Kids Short Story – Casual Conflicts
Photo credit: anitapeppers from morguefile.com
Feroze is happy today. Resting his boy arms on the dinner table he looks with anticipating eyes towards the kitchen door. His younger sister is asleep already, and his father is in the prayer room. He turns to look at his Granny who is sitting opposite him at the table. “Why does Granny stay up so late,” he wonders. “She should be asleep by now”.
Just then Mom arrives with a large cauldron, holding it precariously with cloth gloves. As she puts the vessel on the table, Feroze’s eyes light up. “Biryani after so many days”. He can hardly wait to have a mouthful. His father finishes the prayer and comes to sit at the table. Feroze looks at his Dad; his face is serious, even cold could be said of his expression. Mom returns with the Raita and salad and sits at the table. Feroze can hardly wait for the dinner to begin.
The clock strikes 8 o’ clock as Feroze has his first helping. “Hmm, tasty”, he thinks. He has a serving of the Raita with the second mouthful; his eyes close in joy.
“So how was school today, Feroze?”
Startled, but quickly gaining composure, Feroze replies, “Good.”
“And have you completed the homework?”, his dad saying between large bites into cooked flesh.
“A little is left. I will complete after dinner”.
“Don’t forget it okay? Remember what Sunita madam said the other day? You are a good student if you do all your homework”.
Feroze nodded his head while looking at his dinner plate. “The Biryani looks very tasty and so much is still left. Also the Raita. Yummy!”
“Let him have his meal in peace. Feroze, is the Biryani good?” his Mom inquires gently.
Feroze again nodded his head in agreement. “The second exercise in the Maths textbook is very hard. I will ask Mom to help”, he says to himself.
His Dad finishes his meal and gets ready to leave for his flight due in a couple of hours. After the good-byes, Dad leaves in a taxi for the airport. Mom cleans up the table and Granny goes to washroom. Feroze sits with his homework; he opens the textbook to page of the exercise and also his homework notebook. The sums look very difficult so he calls his mom for help; she replies that she will be there in ten minutes and he try the sums himself till then. He hates it whenever Mom says that to him. “Be there in ten minutes”, but she is always late. He looks at his notebook for sometime and slowly dozes off to sleep.
It’s Thursday morning and Feroze is woken up early by Granny. He rubs his eyes and remembers that the homework is incomplete. A sense of dread overcomes him; yet he stays quiet. As usual he gets ready to go to school. mom drops him near the school gate, and now he is all by himself.
He waits until Mom’s car is out of sight and starts to walk towards the field outside the school boundary. In the rush hour no one takes notice as he goes to the field, where he sees some children running around and playing. He wonders whether Sunita madam will know he bunked school; he wonders whether his parents will be notified; he wonders whether they will include him in their play.
He keeps walking amid these thoughts. Just then the morning fresh breeze blows; Feroze finds it soothing and relaxing. He closes his eyes and stretches out his arms.
__END__
