"So, what would you be doing for two months?" Vishal asked as they walked to her home after the last day of school.
"I've never been to Kolkata," Mitra mused. "So, I would do a lot of sight-seeing, eat all the local cuisine and exhaust reading all the books I can lay my hands on. You?"
"I am going to my aunt's place in Hyderabad. I will take guitar lessons there and tour around a bit. Summers in Hyderabad are a bit unbearable to be extensively outdoors."
"You forgot about making the song we talked about," Mitra wagged a finger at him.
"I didn't. I am planning to make more than one song," Vishal reassured.
They grinned at each other. Vishal then popped his doubt, "Tell me, how do I bring myself to be as good as you in writing essays?"
"Why?"
"Because I want to be a journalist someday and writing reports should be my strength for that," Vishal revealed, a faint red creeping up his ears as he felt a little apprehensive talking about his dream job.
Mitra was surprised. "Aren't you supposed to be doctor? Your parents are both doctors, right? Wouldn't they be angry if you choose a different career path?" she asked, seriously worried about him.
"No. My absolutely perfect elder sister will take that role. With the grades I get, entering a medical school will be a Herculean task," Vishal owned up.
"Wow." Mitra gave him a thumbs up. "I guess I have to spend time thinking about my career aspirations as well during the summer break," she observed more to herself.
"That you can do. Back to my question, how to improve my writing skills?" Vishal asked, a bit peeved.
"By writing more. Practicing." Mitra looked too serious and sincere for Vishal to take it as a joke. Mitra looked at his bemused expression and clarified, "You can practice essay writing, read newspaper editorials and reports. That will give you a huge improvement." She paused and suggested, "How about you write letters?"
"What? To whom?"
"Me. I love writing letters and small notes. It is a good way to regulate your thoughts and emotions into written words. Once you get addicted to writing letters, you will not be able to get out of it." She smiled encouragingly at him.
"Okay. I will write to you." Vishal smiled, the red blush spreading to his neck.
What started as short one or two pages of letters, extended to five pages by the end of the summer. The stories of personal experiences with implications of the thoughts of society and elders who acted as hypocrites were a major set of topics in their letters. They sometimes exchanged creative essays for peer review on topics they decided over phone calls.
When summer ended and Mitra returned to her hometown, the first and only person to visit her was Vishal, who had arrived two days prior to her arrival.
"You are not going to believe what I found!" That was the first thing he said as soon as she came to answer the door, a big grin on his face and his ears red.
"What is it?" Mitra asked, trying her best to hide the flush of excitement on her face that came upon seeing Vishal again.
"Come on, let's go for a walk. Or better, get out your bicycle. We can return by sunset," he answered by urging her out of her house.
Mitra's grandparents were always cautious of letting a young girl wander around the streets of a small town with a boy; that could elicit talks from people watching them. Yet, Vishal's parents had a credibility to their characters and jobs that served as some sort of guarantee for Vishal's upbringing and presence. So, they let Mitra out for games, walks and study sessions with Vishal with a strict curfew time.
"Where are we going to?" Mitra questioned as soon as they set out cycling.
"To the lake," Vishal answered.
"The one on the west end of the town? Isn't that on the outskirts?"
"Yes."
"Isn't that supposed to be dangerous?"
"Nope. I explored it yesterday and nobody ever comes to even visit a part of it."
"That's exactly why it can be dangerous," Mitra tried to reason.
"Nah, you will see," Vishal grinned.
They passed the busier streets of the town in the still hot and sunny weather, rounded around a couple of narrow lanes, Vishal leading at the front. After a few minutes, they reached the lane that was the only one going along a patch of the lake's bank. The rest of the lake was surrounded by thick trees and shrubs.
The open lake shore had big boulders half-submerged in the waters of the lake for the natives to wash clothes. A couple of motors operated at the corner to draw up water for the nearby stores and residencies.
Vishal got down his bicycle and walking into a patch of separated greenery to his left, indicated Mitra to follow his suite.
He followed a faintly marked trail along the gathering of the trees, narrating, "This leads to a cove on the left corner of the lake. It is surrounded by trees and has lot of rocks along the bank, leading into the water. I believe during the monsoons, the place gets flooded with the water level rising, but the rocks will still give you a nice spot to sit amidst the water."
It was a five-minute walk to the cove, and it was a sight to behold for Mitra.
The cove was shielded from the lane they had left. It looked just like how Vishal described, except the trees provided them a cool shade and a soft breeze in the hot weather, and the red and auburn shades of the evening sun reflected off the water of the lake in breath-taking shades. They couldn't see the sun setting, but that just added to the beauty of the cove's setting, shielding its visitors from the glaring sun.
The wind blew ripples across the surface of the lake as the summer song birds cooed in the branches of the surrounding trees. A few squirrels skittered around chased by a stray cat. The smell of the wet ground and grass along the shores of the lake was so sweet that Mitra inhaled a lungful of it in bliss.
"Wow..." Mitra gasped. Those were the only words she could utter as she looked around, charmed by the picturesque view. "How did you find this?" she whispered to Vishal.
"I was exploring this place yesterday out of boredom and got curious about what that trail in the trees led to. I half-expected this place to be filled with people relaxing in the summer. But just see how clean this place is, as if people don't visit at all. I was waiting to show this to you." He beamed at her as she chuckled.
"You know we can practice songs here, study and have little picnics and no one would know," he ideated.
"Yeah, unless your parents or my grandparents make it their mission to track where we are if we are not at either of our homes or school," she warned. Turning to him, she suggested, "We shouldn't be here that often unless we are sure our families wouldn't be looking for us. We will have to work that out."
Facing the lake, she observed, "This place can be like one of those therapy places, you know; where you can relax your mind after a bad day."
"Yeah. I thought so too," Vishal agreed.
The cove became their hangout place. They would cycle till the tree covers and then sneak into the cove every other evening. It was always deserted, and they slowly stopped fearing being intruded upon by strangers.