“I have something to tell you… “
Nothing or no one comes between my book and I, not when I am on to the last few pages of a thriller. And yet something about the tone made me look up. Lali stood at the door. She looked away on meeting my eye. I frowned.
Lali and I go back a long way. In fact, we have sat next to each other and bawled our eyes out on the first day of school. She is one who rarely opens her mouth unless it is absolutely necessary which is quite unlike me. I keep my mouth shut only when I have a book to read. So her volunteering to open a conversation meant something.
“Out with it, Lali!” I said sternly adopting my usual stance, one of directness, which I am proud to say works wonders with her. It is almost as if she wants someone to do that before she parts with any sort of information.
“Umm… I saw Neeta opening your desk….”
“WHAT?!”
I was on my feet, hurled my book aside, not caring to mark the page even, the tied up hero and the gun-toting villain forgotten. Flinging open my desk I looked beneath my study material and found the book missing. Damn, damn, damn! There was only one copy of it in the library and I had managed to get it before Neeta. I was looking forward to starting on it today once I finished the one I was reading.
Neeta is the third angle of our triangular friendship. She was with us in the same nursery class on the very first day except that she did not bawl. Instead, she looked at both of us with keen interest and laughed with childish glee. Of course, both of us resented that, but somehow in the days that followed, the three of us became fast friends. But that did not stop Neeta and me from competing in just about everything.
“She took the book! Why didn’t you stop her?!” I fumed at Lali even as I quickly pulled on a tee. Where was my other shoe I wondered, slipping one on. When I needed them they were always separated and the second one could be found at the farthest corner under the bed of course.
“Don’t expect me to take sides in these book-wars of yours,” Lali said sweetly. I swear she believes she has an invisible halo. Pah!
“Then what’s with this, ‘I have something to tell you…!’” I imitated her saccharine sweet voice as I crawled out from under the bed and stood up dusting myself clean. Looked like a broom had not, in the recent past, been where I had to go to get my shoe.
Lali gave me a hurt look.
“Oh don’t come the drama queen all over me!” I said unkindly.
I moved towards the door. I had to find and stop Neeta. I knew Neeta’s parents were to come to the hostel to pick her up for the weekend. I had to get my book back before she left. I quickened my footsteps.
“Where are you going?” Lali who had hurried after me asked all wide-eyed.
“To get the book,” I replied curtly and added grimly, “by hook or by crook!”
“But I saw Neeta leaving with her parents!”
I stopped in my tracks and stared at Lali in dismay. My faint hope of asking her for MY book, after all I had got it from the library, in front of her parents and thereby forcing Neeta to return it, had just vanished into thin air. The weekend looked such a bleak affair with the book I had set my mind on reading disappearing in this fashion. But it was the injustice of it that rankled. The thought that that horrid girl would read it before me jarred, and relaxing in her cosy home. She’d come back and gloat too. Aaaargh!
I stood there dejectedly staring at the driveway through which Neeta had left, as if contemplating running after her and snatching the book off her. The witch! I hoped she’d go blind for the duration of the weekend. Ha, that would teach her to steal the book I had managed to get first from the library.
“Here, take it!” Lali took something out of her satchel and gave it to me.
I stared at it open-mouthed, but only for a second. I promptly grabbed it off her hand and made sure it was the same book. Yes, it was!
“Oh, you did stop her from taking it! Girl, I love you!” I twirled Lali around in the hostel corridor.
“No, I told you I want no part of your book-wars!” Lali said sanctimoniously.
“Then how.. you said Neeta…” I frowned failing to find an explanation.
“It fell off her satchel when she ran to meet her parents.”
The prompt: I have something to tell you…! Write a post starting with this line.
