But the monster was huge; double her height, four times her weight, pounced on her petite frame. With his thick muscular hands pinning her slender little wrists down, Chutki pumped all her energy out to unclench from his grip. But the more she resisted, the more he pressed her back on floor. Chutki could feel herself crushing under him. She had realized now that she cannot defeat this monster alone
“Bheem! Raju! Save me!!”
She felt choked but began whiling her lungs out. She accumulated all her might again and pushed the monster away, grasping for breathe, sweating rivers- "Agrrhhh!"
In a snap, her eyes opened to the morning, she felt lighter, relieved.
"Hush, a nightmare!" She sighed.
Sunday morning usually calls for some extra sleeping hours for little Chutki. The eight year old has to force herself to wake up everyday for school at 6:30am in the morning. But she reimbursed all of it by cooping in her room, sleeping till 11 am on Sundays. But today, Chutki found herself wide awake right at 9am as though someone had sucked out the sleep and drowsiness in a single slurp.
The nightmare woke her up sweating, panting, gasping for every molecule of Oxygen. She felt her skin sticky, soaked in sweat and her body ached weirdly bad. So bad, her eyes welled up of pain and helplessness. She woke up miserable and tired, hence she decided to lay back in bed for few more minutes. An avid fan of Chota Bheem, 'the super hero, fighting a Monster' theme was common in her dreams. But sometimes dreams have lasting impact and continue to trickle us for the rest of the day, she wondered.
As she lay, closing her eyes allowing her aching body to retrieve it's strength, her mother screamed from the kitchen and broke her peace.
"Chutki beta! Come on wake up. Look who's here! There's a surprise for you!! Get out of your bed fast or you may miss the surprise!"
Like an obedient daughter, despite in midway of her nightmare recovery, Chutki began to lift her head to get a better vision of her room.
"Surprise Chutki!" Her uncle exclaimed.
"I boarded the first bus in the morning and came to meet my princess specially. And look, I got a new doll and sweets from the city. Who wants it? Chutki wants it? Come here! Come to chachu!"
he tried to lure her, waking up from the other side of Chutki's bed.
He buttoned up his shirt and zipped up his pant back before anybody else could come in the room and catch him, or get suspicious.
