Read and enjoy:The Curious Kids by Arathi Menon

The ghost in the bungalow

It was a lovely, breezy evening when my friends and I were playing cricket in our colony. Both the teams had two batsmen each, who were Nakul, Maanav, Sonu and Mike. Anup, Ron and Rashid served as the bowlers, fielders and Mohan, the wicket keeper. Dhruv did the commentary. My friends, Razia, Sweety and Lakshmi and few people in the neighborhood were there to watch the interesting and nail biting cricket match. My  cousin/nemesis Shreya, (who looked almost like a twin to me, but very different in character) was also present too.

                   Unfortunately, I was appointed as an umpire along with another nemesis of mine, Bunty. He along with Shreya and five others at school enjoyed annoying my best friend, Keerthi and me.

             The game went on well, until Mohan caught the ball, which was hit high by Nakul. I was about to say that he was out but;

“Not out!” Shouted Bunty

“It is clear that he is out!” I protested, “Mohan caught the ball”

“But I don’t think that he is out!” shouted Bunty “Let Shreya be the third umpire and make the decision”

“Nakul is out. You are just trying to save your team” I protested “I don’t think that Shreya will make a just decision anyway!”

“You are impossible!” Bunty smirked “And so is your clumsy friend, Keerthi”

I was already angry at Bunty for trying to cheat, but him insulting my best friend, was unbearable. I had no option but to tell it on his face. Grabbing at each other, we then rolled on the ground, as our friends did their best to pull us apart. Finally my mother came out and dragged Shreya and me into our house.

          I got enough scolding from my mother, and Shreya enjoyed watching it. To make it worse appeared Kumar uncle.

“Ritu” he called Amma “I have a complaint about your children”

Amma glared at us and looked back at him.

“I am sorry, uncle. You see, Deepu is hot tempered, silly enough to fight with those boys”

“That is not the complaint” said Kumar uncle “In fact, I enjoyed watching those hooligans fight”

“You mean that they have done something more?” asked Amma, looking at us angrily

“Trust me Amma. I haven’t done anything worthwhile today”

“The matter is that” Kumar uncle continued “The bungalow over there, the one which had been deserted for ten years, for people believed that the ghost of a cat who died then prevailed there. Certain melancholy noises from that bungalow have been disturbing us for ages. As I believe that ghosts do not exist, I believe that…”

“Do you girls have anything to say about this?”

“We will investigate” I said, “We have been serving…”

Kumar uncle raised an eyebrow.

“We will investigate,” said Shreya.

After Kumar uncle went, we plunged into discussion about the haunted bungalow, for getting ourselves out of trouble and for serving our Shalimar colony.

“I can’t believe this!” Shreya exclaimed, “When something strange happens in the colony, we get the blame”

“We must look into this case” I said thoughtfully “And prove ourselves innocent. I say, we must visit that bungalow tonight”

“Tonight?”

“Yes” I replied

That night, I had to drag Shreya to the bungalow. I took my detective kit (Binoculars, magnifier, scissors, chocolates) and put on my detective hat (just for fun). The bangalow  was totally cool inside, with rusty and dusty utensils, and broken photos, mostly of the dead kitten. It gave the house a spooky look. Poor Shreya tried to get rid of her fear while I had other plans.

“Shreya, don’t get scared” she told herself “There is no such thing as. …AAAAhhhhhhhhhh”

“Scared you” I said removing the cloak around me with triumph.

“Not funny!” she exclaimed, “Look there!”

She pointed towards a pile of chewing gum wrappers. We examined it, picked them up, and searched for more clues. We also got a guitar string too. Then suddenly, we realized that we were late and hurried back home.

            The next day I told Keerthi all about the bungalow. We were discussing about the bungalow at class, when

“Hey look! Rudolph’s back!” Bunty said, smiling wickedly under his large shades which covered his blackened eye. He was pointing at my nose, which he smashed, during the fight.

I lost my temper again. We were fighting again, when

“Mr. Singh! Miss. Iyer!” shouted Father Samuel, our history teacher. We decided to calm down. But for our shock;

“I will give you an assignment about the freedom struggle for this Friday. You will do it in pairs. Deepika will pair up with Bunty.”

I got shocked and looked at Bunty, equally shocked. The other children were put in pairs too, and then I met Bunty again after class.

“You can come to my house. Mom wants to meet you anyway”

 That evening, when I went there, Bunty's mother greeted me. She was a very sweet lady, and also was a good friend of Appa and his twin brother. She showed me a photo of herself as a girl and a pair of twin boys, younger than her, with spiky hair and wicked smiles.

“They were great,” she told me “Good boys who did the noble work of raising a new generation of pranksters. Dhruv and Bunty are great fans of them.”

She pointed at him and a bigger boy of eighteen, who was tall and had the same straight, untidy hair as Bunty had, who was teasing him.

“Nice spot, kiddo. Now Tiger has a twin too” He said, laughing wickedly, and was pointing to a puppy, with a black patch around its eye.

“Now I’m going to practice for my band ‘Disaster,’” he told him “and remember, do not even think of entering my room”.

He pointed at a notice stuck on one of the doors

‘No one will be allowed inside without the permission of Mr. Dhruv Singh’

He was soon gone, when Bunty said, “Let’s go to Bhaiya’s room”

It was surprising, though. While we did the assignment, Bunty and I became good friends. We talked about sports, food and the workload we have as we were now in the fifth grade. Then I noticed something.

“Does your brother chew?” I asked Bunty, pointing at the waste bin full of chewing gum wrappers.

“Him? Twenty four hours a day!”

“Does he play guitar”

“Yes. It is horrible. Yesterday, he lost a string in it. He was so sad.”

Finally, I got the culprit. I told Bunty, his mother and Shreya about it and got ready to welcome him. It was pretty soon, and as soon as Dhruv arrived, his mother dragged him to his study. We circled around him, who was seated in a chair, looking confused.

“What are you doing here, imprisoning me in my own study?”

“What were you doing in the bungalow?”

“What do you mean, Mom?”

“Were you and your friends making cacophonous mayhem in the bungalow?”

“What! We were just practicing our new song ‘Pain’”

 Bunty’s mother looked really angry.
 Poor Dhruv sighed.
We looked at each other.. and burst into laughter.