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Squeaky Clean

Our beautiful home in Layam Road once used to have a hallway in front covered by huge glass doors on either end. Every morning, once Amma was free of her morning chores, she would walk through this hallway watering the plants that were housed here and quietly examine both the glass doors. If a tiny speck had somehow found its way there, Amma would immediately have the entire glass washed and wiped clean.

This used to be a problem at times as people who used to visit us could barely see the glass and would walk in banging their heads on to them. This would startle Amma who would have just started talking to some of her plants, and push us into a spiral of laughter!

Kannan and I decided to enact people who would accidentally smash at the glass thinking there was no door. Kannan would take a few steps back and charge at the door and "Bamm"! Amma would rush out to see what made that sound and then we would laugh at our own comedy while Amma opens the glass door from the inside glaring at us. Later on, this "Bamm!" was Amma's way of identifying whether we reached back from school. She had come to the conclusion that there was no point getting angry at us and we would continue our little act.

One fine day, Kannan and I walked up to the stairs leading to our home. Just as we were about to come to the glass door, Kannan took a few steps back to start the act. I was too tired of the act.
I said, "That's enough Kannappa". Since Amma stopped getting startled at our act, it didn't seem thrilling anymore. Kannan ignored me and continued with his act. He ran to hit the glass door, but this time, something unexpected happened. With the impact, our huge glass door shattered into a thousand pieces startling Amma and me. Kannan went through the glass and reached the inside of our hallway. A few seconds later, an angry Amma carried both of us to our home and after having settled us neatly in front of the T.V room, went out to clean the mess, while we discussed on how to tackle the situation at hand. Nothing had happened to us of course, so we could not take the route of sympathy. So we decided to be silent no matter what as explaining ourselves would only make matters worse.

Amma came in and sat in front of us. She asked us what had happened and what we were thinking. We sat there silently uplifting the promise we planned before with each other until Amma quizzed me into why I did not take any action.

"It was all his fault! I told him not to run at that door. He simply did not listen!"

Kannan looked at me, puzzled. I smiled at him slyly, forgetting that we had a deal.

"Let Achan come. I don't know how angry he will be when he comes to know this!" Amma said walking away. We sat there thinking of what to do when Achan comes.

Evening came by and Kannan and I kept staring at our wall clock. Ten minutes to 6 PM. Achan could be here any minute. We turned on the lights on our huge hallway and tidied up our living room. We decided to stand in the hallway to greet Achan when he came.

A few minutes later, Achan appeared in front of the glass door. Seeing us on the hallway, he signalled to open the door. Kannan spoke out:
"Avde glass illa acha. Athu pottipoi."
"Aano?" Achan asked wide eyed and walked in briskly. "Engane potti?"
"Athu njan idichappo potti."
"Aano?" said Achan as he walked in with a grin and requested Amma for a cup of tea.

The end!

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