MAKING A GRAND ESCAPE

One morning, when Anisha woke up, she didn’t hear any noise in the house. “Where is everyone?” she wondered. Then she heard laughter from the garden and she looked out of the window. Dad and Atul were taking turns throwing a ball into the basket that Dad had fixed against the side of the garage. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. “I want to play too,” thought Anisha. “Why didn’t Dad call me?”

Just then, Anisha saw Mom entering the side gate. She was pushing Shaina in her stroller. “They went out without me!” exclaimed Anisha aloud. “Why?”

Anisha was angry. Everyone seemed to be having such a lovely time without her so there and then, she decided to run away.

She ran into her parents’ room and picked up her father’s backpack to pack her clothes, but as she pulled out her new jeans and shirt, she felt a rumbling in her tummy. “I’m hungry!” she thought. “I think I should take food instead of clothes.”

Anisha dumped her clothes on the floor and went into the kitchen with the backpack. She stuffed a packet of buns into the backpack and some bananas and two apples. She tried to put in a box of Chocos but it would not fit, so she emptied the box into the backpack. Then she tried to zip it up, but it wouldn’t close, so she left it half-open and walked out of the front door, dragging the backpack behind her.

“Where are you going?” asked Mom as she came towards the front steps with Shaina.

Anisha didn’t reply. She passed Mom and Shaina — and almost bumped into Dad as he and Atul came down the path.

Dad picked up Anisha and swung her round. As she and the backpack twirled, Chocos poured out. “Uh oh,” said Dad, “What do we have here?”

“My food!” cried Anisha indignantly. “Now how will I live when I run away?”

“Oh, are you running away?” asked Pa, pressing his lips together and trying not to laugh. “Where are you going? And why?” Dad added.

“I’m going far away where I have someone to play with,” said Anisha firmly, “and where I can talk to people.”

Dad sat down on the steps with Anisha. “You can talk to me,” he said.

“No,” said Anisha. “You are busy with other things.” She looked accusingly at Atul, who was bouncing the basketball. “Everyone in this house is busy!”

“What about your friends?” asked Dad.

Anisha frowned. She looked at Dad as though he had trouble understanding anything. “But my friends are not with me all the time…”

Dad stood up and carried Anisha inside. “Let’s go and see if your mother can solve your problem,” he said.

“But I’m running away from her!” cried Anisha. “She only has time for that Shaina!”

By this time, Dad was in the dining room. Mom had placed bowls of porridge on the table and he put Anisha down in her seat and sat down beside her.

“I don’t like porridge!” cried Anisha. She turned to Mom. “I’ve told you that but you don’t listen to me. You give it to me every day.”

“You had egg yesterday…” said Mom.

“I don’t like egg !” cried Anisha.

“What do you like?” asked Mom.

“I don’t like breakfast! I don’t want to eat breakfast! I only want to eat lunch!”

“Okay, so what do you want to eat for lunch?” asked Dad as he looked at his watch. “And shall we call it lunch-inthe-morning?”

“Chocos!” cried Anisha. “I want Chocos for lunch-inthe-morning!”

She turned to the backpack — but now there were no Chocos left there. They had all fallen out and Dino, the neighbour’s dog had wriggled through the hedge and eaten up Anisha’s trail of Chocos.

“Uh-oh,” said Dad. “No Chocos. But look, if you put bits of jaggery in the porridge, it becomes brown like Chocos.” As Dad spoke, he cut little bits of jaggery for Anisha and for himself and soon, the two of them began a game of who could catch the bits of jaggery in the spoon and put them in their mouths.

And before she knew it, Anisha had eaten all her ‘lunch-in-the-morning’— and she had forgotten about running away!