Leena always wanted a bicycle; a red one. Every time she asked her parents, she was told that she’ll have to wait for a while. Things were expensive nowadays and they didn’t have that kind of money to waste. So she tried not to think about it for a while, at least till her father got a promotion, they won a sweep-ticket or a treasure chest fell through the roof or something. But then came a day, she realized that she could wait no more. That was the day, Sahan the next-door boy, got himself a bike.
And it was red!
“How very unfair,” thought Leena, “here I am waiting my entire life for a bike and he gets one just like that!”
“Maybe I should try once more!” she thought.
“Amma can you please, please, ask Thaththa to buy me a bicycle?” she asked as politely as she could.
“Now Leena, we’ve been through this conversation before! Money doesn’t grow on trees you know! We won’t be able to even think about it this year. Try to be a little sensible!”
“Why do I always have to be
sensible?” she muttered and walked out sulking.
“Hey Leena!” shouted Sahan. “Look at my new bike. Isn’t it cool?”
Leena looked at the brand-new
red bike, burning with jealousy.
“Would you like to ride it for a while?” asked Sahan.
“No thanks!” said Leena, although she was dying to ride the beautiful red bike.
“I am going to learn some cool bike tricks at the circus!” Sahan said.
“What circus?” Leena wanted to know.
“Haven’t you heard? There’s going to be a Chinese Circus in town this weekend! If you don’t want to miss it, you better ask your father to buy
tickets quickly. I hear they sell like hot cakes!”
Leena ran straight in to the
kitchen forgetting all about her unhappiness.
“Amma! Amma!” she shouted, “Since getting a bike is out of the question, can we at least go to see the Chinese Circus this weekend?”
Leena’s mother sighed. “Child, why can’t you understand our difficulties? Those tickets are very expensive. I told you we are going through a hard time!”
“Whenever I ask for something, it’s always a no!” she thought, angrily. “How come I never get what I want?”
She stormed out to the garden only to see a very happy Sahan, riding his new bike.
“He looks so proud and full of
himself. If I can, I’ll break his new bike into pieces!” she thought angrily, although deep down she knew that he had done her no wrong.
The next day when Leena was returning home from tuition, she saw Sahan at a nearby shop, he was engaged in a deep conversation. Sahan’s new bike was leaning on the side of the shop, carefully locked.
“Hm… Looks like he’s not going to leave anytime soon!” thought Leena. “I’ll just go take a good look at the new bike, without him knowing.”
So she walked up to the bike. The red bike looked even better than it did the other day. The silver handles were shiny and new. The bell was glistening in the sun. She touched the red frame and the seat.
“If only this was mine!” she thought miserably. “It’s so unfair that this belongs to Sahan! She peeped from the side of the wall and saw Sahan still chatting away.
“He must be
boasting about his new bike! I must
teach him a good
lesson,” thought Leena. She quickly let the air out of the two tires, gathered her books and hurried away thinking, “Let’s see how he’s going to
get home now!”
For some strange reason Leena didn’t feel happy about what she had done. She felt awful.
“Hey Leena!” she heard Sahan shouting from a distance.
“Oh no! Is he suspecting me?” She was too frightened to turn and look.
“Leena, wait up!” she heard him shout again. She slowly turned and looked. Sahan came towards her
pushing his new bike.
“Look at what happened to me!” he said catching up with her. “Someone has let the air off my tires!”
“Oh!” said Leena trying to look as innocent as she could. “What a
horrible thing to do!”
“Yeah! Now I’ll have to stop by that garage to get this fixed.” He said
pointing at a nearby garage. “You know, I could have given you a lift home if this didn’t happen!”
“Oh that’s okay!” said Leena, who felt like crying for she felt very guilty. So she started running home as fast as she could. Suddenly it got dark and started to rain and there was no place to stop for a while.
“If only I didn’t do such a mean thing,” she thought running in the pouring rain.
The next day Leena fell sick. She caught a bad cold and fever after
getting soaked in the rain.
“Leena, Sahan is here to see you!” said her mother.
“Hello Leena, how are you feeling?” asked Sahan peeping through the door.
“Not too good!” she managed to
mutter.
“My dad managed to get one extra ticket for the circus tomorrow! I came to invite you to join us. But your
mother said that you won’t be able to go!”
Leena felt like howling and crying.
“Maybe next time! Hope you’ll get well soon!” said Sahan and he left.
“None of this would have happened if I didn’t do what I did to his bike. Sahan would have given me a lift and I would have reached home before the rain. I wouldn’t have fallen sick and I could have gone to the circus!” she thought wiping off her tears. But now she knew what she had to do as soon as she got better. Although it was
embarrassing, she had to apologize to Sahan. And that was exactly what she was going to do. |
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