S16: "The Parent-Teacher Meeting"

It was around 8pm, he returned from the office. He dropped himself along with his bag on the couch.

‘Baby, I am so tired today. I interviewed hundred engineers and selected 20. It was hectic ’, he said loosing up his tie knot.

‘You want some coffee Abhi?’, I asked picking up his bag from the couch.

‘No baby, I had enough coffee today. By the way where is Sunny? Did he have his dinner?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, he finished dinner. He asked about you many times’, I said massaging his head.

‘Oh really’, he exclaimed.

Before he could finish his words, Sunny came to the living room playing a game in the phone.

‘Tomorrow you have to come to our school. There is a parent-teacher meeting’, he said with his head fully engrossed in the mobile.

‘Me?’, Abhi got excited.

‘Both’, sunny said and left even without lifting his head.

We both got very enthused. We were never excited before and not even shown a pinch of interest to attend a parent-teacher meeting in our lives. But being a parent, we gulped down the whole bunch of enthusiasm to attend it.

‘I am so excited’, he said with a widened smile.

‘What should I wear?’, I began my preparations.

‘You wear that saree which I bought for you last week. That looks pretty on you’.

‘Saree? Are you sure?’, we were dancing in excitement.

‘Yeah yeah, absolutely’, he said.

The next day, we got dressed up very sprucely. This was our first parent-teacher meeting since 

childhood as we bunked all of them as students.

As we reached the school, we got to taste two surprises which are unpalatable. 

The first one was there was no meeting, all the parents got assembled in the school grounds and the second one was no one is wearing a saree, all the mothers were in salwar suit accompanied with running shoes.

Abhi and I kept exchanging bewildered glances.

As soon as the principal started his speech, our ears and eyes blasted out listening to his words.

‘Running race?’, we both yelled at once. It was not a parent-teacher meeting, they were hosting competitions for the parents and the children.

The first one was running race for the moms and the second was the dumbcharads between the parents and children.

This rascal sunny who was engrossed in the game didn’t inform us anything.

‘I am not letting him to touch the cell phone for a week’, Abhi scowled.

‘Abhi how am I going to run with his saree and high heels?’, my nervousness touched the skies. I am not at all a saree person; I can barely walk in a saree. Running is not even a thought with a saree rolled around me.

‘Wear my shoes’, Abhi gave his casual shoes.

Anything is better than a 5 inch heels. If I would run with these heels, I will definitely drill holes along the school ground or fall down in the middle bagging awkwardness and humiliation. I wore his 

shoes and all the moms stood on the starting line warming up.

I tied my saree so that it won’t gift me any embarrassment during the run. All the moms were warming up, stretching their hands, legs, bending forward and backward with a smirk on their faces as if they are going to a wrestling match.

Even I started warming up the same way as if I am going to punch someone.

Sunny came running towards me and said, ‘Mom, Its ok. No need to run with this saree. I can’t see you fall. Just give up’.

I looked at him narrowing my eyes. ‘Sunny’s mom is not giving up’.

The whistle blew and the match began. I started running as if I was in a bull race and a whole herd of bulls are after me.

My saree started giving up. But I held everything tightly with my hands and kept running.

I crossed the line and stood in the first place, I was never this much happy to win a running race.

‘SHE IS MY WIFE’, Abhi ran towards me screaming all over the ground.

He hugged me and he was still screaming, ’She is my wife’.

From there, we saw sunny standing around the kids clapping and his friends patting his shoulder and congratulating him for our success. We saw his eyes drenched with proud.

The next round was the dumbcharads of the movie names. Some got their guesses right and some didn’t. It was our turn. Sunny picked a paper, read it and put it back.

He pointed at me. He was doing nothing other than pointing his hand at me.

We were clueless but we started guessing.

‘Me’

‘Maa, taare zameen par, maa tuje salam, vande mataram’, I started saying random movie titles.

‘Maa,Mom,mother’, Abhi too started guessing and as soon as sunny heard the word mother he nodded.

‘Mother India’, Abhi shouted and we got it right.

‘Oh my god, he pointed at me for Mother India’, I was extremely happy and Abhi was celebrating our success by smirking at everyone.

After summing up the scores of the two rounds, we stood in the first place. Though we chewed up some time in dumbcharads, we nailed it in the running race.

We were never so happy to win these types of competitions but being a parent, every small thing counts. We were overjoyed and started grinning at every child saying ‘we are Sunny’s parents ‘.

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S15: "True Love"

She was sitting on the beach watching the frisky waves, the sand castles, the chuckles and the giggles.

She was writing something in her dairy. The wind was very flirtatious and her hair was being playful and was compelling her eyes to see the ebullient waves but not the dairy. But she ignored everything. She was writing intensely, scribbling and even tearing off the pages.

