6
two items into it as he counted by uttering even numbers 2, 4, 6. Lastly, he dropped a soap. And, he dropped the debtor’s notebook, which he had already made the entries into.
‘What do you want Sabu?’ asked the grocer now.
Sabu said without wasting time, ‘a moon biscuit uncle’.
‘And?’ the grocer asked again. ‘Where’s the chit?’ he asked more.
‘No. There’s no chit uncle. This time I am only for the moon biscuit’.
The grocer uncle smiled a bit. He opened the lid of the jar with his lazy hand and took out a big moon biscuit. He held it before him.
How exciting! Within a very short moment he would bite it off. Sabu could feel his mouth had already started to salivate profusely. Enduring.
Sabu was taking the moon biscuit in one hand and handing out the fifty-pice coin to the grocer in the other.
The grocer uncle had wrapped the biscuit in a piece of paper. Sabu was brisk enough to unwrap it.
As he unfolded the paper, the big moon biscuit emerged from it. Sabu did not want to wait a bit more. While he held the paper with the biscuit on it, he took the biscuit out and went to put it in his mouth.
But Alas!
Somehow his fingers loosened the grip, and the moon biscuit fell from his hand. It fell on earth in front of his feet.
He could not believe it actually happened. But he knew it did.
Sabu kept quiet for pairs of moments, he did not know what to do. Whether to lament for it or to curse his lot.
He was at a loss. What to do? He could not decide. At least as he knew very well that nothing was to be done with it.
The grocer uncle noticed then that the boy had dropped the biscuit on the ground. He tried to reach solace, console the boy, ‘ah, ha! You fell it’. Then he added, ‘don’t worry boy, I’ll give you another. You don’t have to give me price for it’.
Sabu kept watching the elusive thing lay on the ground. He did not say anything. Words were not coming up his throat. But, water seeped up on the banks of his two beautiful big eyes. He longed for it so much, he wanted to pick it up. But, he knew he could not.
What about he heard the consoling note of the grocer uncle?
