As Sameer was lost in his thoughts to achieve a more balanced evolution like his cousin's his eyes darted towards the picture hung on his walls.
Two boys under 10 ; the younger one of them had similar features to Sameer as both their eyes were brown with a little light tone shade and chubby body and was around 5 years whereas the other boy looked more around 9 years lean thin arms and a big head with those two big round bloodshot eyes.
A trait he got from their father clearly. His elder brother Samar.
He was declared dead with other missing 20 million people whose status were unknown ; his parents and other family members have not taken this easily especially their grandparents but nonetheless they accepted it.
Sameer on the other hand took it as a sick joke ; why?? because what his brother said before leaving them in the bank vault; afterall backing or no backing he became a nobel thanks to the diary his brother left and only his cousins, his royal cousins to be precise knew the truth.
He remembers the thing he needs to do until his brother returns; "Little brother remember always remember you are not waiting but getting ready for the big game to begin; live like the lowest of nobel's as it is the wolf in the sheep's clothing who is hardest to tame, conquer and digest; but again it is the wolf who is the most dangerous of the others outside. Always remember"
As it he was trying to remember those carefree days; unknowingly he started thinking about the day he saw the lock on his flat.
At that time Sameer was just in Final year of junior high as he was returning from his school he was told by his neighbouring store owner Mr. Aslam that his big brother fainted suddenly and was rushed to the nearest Mazz Hospital.
He remembered that he ran for the hospital as soon as he heard of it and he never have ran that fast in his entire life.
It was soon discovered that brother was suffering from epilepsy and it was a short episode this time.
Doctor's forced him to leave his new job because it was in night shift and according to them it led to lack of sleep which was acting as a trigger for episodes.
He was silent and excluding a very discomforting vibe for a few days we all thought that he was depressed that he have to leave such a good job where the negative point was just the night shift.
After a week of this discomforting vibe dad gave in and had a serious talk with him and he was back to his carefree attitude. Everyone of us knew that he was just acting as the occasional silence and seriousness between cheerful jokes and laughters was normal those day.
Only the weirdness started with him when I told him about a pure pitbull pup being sold outside the local temple. It was as he was on fire; I remember that I was throwing a tantrum towards mummy not giving me a pet pup and what returned was my brother straight question; "Do you really want it?"
As i could see the fire in his eyes as i replied with a very slow nod like it was all in slow motion.
He stood up from the sofa and caught my arm and replied "Then let's go".
As we reached near the temple we could see many keen faces and it was common to see no real interested parties for the pup.
My brother forcefully went among the crowd and tearing it apart he reached in front of the buyer looked at the pup and asked with a straight face; "How much??"
'Just for you sir 7,000' my brother took the pup in his arms and replied with a straight face "Any siblings of this pup"
'Only 2 more sir but they are not as fit then this'
"12,000 for all three and you give me a red eared slider as a gift"
'Huh, but???' as they were bargaining at the end the price was decided for a whopping 1k.
"Please don't; just Yes or No" that was what my brother said with a very cold attitude as he was not bulging to the new price.
It was later I found from my brother that they were stolen from a designated and reputable pet shop and he just blackmailed our pup seller and magically it was 1000 rupee; that's it.
'Yes, Sir' with a gulp the seller replied as he was no more enthusiastically showing but cowering as in fear.
No one knew what a red slider or whatever was at that point but they were just amazed that someone bought the pup and something else for 20k.
"I thought a dog gives birth to litters what of others..."
'Sold to other pet stores sir'
"Alright, Heres 100 you'll get the rest after i see the other two and my red eared slider"
'Ok, sir', "And do leave behind your partner, for insurance purpose"
The man reluctantly left as he knew this was worst day of his life.
I was standing there looking like a fool I knew my brother got approx 30k in his account but spending a little less than half what the hell he is thinking. That was the only thing i can think at that time. Only on our way did I get that we spend just a grand to get not one but three pups and an additional gift from those great men.
It went smooth at the house as the man of question was my brother we got the other two pups in less than half n hour. A male and female it appeared my mom and dad don't like to call them dogs and bitch. So male and female it was.
When we saw the additional two pups we understood why the seller said they were weak; the dog was small then the female itself; a runt of the litter and the female was an albino i.e. full white colour and the only similarity between all of them was their blue eyes.
My brother named the strongest one as Hades, the runt as Hyperion and the Albino as Selene.
Their names where after the Greek Legends gods and titans themselves.
Mom and dad simply called them Hade, Hype and Sel.
They adapted to the three quite easily.
Dad's favorite was Hades and mom's Hyperion and Selene. And it was vice versa.
He the great Sameer was left with nothing as it turned out that the Red Eared Slider was a damn turtle and it was now his brother's pet.
As he was remembering that face of his he started to laugh from the bottom of his heart and tears of joy and old days surfaced on his clear brown eyes. Feeling a sense of discomfort he took of his contact lenses and now he could cry without irritation what usually appeared little clouded brown eyes turned out to be clear crystal brown.
But Sameer didn't cared about it he as he was lost in the past he could also not know the color of his eyes changing from a crystal brown to a little lite shade of fiery red.