That day Samuel learnt a new word, vicissitude. “This word means change of circumstances and it is usually used with life telling about the ups and downs of life,” said his teacher. The word struck him most unlike any other of the thousand words his teacher used to tell him. “Ma’am, please give me an example,” Samuel asked inquisitively. After a thought, his teacher said “She maintained her cool behaviour in spite of the vicissitudes in her life.” Samuel was impressed. He didn’t know that he would be tweeting the same word delightedly the next day.
*
The sun was down by the time they reached home. Samuel and Marx were close friends. They had decided to spend some time at his home and so Samuel called Harry and Adam also to his home. They agreed. “Marx, c’mon, you play much better than this,” Samuel said. They were playing table tennis at his home. “Yes, I know it. I dunno what is happening to me now!” he replied. “Harry and Adam will be coming soon. We will watch Identity. It is a horror movie,” Samuel said to him. “Okay,” he replied. Samuel’s cellphone began ringing. Oh no! Karl is calling me! “Hello, Karl?” “Yes, Sam!” he replied relieved to find that Samuel had answered the call. “Yes, the score is one by zero, okay?” Samuel said to Marx in the middle of the call. “Sam, I wanted to ask if-,” “Hold on. Marx, this was a wrong serve. You didn’t throw the ball into the air. Yes, what were you telling?” Samuel said trying to evade the call. “Listen to me, Sam. Did you do it for me?” Karl asked. “Uh, yes, yes I have done it. Marx, I think it was my turn to serve. I’m so sorry, Karl. Actually, I am playing t.t. so-,” Samuel said but Karl interrupted me, “Play, play it well. I will call you later,” he said and Samuel hung up. “Why were you talking so strangely?” Marx asked me. “It was Karl. One day, he had come to my home with a disc. He told me that it contained his computer project but he was not being able to open it. I tried to open it for him but it still did not. After much persuasion from his side, I agreed to make a project for him. He also asked me to print the first pages of some of his projects. I agreed to that also. After that, he went out of station and now he has returned. The problem is that I forgot to print his pages but I have made his project. That is why I was talking to him that way because actually I didn’t want to talk with him at all. I will better do his work and then talk to him,” Samuel said and Marx shook his head. I had made a mistake. I should have done it for him.
“Hello, Sam,” said Adam. “Welcome, Adam. Come, Harry, come in. We will be watching Identity which is a horror movie. But before that, I would like to show you the project I have made for Karl. This is one of my best projects,” Samuel said. “It is so nice,” said Marx after seeing the project. “Oh… is it? Thanks,” Samuel replied. After that, they saw the horror movie which was very catchy. Samuel bade them a good night as they walked away and he went back hurriedly for the Fifa match had begun.
Samuel forgot to do the pages for Karl and was busy watching the thrilling match between Argentina and Nigeria. Argentina won it. The phone rang. He picked up the receiver. “Yes?” “Sam! This is Harry! Quickly connect to orkut. I want to speak to you urgently. This is very urgent,” he said. “Okay,” Samuel said yawning. He was in no mood for jokes and he was quite sure that Harry was playing a joke. He logged into orkut and started a chat with Harry. What have you got to tell me? He asked him. His reply came- If there is a friend of yours who is very nice in front of you. But he speaks ill of you to another friend of yours who, considering the circumstances, just nods in approval, but afterwards breaks all of it to you. Which friend would be the better one for you? Samuel was in no mood for all this bullshit and so he replied- don’t ask such obvious questions. The second friend is the better one.You are asking questions like- Who is better, the Divine or the Satan? Moreover, there is no fourth person in this story which is a very short one and one which I don’t like so please don’t you eat my head. I am not in a serious mood. Cool down, man. You have heard what you wanted to hear from me. Now, are you happy?
I just didn’t want to hear it from you. This is serious.He replied. Haha! What is serious in this? C’mon now, tell me. Who is the first and who is the second friend? I know you are the third. Samuel wished he hadn’t asked him for the reply was terrible. It blew off his sleep.
Karl is the first, I am the second and you are the third guy. As Samuel began reading this reply he came under the impression that he was the second and Harry was the third. I am involved! Okay, now I am taking in the seriousness of the matter. I am DAMN serious. Tell me more. Samuel wrote. Yes Harry replied. Samuel recollected the day when Karl had come to his house. He realised that Karl had spoken ill of Harry and he had agreed to him believing in him. Karl had said to him “I don’t like Harry. Firstly, he asks if he can help us with our projects and then when we go to him, he begins troubling us even more.” “But he tried to help you. Maybe, this disc is damaged,” Samuel replied. “Then he should not boast about his printer. He thinks that he is the only one in the world who can help us out. Let me call him,” he said scornfully. After making the call he said to me, “Damn it! Harry has deleted my project from his computer. What kind of a guy is he? He could at least have stored my project as a backup.”
