When school exams are done, the days that follow, for the children, are mixed with joy and anguish as the corrected papers are returned. The one thing that I look forward to during this time is Gautam’s English Language paper. Creative writing under time pressure could be quite a challenge. The Std VIII attempt…
Write an original story beginning with the following: I cozied up in my warm blanket, on a cold winter night, when I …
Midnight adventure
I cozied up in my warm blanket, on a cold winter night, when I heard a gunshot. It was past midnight and I was watching television. My name is John Lee. I live with my elder brother Jack, and my parents.
‘A gunshot? At midnight?’ I thought to myself, as I got up and walked over to the balcony of our giant two-storey bungalow. Again, a gunshot. I quickly punched my best friend’s number on my mobile. “What is it?” asked a groaning voice from the other end. “Sam, did you hear those gunshots?” I asked. “Y’know what?” Sam said, “you’re the only person I know who stays awake ’til midnight the day before our final exams.”
He was right. This was the last day before two weeks of non-stop tests. “It doesn’t matter,” I hissed. “Meet me at the park, now”. Sam hung up. ‘He’ll be there,’ I thought, ‘I know he will.’
I quickly snuck out of my room without letting the door creak too much, put on my sneakers, and hurried off towards our local park. Once I reached, I saw Sam. His face looked drowsy.
“You better have a good reason for bringing me here at midnight,” he said. “Yeah, follow me,” I replied. We walked towards where I thought I had heard the two shots. We came face to face with the abandoned warehouse of Lexus.
“The Lexus warehouse?” Sam asked, seemingly pissed off. “Thanks for ruining a good night’s sleep.”
“Oh shut up, would you,” I shot back,. “Let’s hide in those bushes,” I suggested, gesturing to a decently tall patch of shrubs.
We waited there for a while. Sam had fallen asleep when I spotted two ruffian men dragging another man towards the entrance of the warehouse. “Sam,” I hissed, “Sam, get up.”
The two men tied the other man who was dressed in shabby clothes, to a pole, and pointed a gun at his chest. Next to the pole? Two dead bodies, one man, one woman, both with blood stains all over their chests. Sam came to his senses. “Call the cops,” I said, “these guys are dangerous.”
Sam quickly dialled 911, and within minutes we could see the blue and red lights of a police car.
“Oh, shit!” exclaimed one of the men. “It’s the cops, quick, kill ’em.” The other man pulled the trigger and a gunshot ran out. The two men darted into the warehouse after commiting the third murder of the night. ‘Not so fast,’ I thought to myself, and went in pursuit of them. Sam couldn’t keep up, and dropped behind quickly. I managed to chase them till the terrace, where one of the men pointed the gun at me.
“It’s over kid,” said one of them, “nice try though.” He pulled the trigger. I closed my eyes, waiting for the bullet to hit me. But it never did. “I told you to reload the gun!” shouted the man holding the gun to the other. The other man groaned.
“Umm… guys?” I said, “I think you should be more concerned about what’s happening down there,” pointing at the four police cars. In all of the action, the two men had failed to notice the blaring sirens.
“Put your hands in the air!” shouted a poilceman through a loudspeaker. The two men had no choice, and the policemen quickly came up to the terrace and handcuffed them.
“Great job, John!” said one of them to me. “We’ve been searching for these crooks for a week! How did you do it?”
“Well, let’s just say that I couldn’t sleep,” I replied.
It was one heck of an adventure that had come to an end!
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Reading this story brought back memories of a real midnight adventure in the 1990s, when we had sandalwood thieves on our lane in Bangalore. Well, that is a post for another day.
arathimy 