Five-minute Adventure

     "Mom?" I called out. "We are going out."
     "Come home before it gets dark," Mom shouted back.
     "Finally!" Krithi sighed. "It has been ages!" It had only been four days since the two of us had gone out for a little ride in the scooter but, it did seem like ages. "Where do you want to go today?"
     "We can go-"
     "I said, come home before it gets dark," Mom stormed in before I could complete my sentence. "Which means you can't go far."
     We just giggled and walked away pretending to be deaf, leaving behind an extremely angry mother.
     "We are grown up now," I complained to my sister when we zoomed out of the gate and into what we like to call 'freedom'. "Why do they still boss over us? I mean, you have a license and all that!"
     "Oh cmon!" Krithi tried to pacify me. "We have come a loooooonng way. Remember we couldn't even step out of the house without giving a full report to dad beforehand?"
     I laughed. "Oh, yes! We would go out and give excuses like 'we met Susheela Aunty and she wouldn't stop talking,' or 'there was a large queue at the grocery store so it took fifteen minutes to buy lemons,' We had thrown out our fair share of lies."
     "Maybe that's why he doesn't ask us the report anymore. Because he's tired of all our lies."
     "Seems like it. If you think that way, they do give us more freedom now."
     "Yes! They are just a tad bit overprotective."
     "Tad bit?" I snorted. "That's the understatement of the year. They still don't let me go alone anywhere. I'm a grownwoman now!"
     "They let me do anything I want. It's just when it comes to you that they get uneasy. They don't trust you." My sister rubbed salt over my raw wound. "I understand them though. You are so irresponsible. You always lose your way."
     "I DO NOT. I get a little confused at times, but I do not always lose my way."
     "Okay then," Krithi stopped in the middle of the road. "Tell me how we are supposed to get back home."
     I looked around. There was not a single person in sight. The place looked very familiar but I had no clue as to where we were. "Ummm...yeah, this is easy."
     "Is it?" She turned around and raised her eyebrow at me.
     "Yeah, yeah," I answered, still looking around, but this time, with a determined expression plastered over my face. "We, ummm...we just..."
     "Do you even know where we are?"
     "Of course, yes!" I snapped, pretending to be very hurt by that question. It wasn't so hard to pretend being hurt, it was close to the expression I was trying so hard to hide: the expression of shame. "So we just need to....like...."
     "I think we would reach home by the time you complete your answer."
     "We just need to turn the scooter and go back the way we came?" I answered sheepishly.
     "And which way might that be?" Once again with the raised eyebrow. God, I hate when she condescends me that way.
     "I don't know," I muttered, giving up.
     "I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you."
     "I DON'T KNOW" I shouted in her ears. "Can we just go? I'm a female, it's not my fault that I have a bad sense of direction. God wired me that way. And it's fine, because I don't mind asking people for directions."
     She just laughed out her standard laugh of victory, as she would call it. "And who would you ask for directions in this forsaken land?"
     Dammit, shecaughtmethere. "You?" Onceagain, withthesheepishanswers.
     "This is what I meant by 'you are irresponsible'." Finally, we started moving again. "How will you survive in the world out there?"
     "God, you sound just like Mom and Dad."

     This was what our sister-time looked like. Every evening, we just go around the town, aimlessly, talking unimportant stuff and figuring out life at the same time. No matter how silly it seemed to the rest of the world, we had our share of fun during these "scooter rides".  It was just the two of us, living the young, carefree life.
    
     "Oh wait. I know this road," I jumped in my seat. "It's the road behind my school."
     "It took this long for you to figure out?" My sister was very much disappointed in me, and that was my moment of pride. "Dad takes us through this way all the time. That empty road was the short-cut he showed us last week. How could you forget it that fast?"
     "Well, I have more important things to remember than roads."

     "Do you want to try this road now?" Krithi slowed down and pointed towards a path towards our left. "Dad told it reaches the hospital but I've never gone this way."
     "Time to explore!" I pumped my fists in the air. I was probably more excited than Vasco da gama when he reached India.
     It was barely two minutes since we started pur "exploration" when my angry mother called. "It's already dark," She started yelling through the speakers of my phone. "You were supposed to be home half an hour ago. Where in the world are you?"
     "Five minutes," I said and cut the call.
     "I think it's time we head back home," Krithi voiced my thoughts, cringing at the thought of what awaits us back home. "We'll come here some other time."
     "So much for my excitement." I sulked.
     "Well, we were in a 'new road' for like five minutes, in and out."
    "Yes, yes. We were! It was kind of an adventure for us. Two girls who were never let out before now have 'explored a new road.' It was barely five minutes but an adventure, nevertheless."
     We laughed loud. Nothing could ever bring us down when we were out on our precious 'scooter rides'.
     "Today was a productive day," Krithi added, still laughing. "We had our Five-minute Adventure."