And I had not told about this conversation to Harry but he says that the second one tells the third person about it later. This means that I am not the second person. Someone else is! Samuel reread the question and realised that he was the third one. Holy Shit! That implied that Karl had spoken against him to Harry and Harry had agreed to it for once but later he told him about it. But till now he has not told me about it. All the haze got denser when Samuel read Harry’s next message-
I am yet to tell you the secret. Call me now.
I called him as quickly as was possible. He said, “Karl was saying very ugly things about you. It seemed as if you two were enemies. He was mocking you as if you didn’t have any dignity.” He could not take it in. Karl was one of his best pals! “Is it true?” Samuel doubted it. “It is really true and that is why I have a plan,” he said. “Tell me about it,” Samuel said hopeful. “No, not now. Later. I need to have my supper now. Call me after fifteen minutes,” he said and hung up in a hurry.
For the next fifteen minutes, Samuel pondered over what Harry had just told him. Karl spoke ill of me! This could not be true. But Harry never lies. This is too serious to be a joke. It is reality.I wondered what Karl could have said about me that troubled Harry so much. Then Samuel called him.
“Harry, what did Karl say to you about me?” Samuel asked when he picked up. “All that should wait, first, listen to the plan. Tomorrow, you call Karl at your home by twelve noon. I will be coming by eleven. We will delete his project from your computer but we will keep a backup in the internet. You tell him that Harry deleted the project and the rest is for me to handle. Make him do the project by himself and then only will he realise how tedious it is to make a project. After he makes the project, I will tell him that it is absurd of people who speak ill of a person at a time and then goes to the same person for help the next second. Then we will make a note of his reaction and act accordingly. You don’t have much to do in it. But just say that I have deleted the project. Now I need to hang up. My mother is calling me. Bye,” he said. “Bye,” Samuel said but he had already hung up.
That night Sam pondered over the plan which Harry had told him. He noticed a flaw in the plan. Saying that Harry had deleted the project would make unnecessary fuss. Instead of that, he could give an excuse. For example, he could tell that the project was not nicely made and so he had deleted the project. He had thousands of excuses but accusing Harry of it would cause superfluous commotion. Sam expunged all these thoughts from his mind because he wanted to have a good nap.
Early in the morning, Samuel got up because he had planned to play cricket in the field. On the way, Karl- who also played with them- came up to him and said “Why did you do my project when your four projects were left? You should have completed you projects first.” “It is okay,” I replied surprised. “Okay, then, thanks. I will come at twelve to take my project,” he added. “Okay,” I replied. “But… the project is not so good. I think I should delete it,” I said when I remembered the plan. “No, don’t do that. I will take the worst project of the world. But I urgently need a project. Any project will do!” he retorted.
*
“And this is why I cannot delete his project,” Sam said to Harry after he explained to him what had happened in the morning. “It is okay. We will not carry out the plan. Marx has advised me against it. Marx had talked to Karl and they have come to an agreement. Karl does not know of our plan but his apologising to you has softened me up a bit,” he said. Sam didn’t like the way all of it was ending. He wanted something crispier. At twelve sharp, Karl, Harry and Adam came to his home. Sam showed Karl the project who liked it immensely. He went away to get a blank disc. This is my opportunity. Marx was right but Karl has to be taught a lesson. He can’t be left so easily Harry mused. He cut the file from its original place on the desktop and stored it deep inside the Age of empires folder. It was very tough to reach the file by manual searching. Though there were thousands of other ways to open it, Harry was sure that Karl would accept his challenge. The file could simply be opened from Word. It was contained in the recent documents. There was also the search tool. But Harry didn’t mind. He just needed an excuse to say his dialogue.
“Karl is back,” I whispered to him. Karl strode into the room and inserted the disc. “If you can, find your project without any help from the computer. Use manual searching. This is a challenge,” Harry said. Karl looked bewildered. The computer contained so much of data that it would take hours to find the file without help. Karl began his search with the local disc. Suddenly, his cellphone beeped. Harry said quickly, “You have only ten minutes. If you don’t find it, I will not let you take that project and you will have to create your own.” Sam gave a sharp look at Harry but he was persistent. Karl received the call outside the room.
