One Brick

Warm sunlight rested on the red floor. Dust floated through the air, turning slowly whenever the wind passed between the pillars. Somewhere beyond the gate, a bicycle bell rang twice.

Appa sat beside me with a newspaper spread across his lap.

He folded it along the center.

Neat. Precise.

The way he always did.

I looked down at myself.

My legs were short again. My feet did not reach the ground. There was dust on my knees and a loose thread hanging from the edge of my shorts.

I was a child.

But I could remember everything.

The lab.

The glow.

Tasha Motors falling from ₹800 to ₹130.

Vardhan AutoSystems had risen after everyone expected it to fall.

And the third line is waiting in my notebook.

Empty.

Appa turned one page of the newspaper.

The paper made a soft, dry sound.

"Appa?"

He looked at me.

"What is it, Rishi?"

His voice was exactly the same.

Calm. Patient.

For a moment, I forgot what I wanted to ask.

I just stared at him.

There were so many things I could have said. So many questions I had carried for years.

"Why did you leave us?"

The words came out before I could stop them. Not gentle. Not dream-like. Accusing.

"Did it hurt?"

Appa didn't answer. He just looked at me, his eyes soft in a way that made my chest tighten.

"Can you see what Mom has gone through?" My voice was louder now. "Do you know how hard she works? She comes home tired every day and still cooks for me. She still asks if I ate. She still pretends she's fine."

The dust in the air stopped moving.

"Do you know what is happening to me?"

I was crying. I didn't know when I had started.

"I see things, Appa. Numbers. Before they happen. And I don't know why. I don't know if I'm going crazy. I don't know what's happening to me."

Appa studied me quietly.

Then he folded the newspaper once more and placed it beside him.

"You cannot build everything alone, Rishi."

"Then how do I know whom to trust?"

A faint white light appeared beyond the veranda.

But this time, it didn't spread gently.

It surged.

Like water breaking through a dam.

The light swallowed the gate, the road, the bicycle, everything—faster than before. Too fast.

Appa's face didn't fade slowly like last time.

It was being erased.

"You don't."

His body began to disappear into the white glow.

"You give them one brick."

The light reached the steps. My skin prickled where it touched. Not warm. Sharp. Like static.

"Then you watch what they build with it."

His hand was the last thing I saw—reaching toward me, not quite touching—before the light swallowed him completely.

And kept coming.

It didn't stop at the veranda.

It crashed into me.

My chest seized. My vision went white. Not soft white—blinding, screaming white.

I couldn't breathe.

I couldn't scream.

I just fell.

I woke up on the floor.

My cheek was pressed against cold tile. My blanket was half-twisted around my legs. The ceiling fan spun above me, its shadow cutting across the wall in slow, steady circles.

I lay there for a few seconds, my heart hammering against my ribs, my shirt soaked through with sweat.

The notebook.

I turned my head.

It was on the study table, right where I'd left it. But the pen was on the floor beside me. My hand ached like I'd been gripping it in my sleep.

I pulled myself up and grabbed the notebook.

The door opened behind me.

Mom stood there, looking slightly surprised.

"Oh. You're awake already?"

I blinked at her.

"Yeah."

"Good. Then get ready quickly. Breakfast is almost ready."

"Okay, Mom."

She gave me one last look before leaving the room.

✦ ✦ ✦

By nine in the morning, the campus entrance was already buzzing with students.

I walked through the archway, my bag slung over one shoulder. Beside me, Sameer was practically vibrating, gesturing wildly with his hands as he rambled about some anime he had stayed up until three in the morning watching.

"I'm telling you, Rishi, the main character is completely useless for twenty episodes, and then suddenly—boom! Power-up!" Sameer made a dramatic exploding motion. "It makes total sense. You wouldn't get it though; you sleep at normal human hours."

"Right," I muttered, half-listening.

My eyes were already scanning the open hallways, the crowded staircases, and the groups gathered near the notice boards.

We turned the corner into our department wing, heading toward our classroom.

That was when Sameer's voice trailed off.

"Uh... Rishi?" he murmured, nudging my arm. "Why is she standing there?"

At the far end of the hallway, leaning right beside the door to our room, was Professor Anu.

She stood like a security guard on duty.

Her arms were crossed over her chest, a thick leather file held against her side. Her face was completely unreadable, her sharp eyes scanning every student walking past.

"Good morning, Miss," a group of second-years said, bowing slightly as they passed.

Professor Anu gave them a brief, barely noticeable nod. She wasn't paying attention to them. She was looking for someone specific.

A quiet hush had fallen over the students gathering outside the door. Whispers were already spreading down the line.

"Is she taking our class today?"

"Where is Rao, sir? Did he not show up?"

"Why is she standing outside our room like that?"

