjun had told him it would all depend on how quickly he picked up his training.

  Elvitar"s Academy was two miles away from Mira colony. They arrived five minutes before the bell had rung for first period. They parked their cycles in the stands and walked up the flight of stairs to the first floor, to their class in the eighth standard.

  Neel entered the classroom to find a sea of familiar faces looking at him. There was a chorus of noise from his classmates, all of whom had heard about his accident. Some had been told by Aryan that Neel"s accident had turned out to be quite minor, while others were under a hazy impression that he had been at death"s door before having had a miraculous recovery. The latter group had no idea how close they were to the truth.

  Many of the students crowded around him, some to welcome him back, others to get a firsthand account of the accident.

  “Welcome back, bro.” Nitin said to him warmly, slapping Neel on his back. “We were really worried about you.”

  “Thanks, man.” Neel grinned back. “Feels good to be back.”

  “We thought you"d died or something.” Saransh remarked,leaning over Karan"s shoulder. “We heard you were admitted in the hospital and everything.”

  “Yeah, well. Sorry to disappoint you.” Aryan said to him. “But he"s totally fine.” “ Whatexactly happened to you?” Vibha asked him with interest, turning around from herseat in front of Neel. “How did you end up in the hospital?”All his other classmates leaned in closer as well.

  “Oh, I don"t know.” Neel said vaguely. “I was going really fast, and then this car came in front of me, and then I put on the brakesbut they didn"t work right so I managed to stop but then I landed on the windshield and twisted my shoulder a bit and then I was in the hospital and they said it has been a very minor injury… and anyway what"s been going on in school?”

  His audience seemed disappointed with his narrative, and most of them returned to their seats. In any case, the first period was due to begin in minutes, and their class teacher, Mrs. Khurana, believed strongly in absolute discipline in the classroom.

  “You didn"t miss much.” Sonaliinformed him as the others left. “It"s been a slow week. And the teachers will probably go easy on you because you"ve just returned from the hospital.” she made a face. “Except Ticolo, of course.”

  “Yeah, well. I wasn"t expecting much from him
.” Neel said. “Good thing you"re not.” Aryan said darkly. “ Last Friday he made a student stand outside the classroom for two periods because he forgot to do his work.Didn"t matter that the he"d sprained his wrist.”

  Mrs. Khurana entered the classroom, a tall, forbidding looking woman with graying hair and a pair of chain spectacles. The class rose to greet her, with a chanting of„Good morning, Ma"am". She looked the entire class over once and nodded.“Good morning, class. Sit down.” The class resumed their seats, and Mrs. Khurana"s gaze settled on Neel.

  “So you"re feeling well enough to attend classes again, Neelanchan?” she said. “I was very sorry to hear about youraccident.”

  “Thank you, Ma"am.” Neel stood up. “I"m feeling fine now.” “Well, welcome back to class.” Mrs. Khuranasaid. “You can ask your classmates to bring you up to speed on whatever you have missed, and I expect you to have caught up on everything by tomorrow.”

  “Yes, Ma"am.” Neel sat down again. Mrs. Rai opened the attendance register, and began the roll call. The class rummaged in their bags and took out their English books. The rest of the class passed relatively peacefully. Mrs. Rai was a good teacher, kind but strict, and able to get her point across to the students.

  Then the bell rang, and Mrs. Khurana left the class to a chorus of „Thank you, Mam". Neel barely had time to ask Aryan about the math work when Mr. Pannikar, their history teacher entered the classroom. The class stood again, and another chorus of „Good morning." rang through the classroom.

  “Good morning. Sit down, everyone.” Mr. Pannikar called out in his calm, deep voice, with a nod to the entireclass. “I hope everyone had a good weekend. Open your books at page thirty one. Shilpa, start reading from where we left off last week.”

  The class took out their history books and Shilpa rose to read. There was complete silence in the room except for her voice. Mr. Pannikar had the ability to silence most students with a glance. He walked slowly up and down the classroom, making sure thateveryone"s heads were bent over their books. Mr. Pannikar was from Kerala and had joined the school five years ago. He was well over six feet tall, and made most students feel tiny when he stood next to them. He was always dressed simply and neatly, and very rarely smiled, which somehow made him appear all the more impressive. The students held him in awe, and the temper he had exhibited in the past once or twice in connection with some excessively unruly students had given the students a healthy amount of respect for him.

  He walked up Neel"s row, and stopped at his desk. Neel looked up and was about to stand. “No, no, keep sitting.” Mr. Pannikar said quietly. A few of the students looked up from their books. He gave them a look. They all hastily turned back to their books. He turned again to Neel. “I heard that you had been admitted to the hospital after an accident. How do you feel now?”

  “I"m fine, sir.” Neel said. “I recovered completely last week.” Mr. Pannikar nodded, then continued up the row. “Thank you, Shilpa, that"s enough.” he said. Shilpa sat down, and he gazed around the class. “So what do these three paragraphs tell us about the Asian silk roads?” The class hastily startedreading the paragraphs again. “Anand?”

  Anand rose self consciously from his seat and looked at Mr. Pannikar . “Er… it tells us that they were roads that were used to travel overAsia … and silk was one of the major products that were transported…”

  Mr. Pannikar stared at him for a long moment. Several of the students tittered. But then Mr. Pannikar nodded, and Anand sat down with relief. Mr. Pannikar turned to the other side of the room. “Arvind?”

