3 Novels : A Summer Adventure, The Hidden Treasure, The Only Witness , livre ebook

SHASHI DESHPANDE
3 Novels
A Summer Adventure The Hidden Treasure The Only Witness
PUFFIN BOOKS
Contents
About the Author
Dedication
A Summer Adventure
The Hidden Treasure
The Only Witness
Copyright Page
PUFFIN BOOKS
3 NOVELS
Shashi Deshpande started writing children s stories for her two young sons. She recreated her own happy childhood in a small town in her first book A Summer Adventure and subsequently wrote two more adventure books. The Narayanpur Incident , her fourth book, was based on the 1942 Quit India Movement.
Shashi has also written a number of stories and novels for adults.
For Ajit and Nikhil
A SUMMER ADVENTURE
Ravi Arrives
Polly was so excited she just couldn t keep still. She kept hopping, first on one foot, then on the other.
Why isn t that train coming? When will it come? she asked.
Oh God! Minu groaned. How many times are you going to ask us that? You ve asked fifty times at least!
A real Polly parrot, Dinu mocked.
The tip of Polly s nose turned red, as it always did when she was angry. Fifty times! she burst out indignantly. Fifty times! I never did. I asked you only once. Or twice, maybe. Didn t I, Dinu? Didn t I?
But Dinu was not listening to her. He was waving to someone who was walking towards them.
Hi, Mr Fernandes, he called out when the man came close enough. The man waved in reply. He was a tall man with a cheerful, white smile splitting the sooty darkness of his face. As he waved, he wiped his face with a very large hanky, and the hanky came away black. The children watched it fascinated.
Hello, Mr Fernandes, Minu and Polly cried out.
Hi, kids! What are you doing here at this time?
Our mother is coming from Bombay, Polly beamed. She s coming in the Mail train. And our cousin Ravi is coming with her. His Papa is our uncle, Amma s brother. And he and Ravi s mother have gone to America. And so Ravi is going to stay with us till they come back. He ll be here for three months. And here Polly stopped to take a deep breath.
Hey, hold on, Mr Fernandes laughed. You re going faster than an express train.
Chatterbox, said Dinu rudely.
That s why we call her Polly parrot, Minu told Mr Fernandes. Mr Fernandes laughed again. He was an engine driver and a great friend of the three children. They often went to the station to watch the trains go by, to walk on the rails, to put their ears against the rails and hear the trains from a long distance and do all the other fascinating things one could on a railway station. They lived in a little town and there were not many places they could go to for amusement. They had met Mr Fernandes at the station. He sometimes gave them rides on his engine when he took it on the turntable to turn it right around.
Never mind them, Polly dear, he boomed now. I d be excited, too, if my mother was coming.
But she s always excited, Dinu complained.
Mr Fernandes talked and laughed so loudly that the whole platform seemed to be full of people, Minu thought. Actually, there was no one on the station but them, the ticket-checker yawning away, two red-shirted porters quarrelling as they wheeled a barrow for the letters that would come on the train, and a poor little dog limping along with one of its legs shorter than the other three.
Oh, look, Minu called out suddenly. The signal is down. That means the train will be here soon, doesn t it, Mr Fernandes?
A real railway girl, huh? Mr Fernandes pinched her cheek. You re right. There s the whistle. Bring your cousin along one day for a ride on my engine.
Oh, thank you, Mr Fernandes, Dinu and Minu called out happily. Polly was too busy hopping and chanting Amma s coming. Amma s coming to notice that Mr Fernandes had gone.
And there it was at last, the train, looking very proud and important as it puffed in.
Amma, the girls screamed, catching sight of a familiar face at a window. The three of them hurtled forward and were hugged by a smiling, pleasant-faced lady. There was a boy, too, who got down after her, but they did not notice him at first. Not until Amma said, Say hello to Ravi, children.
Hello, they chorused.
Hello, said a sulky voice from a rather sulky face. Ravi looked very standoffish as he stood there listening to the excited babble of the children. Then their mother gave a little scream. Goodness, she said, I d better get the luggage out before the train leaves. She scrambled back into the compartment with a porter and the four children watched each other without speaking.
Imagine wearing all those fancy clothes on a journey, Dinu thought, looking at Ravi.
Amma and her luggage got out just in time. The train gave a long scream and began puff-puffing away. They were left on the station in complete silence. The girls clung to their mother s arms as they walked out. The porter walked in front balancing the suitcases on his head and the bags in his hands. The two boys walked silently behind.
