Highly Commended Story - The Sparkling Temple

“The Sparkling Temple” by Rishiraj Hui, Don Bosco Senior Secondary School, Nerul, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, is the Highly Commended story in the sub-junior category of the second biannual Short Story Contest 2020.

Rishiraj Hui is a 9-year-old from Mumbai, India, studying in Grade 5. He is a jovial and cheerful boy who loves to spend time with his parents & grandparents. He is best known in his school for his oratory skills and has received several trophies and medals for Olympiads and other school activities. His hobbies are reading books and writing. Adventure and detective books are his favourites. He prefers to write adventure stories. He is proficient in four languages, namely, English, Hindi, Bengali & Marathi.

The Sparkling Temple

It was monsoon season and I was sitting idle at home. It was raining cats and dogs. My parents went outside for shopping groceries. I was looking outside the window in my room. A golden - coloured temple was little far from our home. The clouds had just covered it. Nevertheless, from my house I could see it partially. Suddenly, something sparkling came to my notice that was coming from bottom of the temple. At first, I thought that it was my hallucination but when I saw it with binocular, I was astonished. I decided to discuss it with Vivek, my best friend and classmate. I rang him. His mother picked the call and said, “Yes, who are you?” “Aunt, I am Rishiraj, Vivek’s classmate. Can you give the phone to him?”. His mother gave the phone to Vivek and I called him to my home. When he came, I showed him the sparkle. His reaction was also the same. We were wondering that why others could not see it? Suddenly, I went to other room and found that there was no reflection. I understood what had happened. It was visible only in a particular angle. In this case, coincidentally it was coming to my room only. I was eager to know about the sparkling reflection. Vivek and I thought to visit the temple. I asked him to go home and get ready to meet me in the stairs of Building No.-3 of our Lane. I wore my raincoat, took my magnifying glass, torch and my waterproof smart - watch. Vivek has been waiting there before me, taking his umbrella and smart watch.

Finally, we reached the destination. To our surprise, there was no one inside the temple, not even the head priest. I looked at my watch but the time was 2pm afternoon. We thought that head priest might be resting but the door of his room was wide open and vacant. We realized that something strange happened there. We searched for the reflection and went behind the temple. The sparkle was coming out from an extremely large and deep hole. I got quite excited. However, there were no stairs to go down. Suddenly, my feet slipped and I was going to fall but there was support of a rock.

When Vivek saw I was about to fall, he came running to help me. But, accidentally he kicked a rock and found a button, which he clicked, and all the stairs rose up till my feet. We went down the stairs. Then I saw a right sided arrow. We followed the arrow. I heard a deep voice coming from inside. I quickly told Vivek to go out of the place and wait for me. I whispered, “If I did not come out or send any signal through my smart watch for next 20 minutes, please call the Police”. He agreed and did as was told.

I tip - toed till there and started looking for the voice. I was unable to believe that there was a prison inside which the head priest of the temple was sitting. Suddenly, one thing happened out of my favour. The time was 3pm and my watch started sounding like a pendulum clock, loud, vibrating and scary. Unfortunately, a dacoit noticed the sound and looked behind. He saw me. I went behind a wall and kept my leg outside so that he fell down. It happened according to my plan. Suddenly, a bunch of keys fell from his pocket and I took it. I quickly tried to open the prison of Head Priest and released him.

I told him to go out to Vivek and call the police. He looked worried about me but I bravely told, “Leave everything to me, you go out”. He ran out in a moment. I gave a sigh of relief. Then, I heard more voices. I was about to search, but then thought of going behind the dacoit first. Till the time, he headed towards me and was about to hit me with a machete. I made a narrow escape and took a spear lying beside me. It was a great fight. I broke his machete with spear and made him unconscious. Then, I started moving towards the sparkle. There was a huge box which was covered with unbreakable glass, from which the sparkle was coming. Suddenly, I noticed a finger ring near it. I took it and thought what could it be. After a while, I thought of a movie were the hero fits his ring in a lock and it would open. When I was wondering, the police came with Vivek and the Head Priest.

They first made the dacoit come to consciousness and arrested him. Then, the Police Inspector came to me and asked that what I was doing. I showed him the box and fitted the ring in the lock. It was a success and the box opened. I was not able to believe that the box was full of real treasure. Police also searched the voices of many more prisoners. Some were devotees; some were other priests and their family. They took the bunch of keys from me and released all the prisoners. The police officers appreciated me and told that they will take the treasure and make a report. They also offered me some portions of the treasure but I refused.

I had forgotten the time in this adventure, so I peeped in my smart watch. The time was 5 p.m. It was going to be dark and my mom and dad would be searching for me. The police officers dropped me and Vivek at our home. They also met my parents and congratulated them for my brave deed. They assured that they would recommend my name for Bravery Award next year and next days’ newspaper.