The Secret Mission Part two

We were fidgety during class the next day ,our minds full of nothing but our afternoon escapade to the "dorai's bunglow on the hilltop.I was caught day dreaming by my Maths teacher who was a tyrant and was caned 10 times for not answering,and only I knew that I didnt hear his question bcoz i was far ,far away deep in my imaginary land of kaleidoscopic bliss..." a sum sooooooo simple even a one year old can give the answer in a second...the total of 200 plus 209!"I cried out in pain and that got me an extra bonus of 3 more lashes ,bcoz the Maths teacher firmly seemed to beleive that when a pupil crys out in pain,it means she or he was asking for more!!! And I


There were deep red marks on my palm,and i was able to hide it from my mom when she served lunch.(In those days,when we got a sound caning from teachers,we never uttered a word about it to our elders for fear of being thrashed a second time even more painfully bcoz mostly our elders did not use canes as our teachers but they used blocks of wood!)

I gulped my lunch hastily and sped towards our rendezvous near the foothills.When I reached the riverbank,my entire gang was there,waiting anxiously for me and the Loose was as usual sitting alone on top of the rock in the middle of the shallow river staring unseeingly at nothing. He looked so pathetic that i felt so sorry for him and beckoned him to come and get a share of the biscuits that i was able to grab in my haste,for I knew some of my friends wouldnt have had their lunch. The Loose looked at me with grateful eyes and partook of the fare and we sat and munched the Mary biscuits ,while waiting for the only missing member,Rani,who seemed to be late for unknown reason . The Loose started to whistle some obscure tune and we were kind of enjoying this biscuit munching by the riverbank.

The Loose suddenly gasped loudly and the reason for it was,the sudden entry of Rani with her 'big mouth' younger sister !We all began shouting at the same time at the now very frightened Rani,who was quivering visibly with uncontrolled tears running down her pink,fat cheeks.

'.....Im sorry...Im sorry..."quiped Rani,casting fleeting glances at us for mercy.Her sister ,the 'big mouth',seemed to be enjoying all these fuss as her elder sister stood shivering with fright,fearing the wrath of our gang! As the gang leader,I rolled my eyes at heavenward as I dragged Rani aside from the group and demanded an explanation.She has obviously breached the sacred rule of secrecy and i was furious with her!

Amidst sobs and tears ,Rani told me the reason for bringing the big mouth. The big mouth had evesdropped on her conversation with one of the members the night before and blackmailed herself into our mission!As i stared at the big mouth ,she adopted a meeky look and started to scratch her lice infested hair...

I shrugged my shoulders like an adult and walked back to the gang and made my decision clear that the big mouth had to be included in the day's mission for the sake of guarding our secret and everyone agreed.So,the days mission began with an intruder as our unwanted guest and we set off towards the dorai's bunglow.