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story-leaf · 8 months

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Partners in Crime

If naughtiness could be labelled than Krish and Kavita were the epitome of naughtiness. Krish- a 10-year-old boy, lean, thin and tall, having brown hair with innocent eyes and legs resembling two bamboo sticks. His sweet smile would camouflage his naughtiness. Kavita, a year and half older than him but could compete with him in naughtiness. She was a bit plump but was at same height as Krish. She was bob haired with big round eyes and thin lips. She was as pretty as a doll. They lived in a two-bedroom flat. It was a single storey flat. It had two entrances as it was a corner house. Their mother was a school teacher. She would go to school as early as 6:30 in the morning and would come back by 4 in the evening. She was a strict mother. Their father worked as a principal in a school in Himachal Pradesh. He would visit them during his vacations or three of them would go to him during their vacations. Living without father has made Krish and Kavita best friends.

They would daily return home from school by 2. After unlocking their home. They would warm the lunch prepared by their mother. Eat and play.

On one such day Kavita and Krish returned from their school. It was raining lightly. Kavita changed her uniform and sat outside in the verandah to enjoy the drizzle. This verandah was at the back side of their house. Covered with 6 feet tall wall from three sides and a big double iron black door at the fourth side.

Krish came running, sweating profusely. He gasped for a moment,” Didi there is something strange crawling on the bedroom ceiling”. Kavita got up and was quick to reach inside. Their bedroom was 12 by 12 square room. A wooden bed, a dressing was all that was inside the bedroom. The walls of the room were painted white. As kavita reached the door she could see a mesh of ant eggs that were being carried by the ants. Kavita had a sigh of relief.” It’s just ant eggs as it is rainy season so they are carrying them” shouted kavita,” You scared me”. “What ants” Krish looked at them with his open mouth. “They are not going to eat you up”, Kavita laughed, “Don’t worry”.

But a naughty devil has entered his mind. He wanted to do something –something. So, he went to the storeroom, took a stick tied a cloth at its one end dipped it in kerosene and a mashal was ready. He rushed to the kitchen took a match box and lit the mashal. Now he just wanted to see if he could burn those eggs or not. He quietly slipped inside the bedroom. Peeped to see, what was Kavita doing? She was sitting and humming a song in the verandha. He lit the mashal but his hand was not reaching the ceiling. He softly dragged a table making sure not to make a sound. Now, he stood on it but he had to stand on his toes to burn those eggs. And he did it and in no time the eggs were burning. He was horrified to see them falling like balls of fire from the ceiling. He jumped from the table again looked for Kavita. She was sitting outside unaware of what he has done. He walked past Kavita as if he has done nothing. She was still sitting and humming the song. She smiled as Krish passed by. But as she turned back she could see smoke coming from the entrance. The entrance of the house was secured by an iron grill gate with mosquito net fitted in the wooden panels.

She rushed to open the iron grill gate as she reached the square lobby she could see the room blazing with fire. She screamed, “Krish, fire, fire the house is on fire.” Angry face of her mother floated in front of her eyes. She ran for water. Krish came running. He looked scornful and puzzled how could the tiny lump of ant eggs could cause such a big fire. The wooden door, bed, mattress and clothes behind the door all were burning. Both of them poured buckets after buckets to extinguish the fire.

After ten minutes nothing was burning in the room but worst it was dripping with water with soot on the white walls and furniture. Clothes behind the door were half burned. The paint on the door was bubbled with black stains on it. The bedsheet was the least damaged thing. It had just burned from the corners the black stains were giving an eye-catching contrast to the yellow bedsheet. Next was the mattress black unburned cotton was peeping out from the cover of the mattress.

Kavita took a deep breath as cleaning this mess up was a humungous task. Mother would be back within 45 minutes. Kavita could imagine her angry face, with broom in one hand and stick in other and beating them. The thought was enough to shake her up and the cleanup plan was ready in her mind. They had to move fast. She just shouted, “Krish, bring the scrub and the soap”. Krish was scared thinking why he left the room when he saw the ants falling on the clothes. He knew it was all his fault Next Kavita heard was Krish crying. Kavita, got up. She patted his head. We would do it together, “Don’t worry.” But Krish was sobbing. Gasping for breath. He told Kavita what has happened. Kavita stared at her unbelievingly. How could he do it. But she knew it was no time to blame. She hugged him.

“OK! We will fix it. Now get up and bring the scrub and soap.” He wiped his tears. Got up to bring the scrub and the soap. He had to rub the stains. It was hard to remove them. His little hands were paining, tears rolled down his eyes. He looked at his red hands. Kavita brought a broom for washing the room. She quickly collected all the clothes from behind the door and dumped them in the storeroom.

Mummy’s new suit was also burned. What to do? nothing! Kavita quickly took out a black garbage bag from the kitchen and folded the bedsheet in it. The last thing was the mattress both of them looked at each other. They counted one, two, three ……...at the count of three they turned the mattress upside down. Now it was the time to give final touches to hide the traces of fire.

Kavita unfolded a new bedsheet and Krish helped her to spread it on the bed. With this the room looked traceless. There were no stains on the walls and no burn marks were visible. But Krish’s face had lines of worry and fear. Mother would be returning home any time. What if she found out what Krish has done? He shivered as he recalled the whole incidence to. She sighed. Got up! As she opened his mouth to say something. The doorbell rang. She looked towards Krish. His face has turned white and had tears in his eyes. She handed him a glass of water, patted his back. The bell rang again. Mother was knocked at the door. Kavita looked at Krish once again he looked better now. She got up from the bed to open the door. Mother was smiling,” What took you so long?” she patted Kavita’s head.” I have bought samosas bring three plates we will eat here only”. Kavita winked, looking at Krish.He could do nothing but smile.

#innocence #frienship #storytime #story #aesthetic #trending #foryou #foryoupage #childhood #nostalgic #memories #siblings #fire #house on fire #naughty #kids

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