Extra share of the mango thieves

Champu put down the mangos she had collected in her skirt,on the crumpled newspaper that Ali had laid on the soiled ground and sat cross legged. The sand was quiet soft, when her ankles settled on the dry soil against her weight, the tiny sharp pebbles pricked her soft skin. Meera tended to the wound of Haru, a small bruise on his delicate knee, he closed his eyes against the rising dust. The backyard of the school was the best to hide, the notorious gang had agreed upon that at least.

“Why do we always have to take him?”

“Because we can’t leave him alone,” twelve year old Meera replied trying to keep her little brother’s tattered pant up for cleaning the bruise, while also trying to keep her hair tied back. She had quite a long hair for her age with no manner to keep them.

“Oh forget it,” Hemantha knew that Meera would never leave her brother’s side and vice versa, so he decided to continue helping Champu with the mango division.

“How many did we get today?” Ali asked.The strongest of the lot, he had jumped in heroically in front of the dog with his big stick to help Haru get up and escape while Meera stood away screaming. The dog had taken one step back giving them some time to escape,but had continued with the barking.

“22,” replied Champu, “if only Dagar hadn’t come we could have gotten more.”

“Don’t blame the dog. Haru is the one who slowed us down.”

Meera sighed, she knew Hemantha would never like her brother, she couldn’t say much though, she was supposed to be the wise one, and after all she was the eldest in the group. Ali sometimes argued that he was the eldest as he had quiet a big and tall physique for an eleven year old, though those sometimes came only when he wanted to win the arguments.

Once when they had done their schooling, Ali and Hemantha had wandered of separate from Meera, Champu and Haru letting Haru babble on with what he had learnt today.

“H for Haru,” Hemantha complained to Ali, “he knows only that letter.”

“How many letters do you know?” Ali smirked, for that Hemantha didn’t reply.They all had been going to the school since only few days. “Look,” Ali pointed excited, when Hemantha had just kicked a crumpled bottle on the road and had run behind it.

“Look there.” Ali gestured towards the end of the road that had ended with a big mango yard.

“We are supposed to go there,” yelled Hemantha kicking the bottle again and turned around to call Ali.When he saw it his jaw hung down, his mouth starting to water. He had never seen so many mangos in his life. There were thousands of mangos in a single tree hanging down. When the two friends strode forward, they found that the yard had two more trees with a house. The yard was unfenced and unguarded except for the ugly eyed brown dog which came limping behind them. Though it was slow, it barked so loud that Ali commented that it was the world’s loudest dog.That’s how they had started their mango stealing business, with the background of the barking dog and the foreground of Meera standing guard to yell “run”.

“Come on,” Champu called as everybody gathered around the mangos to get their shares.

“If only I had worn the nicker, I would have run fast,” said Haru in his own innocent tongue. Meera smiled at that.

Champu distributed one mango to everybody in a row, “one to Meera,” she started, “one to Haru, one to Ali, one to Hemantha and one to me…”

She went on with her “one to,” until only two of the mangos remained.

“Two are extra today,” said Meera, “what do we do?”

“To me,” said Ali snatching one of the mangos from the ground that was left after Haru had already pounced on one.

Haru tried to shove the last mango he had won in his pockets that had already swollen up.Meera and Champu placed them inside their Khadi schoolbags.

“Well…” They sighed and got up walking along the street.

“Haru there…” Ali pointed at an old man, wearing a ‘Dhoti’ folded until his ankles over a bright white wrinkled shirt, carrying a faded blue bag as old as he was.

“No…” said Meera. She was tired of her friends teasing the man. Every day he passed by their way, and Haru with Ali and Hemantha pelted him with small pebbles. “Not big ones,” Meera used to warn them though she disliked the idea.With the days Meera had started to enjoy the show, the way the man’s dusty brown cheeks turned red, his red eyes with more than a thousand wrinkles in the corners would multiply into another thousand with his anger, and the way he came chasing after them, but barely anybody would get caught.

“Where does the man go?” Meera always used to wonder, “let’s follow him today.” She thought it was atleast better than throwing stones at him.

