Highly Commended Story - Kind Old Lady

“Kind Old Lady” by Harshini Iyer, Rustomjee Cambridge International School, India, is the Highly Commended story in the sub-junior category of the second biannual Short Story Contest 2019.

Harshini Iyer is a 5th Grader from Rustomjee Cambridge International School, Dahisar, Mumbai. For a 10 year old, Harshini is a very avid reader, with a very good vocabulary. This is her first attempt in writing a short story. Apart from being a good academic student, she is a very good footballer who, her coaches believe, has a very bright professional career in football. Harshini wants to be a Footballer and an Author.

Kind Old Lady

Once, on a faraway coast, there lived an old lady named Gina. She had beautiful silver hair and a wrinkled face. She was perfectly healthy. Her favorite color was red, so most of the things in her house were red. She had two hobbies; knitting and collecting paintings. She also used to stay awake late at night and watch television. She was a very kind lady and always helped people in need. Whatever happened she would never become grumpy. Her old cottage was always kept neat and tidy and was painted red on the outside. It had a small chimney on the top. She was not old fashioned like most old people. Even her fireplace was modern.

Once at midnight, a robber came to her house to steal her paintings. The robber started taking her paintings, she had around 200 paintings in her house. The thief had taken around 50 paintings when he felt famished, so he left the sack he was putting the paintings in, on the floor and went to the kitchen. He put on his torch and started helping himself to the bread and butter kept on the table. He kept eating and in 15 minutes he had finished all the bread. So, he went to see what else he could have. Suddenly, he heard a cat mewing and after a few seconds he heard a baby wailing. He was very scared. He quickly put off his torch. The poor robber didn’t know that it was just Gina watching television. Then in the next two minutes he heard so many different noises, he felt that he was being driven mad. He was about to run away when a sudden wave of courage came over him. He went to investigate where the noise was coming from. He tiptoed in the direction of the noise. He reached the bedroom, and it was then he realized what was happening. He saw that Gina was switching channels on the television continuously. It was so loud; he felt his eardrum was going to burst. Quietly he made his way back to the kitchen, groping in the dark passage, forgetting he had a torch. When he reached the kitchen, he continued to search for more food. He found a pot of meat and started eating it like a hog. He had soon finished it. When he went to keep it back in its place, it slipped from his sweaty fingers and the very next moment he saw a mouse, and scream so loudly, he was sure it had even woken the neighbors. As expected, Gina came running out and saw the robber. Gina asked the robber about himself and he replied, “My name is Peter and I am very poor and have to steal for food.” She gave him more food and told him that stealing wasn’t a good thing to do. He told her that he will never steal again. Gina told him that he could stay with her and be her caretaker. He thanked her and went to bed.