tales of Suchita

The thief had made the first move. It was inevitable but Radha hadn’t expected such a brazen attack. Also the timing of said attack was extremely suspicious. He had spoken to Priyanka only the day before about the pencils. And now this. For the first time his conviction that the thief had to be a boy was on shaky grounds. And he had no idea how to handle it. He couldn’t even look to Mr. Holmes for wisdom since Mr. Holmes didn’t go through such debilitating doubt.

Seeing their usually upbeat friend down in the dumps, Mayur and Sagar decided to cheer him up. “Radha we found a boy in the third grade who lost his drawing note-,” began Sagar but was interrupted.

“It was with the teacher,” he said with a sigh. “Gulloo forgot he had already submitted his work.”

“How about-,”

“Stop, guys, seriously I am fine.”

Mayur and Sagar looked at each other, now alarmed. They may not have told this to anyone (probably because they didn’t know it themselves) but Radha had made them feel important when no one even wanted to look at them. They knew the attack had been particularly vicious and they could understand his ire but they also wanted to fix it.

“Do you want to go over the clues again,” asked Mayur, making another attempt to cheer up his friend.

At the mention of clues, a series of bulbs flashed in Radha’s head – something similar to Mr. Holmes’ mind palace. He perked up momentarily and asked breathlessly, “Why did you think the thief was a girl?”

Terrified, the poor boy could only stare. When Radha repeated the question, he stammered, “I don’t…know…? You have always said we shouldn’t make assumptions. And that day you just said it’s a boy. I thought you were…” Mayur found he couldn’t go on. There was a look of such abject despair in Radha’s eyes that he lost his courage…and his voice.

“Radha don’t worry about the homework. I’m sure Anjum miss won’t mind. She already knows you would have finished it.”

Radha turned away, ashamed for there were tears in his eyes. He had been so excited to show miss his homework. He had been able to balance all the equations by himself. Though he understood little of Chemistry, he adored Anjum miss so much that he tried extra hard. And this time…this time he had done it. Not only had he managed to balance the ten equations she had given, he had actually understood what he was doing.

And for what; nothing! The thief had deliberately spilt ink inside his bag. The ink had sodden his books, his tiffin, the extra pair of socks he always kept (Mom is going to be furious, he thought sadly), his homework…

“We must respond!” said Sagar with such passion that he banged his fist on the table, frightening those around the three for a startled second.

That seemed to rouse Radha out of his reverie. Instead of looking for clues, looking for guilty faces, he was sitting and wallowing. Shame! He sat up straighter in his chair and looked at his classmates. They were still waiting for Jyothi miss to come back to class. “Gee D” hadn’t been paying attention and after warning him repeatedly, she lost her cool. Now they were probably ensconced in Ameen miss’s cabin, discussing his many infractions no doubt.

He looked at Priyanka, who was standing in the far corner, giggling about something, surrounded by all the boys and the girls of his class – well except Mayur and Sagar of course. She was a popular girl and an average student. From what he knew, she was quite rich and if all her boasts were to be believed, went on an exotic holiday every year. And though she hadn’t confessed to the crime, he knew she was responsible for the pencils at least.

“Mayur you were right,” he said softly, turning to look at Watson.

“Did you just call him…”

“Not now,” whispered he in time to prevent a lecture. “Right about what?”

“I shouldn’t be making assumptions.” He turned to look at her again and was surprised to find she was looking at him too. She winked at him and then went back to laughing at something that…

Radha found he couldn’t breathe suddenly. His mental faculties slowed down and everything around him faded. Had that wink meant an admission of guilt? Was she teasing him? But what did the teasing…Radha could hear his brain short-circuiting as it tried to keep up with the barrage of questions.

Mayur had been about to slap him awake from the trance when Radha realized Mayur had asked him a question. He asked Mayur to repeat it, his voice sounding dreamy, a little far off. But the boys didn’t really notice the change, naive as they were in matters of the opposite sex.

“Get me her notebook,” he ordered, turning away, face still hot, palms sweaty.

“To compare handwritings?”

Radha found himself smiling. “Exactly my dear Watson…exactly!”

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This is the ninth post in the series. To know more about Radha, click here.