“Yes,” said Hemantha with the others. The old man took a left from the corner of the other small street. The pack started with their stalk.

“There… that is our way.”

“No,” Ali pulled Haru leaning down to whisper in his ears, “we follow him today.”

Sringara Ayar, or people just used to call him Sri once upon a time. Now people barely knew him. Those who knew him had gone far away or had gone really far away. “Soon, even you will go,” he used to convince the man in the mirror with only countable grey hair on his crown. His neighbors from beside his yard called him Mr. Ayar. He never liked the name. Sri walked down the afternoon street passing the coconut vender by his way who called him, ‘Tata’ – grandpa. “Namaskar,” he wished him back with a frown and walked past.

“Does he ever smile,” Meera wondered pulling Haru to walk fast. The old man couldn’t run, but he could walk much faster than any of them.

Finally, he stopped in front of a big rusted gate. It creaked heavily when he opened it and walked inside. There was a board on top of the gate. Meera couldn’t make out from far.

The kids drew near to the gate with Haru catching up behind them and Meera complaining that he would fall again if they left him back.They stood outside the gate. The gate was made of parallel lined hinges as thick as Haru’s biggest finger and as old as Ayar’s smallest finger.

Ali hid his eyes from the sun as he tried to read from the board word to word. The tallest one in the group yet he realized the board was thrice higher as his height. “O,” he started reading slowly, “R.” Champu and Meera added, “H,” Haru jumped as soon as he found the letter starting with his name. “Hey,” Ali gave him a slight nudge at which he made a face, “there’s P and H, A… N…” “And A and G and E.”

“Or pan age…” Meera spelled the word, careful not to commit a mistake.

“No,” Champu, the smart one corrected looking like a real school girl with two braids neatly tied, “it’s Or fan… there’s h there.”

“It’s Orphan… age,” finally Hemantha completed with a silence in his words.

“Run…” before Ali had said the words, the old man was standing in front of them.

“What are you doing?” He frowned.

“We…” Meera stammered pulling Ali who tried to run, Hemantha had already gone, he stood at a distant watching his friends getting doomed.

“Bye nana,” a loud innocent voice grasped their attention. Meera was the first to see, then Champu and Ali at last, who was gesturing something towards Hemantha. A young boy stood hugging the old man’s bare legs from beside. Mr. Ayar turned and lifted the four year old and gave him a kiss. “Bye…” he said and dropped him on the floor as he jumped down and stood looking at him.

Sri corrected his falling dhoti and lifted the bag he was holding, taking out a chocolate candy from inside and handed it over to him, “Every day…” he sighed at the young boy who ran grabbing his prize.

The gang stared at him wide eyed.

“What are you kids looking at?” Mr. Ayar frowned trying to look as serious as possible, hiding his smile. “Do you want these?” He pointed at his bag holding it near his chest.

“Yes,” Haru shouted.

“Okay,” he handed one candy wrapped with sparkling orange cover to Haru and then looked at others, “do you want one?”

Haru looked at the group, trying to gesture his sister with his eyes “say yes.” He knew he could take it from her later.

“Hmmm…” Meera was too ashamed but she did she did nod her head. Mr. Ayar distributed one among the three.

“Come on,” he called turning towards Hemantha. He shook his head left and right rapidly.

“Okay, namaste…” said the old man as he prepared to leave.

“Wait…” Haru called suddenly, “take this,” he pulled out a mango and handed it over to him, “I had this extra… left…” for a moment Haru seemed to pull his hand back, then he shrugged placing it in Mr. Ayar’s hand,”Miss taught us to say ‘thanth you’ when someone gives something to you.’Thanth you’…” he finished. Meera, Champu and Ali added along.

“Thank you…” Sri Ayar tousled Haru’s brown dusty hair and walked away. This is surely from the tree of my yard, he conformed rolling the green strongly smelling mango in his hand and continued on his way placing it in his ragged bag.”Finally” he sighed with a smile…
“I have found my mango thieves.”