As they came out into the hot sun, a stocky man, dressed in dingy pyjamas that came midway between his knees and his ankles, came forward grinning at them.
Come on, Bai, he said. My tonga is waiting.
Why, Abdul, have you been waiting for us? How did you know I was coming?
Didn t I bring you to the station when you went to Bombay? And when I saw these children here, I told myself: Their mother is coming. And they ll go home in my tonga, no one else s. Come on, come on. Hamal, this way.
The horses which drew the tongas lay in the shade of a tree, contentedly munching hay. Abdul led them to his tonga. He gathered the hay that lay in front of the horse and stuffed it under the seat of his tonga.
Up with you kids, he said.
Are we going in this? Ravi asked in a disgusted voice.
Yes, darling, Amma told him gently. Dinu sniffed at the darling . Must be eleven or twelve, I bet. And lets himself be called darling .
Dinu! Amma said sharply. Why are you sniffing? Have you got a cold?
Dinu hurriedly got into the tonga. He and Ravi sat in the front with the driver. Can I hold the whip, Abdul? he asked. Abdul grinned and gave it to him.
Hey, hey, he called out, clicking his tongue just like Abdul and flicking the whip over his own head and the horse s back. But the horse didn t budge.
Ho ho ho! the girls laughed loudly.
Ho ho my foot! Dinu retorted. What do you expect with fatty Minu sitting there weighing a hundred kilos at least! No wonder the poor horse can t move! Ouch! he exclaimed as Minu clouted him on the back of his head.
Now, now, children, Amma warned in a stern voice which meant she had to be obeyed. The children settled down quietly after that, Ravi still looking glum and morose.
All of them had so much to tell their mother that it seemed no time at all before they were home. Sitabai, the servant who had been with them since Dinu was born, and looked after them while their mother was away like a policeman as Polly grumbled, came running out at the jingle of the horse s bells. She was grinning happily from ear to ear. They wondered whether she would tell Amma all the things she d threatened them she d tell your mother when she returns, see if I don t! . They all wanted their mother. Dinu wanted to tell her about the fifty runs he had made in his last match, Minu wanted to boast about all the cooking she had learnt from Sitabai, and Polly was impatient for the gifts she was sure Amma had brought for them. But Amma was busy talking to Sitabai, poking in all corners of the house, and fussing over Ravi, who was to share Dinu s room. Help him to unpack, Amma ordered Minu.
But, no, Ravi didn t want to unpack, he didn t want Minu s help; in fact, he didn t seem to want to do anything at all! He didn t approve of their large, rambling house, nor did he like their untidy, friendly little garden with its huge neem and mango trees and jumbled-up flower beds the children had planted themselves. He trailed behind them when they went to the vegetable garden at the back, but refused to taste the sour green tomatoes they all loved, or the gooseberries they enjoyed so much. At last, in disgust, they gave him up and wandered away by themselves.
Amma was annoyed. But he s so sulky, they complained.
Oh, no. He s just miserable, lonely and homesick. That s why I want you all to be extra nice to him. Never mind if he doesn t want to join in at first. How would you all feel if Papa and I went away for a long visit and you were dumped in a strange place with two plump, giggling girls and a sniffy boy for company? They laughed at that and promised to be nicer to Ravi.
Want to play cards? Dinu asked him later after he had refused to play anything in that nasty mud in their garden.
We don t have dirt like this in Bombay, he had declared.
Then what do you have? the astonished Polly had asked.
We have cement, Ravi had loftily announced.
No cards, Minu burst out. Polly can t play, and, if she does, she cheats.
No, I don t, Polly said angrily. You re the cheater.
Stop it, you two, Dinu ordered. Dinu was the eldest and never let the girls forget it.
Let s go swimming, Minu suggested.
I can t swim. This from Ravi.
Oh God! What can you do?
I know, Polly cried out, as Ravi glowered angrily at Minu. Let s go to the college and watch the big clock being wound up. Today is Thursday, winding up day.
Good idea! Dinu thumped Polly on the back.
The college where the children s father taught was just ten minutes walk from their house. Everyone there knew the children and they loved the gracious old building made of red stone. It was their favourite place. Now, in summer, with no classes, it was all theirs. They could clatter up and down the corridors to their hearts content, race up and down the staircases as much as they liked. There was a huge clock on top of the building. You could hear it announcing the time almost throughout the whole town. If you went up a spiral staircase which seemed to go on forever, you came up to a small room that contained the inside