Chereads / Twelve-12 / Chapter 5 - The Boy Next Door

Chapter 5 - The Boy Next Door

Anbu Chezhiyan belonged to a middle class family. He was a Mechanical Engineering student once, a really talented one. He is really skilled in using the designing softwares and he mastered it in his secound year of college. Though he was an average grader, his projects proved what he is truly capable of.

He has a elder sister named Meera, she isn't a really attractive women but a woman with a pure heart. She was getting older for her marriage but the men who look at her reject her for her lack of beauty, and since they are not a wealthy family, it makes it more difficult.

Anbu's father Chezhiyan Mahadevan is a General Manager in a local factory. His earnings were decent enough for their family's needs and his wife managed the family's budget very wisely. He had a good reputation in his working place and was leading a peacefull life...unless, one day, Mahadevan met with an accident. He lost his legs in the accident and couldn't no longer continue his work in the factory. Suddenly, there was no source of income for the house as he was the only person who was working. Their debts started to increase, and Anbu couldn't continue his education. So, he dropped out and joined work as an operator in an industry. That is when another problem knocked his door. Mahadevan got diagonised with mouth cancer ,could be due to his excessive smoking, but the doctors said that he can be treated before things go out of hand.... if they could spend some millions.

Mahadevan felt really guilty, Anbu dropped out because of him and now he has to earn a lot to save him. During the dinner, Mahadevan started crying at the dinner table, "Everything is my fault...I have turned your lives miserable....Anbu, don't care about me....let me die....look after your own life...". His wife went and hugged him, "everything will be fine dear, please don't cry, you are the one that should be giving confidence to the children". Meera got emotional and started crying too. Anbu's eyes were also filled with tears but he realized he should be the one that should look strong here and he controlled his emotions. "Dad, I won't let you die like that, this isn't your fault. If we are to blame someone here, it has to be fate. You and mom, you two are everything to me.....you both lived for me an Meera all your life. If I don't try my best saving you, I will be the worst son ever", said Anbu.

The next day Anbu quit his job. He became a freelancer, mostly he does jobs related to what he was studying and he was really good at it. But that's not the only job he did, he did anything that payed him, even if he had to take 5 punches from a beefy proffesional boxer. He kept looking for jobs all the time, all the time except his sleeping time and eating time, he worked. And if had to sacrifice his sleep and food, he does that too. He not only has to save his father but also complete his debts, get his sister married and manage the family needs. Any young man at his situation would have complained about his life but Anbu enjoyed it rather, he liked the challenge that life has given him.

Though he loved working, looking at people around him made him feel jealous. His friends were enjoying their college life in every way possible while he was working really hard to atain a sustainable life. He always felt bad that he didn't have a girlfriend to share his feelings and share his love. Sometimes he felt really lonely. But still he didn't give up. I won't be getting work in the Sunday mornings mostly, so he drinks on Saturday nights, this helped him to move out of depression but he made a promise to himself that he will drink only on these nights.

One such night, when he was drinking whiskey, his sister handed him a letter, "Anbu , there was a letter for you, it looks really fancy, did you apply for job anywhere?". Anbu was really high and understood only half of it but noded his head saying yes. She placed the letter near him and left. It was a job letter to which Anbu did not apply. It was a letter from ZAMBROX