S28: "The Scare-Crow"

‘Is it necessary to go brother? Our entire summer holidays will get wasted. It will be so boring at grandma’s house’, bunty said.

‘Yeah I know, but its fine bunty. She wanted to see us since many years’, kiran said packing his bag.

‘I am going to pack all my video games and your books. I don’t know what she is doing there alone in that house. I think she should come and live with us’, bunty said.

‘She is so attached to that house and that place bun’, kiran replied and zipped up his bag.

Bunty is a 6-year-old chubby boy and his elder brother kiran is a 10-year-old lean spectacled boy.

They started in the afternoon in their car and they reached their grandma’s house by night. The driver dropped them and drove back.

It was dark and the lights were not bright enough to see everything clearly.

Kiran switched on his cell phone torch and they made it into the house without hitting any of their toenails.

‘Hey kiran and banuu’, she came and hugged them. She kissed bunty and pulled his cheeks.

‘It’s too late hon’s. You both go and sleep. Your room is on top left side’, she pointed with her finger.

It was a very big duplex house with the smell of old books. They entered the room and noticed that it was clean with newly changed bed sheets.

They put their bags aside, freshened up and just laid on the bed to sleep.

‘Strange place brother’, bunty said.

Suddenly they heard a sound, a knocking sound in their room.

‘What was that’, bunty shouted.

They jumped from their beds and switched on the lights.

The knocking sound is making them terrified. They saw that it was coming from the trunk which is lying beside the bed.

They started walking towards the trunk.

‘I am scared’, bunty was shivering.

‘It’s ok, I am here na’, Kiran said.

‘Are you not scared’, bunty asked holding kiran’s arms tightly.

‘I am but I don’t want to show that I am scared and make ‘whatever-it-is’ feel stronger’, kiran said and they were now closer to the trunk.

‘What if it’s a ghost?’

‘Sshh’

Kiran opened the trunk and suddenly a big mouse ran out of it.

‘What the hell, who puts a rat in a trunk’, bunty said. He was relieved that it was not a ghost. As he was walking towards bed in relief, he stepped on some liquid.

‘What is this’, he exclaimed. He tried to move his leg but he couldn’t.

‘Brother, I am stuck’, he shouted in aghast.

Kiran ran towards him and tried to pull and push him. But his leg got stuck to the floor.

‘Remove your sock’, kiran shouted.

‘No it is my favourite sock. I am not leaving her’, bunty said trying his level best to move his leg.

Kiran pulled his leg out of the sock and they both jumped on to the bed to avoid more exclamations.

‘Its super-sticky glue’, kiran said.

‘What the hell, bro I am scared here. Just go back to our home’, bunty grumbled.

‘Relax, just this summer’, kiran convinced him.

Though sleep was no where around them, they somehow tucked themselves into sleep.

They woke up pretty early and bunty was pepping into the garden through the window while kiran was getting ready to bath.

There was a huge garden in front of the house and there were various sorts of flowers and fruits.

Though how scary the place was, the garden was like a beautiful lotus in muddy waters. It was magnificent to see.

There were various flowers and in between them, some square area was occupied with corn fields. Between those corn fields, there was a scare crow. And everything was just eye pleasing.

While bunty was enjoying the grandeur, suddenly the scare crow swung.

‘What the hell’, bunty screamed.

‘What happened’, kiran ran towards him.

‘Look at that scare crow brother’, he got frightened.

It swung again and clapped its hands.

‘Bro, this place is crazy. Let’s go back. I am calling mom and dad today’, bunty cried.

‘No, let’s go find out what’s wrong’, kiran dragged bunty.

‘No, I am not coming anywhere near to it’.

‘I will be there na, let’s go. Atleast we will inform grandma about this’, kiran said.

They walked towards the scare crow. Bunty was shivering with fear and kiran didn’t show any fear on his face.

They were right behind the scare crow and suddenly it turned backwards.

Bunty shouted to the top of his lungs and kiran didn’t make any sudden movements. He was looking at it very still and wide-eyed.

‘Hey there’, the scare crow said.

It removed the pot on its head and to their surprise it was grand-ma.

‘What are you scared at bannu’, she asked pleasantly.

‘What’s all this for’, bunty cried.

‘Oh this, these stupid birds will smash my plants’.

‘You can put an artificial scare crow instead of scaring us’, bunty said.

‘But it’s fun to be a scare crow’, she smiled.

‘Grandma, what was that rat doing in the trunk’, kiran asked her while returning to the house.

‘Oh that rat, it always creates mess, it destroys all the food. When I was cleaning your room yesterday, I saw it was eating something in the trunk and I locked it in the trunk and forgot to throw it outside’

‘And that glue? The rat did it?’, kiran exclaimed.

‘No I poured for it to get stuck’, she smiled showing her teeth.

‘My sock got stuck’, bunty said disappointedly.

‘Oh’, she busted out into a laugh.

They walked inside the house and bunty saw a small wooden plate nailed to the wall with some peanuts on it beside the door.

‘What is this’, he tried to take them.

‘No don’t touch it’, she shouted.

‘Suddenly, a wooden stick came towards him from nowhere in a swing.

He bent down and escaped a punch on his face.

‘What the hell’, he screamed.

‘I am an old woman; I can’t run here and there. So I made some alternatives for the birds, rats and cats. Do not touch anything which doesn’t seem normal’, she said innocently.

‘Old woman, I doubt that’, bunty said.

She gave a loud laugh showing her teeth which were randomly distributed in her mouth.

After breakfast, they went to the fields and became a scare crow for some time and collected some fruits and vegetables.

And she cooked lunch for them and more than being a crazy old lady, she is a great cook.

They tried to catch that rat till dawn. They explored each and every corner of the house.

The house was full of fun and surprises. She even made a pulley arrangement to go upstairs so that if she sits on a chair and pull a rope, the chair will take her to first floor instead of walking on the stairs.

After dinner, she told them so many stories and she told how much she missed them. And they couldn’t ask her to come with them because they knew that the house, the garden and everything there was a part of her.

In the blink of an eye, the holidays passed by and bunty and kiran decided that they are going to spend every holiday at their grandma’s house and promised her that they will return very soon.

They enjoyed every moment there and they returned to their house with untouched video-games and unopened books.