Look what I found !

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“Appa !! Appa !!” screeched my 4 year old at the top of her voice. You would be surprised to know how much power those tiny lungs can pack. Everyone gets fooled by that cherubic little face. Ha, I knew better. 


“No screaming in the house Shreya, how many times do I have to tell you that?” I lightly admonish, waving my spatula at her, in the midst of stirring the sugar syrup. Giri had gotten a promotion at work and the neighbours wouldn’t let it go uncelebrated. So here I was busy making gulab-jamuns and Shreya – well settled in her age of frustrating fours – was hell bent on distracting me. 

“But Ma .. I am not in the house. I am on the stairs. See?” came her pat reply. Aah, who was I kidding. When had I ever won an argument against this imp. 

“Amma, come here. Kickly, kickly !” Shreya still cant pronounce the ‘Qu’ fluently so she just says kick. Her voice was full of excitement and I wondered what would have caused that. I scampered over to her, at the risk of my gulab-jamuns becoming kaala-jamuns, partly amused at her enthusiasm and partly worried that there would be another huge mess to clean up. 

“Look ! Look Ma!” she said pointing at the floor in the space between the door hinges and the door. I looked. At first, I could not fathom what I was looking at. It was just another piece of wood. Maybe a twig from somewhere. Slightly bent, shriveled. 

I went pale. I couldn’t believe my eyes. 
“Step back Shreya !” I yelled at her as the little one looked at me – her eyes huge round anticipating a fresh admonition. “Right now”. Timidly she stepped aside. She knew better than to face my wrath.

“Giri ! Giri come here. Please its urgent. Drop whatever you’re doing and just come” I beckoned him over.  He was busy reading the sports section on the verandah sipping his Sunday morning cup of tea with his favourite Marie biscuits. In walked my perplexed husband Giridhar, I am sure muttering the choicest of expletives under his breath, at being interrupted. “What is it Sandhya? What’s so important” he started but I didn’t give him a chance to finish.

“Look” I said, pointing again to the thing. “Look Appa” said Shreya too, imitating me. 
Giri gave a sigh of exasperation and bent down to look at it. Better get this done with and be able to go back to peaceful reading. His nose wrinkled and think lines appeared on his forehead as he looked at it trying to figure out what had got me this worked up. 

“Is that? Is that? But how and whose .. O My God, human?” he looked at me, questions clouding his eyes. He couldn’t finish. Shreya happily did it for him. 

“Its a finger Appa ! I found a finger” she went. 
Note: The above is a work of fiction and the entry for this month’s group blog posting. The topic was to write a piece of fiction including the following prompts: A family member, a witty 4 year old kid, any food items, a finger.



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