| Tony “ I’ve got
a fantastic idea. Richard will be scared to death.”
Joe “ But will he meet his death?”
Jacob “haa--- haa—(laughs)
Tony “not funny”
Joe “Ok, sorry, what’s the idea?”
Tony “ Richard is alone at home on Sunday.
His parents are out till late evening. He will be busy preparing for the
school’s second unit test in his room-so called favorite room. My plan is to
lock him up alone with a cat.”
Joe “But how will we-------“
Tony cuts him short “Shut up you dumbo.
It’s so simple, while he is engrossed in his studies we will leave the cat
in and shut the door from outside”
Joe “ hmmmm--very good idea. Imagine
Richard’s state, will be great fun.”
Tony “wanna see him banging the door and
crying for help. Listen we will go to his place on the pretext of exchanging
and copying down some notes.
Jacob “ yeah, he will not at all suspect
any foul play as we have been at his place hundred times for exchanging
notes.”
Tony “as usual he will be studying in his
favorite room and we in the hall, then at the right moment we will execute
our plan.”
Joe “yeah yeah it’s a fantastic idea.”
Tony “ Hey Jacob what are you thinking?”
Jacob “am thinking about the flaw in the
plan. There is a big flaw.”
Tony “impossible, it can’t be.”
Jacob “you are always over confindent,
which -------------.”
Tony cuts him short saying “shut up, I am
not over confident but very sure that I have not missed out on anything.”
Jacob “are you sure?”
Tony “cent percent.”
Jacob “Oh, cent percent---then what about
the window ?”
Tony “My dear Mr.Clever---I have already
thought of it. You mean to say that Richard will drive away the cat out of
the window, correct.”
Jacob “Exactly.”
Tony “ Don’t we know that Richard freezes
on the mere mention of the cat ---------”?
Joe intervenes “yeah, Tony is correct,
Richard will not dare to even move, so driving away the cat is out of
question, there is no flaw in the plan.”
Jacob “Of course there is---Don’t forget
that initially fear cripples him but the same fear when it reaches its peak,
makes him retaliate. Remember we had forced a cat on his shoulder, initially
he stood still like a statue for a long time and then to our surprise he
threw the cat down----
Joe intervenes “yeah, yeah, he even kicked
the cat and afterwards ran for his life.”
Tony “Actually it’s a very very minor
thing but why take chances, let me think.”
Here silence takes its place as the three
of them are lost in thought and then suddenly ----
Joe “I’ve got it-----.”
Before Joe could put forth his notion Tony
laughs and comments sarcastically “it’s a good idea but sorry, we can’t
implement the same and giggles again.”
Jacob “ stop joking, let us here to what
he has to say, Joe go ahead .”
Joe looking only at Jacob speaks - “Listen
Jacob, fortunately it’s not a glass window or else he would have broken the
glass and let go the cat out, but since it’s a wooden one, we can simply
nail two wooden planks from outside. The wooden framework covering the
window will make our work more easy, ask me why.”
No one replies
Joe “come on Jacob--- ask me why.”
Jacob “ok ,WHY ?”
Joe “simple, it’s much more easy to nail
the planks in the wood than in the concrete wall.”
Jacob “my God Joe, it’s brilliant.”
Tony “Brilliant my foot, what about the
loud sound the nailing of the planks will generate, will it not put Richard
on the alert ?”
Jacob breaks the silence which had
captured a few seconds after Tony’s question.
Jacob “ While we both will engage Richard
in the hall, Joe you complete the task of nailing the planks and then join
us on the pretext of being late .The distance between the hall and the
exterior of Richard’s bungalow will work as a silencer .”
Tony gives a pat on Joe’s back “I’m sorry,
it’s really nice. Then it’s done.”
Jacob “yeah DONE.”
Joe “DONE.”
Richard feared cats immensely, to such an
extent that he couldn’t even bear the mere mention of the same. Richard was
a toy for his schoolmates Joe, Tony and Jacob-simply wind the key and enjoy
its move. Mentioning cat on purpose in their conversation with Richard,
pasting posters of cats on Richard’s books, throwing a cat on him and many
such petty pranks had become stale. Thus, they came up with this innovative
idea to scare Richard.
Everything went well as planned. Now
Richard was locked up in his room alongwith the cat. The cat’s presence
crippled him. He was sitting on the ground without moving a muscle and
continuously looking into the cat’s eyes. The same posture was also from the
cat’s end. Tony, Joe and Jacob were dying to hear Richard’s scream but were
faced with disappointment and confusion, as even after the lapse of ten
minutes, there was no sound of any kind, except for the cat’s very soft
meowing at short intervals. This led them to take the decision of ending
their desparate wait and unlock the door of Richard’s room. They were about
to do so when they heard a fierce cry of the cat (anger mingled with agony)
followed by a thumping sound-sound of a stick being hit on the ground. This
forced them to retreat their steps. Then Richard’s scream fell into their
ears which lasted for a few seconds. Once again there was complete silence.
Now fear crippled the three of them but gradually they gathered courage and
unlocked the door of Richard’s room.
The sun finished its duty and evening
started its shift. Richard’s parents were back home. The doorbell was
answered by Richard after a long time. No sooner he opened the door, the
wave of angry words from his father splashed on him. Richard’s father was
demanding explanation as to the delay in opening the door but he did not pay
any heed to it. Richard straightaway headed for the sofa and sat on the
same. He then started murmuring, talking to himself. His parent’s were
confused as regards Richard’s odd behaviour. They too sat beside him and
before they could ask him the reason of this odd behaviour, Richard started
laughing (eccentric manner) and said
“ I have killed them, what did they think
that they will get away with this.”
Richard’s mother intervened “Richie, what
the hell----- “
Richard cut her short and said (in a very
soft tone) “Please mom, do not talk, just listen to me. You know they locked
me up in the room, alone with a cat. I was scared to death, couldn’t even
move. The scary eyes of the cat, staring at me and meowing at me. I was
shivering out of fear, wanted to get the cat out of my sight. So I picked up
the hockey stick and bang—bang---bang---bang, started hitting the cat. Then,
the cat pounced on me and dug it’s teeth into my throat and –and --- and I
died.
Richard’s mom intervened “ but you--- .”
Richard shouted “shut up mom, listen to
me. I took my revenge, I killed all the three of them—ha ha ha ha.”
Richard’s dad broke in “Shut up Richard,
enough of this piece of shit, have your dinner and get ready for bed.”
Richard replied “ Dad, I love you, Mom I
love you, will miss you.”
Richard’s mom got annoyed “Richie, now I
understand, again one of your new pranks.”
Richard “No mom this is not a prank, they
played a prank on me and have taken revenge……….”
Mom “Enough Richie, this prank has become
stale, watching a horror movie and enacting the same. This you have done a
dozen of times. Now get ready for dinner.”
Richard’s mom started heading towards her
room, and had not taken a few steps, when Richard said, “Mom, I love you, I
love Dad, I’m going Mom ---- .”
She turned behind immediately but was
shocked not to find Richard on the sofa but could hear his voice echoing,
“Mom, I love you, I love Dad, I’m going Mom ---- .” After a few seconds
Richard’s voice faded away. She immediately ran towards her son’s room and
barged in. She screamed and fell down unconscious. Richard’s father
immediately rushed towards the direction of the scream. He was shocked to
find four dead bodies in Richard’s room. The dead bodies were of his son
Richard and his friends Tony, Joe and Jacob.
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