An Ambivalent Memory

The recess of our school is always a messy time. At this time in our school, students are all over the place. The air is filled with paper planes and children of all ages battling around with their notebooks. An awful odor of food fills the air and the stairs are always jammed with gossiping children. We enjoy the recess a lot.

This is the time when we get to talk, play, loiter around or do anything we want. On one such messy, noisy recess, my friends Avishkaa, Vanya, and I were rushing to the washroom. Vanya had borrowed Avishkaa’s pen for the previous period. She kept it on a nearby desk for Avishkaa to take it. In a hurry, Avishkaa threw the pen aiming at her school bag. Unfortunately, the pen went straight through the window and fell three floors down. Now we had no idea where it was.

We were in a great dilemma, next was computer period and if Sabitha ma’am saw us late for class, it wouldn’t be fun. But, if Avishkaa lost her pen today, all of us would have to bring our own pens from then on. We decided to take the risk and search for the pen. All three of us ran to the ground floor, greeting every teacher who passed us. We searched the entire school campus but it was nowhere to be seen.

Then, bravely, we went into the corridor near the playground. There were rumors about it being haunted. People avoided using this corridor. The yellow paint on the ceiling was peeling off and there was no one else except us. We could hardly see. The corridor had only two windows and an old, dim, fluctuating tube light. There it was! We found the pen! It was lying on the other end of the corridor.

We were overjoyed. We hurriedly climbed up the stairs which were now quite empty and dashed into our class. As soon as we saw Sabitha ma’am waiting for us, we froze because of fear and shock. Our faces turned pale. We all knew what was waiting ahead of us. The next moment, all three of us were standing outside our classroom with our hands in the air, trying our best to control our giggles and laughter. We could not believe what we had done that day.