Messing around – A short children story
Drik was excited. His dream of watching his favourite cricket stars in action was finally going to come true. How? The IPL season was on and the third match of the series between Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) was scheduled to take place at the stadium in his city. It was very close to his house. His dad’s best friend had managed to get two tickets for the both of them!
He had spent the past few weekends practicing his batting and bowling techniques – who knows, he might be called to show it off to his idols or so that he thought! His whole room was in a mess as he had turned everything topsy turvy while playing in his room at night.
On Sunday morning, the fateful day, Drik’s mum came to his room at nine in the morning. There was so much mess on the floor that she could only poke her head around the door. Drik was sitting in the middle of it all trying on his batting gloves.
“You must clear this up in here and today,” said his mum.
“Why?” Drik asked.
“Why?” his mum repeated. “Because things might get lost when they’re all like this. Come on, tidy up now.”
“But I’m very busy,” Drik argued, “and it’s boring. Can’t you help me?”
“No, I’m busy too. But I’ll give you extra pocket money if you do a good job.”
When Drik’s mum returned, all his toys and clothes had disappeared.
“Good job, but I will check it properly later,” said mum.
“It was easy. Now can I have my extra pocket money?”
“Okay, take it from the kitchen drawer.”
In the kitchen drawer, Drik couldn’t find his mum’s purse.
“It must be hidden at the bottom, please take a proper look dear.”
As his mum pulled the drawer out and carried it over to the table, Drik got a high chair and climbed on top of it to look inside. There were lots of interesting things in there.
He found some wobbly balls that flashed disco colors. He started playing with it. He found his dad’s racket, balls, slinky……stickers, small cars, bikes…….what not.
“I remember this,” Drik said as he pulled out a plastic bag. “This is from my pirate party.” Inside there was a false moustache, toy guns, swords, and some big marbles.
Drik took the false moustache and stuck it on his mum’s top lip. Then with a lipstick, he painted a big red scar down her cheek. Mum put on the pirate earrings.
“Come here,” mum said and smeared white face paint all over Drik’s face. She put gel all over his hair and made it stand up like pointy shapes. Drik put in his latest vampire teeth and made scary noises. He looked like a Dracula indeed.
His mum joined him too and the two started screaming around. In fact, she took out an air cushion for him. Mum said, “You can blow it up and sit on it. It makes rude noises when you jump.” She blew it up and gave it to Drik.
Suddenly there was a knock at the back door and Drik’s dad walked in. His mouth dropped open.
“We’re just looking for mum’s purse,” Drik explained.
“Well! It looks nothing like it. Carry on the two of you,” said Drik’s dad and hurried out of the house. When the door banged shut, Drik and his mum burst out laughing until mum’s moustache hung on by a whisker and Drik’s vampire teeth dropped out.
Drik went and sat on his mum’s knee. “It was fun doing this together,” he said.
“But mum, we still haven’t found the purse.” They looked at the enormous heap of things spread over the kitchen table.
Luckily, the two of them managed to locate his mum’s bright red purse in the heap. How could they miss it, when the clasp itself was shining like a gold coin.
“Mum you must be tidy. Things will get lost when they’re kept like this and I may not be around always to help you out,” Drik said with some cherished seriousness.
“You cheeky monkey!” mum laughed. “But what shall I do with all this mess?”
“I know, it’s easy,” Drik said and dumped it all back in the kitchen drawer. All for being tidy!
This made his mum look at him suspiciously. “Let’s go and inspect your room.”
Drik quietly followed her into his bedroom. Drik’s pet cat Molly was sitting on his table. Seeing them she dashed under the bed and started mewing from under.
Mum kneeled down and lifted the bed cover to get Molly out. And lo! Underneath were loads of Drik’s toys, books, DVDs, clothes and shoes, empty plastic cups and wrappers and a half-eaten sandwich on a plate.
“Drik what have you done?”
“Mum, I have a tidy room now,” Drik said and wrapped his arms around his mum before she could scold him. “Let’s sort this one out together now.”
Suddenly, something caught Drik’s eye and he shuddered. He had thrown it there last night when he was chewing gum. In the heap he saw a balled up paper and when he opened it, he found that it was his much-coveted ticket for the match that was to be held that evening.
How close he had come to losing his dream chance! “Drik, I hope now you know why you must be careful with your things?” said mum quietly. “I promise mum, I shall never be messy again,” said Dirk. And true to his words, Dirk set about tidying up at once.
He went down on his knees again and this time, he actually put everything back in their own place! His room had never looked brighter and cleaner before. And how proud he was!
And good boys do get rewards in the end, don’t they? So when Dirk went to the stadium that afternoon, his dad surprised him by taking him to the KKR dressing room. How? His dad was friends with the stadium manager. None other than Sourav Ganguly autographed Dirk’s T-shirt and little bat! Ganguly also had a big bar of chocolate for the little fan of his.
For Dirk, it all seemed like a dream and he forgot all about thanking them when he left. But he did run back and the KKR captain gave him a bear hug. As for Dirk, he could not wait to go to school the next day – after all he had so much to tell his friends. As for the T-shirt, he would never wear it for the rest of his life.
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