A Hundred Dollars Secret

It happened when my younger brother was following me in a chase for my life … I mean the only chocolate fudge which was left alone in the container in our kitchen’s cabinet. After all, it was completely unjust to keep it unattended for such a long period of time. So, without giving a second thought I ran to break off this injustice while my little bro second me in this act. In this struggle of winning the candy, I banged into the flower vase that wasn’t just an ordinary one but was my granny’s childhood surprise given by her granny on her twelfth birthday and now mom was its custodian as if it was a hereditary treasure. I tried really hard, even paid multiple pendulum movements but failed to undo that incident as the flower pot was copying me in my “to and fro” steps with almost double the speed and then with the last “clink” it smashed into pieces. All I could do was to stare it in horror.

Neil, my younger brother, who too stood frozen behind me, pulled me to present by saying “Is it broken already? Mom’s vase….you broke it Roy!”. With a pale face and flat, emotion less smile, I glanced back to Neil. The urge to convince him for being my accomplice for this loss was quiet clear from my face and my flattering gesture. And as I expected, he nodded in refusal with cunning and at the same time a cruel smile and warned me that he won’t zip his mouth, at least not for free. Upon inquiring, he revealed that his demand for keeping the whole matter a secret was just a contribution of $50 from my pocket money. You can’t imagine how badly I needed to kick him off but the situation was all in his favor. So, I decided to play “clean” politics and got agreed upon the demand to turn the things in my favor. But it wasn’t the complete solution. I had bought my brother’s silence but what about the vase? Money couldn’t bring it back to life…I mean it scattered into so many pieces that it was next to impossible to glue it back…but yes, I had the option of buying a new one. All I had to do was to think from where can I get the same piece? After all it was a gift from great, great granny. As I was deciding to try my luck, by searching it in some nearby antique shop, that was when I experienced the weight-age of my recent investment of the $50. Neil again pulled me out, but this time he pulled me out of this dilemma by disclosing the fact that who has exactly the same flower pot.

It was Ana, my middle school rival. Having the same flower vase was not a coincidence. Actually, my granny and Ana’s granny were bosom buddies since their childhood and my great, great grand ma, not only gifted that vase to my granny but gifted the same to her bestie…Yeah you’ve got it right, Ana was having the same flower vase in her house. No one can understand what I went through, after hearing this good…may be…a damnable news. To be honest, I was really confused about the nature of this latest update. Previously I had to give away my hard earned money and now it was the turn to sacrifice my prestige. “Uh!” Poor me!

It really seemed to be a matter of do or die for me and obviously I chose the “do” part. I took a long breath, collected all my strength, leapt over the broken vase and raced towards the exit. Just at the corner of the street, it was Ana’s house. As soon as I appeared at her door, I put my finger on the door bell and forgot to remove it. Within nanosecond the most annoying figure on the face of this earth appeared and blasted in rage, “If you’ve become deaf, don’t start counting others in the same category. Our whole family has our both ears working perfectly.” I immediately stopped ringing the bell and grinned at her as we were friends since ages. She smelt something fishy and yelled at the top of her voice, “Would you now speak up what you want?”. I gave a pause to my smirk and informed her casually that through some reliable source (who was none other than Neil), I have got to know that she was selling her granny’s vase and I was interested in buying that stuff. She straight away posed a “why” towards me for which I clearly mentioned her not to get curious about this “why” as I will pay her well for the said object. Not only this, I promised not to tease her in return, in my entire life, “Ana… banana”, even if she’ll keep on calling me “Roy…What a useless boy” in front of the whole school. She agreed upon handing me the vase as according to her money wasn’t the matter but that teasing part was quite promising for her and she told me further that by the way she won’t mind accepting the money too but the problem was she already had a deal with a girl in $20 and had received the cash already. All she had to do was to handover the flower vase. I tried to flatter her to find a way out and she accepted to return the money, as she knew I would pay her for her loss. “How much”, I asked and her reply, “$50” gave me a shock. “But you were selling it in just $20… won’t you?” She cleared my nervousness by saying, “I know the girl won’t agree upon taking her amount back unless I’ll pay her $10 extra. So twenty plus ten becomes thirty and then by adding the $20 (cost of the vase) the whole amount becomes $50. It’s a simple calculation.” Having no other choice, I paid her the $50, received the vase and rushed towards home. On the way back home I got the idea of that “simple calculation” but it was too late and there was no point in crying over the spilled milk.

 As soon as I entered home, I put the vase on its place in triumph. Neil had already cleaned the mess that made me realized that after all he was not that mean. I took out that chocolate fudge, because of which the whole melodrama happened, from kitchen’s cabinet and enjoyed it with Neil then and there. To our surprise and luck mom wasn’t home during all this. After the chocolate treat as we were returning back to our room, a horrible sight made us unmovable. Mom was standing in front of the vase and then before we could have understood something, she picked it up and threw it in the trash can. “Clinnnkkkkkkkkk…”

“Mommm!” I screamed hysterically.

“Oh dear, this vase accidentally fell down by me in the morning and broke into two pieces and you know its granny’s favorite… I tried to fix it. Well I almost had done it but when I hold it again it gave me a deep cut and I had to go to Aunt Mary’s house for a proper bandage. Might be, some sharp edges failed to got fix. So, before it carves someone else’s hand, it would rather be a better idea to throw it away”.

I and Neil kept looking each other’s face. We were out of words. With heavy feet, I entered my room and shattered on the chair. I lost my $100, my dignity, my time, my fun (which I used to have while teasing Ana)… this all for something which was already broken? I started to lose my patience, my control on myself and banged my head against the wall.

Before getting unconscious the last words I heard were of my mom saying, “Kindly keep it a secret from your granny both of you. You know how much she loves this flower vase.”