I stopped walking.

Professor Anu's eyes locked onto mine.

She didn't smile. She didn't nod. She just pushed off the wall and started walking toward me.

Sameer went completely silent beside me.

"Rishi," she said. Not loud. Just sharp enough to cut through the hallway noise.

I stopped.

She stopped in front of me. Close. The leather file was still pressed against her side.

"Follow me."

It wasn't a request.

I glanced at Sameer. He looked like he'd forgotten how to blink.

"Now," she added.

I followed.

She led me past the classroom, past the staff room, to the end of the corridor where the old seminar hall was. She pushed open the door. The room was empty. Chairs stacked against the wall. A broken projector hanging from the ceiling.

She closed the door behind us.

The click echoed.

She walked to the desk and placed the file on it. Her back was to me for a second. Her shoulders rose and fell once.

Then she turned around.

"How did you know?"

I blinked. "Sorry?"

"About Vardhan." Her voice was quiet. Steady. "How did you know it would rise?"

I looked at the floor. "I didn't—"

"Rishi."

I shut up.

She took a step closer.

"After you left that day, I invested in Vardhan."

She held my gaze.

"It's up twenty percent."

A moment passed.

"So I'll ask you again."

"How did you know?"

Damn.

She looked like she was about to eat me alive if I didn't give her a real answer.

A lie wouldn't work. If I tried to call it a lucky guess, she'd tear it apart in seconds.

She had every reason to be suspicious. I'd collapsed in class, landed in a hospital bed, and then rushed back to campus just to ask about a stock everyone had already written off.

I held my breath.

The silence in the seminar room was deafening.

Appa's words from the dream came back to me.

You give them one brick. Then you watch what they build with it.

I didn't know if telling her was the right choice.

Part of me wanted to say what I'd told Sameer—that I'd explain once I understood it myself.

But another thought hit me.

Even if every prediction I saw came true... what could I do with it?

Nothing.

I didn't have money.

I didn't even have a demat account.

If I wanted to change anything for Mom, I couldn't do it alone.

I looked at Professor Anu.

She was the only person I knew who understood the market.

The only person who could actually do something with what I knew.

I looked at Professor Anu, who was practically vibrating with impatience, waiting for a real answer.

"I have this strange ability," I said. "Or... a glow."

Professor Anu blinked. "What?"

"I see a glow sometimes when I look at a stock."

She stared at me.

Silence stretched across the empty seminar room.

"Rishi, what are you talking about?" her voice snapped, sharp and utterly unimpressed. "If you don't want to tell me how you knew, just say so. Why are you spouting nonsense?"

Right.

Great job, Rishi.

As soon as the words left my mouth, I realized how utterly insane I sounded. To a strict, analytical finance professor who lived and breathed balance sheets and technical charts, hearing a student talk about "glowing stock names" didn't sound like a secret—it sounded like I needed to go back to the hospital.

Someone like Professor Anu wasn't going to buy a word about "abilities."

Professor Anu stared at me like I had grown a second head.

"A glow," she repeated flatly. "Rishi, I lost fifteen thousand rupees on Tasha. I put five thousand on Vardhan because of one conversation with you. And now you're telling me a glowing light told you it would rise?"

I swallowed. My palms were sweaty.

"It sounds crazy when I say it out loud," I admitted. "But it's true. I saw the number for Vardhan before anyone was talking about the Vora deal."

She didn't speak for a long moment. The broken projector hummed above us.

Finally, she let out a long breath and rubbed her temple.

"I should send you back to the doctor."

"I know."

"But..." She looked at me, really looked. "The timing was too perfect. No one was talking about Vardhan that day. Not even the analysts."

The bell rang somewhere in the distance—sharp and loud, signaling the start of the next period.

Professor Anu glanced at her watch.

"Go to class. We'll talk more after this lecture."

I nodded quickly and turned toward the door.

"Rishi."

I stopped.

"If this is some kind of joke..." Her voice was low. "Don't."

"It's not."

I slipped out of the seminar hall before she could say anything else.

The corridor was almost empty now. I walked fast toward our classroom, heart still hammering.

When I pushed the door open, every head in the room turned.

Professor Rao paused mid-sentence, the marker hovering over the whiteboard.

I muttered a quick "Sorry, sir" and headed to my seat.

Sameer was grinning like an idiot.

Whispers started the moment I sat down.

“Why did Anu ma’am take him so early?”

“Did he do something?”

“Is he in some problem or what?”

Sameer leaned sideways, voice low.

“What the hell was that?”

I kept my eyes on the board.

“Later,” I said quietly.

I sat back and stared at the whiteboard while Professor Rao kept talking.

Words weren’t going to convince her.

I needed proof.

I need to find the next stock.