5
Sabu thought to come back another time. There was no hurry. He wanted to relish on the moment he would be happily buying the moon biscuit and munching the big thing between his teeth. His mouth would be full of it, reaching his tongue the impeccable taste. What a bite!
He gamboled away the whole playtime with his mates. They enjoyed themselves very much throwing rotating tops. There was lot of fun together.
But, now was the time to go to the grocer. He played away, his mind was impatient. Sabu went to wash his hands and feet. While he poured water from the pail that hung down the well, he talked to his friend.
‘What’s the time Gopi?’
‘9:30’
‘How do you so surely know?’
‘I heard someone say inside the house’, he pointed to a neighbor house.
The pulley made a whirring sound as Sabu released the rope quickly. Because his mother would be calling out to him for school time, standing on the steps of their house. This was how she called to her sons when the playtime was over.
Sabu walked hurriedly.
Gopi asked, ‘what happened?’
‘Nothing’
Sabu had already taken the road without waiting for Gopi to say more. His hands and feet were wet. As he walked, he rubbed his hands across his shirt and let the feet dry in the air.
Gopi went to wash his hands and feet now.
When Sabu reached the grocery, there was only one.
Sabu felt the coin in the shirt’s pocket. Yes, it was there.
He looked at the big glass jar. He waited for this one buyer to go away. Buyers were no unknown buyers, they all were his known neighbors.
The neighbor aunty asked, ‘won’t you go to school Sabu?’
‘Yes, aunty’, replied Sabu. The grocer had, by that time, weighed her orders and packed them up in large and small paper bags. Then he asked the neighbor aunty to hold open her bag. She did, and the grocer uncle dropped two and
