We all were gathered for dinner in the dining hall which was near my parents’ bedroom in the downstairs. It was a rectangular room.
It had a fridge in one corner. Two cupboards were attached to the walls exactly opposite to each other. Both the cupboards had a mirror in them (I seriously don’t know why they fitted a mirror in the cupboard). In the centre of the room were the dining table with a head chair and four other chairs two on either side. A special dinner was prepared for our new family member. My mother had prepared American chopsy and some sausages. I helped my mom to arrange the plates and dishes on the table.
My mom said
“Go call Maria. She’s still in her room”. I went upstairs and knocked. There was no sound. I knocked again and called her name. This time she opened the door and came out drowsily.
“Dinner time Maria. Get ready and come.” I said and went down. After some time she came down and took a chair next to me. She looked fresh. All the drowsy expression was gone. My father was watching the news on the phone. The news was showing some sort of palace. The news reporter was saying ‘The archaeologists have found some precious items this morning. They say that these items might be from the 16th century. They have found some helmets used in war and broken swords and some sculptures’. I saw Maria. She was eagerly listening to the news. I thought she also might be interested in history. We all started to eat.
“Mom, I have a cricket match tomorrow. All my friends are coming.”I said to my mom.
“Cricket match?! When did you start playing cricket and all.” My mom mocked.
“No I have always liked cricket mom but I didn’t get a chance to play it. Now I have got it. Please mom can I go?” I pleaded.
“Who and all are coming?” my mom asked. I said my friends' name who were going to come the next day and finished with a name with complete disgust. That name was Crimpson. If you are saying you haven’t mentioned this name. Yes, I haven’t mentioned it. Well, there’s nothing much to say about him. Think of the famous bully in your class or school. That will be Crimpson. I purely hate him because he always pokes his nose in my matters and complains me to the staffs for the mistakes that he had done. Always mocks me. Especially insults me in front of the class when all the students are there. So I purely hate that guy. So after I said all of the names my mom thought for a while and said
“Ask your father” (A common answer in all the houses). My father was silently listening to our conversation and eating. I looked at him and at once he said
“No objections. You may go”. Then finally Maria spoke up. She asked
“Can I go too? Just to see how he plays and I don’t watch cricket a lot.” she made such a pleading expression that anyone could not resist or reject her request. My father accepted her request but I didn’t want her along. I began to argue but my mother locked eyes with me conveying a short message TAKE HER WITH YOU. I became silent. After dinner, we went upstairs. On the way, I asked
“Why do you want to come with me, Maria? You don’t even know my name.”
“That’s not a problem. We shall get introduced now” she said very very casually like we were very thick friends but unfortunately forgot each other. So we went to my room and she sat on my bed and I took my study chair.
“Please adjust. My room’s a little untidy.” I said.
“No worries sometimes my room also become like this,” she said. So I knew her name and where she was from so automatically I said
“My name is Oliver Christin”. I said about my father, mother and dog and some of my good friends. After that, I told some of my childhood memories and funny things. In return, she shared some of the tortures that she had gone through in her orphanage which were really terrifying and painful to hear. Some involved simple beating, some involved hot iron rod, even some involved plucking of hair, teeth etc., I didn’t know how she stayed there for these many years. We were talking for so much time that I thought it might be late at night. I saw the clock. It showed 9.30. We had been talking for an hour. Finally, I said
“Tomorrow if someone asks you who you are, which they will, tell them that you are my older cousin because I don’t want my friends, especially Crimpson, to see me with a girl whom they haven’t met in their lifetime. Understood?” She nodded.
“You seem older than me. How old are you?” I asked.
“I’m twenty. Yes, I’m older than you” she replied.
“Then that settles it. The match starts at 10 am. So we have to be in the ground at 9.30 am. Be ready. Good night.” I said. She got up and I suddenly asked
“Have we met?”
“What?!” she asked with total astonishment that I guessed the answer was no.
“Never mind. Good night” I said and she went to her room. I lay on my bed and thought she would be a good friend to me. I slept well that night.