He returned in a few minutes. “Only five minutes to go,” Harry said. Karl sat down and began opening all folders to the extremity. He was very close for the games folder was there in the same disc. He opened the folder named ‘Age of Empires’ and began searching all the folders. Harry looked at Samuel and prayed to heaven. But it happened. Karl opened the folder. But because he was flipping through the folders very quickly, he missed it and went on to the other folder. Harry sighed. Unfortunately, Karl caught the signal and reopened the same folder and opened his project. Karl smiled.
Abruptly, Harry realised something and said aloud, “Hey, this is cheating! Adam, you messaged him the location.” Karl replied curtly, “This is not cheating. It is called using your senses,” he was very happy. Karl put the project into the disc which was not re-writable. After that, Harry and Samuel went out to play table tennis while Karl edited his project. When Harry and sam returned, Karl said “Oh no! I have already stored my project in the disc. Still I am editing it! This is foolishness.” Harry strode forward, snatched the mouse and cut the edited project from the computer and over-wrote it on the disc. “Hey, what did you do?” asked Karl. “Don’t worry, it will work,” he replied. Sam didn’t like it. This was insane. Harry said to him, “I am going now, Sam. I have work pending.” “Wait, you have started this foolishness. You won’t go away without amending the faults,” Sam replied. Harry stayed a little longer.
Then, something occurred which knocked all of them for a six. The over-written disc started working. Harry began pretending that he had been hoping this to happen. Next, they tried to open that project which had not opened the day Karl had come to me with it. “Don’t try to open it. It is futile. That disc is damaged,” Samuel protested. But no one payed heed to his words. Most astonishingly, that disc worked too! Now, Harry was all puffed up. He gleamed at Karl. Karl was utterly perplexed. How did it work! Sam was puzzled too!
After Karl went back, Samuel told about that day’s happenings to Harry including the things that Karl had spoken against him. Harry replied surprised, “If I had known this, I would have surely told what we had decided. I didn’t tell it because I didn’t want this issue to go to that far an extent.”
*
The same evening saw Harry dashing through the lane. He had to make another one of his projects with Sam but that was of no importance then. The important thing was that Marx was in Sam’s home. Another thing which had made him run was the call made by Sam. He had said, “Harry, come fast to my home. Marx is coming. I have terrible news.”
Harry waited for the door to be opened. It usually took five to ten minutes of patience but that day the door was opened quickly. Harry dashed up the stairs to Sam’s room. Sam motioned him to sit. Harry sat down. He was exhausted. When he regained his breath, Sam said to him, “Either you have made a terrible mistake or I have made an inexpiable blunder.” Harry ogled at him, waiting for more. Marx was sitting beside Samuel. “What has happened?” he asked. “Before I answer, I need to ask you what happened on the day Karl had come to your home. I need the exact words… no changing please,” said sam. Harry was taken aback. He had not been expecting this. Harry did not want to tell this in front of Sam but he had no other choice left then. “Karl was telling me that Sam is a burden for him. He was mockering you. He said you didn’t know how to dress. He was saying that he hated your personality and would stop friendship with you. He told me that he had already reduced the friendship to a great extent and now he would bring it to a halt forver. This is what he had said and then he began talking about other silly matters all of which concerned you. But before the matter would become worse, I pressed upon him to make the project. I can’t say any more,” Harry said.
Sam listened intenly and then gave a look of horror. “I have made a dreadful gaffe,” his lips shaped. “What have you done?” Harry observed Sam. “I told everything to Karl- from our plan to that day’s happenings. If whatever you are saying is true then I am in danger. Karl is insisting that he had not said anything annoying of me. Now, all is lost. I will not be able to tell him anything,” Sam said. “I have a solution,” said Marx.
*
Karl’s cellphone was ringing. “Yes?” It was Sam’s voice. Karl hung up. He hung up two more calls but attended the third.
“What is it?” he asked. “I have talked to Harry and everything’s fine. All is solved. Harry says sorry. He was wrong in what he did. He thought that whatever you had said would be annoying to me. But I happily accept all that. Is it okay?” Sam spoke.
Karl listened and then barely said, “Okay.” Then he hung up.
*
That night, Samuel logged into twitter and typed…
Friends are very precious. Preserve them… Even if you have to make the sacrifice.
But at last he had to type…
Have gone through vicissitudes of life. I was successful. Hurrah! Moral of the story: Look before you leap and think before you speak…
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