Soul Swap!

Pro investigator from Jamnagar

Jinks and Virat returned to the hotel very late that night when they were absolutely sure that everyone was sleeping, because they were lugging two huge sacks each, two filled entirely with Mars bars, and the other two with all sorts of good food they could think of.

"D'you think he is likely to be in Jaddu's room?" whispered Virat.

"I hope he's not," whispered back Jinks. "Jad would hear us even if we so much as open the door."

Virat sighed. "I guess we have to find Phenol tomorrow. Till then stay out of his way."

When they were going up the stairs, to their initial shock which soon turned into delight, they saw Phenol sliding down the banisters with great gusto.

Seeing the two of them, Phenol waved happily and flew to them.

"Hello, Phenol," said Virat warmly as Phenol flung out his arms for a group hug. "Sorry we're a bit laden at the moment. Come up to my room, we can have a good hug in peace."

Phenol was, of course, a very obedient ghost, so he led the way to Virat's room immediately.

Virat and Jinks locked the room from inside and hugged Phenol, and shook out the contents from the sacks.

"Look, Pheni," began Virat in a very chummy voice.

Phenol looked at him in undisguised horror at being called Pheni, and Jinks nudged Virat. Don't irk him, idiot.

So Virat hastily backtracked and said, "Phen... you can see Jinks and I are perfectly normal, right?" He turned to retrieve a few Mars bars from the pile to offer Phenol but when he turned back, he discovered that Phenol was already wolfing down half a dozen of them together.

"But we're pretending that we have swapped to trick the others," explained Jinks.

Now Phenol was rummaging in the pile for some liquorice candies, and Virat complained, "Phenol! Are you listening?"

Phenol nodded vigorously.

"And all these are yours... You'll not give us away, will you?" asked Virat coaxingly.

Phenol looked at them and shook his head solemnly.

"Promise!" cried Virat in delight.

Phenol nodded gravely. Virat threw one arm around Phenol and the other around Jinks.

"I knew it," he said triumphantly. Then his triumph vanished suddenly. "Jinksy--"

"Don't call me Jinksy," said Jinks at once. "And what were you saying?"

"Mahi bhai is coming back tomorrow," said Virat. "We'll never be able to fool him anyway, so what was the point of bribing Phenol?"

"Are you sure we won't be able to fool him?" asked Jinks.

"He's Mahi bhai!" said Virat incredulously.

"So that's the real challenge, Vi," said Jinks, sounding thrilled. "Suppose we can take him in? We can really start acting as our career after retirement then!"

Virat was all fired up, too.

"We'll do it, Jinks," he said seriously. "Whatever it takes."

_____________

The next day India bundled Bangladesh out within the first session to secure yet another innings victory.

While they were returning in the bus, Jaddu told Virat and Jinks extremely cheerfully, "You two missed an important thing yesterday."