Child’s Play

She’d thought about this moment, imagined it, for hours, but she’d never expected what happened. The tide of events turned a fresh Friday morning to a disastrous evening.

Pranavi, a fourteen-year old tomboy, had woken up to the morning rays of the summer heat. She had glanced up to the wall clock and had noted with dismay that it was barely six. She hated being woken up early. She liked a quiet and peaceful sleep- a luxury which was barely granted to her. Her house was on the tenth floor of a multi-storeyed apartment in the heart of Chennai. Being in one of the busiest streets, there was always some construction or project or rally that kept going on.

But that morning had been different. There had been no unpleasant sounds of the drills or the voices of politicians booming over the speaker. It had been almost a perfect morning had she not been woken up by a pillow on her face.

Pranavi groaned and jerked her hand to the side to hit the person who had woken her up.

“Ranveer, why did you wake me up!!”

“Because today is an important day,” the mischievous voice of her brother  answered.

Pranavi and Ranveer were siblings, separated by just a year. Pranavi, despite being a tomboy, was the more obedient child of the two. Ranveer on the other hand, loved playing pranks on people. He had been suspended from school several times and nearly expelled due to his classic ‘bucket on the door’ prank and the ‘broken teacher’s chair’ prank.

Ranveer had then proceeded in pouring out his plans for that evening. His sister had listened with a grumpy mood at first, which later went through several stages of transformation and had become an excited face. Without the slightest hint of the horrors that awaited, the siblings had gone ahead with the plan.

And now, they reaped the fruit of their thoughtless mischief. They saw their grandmother at the door with a few neighbours. She held a bag of bitter gourds, green chillies, salt and packeted chapattis. There was a visible confusion in her face. She clearly seemed to be having trouble with something.

Pranavi’s mother went to the entrance, equally puzzled. She took the bags from her mother’s hand and asked her, “Amma, what happened? Why did it take you so long to come home?” Pranavi’s grandmother craned her head   kept looking from side to side, “Ah! Nirmala, it is you. Where are you? I am not able to see properly. Something seems to be wrong with my spectacles today.”

It was indeed true. The lens of her spectacles had some white translucent coating in them. Mrs. Nirmala’s eyes fell on this. She strode ahead and took off her mother’s spectacles carefully and twirled them in her hand. She placed her thumb on the translucent white and began rubbing it. The substance seemed to be adamant to stay there at first. It took a bit of harder and longer rubbing to chip it off. It seemed like acrylic paint.

Pranavi heard Ranveer shift uncomfortably behind her. She felt uncomfortable as well but remained motionless. He murmured in a barely audible whisper, “Umm.. I have my homework to do. Shall I go now?” He hadn’t turned when the threatening tone of their mother sounded, “Ranveer, where are you going? You have a lot of explanation to do. Did you know that because of your mischief, your grandmother might have gotten lost, seriously hurt or even killed?”

“Lost she was sister,” a man’s voice sounded. He was their neighbour and family friend, “She nearly went off to the next street when there had been a truck approaching.”

After a quick word of apology and thanks to the neighbour, Mrs. Nirmala resumed addressing her son, “Why did you do it?” Her heart beat rising from the pressure of guilt, Pranavi stepped up to take the blame, “We meant it as a harmless prank really! We never thought it would go this far!”

Pranavi’s mother looked at her with horror and utter belief written on her face, “You took part in this too? But why?”

Pranavi would probably hate her brother a lot in the future for what was coming next. She was trying to shoulder the entire blame despite being half innocent, yet he spoiled that. With a feeble and scared smile, Ranveer said, “Happy April Fool’s Day Everyone.”