The Red-eyed Mischief

                               "The Red-Eyed Mischief"

As Mohan hurried to his study table to pick up his school bag, his mother called out to him, "Mohan! Come down and have your breakfast. The school bus will come in few minutes."

 "Yes mother! Just a minute!", Mohan replied.

He hurried towards the door and accidentally dropped his pen, which disappeared under the bed. He bent down to pick it up and saw two red-coloured eyes staring at him. 

It was so horrifying that he didn't try to find his pen and hurried downstairs. After having his breakfast quickly, he went off to school in the bus.

  At school, kept on thinking about those eyes and could not concentrate in the class. He decided not to enter his room EVER again. It was actually terrifying, wasn't it? He thought.

The school was soon over and Mohan went home.

On reaching , he went into the kitchen and sat on the dining table, not willing to enter his room at all.

 "Mohan!", shouted mother."Why are you here? Go away to your room, change your clothes and then come down to have your lunch."

  What should I tell her?I can't go to my room and that's it, thought Mohan. "Mom, um, I'll take out my shoes and then go.", he said.

  He slowly bent down so as to consume more time, and saw the same terrific eyes under the dining table!

"Aah!",he shouted.

"What's going on, Mohan? Go to your room, now!", mother said angrily.

Reluctantly, Mohan climbed up the stairs and reached his room.

 Very slowly ,he opened the door. "Aah!",he screamed."What's this?".Something had suddenly come flying towards him.

 The next thing he saw was a toy owl sitting on his right shoulder. Then, he saw his brother, Roy, playing with his toy gun.

     "Roy!?What are you doing in my room?",Mohan said angrily.

 "And what's this irritating owl doing on MY shoulder?".

Roy replied,"Hi! I was here to take that owl from your room, actually it was under your bed." He looked quite innocent, so Mohan calmed down .He noticed that the toy had bright red eyes and immediately understood what he had seen in the morning.

 "But what was it doing under my bed? It scared my ghost out of me in the morning!",he said.

"Oh brother, brother. It's a new gift to me from dad. He hid it here last night, gave me various clues about its hiding place and told me to find it out myself.After you went to school, I began my search and so found it here.",said Roy.

 "Aah!",came a blood curdling scream from the kitchen."It's mother!",shouted Mohan as he ran down the stairs to the kitchen with Roy.

 Mother was standing on the dining table , she said"Oh Mohan! There's something very scary under the dining table!"

Mohan knew very well what she was talking about,and was scared himself.

      Roy quickly bent down and took out a drone with two bright red lights.He gave it to Mohan and said, "Bro, I know you don't remember my birthday, but today it's there, and this is your return gift."

Mohan felt very guilty and grateful at the same time. But before he said anything to Roy, mother said, "Roy! Is this the place to hide drones with red lights? Are you trying to play with us?"

  

Roy was smiling mischievously. He said, "Okay, I accept. I was teasing you and Mohan because both of you get scared so quickly. I have been wishing for a long time to get a chance to frighten you both. I thought I should fulfill my wish on my birthday." Roy smiled so sweetly that it made all of them laugh and smile.

Soon father came home, and Mohan, along with Roy and mother scared father with the toy owl. 

  They all celebrated Roy's birthday with enthusiasm and joy.

                        ✎Shravani Kelapure..