She was writing something which her heart can’t bare and so she is transferring it on to the pages of the dairy. Her eyes became wet. Immediately, she stopped writing and closed her dairy.

‘Ahem ahem’, he coughed and signalled his presence.

She looked at him with her teary eyes.

‘Want some?’ he offered her a beer which he was holding.

For a moment, she hesitated to accept a beer from an unknown guy but she switched off her brain and accepted it.

‘Abhiram’, he offered her the bottle.

‘Sitara’, she replied.

He sat beside her watching her sipping the beer as if she was greeting an old friend.

‘I really like this one’, she said showing the bottle.

He smiled. He has sparkling warmth in his eyes.

‘You want some?’ she offered him.

‘Yeah’, he took a sip of the beer.

While he was drinking, her eyes fell on his tattoo. He had a beautiful tattoo of letter ‘S’ on his right hand under his fist.

‘Wow, cool tattoo’, she loved his tattoo. ‘Is that your girlfriend’s name?’

‘Sort of’, he smiled again. There is some magic hidden behind his smile.

She replied with her confused eyes.

‘I love her but I never told her’, he said.

‘And instead of telling her, you inked a permanent tattoo on your hand?’, she got baffled.

‘No, one day I decided to tell her and approached her but I got to know that she was already in a relationship. So I stepped back’, he said touching his tattoo.

‘Even before telling her, you had a tattoo?’, she kept staring at him open-mouthed.

‘Why are you concerned about the tattoo? I am ok with it. I still love her’, he shrugged.

‘Where is she now’, she asked him still confused.

‘She is single now. Her boyfriend cheated on her. She is so heartbroken. He is such a jerk. I always knew that this would happen’, he frowned.

‘I think you should go and confess her about your feelings’, she said with an excitement.

‘Do you think so? She is already heartbroken and is this the right time to confess my love’, he asked.

‘Yes, Absolutely. This would be the best time to tell her about your love. You have loved her no matter what. She has the right to know that someone loves her truly and selflessly. You completely deserve her love’.

‘By the way what is her name?’ she said gaining a lot of ardor after seeing that love still exists.

‘Sitara’, he smiled and his eyes were screaming that she is that lucky girl.

He got up and started walking away.

‘Wait’, she ran to him. ‘Me?’, she was wonderstruck.

He looked straight into her eyes.

‘When? How?’, she had hundreds of questions erupting out of her head like a volcano eruption.

‘I was your junior in engineering. I fell in love on the first day of my college when I saw you in the cafeteria. In the second year, I came to propose you but I saw you with him. I tried to get over you but I just can’t. I loved you since then no matter what and I trusted my love’, he beamed with delight.

He looked at her perplexed face and started walking again.

She smiled with pleasure and threw her dairy. She ran towards him and hugged him from the back.

‘I love you’, she said.

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S10: "My First Date"

He took my hand and ­­­slipped the ring on my finger. The atmosphere was more funny than romantic. That moment I saw something shining in his hair.

For the remaining story please visit:

http://yourstoryclub.com/short-stories-love/short-story-romantic-my-first-date/

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S14: "Twinkle and the Tooth fairy"

Twinkle banged open the door and came running to her mom dragging her school bag on the floor ‘Mommm, where are you?’.

‘Hey sunshine, how is your day?’, asked her mom assembling all the spoons on the dining table at perfect angles.

‘Mom listen’, she left her bag in the middle of the way and started pulling her mom’s dress.

‘What happened?’

‘Mom, today in school, I heard about the Tooth fairy. If we lose our tooth and keep it under our pillow, the tooth fairy will take that tooth and gives us a gift in return. Isn’t that cool’, she started dancing.

‘Look mom’, she stopped twirling and moved her right hand forward towards her mom with a closed fist.

‘What is in there little monkey?’, she caressed her fist and opened it slowly.

For her surprise, it’s a tooth. It’s Twinkle’s first tooth which fell off. She opened twinkle’s mouth, checked her cavities. ‘Oh Sunshine, It’s your first tooth’.

‘Yes mommy. The tooth fairy will come tonight’, she started twirling again.

That night, she kept her tooth under her pillow with a lot of excitement and slipped into sleep.

--x--

Up in the dense and moisty clouds, there is a vast island of Tooth-fairy. Clouds are the mode of transport in that island which are transporting the gifts for the children. All the tooth fairies are bringing the teeth of the kids from across the world.

Twinkle opened her eyes and she found herself between thousands of fairies flying around. For a moment, she thought it was a dream.

‘Hey magic! What’s up? You look so confused’, said the fairy who has a beautiful sparkling eyes and light pink fragile wings.

‘Is this a dream? Are you the tooth fairy?’, twinkle asked looking at her wings.

