Story so far: Someone has been destroying the castle Samit and Shalu have built. Samit is convinced it’s a ghost!
“Shalu!” someone said. “Wake up!” Shalu grumbled, as she sat up. Then she remembered that she was in the playroom with Samit. “The ghost!” she gasped. “No sign of it,” Samit yawned. “You go to bed... I am going to wait a little longer,” he said.
Shalu fell into her bed and was instantly asleep. She woke to find her room full of a thin grey light. She remembered the ghosts and leapt out of bed. The castle was a dark smudge in the grey light of the playroom and silence filled the house. Samit must have gone to bed.
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That made things easy for her, Shalu thought, as she went into the playroom. Her work was quickly done and, she was walking out, when she saw Samit coming out of the kitchen with a handful of biscuits. He walked quickly towards her, eager to tell her something. Then he peeped into the playroom and the smile died.
Broken again
There lay their castle, in ruins again. “Shalu!” he gasped. “Our castle!”
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“I did it!” Shalu said. “I broke the castle!”
“So, it wasn’t the cat or Nitin or...” Samit seemed to have trouble speaking.
“No,” Shalu said. “It was always me!”
“But...” Samit began.
“You want to know why, don’t you?” Shalu asked. “Because as soon as we finished the castle you would go back to your phone and never have the time to play! So, I broke it. That way you would continue working with me to build it!”
In the silence that fell, they heard the soft sounds of the world coming awake. Soon Amma and Papa would be down. Would Samit tell them that it was Shalu who had broken the castle?
****
By Shalu’s next birthday, the castle had long been completed. Shalu loved it and often played with it. Sometimes Samit joined her too. They waged battles and kept scores of their victories and losses.
A special gift
Then it was Shalu’s birthday, and her parents gave her a gift-wrapped box. She carefully pulled away the wrapping paper and, “A phone!” she screamed. “A phone of my own!”
Shalu loved her phone and played with it all the time. Amma often scolded her, and Papa threatened to hide it. But strangely, it was Samit who could get her to listen instantly. All he had to say was, “Ghosts!” for Shalu to put the phone away.
“Must be some secret,” Amma guessed. But they never knew and asking the children was of no use. They would only giggle. Their parents didn’t mind. After all, it was yet another proof of how close the two were.
The end