The next morning I woke up at 7 am. When I got dressed up the time was 8 am. Then I went down and had breakfast. After that, I and Maria watched some television and finally, we set off to the ground (not a ground actually. We play by the river). My best buddy Nielson was the captain of our team and my enemy Crimpson was the captain of the opposition. When we entered the ground everybody stared at us. Then I noticed that everyone’s eyes were on Maria who was casually walking beside me.
“Sorry guys. Am I late?” I asked my team to get their attention to me.
“No, Oliver and who’s this?” Nielson asked.
“She’s my cousin from Wingston. She has come to watch the game.” I said. Crimpson shouted from his team side
“Who’s this beauty queen, you silly?” I replied the same.
“You see guys our puny little runt has got a beauty queen as a cousin.” he mocked me.
“If you call me beauty queen again I’ll stab you and throw you into that river” Maria shouted from near the river. Crimpson tried to charge at her but Nielson interrupted and said
“Okay, guys. Enough talk. Let’s start the match.” He came near me and whispered in my ear
“Your sister is brave.” and went for the toss. The coin was tossed and we won it and chose bowling which made me glad as I was quite good at bowling. The opposition batted well and put on a score of 122 in 15 overs. While I was the bowler and Crimpson was the striker Maria kept yelling insults at him. That made him annoyed and he lost his wicket to me.
We started our innings well. In 10 overs our score was 83 which meant that we had to score exactly 50 runs in the next 5 overs. But there began the problem. Our best batsmen lost their wicket and our team started to suffer. However in the last over we needed 15 runs. I was on the striker’s end and Nielson was the non-striker. He was a good batsman. So I managed to give him the strike. So we needed 14 runs in 5 balls. Nielson kept the match going. He hit a six and a four in the next two balls. Now we needed 4 runs in 3 balls. Crimpson was the bowler. He bowled a bouncer which went above Nielson’s head. We claimed it to be an extra but they denied it. Both teams argued for some time then finally Nielson said
“Leave it guys. 4 runs in 2 balls. Okay?” In the next ball, we ran two runs. So we needed 2 runs from 1 ball. The field was set. Crimpson ran (actually he was a fast bowler. But he runs slower than a spinner. I’m not mocking him. I’m telling the truth). Nielson bet the ball. It went straight to the fielder. But we ran with a thought that we could tie the match. But unfortunately, I was a slow runner. I couldn’t finish the run and we lost by one run. The opposition started to boast about their victory. Crimpson came over to me and said
“You can’t defeat me, runt. I’m the king.” He turned to Maria and said
“Your cousin is of no use beauty queen. He always loses against me”. Then he went to his team. With that last sentence from Crimpson Maria lost her patience. She took a stone and threw which went straight to Crimpson’s neck and hit it with such force that he stumbled and almost fell. He turned and glared at me. His eyes were as red as blood. He had thought I threw the stone and yelled
“How dare you! I’m gonna kill you runt” and he charged. I didn’t know what to do. I simply closed my eyes and stood waiting to fly in the air and break my hand or something. But none of these happened. When I opened my eyes Crimpson was on the ground moaning. Maria stood right over him. Her knees caught both his hands spread. She gave a nice punch in the nose. Instantly blood started flowing from his nose. Already his left eye had been bulged. With that last punch, he nearly passed out.
“Don’t you dare touch my cousin! If you do something again you’ll be in the hospital, your arms and legs broken, yelling in pain. UNDERSTOOD?” she threatened. Then I went and pulled Maria from him. With all his effort he got up and limped back yelling
“I will not spare you, runt”.
“Let’s go home cousin. Your mom will be waiting.” I was too surprised to answer. So I went after her without looking back, knowing that my friends will be staring at us.
When we entered our street I asked
“Hey! What did you do there? I saw your last punch-in-the-nose action alone.”
“Nothing much. First I dashed at him from the side when he charged at you. He fell for that. Then I punched him in the eye and then in the nose. That’s all.” At that time I came to know that I shouldn’t be on the wrong side of this girl.
“Why did you beat him like that? Did you do it to protect me or something?” I asked. Her expression became guarded and she stammered
“No. Not at all. I bet him because um…. he called me beauty queen again”. Her voice quivered but I didn’t ask another word. We walked in silence to our home. But I knew something was there.