  Arvind rose. “The Silk Routes were important paths for cultural, commercial, and technological exchange between merchants, pilgrims, missionaries, soldiers, and urban dwellers from Ancient China, Ancient India, Ancient Tibet, Persian Empire...” His voice droned on. His answer was almost word for word the same as in the book. He absent mindedly pushed his spectacles, two sizes too big for him, up his nose as he gazed solemnly at Mr. Pannikar.

  Mr. Pannikarnodded to him as well. “Yes, sit down, Arvind.” He gazed around the class room as Arvind sat down, making sure they were all listening. The class sat up straighter. “ The silk road was of primary importance for communication between Asian territories in the fifth century.” Mr. Pannikar said. “We will be dealing with their role in the spreading of the cultures of different countries. Take out your copies and start taking notes.”

  The rest of the classes passed in much the same fashion as they always had. It had only taken the first two periods for Neel to lose the sense of newness he had experienced the day before while contemplating returning to school. By the third period he felt as though he had never been away at all. Indeed, sitting in the classroom, arguing with Karan and Aryan over whether Enter the Dragon or Chachi 420 was worth watching on television that day, it was the part ofNeel"s time spent at Swan Labs that felt distant and unreal.

  The biggest difference was in the sound level. It had not been so bad when the teachers were present, but in between periods the discipline broke, and students gossiped and joked together happily. Neel found himself listening unwillingly to Vijay describing how a particularly spicy dish at a party had upset his stomach for a week, and Suman telling Sweccha that her friend from another section had a crush on Aryan and wanted to meet him, while Parthak complained bitterly to his best friend Mani about the itchy underwear that his mother made him wear. Neel tried his best to ignore the chatter, and was glad when recess finally came. The students scattered all over the campus to eat their lunches, and sitting with Aryan and Nitin and the other boys in the open field made the sound level diminish considerably.

  Then they had a math class with Mr. Mathur, whom students had long ago nicknamed Ticolo. He was a tiny, fussy man with round glasses and a receding hairline plastered carefully over the large empty dome on top of his head. It took him eight minutes to pick out Neel and start in on him. Why hadn"t he completed the homework? Why had he wasted a week of school work? What did he mean he was unwell? A leave of absence was no excuse. Had he been able to sit up and read? Then he should have studied at home during his absence. Students were required to hand in their assignments on the exact date. Why was he so careless? Why did he insist on wasting the money his parents put into his education?

  Neel tried his best to explain the situation, but arguments only increased Ticolo "s fussy irritation. Aryan attempted gallantly to defend him, pointing out that students on sick leave were allowed some time to readjust to school, and that Neel had been on leave in order to rest from a serious injury, and that the other teachers had given him a few days to catch up on schoolwork. It was a well reasoned and sensible argument, and the upshot was both of them standing at the back of the class with their arms raised over their heads for the rest of the period.

  “If I didn"t say it before, welcome back.” Aryan muttered to Neel as Mani and Shekhar threw paper pellets at thembehind Ticolo"s back. Almost as bad was Ms. Awasthi "s class, their physics teacher. She was a relatively younger addition to the school with a sugary sweet temperament, who had a heartily disliked habit of treating all the students, from the juniors to the seniors, as though they were still in the nursery. She swooped down on Neel at once and dragged him unwillingly to her desk at the front.

  “Does it still hurt, dear?” she asked anxiously, prodding his arm and shoulder.

  “It"s fine, Ma"am.” Neel said politely, trying to back away without appearing to. “Oh, you poor thing, how you must have suffered.” she sighed, straightening his tie. Aryan and the others sniggered in the back.“If you ever want to talk about what happened that day, you come to my office straight away, all right? These awful memories can have a terrible effect on the mind. You can talk to me anytime, all right, dear?”

  “Thank you, Ma"am.” Neel said, making a mental note to avoid her staff room in the future. “You should all learn a lesson from Neelanchan.” She told the rest of the class, seizing his arm and turning him to face them. “Look how bravely he"s standing the
re after having gone throughsuch a terrible accident.” She pointed helpfully at Neel, and forty two pairs of eyes were trained on his blushing countenance.

  “It happened a week ago, Ma"am.” Neel said, again trying to wriggle free.“And it wasn"t that terrible. Just my shoulder-” “I know dear, but I"m sure the memory is sti ll haunting you.” Mrs. Awasthi persisted, finally letting go of his arm.“It does you credit to try to put a brave face on things, but the accident must have affected you terribly.”

  “Not really.” Neel said politely but firmly. He was anxious to discourage any future conversations onthe topic. “I was unconscious after the first few minutes. And I woke up the next day. So it really wasn"t that bad. I really feel better than I ever have before.”

  “So brave.” Mrs. Awasthi sighed. “ And I am so happy to hear you have grown stronger from the experience.It"s like the story of the caterpillar, children.” She turned to the class. “Remember the one I told you all? One day, a sweet little caterpillar was chewing on a leaf and having a wonderful time. But then suddenlyhe felt very sick.” She lowered her voice and gazed around the class impressively. “He asked all his friends to cure him, but his health just kept getting worse. Finally the sad, dear little caterpillar curled into a ball and fell into a deep sleep. When he woke up, he was amazed to find himself in a cocoon. But the biggest surprise was yet to come. When he finally managed to get out of the cocoon, he found the most beautiful pair of colorful wings attached to his back. The little caterpillar had become a lovely butterfly.” She gripped Neel"s arm againand steered him closer to her desk. “Dear Neelanchan passed through a very sad experience as well, but he feels much stronger now that it is over. So you see, he is just like the dear, brave little caterpillar.” Applause and shouts of agreement greeted the last statement, and the modestly bashful caterpillar carefully avoided making eye contact with any of his classmates.