Short Story - The secret in the cupboard!

Avni opened the cupboard in her father’s room and peeped inside. Her father had asked her to fetch a pen for him from the cupboard. He had never given her such an errand as this before and Avni took her time to explore the cupboard. Father’s clothes were neatly folded on one shelf and a few uninteresting folders placed on the other. ‘It is not as colorful as mother’s cupboard,’ thought Avni to herself. ‘Mother has such beautiful soft silk saris and dresses in hers!’

Avni found a large tray with many knick knacks in it. There was a punching machine, a stapler and a couple of pens. And there was a small tin box. She opened the tin box and put her hand inside. Oh! What a surprise! It was filled with new five and ten rupee coins.

‘Avni, haven’t you still found a pen for me? ’ her father called out from the hall.  Avni hurriedly picked up a pen, shut the door with a click and ran to her father.

A few days later father found Avni in the garden playing with her ball. ‘Avni dear, have you finished your homework?’ he asked. Avni looked up at her father. He could see a big bulge in her cheek. ‘I have finished my homework, Daddy,’ said Avni. ‘There wasn’t much to do.’ ‘Alright,’ said Daddy. ‘Are you sucking on a candy?’ Avni nodded her head in affirmation.

As father went in, mother came to him with a cup of coffee. ‘Since when did you start buying candies for Avni?’ he asked her. ‘I thought you had forbidden candies because they are bad for her teeth.’

‘I didn’t buy her any,’ mother replied. ‘Avni’s friends might have given it to her.’ Avni’s father did not pursue the matter further.

One day mother came to Avni’s room with a stack of folded clothes. She was about to open Avni’s cupboard and keep them inside when Avni looked up from her homework. ‘Mother, don’t bother. I shall finish my work and keep the clothes in the cupboard. Just leave them on the table there.’

‘My Goodness, Avni!’ exclaimed her mother. ‘Are you really talking or am I dreaming things? You have never offered to help me before!’ Avni did not answer and continued to do her homework.

One evening when Avni’s father entered the house, he heard his wife talking sternly to Avni in the kitchen. ‘There you go, bickering and quarrelling all the time!’ he said, entering into the kitchen. ‘First give me a cup of coffee and…Avni darling, keep this briefcase in my room, will you?’ Avni picked up his briefcase and disappeared into his room. ‘Now what was that fight all about? ‘Didn’t she do well in her exams?’

‘No, it’s not that. It’s just that Avni seems to be eating a lot of candies and chocolates these days. She tells me that it’s her friends’ birthdays and treats. But this many?  So bad for her teeth. She doesn’t understand.’

Father smiled but said nothing. He went to his room and opened his cupboard to change into a clean pair of clothes. A few minutes later when Avni’s mother went to his room, she found him standing in front of his opened cupboard, a strange look on his face.

‘What happened dear?’ she asked anxiously. ‘Are you feeling unwell?’ Father shook himself as if breaking out of a reverie. ‘No, no. I was just thinking about a work in the office that I had not finished,’ he said. Mother looked relieved and went out of the room.

The next morning father sent Avni to fetch him a blue shirt from his cupboard. By now Avni knew very well the contents of her father’s cupboard. She had opened the cupboard so often, hadn’t she? ‘Here’s another chance’, she felt excited. She opened the tin box quietly and put her hand inside. She wanted to hear the jingle of the newly minted coins. But instead she heard the rustle of paper and things that were hard and small. She took out the tin box gently and peeped in. It was full of toffees and candies!

‘Now you needn’t have to cross the street to the toffee shop every time, Avni,’ said a soft voice behind her. Avni froze in fear!

‘Daddy!’ she stammered in whisper.  ‘I know dear,’ her father said. ‘This tin box is a gift to you. You can always fill it up with candies bought out of the money THAT I GIVE YOU. And IT will be our secret, alright?’ Avni hugged her father, hot tears running down her cheeks.

LYING AND STEALING ARE NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOURS– A proverb

-Gayathri Krishnan