The metallic clanging shattered the mid afternoon calm. A peon was striking the bell. 3’o clock meant it was time for Geography. Students of standard X ‘c’ shifted a bit in their seats. It was December and in view of the board exams coming up soon, the geography lessons for the year had been completed. It was time for revision. Geography though interesting was often treated badly as it came under a very dreaded subject called ‘social studies’; singularly the bane of most students with a volatile memory.
The roly-poly Geography teacher walked in with the work book. Those in the first bench knew that there would soon be a Q&A session coming up. Word went around within the class and soon every one had a textbook stashed away under the table.
Rapscallion and Moon Face sat on the last bench of the first row. In front of them, sat Captain and Mowgli and ahead of them sat the so called chicks Hairy and Scary.
The teacher started asking questions from the first row. It would be some time till she reached the last bench.
“Moon face, something troubles me, man” said Rapscallion to Moon face. Moon face was a naïve little fellow who believed everything everyone said and was hence the object of a million pranks
“Huh? What’s it?” he asked, excited; someone actually wanted to confide in him.
“I have committed a great crime, man, I am feeling very guilty”
“What crime?” asked Moon face. He was thinking how Rapscallion would have stolen a few toffees from the shop and would be feeling sorry for it.
“It is very difficult say it, but please promise me you won’t tell anyone” said Rapscallion. His face was overflowing with fright.
“Mother promise” said Moon face keeping his fingers on his non existent Adam’s apple.
“Moon face, you are the only fellow I can trust, the others are mostly my enemies, they smile outwardly but inside they are all waiting to kill me” said Rapscallion. He lifted his head up to see if anyone was listening.
Moon face’s curiosity knew no bounds. He had sworn himself to secrecy but Rapscallion was taking so much time to say it.
Both ducked below the desk and continued to speak in hushed tones.
“Moon Face, the police is after me” said Rapscallion
Moon face was stunned. He was thinking in the lines of a petty theft, and here was Rapscallion talking about the police. He stared at him with mouth wide open
“Close your mouth dude, saliva will drip off and leave signs for the police”
“Sorry, but why is the police after you?” asked Moon face. He had only heard of young boys who were in to drug trafficking; probably Rapscallion was involved in something like that
“Please don’t tell anyone, especially Long Fellow, his dad is police; I am a murderer” said Rapscallion with a gravest of voices.
Moon face couldn’t say anything. Murder was a bad thing. He had only heard about murder on those television serials.
“Who did you kill?”
“Promise you won’t tell anyone. If I get caught, my accomplices will come and kill you”
said Rapscallion who was starting to sound menacing.
Moon face swallowed hard. What had he gotten himself into?
“Dude, police and all means it is a very serious issue. I don’t want to get involved in this. My father will scold” said Moon face trying to wash his hands off as quickly as possible.
“Now you can’t back off like this mister. You are going to help me find a doctor who will do plastic surgery on my face and help me look like someone else so I can escape off” said Rapscallion. “Please, Moon face, please”
Captain and Mowgli who had been listening to this confession also ducked under their desks and started laughing. Hairy and Scary, the chicks who at sixteen behaved like they were sixty, were curious. They wanted to laugh too but it would be unladylike to do so.
Moon face was still reeling under the shock of the revelation. Rapscallion maintained a poker face. Sailor and Long fellow who were sitting in the last bench of the adjacent row also heard the story and were laughing.
Moon face was clueless
“What is the reason for the laughter?” asked Hairy without turning back
“It is very disturbing, we can’t concentrate” said Scary, in tandem.
“Disturbed? Do you know the spelling of disturb?” asked Mowgli and Captain burst into another fit of laughter.
“Irritating boys! Why are you laughing anyway?” asked Hairy.
“Mowgli thinks you have more hair on your forearms than him” said Captain, and both Mowgli and Captain started laughing like hyenas.
It attracted the attention of the teacher. “Yes Mowgli, stand up, what is the noise all about?” she asked.
Mowgli took half a minute to recover from the laughing fit and realise he was being asked to stand up. The whole class stared at him in silence.
“No miss, this girl says her pen is leaking” he blurted out.
The whole class guffawed.
“No Ma’m, he is actually laughing from that time and disturbing us” said Scary.
“Mowgli, let’s see how much you are concentrating in the class. Which is the natural habitat of lion in
“Natural?” asked Mowgli, he hadn’t paid attention to the question.
“Habitat? The place where you find lions” said the teacher
In the whole class, Captain and Mowgli were the only two people who didn’t have a text book hidden beneath their desks.
“What’s the answer ra?” Mowgli hissed under his breath.
Captain said “den”
Mowgli looked up confidently and said “den”
The whole class burst out laughing. Long fellow fell off the bench and his trousers got stuck on a nail and got ripped. Captain pressed the capillary of the fountain pen so hard that he sprayed ink all over Scary’s book.
The teacher closed her book and threw it on the table and started laughing too.
Moon face was still clueless. He was still thinking how to arrange for Rapscallion’s plastic surgery.
“The natural habitat of lion in
The bell rang again. Fortunately for Mowgli, the class ended.
Everyone in the last benches was still recovering from the laugh riot, when Moon face tapped on Rapscallion’s shoulder and said, “When you want the plastic surgery?”
All recovery was wasted. Everyone laughed again.
It was many days later when Moon face got to know Rapscallion had only killed a rat and that he had been taken for a ride.
Rapscallion for many days after that went around the whole school saying Moon face was his ‘bestest’ friend.
PS: All the above mentioned events really happened when Sailor was in school though they never happened in the same order or at the same time.
PS 2: The names are figments of Sailor’s imagination; no offense meant to anyone
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