‘No, this is not a dream. You are in the fairy island’, she said. ‘I am candy, one of the fairies and the tooth fairy is the queen who lives there’, she said showing the queen’s palace.

The palace is in the shape of a Christmas hat widened at the entrance and dwindled towards the top. 

The top of the palace is far away somewhere hidden in the clouds. It was made of golden marble and the walls of the palace were scribbled with the names of the children who visited the fairy island. It has fairy dust in the shape of a staircase, winding around it until the top of the palace.

Twinkle tilted her head upwards to see the top of the palace and fell down backwards.

‘Careful magic, do you want to see the top of the palace? Come with me’, she clapped thrice and a cloud came and stopped before them. Twinkle hopped on the cloud along with her teddy bear and they flew to see the top of the palace.

They went along the glitter pathway and reached the top after hundreds of turns. On the top of the palace, there is a small fairy doll of palm size with a wand in its hand.

Twinkle was very much excited. She was literally on the top of the world. From there, even the fairies are seen like ants. It was magical.

Twinkle asked candy, ‘Does every child who loses a tooth can come here?’

‘No magic, not everyone. Only on their first tooth drop, they get to visit the fairy island and can pick a gift of their own choice’, she said.

‘Now can I take anything from here?’, twinkle shrilled in excitement.

‘Of course magic, anything’, candy comforted her.

They reached down and twinkle was scanning every shop and every toy.

All the shops were arranged in a particular order and there was a road in between which divides the shops into two and which leads to the Wish Granting Center (WGC).

WGC is in the shape of a globe half immersed into the ground and it has an opening in the top from where all the fairies can enter and leave. It was made of a highly polished stone which is appearing as a mirror showing one’s own reflection.

Candy and twinkle went into WGC. Twinkle stood amazed for a moment. The inner walls were fully attached with screens.

Each fairy goes near to the screen and presses a button. A tooth holder which can accommodate a tooth and which has a tooth shape mould in the middle pops out. The fairy places the tooth in that mould. After the tooth holder pops in, the picture of the child who owns that tooth flashes on the screen and his wishes also appears next to his photo. The fairy chooses a top most wish and fly to the respective shop and gift it to the child.

Twinkle was noticing everything with her eyes and mouth wide opened. She was awestruck.

‘Magic, let’s go and find a gift for you’, candy said. They flew out of WGC and were moving towards the soft toy’s shop.

Suddenly, the golden glitter around the tower turned red. It was the signal of emergency. All the fairies started rushing towards the tower. Candy and Twinkle too joined them.

As soon as everyone assembled in the tower, the queen arrived. She was very old and sick. She was barely flying, her wings are giving up but she tried to move forward. The guardian fairy was flying next to the queen. The guardian fairy takes care of everything in the fairy island. All the orders were given by the queen but all the orders were done under the supervision of the guardian fairy.

The guardian fairy cleared her throat and said in a high-pitched tone, ‘It’s now time to choose a NEW queen and a NEW guardian. Today, in this gathering a new queen will be enthroned.’

As she was announcing, the queen fainted and her wand slipped from her hand. The guardian fairy caught her but the wand fell on the ground in between the fairies.

There was an aghast in the crowd. All the fairies got petrified. Ignoring the aghast, twinkle walked towards the wand to give it back to the queen.

‘Magic, No don’t touch it’, candy screamed. But she was late.

Twinkle picked up the wand and showed it to the queen who was up in the air, ‘Here, your wand. Take it tooth-fairy’.

All the fairies got dazed. The horrified jiggles and the bewildered whispers filled the place.

Candy was flying towards twinkle but suddenly a high beam of light struck their eyes and made them unable to see.

After a few moments, everything returned to normal and to their astonishment, twinkle was up in the air with wings on her back and a wand in her hand.

The guardian moved towards twinkle and said, ‘Our new queen has been chosen. Human or a fairy, she has been chosen to be our queen’.

All the fairies bowed to her and they sprinkled fairy dust of respect from their wings.

Candy was overwhelmed and she was on the verge of tears.

Queen came towards twinkle and picked up the tiara from her head and crowned it on twinkle’s head.

The guardian fairy came to her and said, ‘As you are the queen now, you have to choose your guardian’.

Twinkle without any further mind-wiggling, moved her wand forward and pointed candy.

 ’Magic’, she said with her sugar coated voice.

Candy got overjoyed. She flew towards twinkle and kissed on her forehead.

Again the wings all over the place clapped and glittered. There was an atmosphere of exuberance in the palace.

The sun was about to rose and it’s time for twinkle to get back to her home. She said her fond adieu’s to all the fairies and started to home.

Twinkle’s wings appear only when she is in the fairy island and she used to visit the island every weekend.

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