Just a TV… Right?
TING-TONG!
The doorbell of Anish’s house rang.
“Coming…” came a voice from upstairs.
“Oh, welcome, Siddarth!” greeted Anish’s mother heartily. “Anish is in his room, poking around with some wires and batteries.”
Anish was indeed trying to make a “nuclear reactor” out of batteries. Or perhaps he was trying to open a portal to another realm. Who knows?
“Won’t you like to play a bit of GOBBLE-Smashers?” asked Sid as he entered the battlefield, as Anish liked to call it. “I am in a mood for that.”
“Alright, I will absolutely play with you. You just have to help me through this….” replied Anish.
“What is this actually?” asked Sid.
“I am just trying to build a television…..”
“What?! Just a television?!!” exclaimed Sid. “Big companies took decades to build one and… you are trying to build one at home… If it were so simple……”
“Let me focus…” cut in Anish. “A lot of work is left. This is just the frame…”
Sid looked at the future TV for a few minutes unblinkingly. It was looking like a window and, moreover, it was bigger than regular LED TVs. Then Sid finally said, “Can this work ever end?!”
“Yes, but not so soon. However, I can take a break, but before that I need to test something….”
Saying this, Anish lifted one corner of the TV and, in a tiny hook-like structure, connected two big batteries and then………
nothing happened.
“Oh no!” exclaimed Anish in distress.
“Can we go now?” asked Sid hopefully.
“Bam-Bam!”
“Click-Click!”
“BOOM!”
“Hooray! I won!” exclaimed Sid in joy.
“Don’t be overjoyed. I will definitely beat you in the next round,” said Anish, sounding more like his father.
“But I won’t be able to play another round with you now.”
“But why?” complained Anish.
“Cuz I have a curse on my forehead that if I play another round with a boy named Anish, the gaming console will disappear,” said Sid with an innocent face.
“Hey, stop it, man.”
“I am not a man yet,” remarked Sid.
“Tell me seriously. Why won’t you play another round?” asked Anish, ignoring Sid’s remark.
“I have to attend a wedding. For that, I need to go home in a few seconds.”
“Promise me you will steal some ice-cream…” said Anish, widening his eyes.
“I can’t promise, but I will try.”
“If you don’t bring it, you will have to…..”
“It’s time for me to go…” Sid said, looking at his watch.
Anish walked upstairs to his room.
As soon as he opened the door, his eyes widened.
He stared unblinkingly in horror.
His television frame was glowing.
Thin streams of electricity crawled across it, jumping from one point to another and forming a strange grid of light.
Anish slowly turned his head.
The window by his bed was open.
He was sure the window had been closed before.
And then he saw them.
Muddy footprints.
They began at the TV and led all the way to the open window.
Suddenly, Sid entered the room.
Anish turned towards him and asked, “Why…. I mean, how?....”
“I saw the light from your television, so….” While talking, Sid’s sight suddenly fell on the TV and the footprints.
He let out a yell.
“SSSHHHHH! Mom will hear, and if she sees this, she would definitely thrash me for dirtying the floors!”
“Did you do it?” asked Sid, expecting a ‘yes’.
“No.”
