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The Prank

Zarir Keki Irani

Tony “ I’ve got a fantastic idea. Richard will be scared to death.”
Joe “ But will he meet his death?”
Jacob “haa--- haa—(laughs)
Tony “not funny”
Joe “Ok, sorry, what’s the idea?”
Tony “ Richard is alone at home on Sunday. His parents are out till late evening. He will be busy preparing for the school’s second unit test in his room-so called favorite room. My plan is to lock him up alone with a cat.”
Joe “But how will we-------“
Tony cuts him short “Shut up you dumbo. It’s so simple, while he is engrossed in his studies we will leave the cat in and shut the door from outside”
Joe “ hmmmm--very good idea. Imagine Richard’s state, will be great fun.”
Tony “wanna see him banging the door and crying for help. Listen we will go to his place on the pretext of exchanging and copying down some notes.
Jacob “ yeah, he will not at all suspect any foul play as we have been at his place hundred times for exchanging notes.”
Tony “as usual he will be studying in his favorite room and we in the hall, then at the right moment we will execute our plan.”
Joe “yeah yeah it’s a fantastic idea.”
Tony “ Hey Jacob what are you thinking?”
Jacob “am thinking about the flaw in the plan. There is a big flaw.”
Tony “impossible, it can’t be.”
Jacob “you are always over confindent, which -------------.”

Tony cuts him short saying “shut up, I am not over confident but very sure that I have not missed out on anything.”

Jacob “are you sure?”
Tony “cent percent.”
Jacob “Oh, cent percent---then what about the window ?”
Tony “My dear Mr.Clever---I have already thought of it. You mean to say that Richard will drive away the cat out of the window, correct.”
Jacob “Exactly.”
Tony “ Don’t we know that Richard freezes on the mere mention of the cat ---------”?
Joe intervenes “yeah, Tony is correct, Richard will not dare to even move, so driving away the cat is out of question, there is no flaw in the plan.”
Jacob “Of course there is---Don’t forget that initially fear cripples him but the same fear when it reaches its peak, makes him retaliate. Remember we had forced a cat on his shoulder, initially he stood still like a statue for a long time and then to our surprise he threw the cat down----
Joe intervenes “yeah, yeah, he even kicked the cat and afterwards ran for his life.”

Tony “Actually it’s a very very minor thing but why take chances, let me think.”
Here silence takes its place as the three of them are lost in thought and then suddenly ----
Joe “I’ve got it-----.”

Before Joe could put forth his notion Tony laughs and comments sarcastically “it’s a good idea but sorry, we can’t implement the same and giggles again.”

Jacob “ stop joking, let us here to what he has to say, Joe go ahead .”

Joe looking only at Jacob speaks - “Listen Jacob, fortunately it’s not a glass window or else he would have broken the glass and let go the cat out, but since it’s a wooden one, we can simply nail two wooden planks from outside. The wooden framework covering the window will make our work more easy, ask me why.”

No one replies

Joe “come on Jacob--- ask me why.”
Jacob “ok ,WHY ?”
Joe “simple, it’s much more easy to nail the planks in the wood than in the concrete wall.”
Jacob “my God Joe, it’s brilliant.”
Tony “Brilliant my foot, what about the loud sound the nailing of the planks will generate, will it not put Richard on the alert ?”

Jacob breaks the silence which had captured a few seconds after Tony’s question.

Jacob “ While we both will engage Richard in the hall, Joe you complete the task of nailing the planks and then join us on the pretext of being late .The distance between the hall and the exterior of Richard’s bungalow will work as a silencer .”
Tony gives a pat on Joe’s back “I’m sorry, it’s really nice. Then it’s done.”
Jacob “yeah DONE.”
Joe “DONE.”

Richard feared cats immensely, to such an extent that he couldn’t even bear the mere mention of the same. Richard was a toy for his schoolmates Joe, Tony and Jacob-simply wind the key and enjoy its move. Mentioning cat on purpose in their conversation with Richard, pasting posters of cats on Richard’s books, throwing a cat on him and many such petty pranks had become stale. Thus, they came up with this innovative idea to scare Richard.

Everything went well as planned. Now Richard was locked up in his room alongwith the cat. The cat’s presence crippled him. He was sitting on the ground without moving a muscle and continuously looking into the cat’s eyes. The same posture was also from the cat’s end. Tony, Joe and Jacob were dying to hear Richard’s scream but were faced with disappointment and confusion, as even after the lapse of ten minutes, there was no sound of any kind, except for the cat’s very soft meowing at short intervals. This led them to take the decision of ending their desparate wait and unlock the door of Richard’s room. They were about to do so when they heard a fierce cry of the cat (anger mingled with agony) followed by a thumping sound-sound of a stick being hit on the ground. This forced them to retreat their steps. Then Richard’s scream fell into their ears which lasted for a few seconds. Once again there was complete silence. Now fear crippled the three of them but gradually they gathered courage and unlocked the door of Richard’s room.

The sun finished its duty and evening started its shift. Richard’s parents were back home. The doorbell was answered by Richard after a long time. No sooner he opened the door, the wave of angry words from his father splashed on him. Richard’s father was demanding explanation as to the delay in opening the door but he did not pay any heed to it. Richard straightaway headed for the sofa and sat on the same. He then started murmuring, talking to himself. His parent’s were confused as regards Richard’s odd behaviour. They too sat beside him and before they could ask him the reason of this odd behaviour, Richard started laughing (eccentric manner) and said

“ I have killed them, what did they think that they will get away with this.”

Richard’s mother intervened “Richie, what the hell----- “
Richard cut her short and said (in a very soft tone) “Please mom, do not talk, just listen to me. You know they locked me up in the room, alone with a cat. I was scared to death, couldn’t even move. The scary eyes of the cat, staring at me and meowing at me. I was shivering out of fear, wanted to get the cat out of my sight. So I picked up the hockey stick and bang—bang---bang---bang, started hitting the cat. Then, the cat pounced on me and dug it’s teeth into my throat and –and --- and I died.

Richard’s mom intervened “ but you--- .”
Richard shouted “shut up mom, listen to me. I took my revenge, I killed all the three of them—ha ha ha ha.”
Richard’s dad broke in “Shut up Richard, enough of this piece of shit, have your dinner and get ready for bed.”
Richard replied “ Dad, I love you, Mom I love you, will miss you.”
Richard’s mom got annoyed “Richie, now I understand, again one of your new pranks.”
Richard “No mom this is not a prank, they played a prank on me and have taken revenge……….”
Mom “Enough Richie, this prank has become stale, watching a horror movie and enacting the same. This you have done a dozen of times. Now get ready for dinner.”

Richard’s mom started heading towards her room, and had not taken a few steps, when Richard said, “Mom, I love you, I love Dad, I’m going Mom ---- .”

She turned behind immediately but was shocked not to find Richard on the sofa but could hear his voice echoing, “Mom, I love you, I love Dad, I’m going Mom ---- .” After a few seconds Richard’s voice faded away. She immediately ran towards her son’s room and barged in. She screamed and fell down unconscious. Richard’s father immediately rushed towards the direction of the scream. He was shocked to find four dead bodies in Richard’s room. The dead bodies were of his son Richard and his friends Tony, Joe and Jacob.