Chapter 38: The Gatekeeper
The two weeks that followed the semi-final loss were a blur of quiet, domestic routine. Raghav, for the first time in his two lives, became the perfect, model son.
He woke up. He ate. He studied.
The house, which had been tense with the unspoken conflict of cricket, settled into a peaceful, studious rhythm.
His father, Umesh, was visibly pleased. He would sit at the dining table reading his paper, and Raghav would sit across from him, his cast-bound arm resting on the table, his head buried in a science textbook.
Umesh saw an obedient son finally accepting the "real" world.
Raghav saw a necessary ceasefire.
He attacked his Class 8 final exams with the same cold, analytical fury he had used to plan the match against Spring Dale.
His 42-year-old mind, which had once grappled with advanced engineering concepts at IIT, found the 12-year-old's syllabus almost insultingly simple.