This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda
Santulan said:
Reminds me of the time in school when harry potter used to come out and have limited stock in the school library
shail said:
Memories! 🙂
Random Musings by Swat said:
Good one! Reminded me of my time in the hostel when we fought for books like this.
shail said:
Thank you. I faced no such situation because I was the only one always reading 😉
Random Musings by Swati said:
We were group of reading friends who used to recommend books to each other. In fact they were all my seniors 😀
shail said:
🙂
Corinne Rodrigues said:
Loved it, Shail. I recall all the times my brothers and I tried to outsmart each other to be the first to read a comic book! 🙂
shail said:
Lol, that sure must have been ‘fun’! 😀
Roshni said:
bwahahhah!! I like this Lali character!! She’s a proper tease! 😀
shail said:
Yeah, she is., Isn’t she? 😉
Bhavya said:
Ha ha ha 😀
Reminded me of the book wars we used to get into at school
shail said:
So you had them too, eh Bhavya?
Bhavya said:
Oh yes 😀
And congratz for the WOW 😉
shail said:
Thank you! 🙂
Random Musings by Swati said:
Hi Shail,
Congrats for WOW! I am super-excited, as my first entry for the WOW initiative won me the badge. I am so happy that I have not stopped grinning ear to ear and doing a happy dance. hehehe! Other than my writers’ friends nobody understands my happiness hence sharing it with you. (I hope you don’t mind 🙂 )
afshan18 said:
Interesting take on the prompt 😉 Laali is sweet and I imagined every line and every one.. Reminded me of hostel book reading days
shail said:
You too were in a hostel during college days? 🙂 Glad you liked it.
Seena said:
Good one Shail !.. Took me back to my school days where I, M and S used to fight for new Nancy Drew book 🙂 we used to be outside library right from 07.45 am, when the library was actually opened by 08.15 am only… 🙂
shail said:
Haha! This must have been a trip down memory lane for you! 🙂
Deeps said:
Hahaha! That was smart of Lali!
What a lovely take on the prompt Shail!
shail said:
Thank you Deeps. Yea, Lali is quiet, but deep 😉
seena said:
Good One Shail ! took me back to my school days where we four friends used to fight for the latest Nancy Drew book that arrived in the library 🙂
Ritu Lalit said:
Hahahaha, takes me back to school! I wonder where Aruna is now … the thorn in my flesh, the competitor who did not care who was winning or at the top, so long as she topped what I did. I need to search for her!
shail said:
Hope you find her. What if she is now a fan f yours, reading your books?! 🙂
Rekha said:
Enjoyed reading it! Went straight back to school days. 🙂
shail said:
Glad you liked it 🙂
Chicky a.k.a. Kaddu said:
Of course Lali has an invisible halo! I would know… 😀
Btw, I was planning to write on this one, but I guess I forgot. LOL!
shail said:
Ahh Chicky! So Lali is familiar to you?! 😉
urbanindianwoman said:
Loved this post!!
shail said:
Thank you 🙂
Vidya Sury said:
Oh, happy memories of wanting to be the first to read. Most of my book-wars were with my uncle! Loved this, Shail!
shail said:
That’s a first, an Uncle and niece fighting over books 🙂 Nice.
JayadevM said:
Wow, Shail! You say it so well.
This anecdote transported me to my own college-days when such scenes were common in the group I used to hang out with – earning the crowing rights for being the first to complete the new book of our favourite author was a big thing!!
“Nothing or no one comes between my book and I” …. 100% agreement on that. I remember being dragged to the dining table by my mom, for lunch, after 17 calls went unheeded.
Thank you for the treat!
shail said:
Thank you Jayadev 🙂 Haha, 17 calls eh? My friends had to say this of me in college hostel: If i had a smile on my face, all’s well in the book she is reading. If I sported an unsmiling face, things are not going well in the book she is reading!
Strangely I seem to be the only one here who did not have a book-war! 😀
JayadevM said:
It would be more appropriate to say that you didn’t let the others have a book-war. They stood no fighting chance! 🙂
onehonestwriter said:
Lovely, I liked Lali and the twist both 🙂 Nice work of fiction 🙂
shail said:
Welcome to Shail’s Nest. Lali seems to be a fav among readers 🙂
Thank you for the visit.
Ruchira said:
God Me and brother actually did this. Hid books and magazines from each other in a bid to read them first !
shail said:
I never had to contend with such scenarios. I was the lone crazy reader 😉
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Diana Pinto said:
Enjoyed Lali’s character. This post brings back childhood memories and the naughty stuff we did 🙂
shail said:
Guess what, even I have a soft corner for Lali 😉