Missing Moyna

“Where is Moyna? I saw her playing with you,” Mother asks Rupu from the kitchen. Moyna is the closest friend of the siblings Rupu and Bubul. Every Sunday morning she visits this house to play with her friends. This Sunday they were playing hide-and-seek. But the game ended suddenly. Rupu is the eldest among the children. While arranging her storybooks in the bookshelf, she answers, “Moyna must have gone back home. I couldn’t find her when Bubul went to collect a parcel from the postman.” Mother finds that strange. She says, “No Rupu, Moyna can’t go back home without informing me. Being a sincere girl she maintains that ever since she comes to our house.” Rupu thinks it is best to ask Bubul who is trying to fly a kite on the terrace. She calls him. He comes down quickly to the ground floor, “Why are you calling me, Didi? I can’t go anywhere now. I have to fly my new purple kite.” Mother doesn’t like this attitude of her son. She remarks, “Bubul, we need to know where Moyna is. When did you see her last?” Bubul is still thinking of his kites. He responds casually, “We were playing the hide-and-seek. But I don’t know where she is now. Didi, haven’t you see her?” Rupu answers, “I could have told Mummy if I knew where Moyna was. Let’s go to the backyard. She may have hidden there to play a trick with us.”

They go to the backside of the house. There is a small lawn which is not mowed for months. But Moyna is not hiding here. Hence they decide to look for her again in the house. There are three rooms and each room has a bed. Bubul roars, “Moyna, the game is over. Come out quick.” Rupu joins him, “Moyna, where are you hiding my dear? We have been looking for you for some time.” But they get no answer. Moyna seems to have vanished. The mother gets worried about her. She asks her children to go and find whether Moyna has really gone back home. Her house is not far from theirs; just ten minutes’ walk.

Moyna’s mother loves Rupu and Bubul. She invites them often whenever there is a Puja at her house. The children loves to eat the tasty Prasad she offers to the god. Rupu and Bubul run to Moyna’s house. Her mother is hanging wet clothes on a rope in the front garden. Rupu opens the small wooden gate when Bubul waits outside. She asks, “Aunty, has Moyna come back?” Her mother looks at Rupu and replies, “No, she went to play with you. She is not yet back.” Rupu thinks for a while and says, “It’s alright, Aunty. Moyna must have gone to some other friend’s house. We will find that out.”

Where can Moyna flee all of a sudden? Theirs is a small colony of around thirty families who know each other. They meet in the marketplace or at the bus stop or when they chat in the park. Their fathers work in the same office. They have some friends who are of their age. But Moyna prefers to play with her best friends Rupu and Bubul. Rupu knows that Moyna won’t go to other’s house. She tells her brother, “I’m sure that Moyna is hiding in our house. Remember we have to do a thorough search for her.” Bubul murmurs, “But Didi, we have already searched the backyard. Where can she go to?” Rupu discloses her idea, “She must have gone to the attic after you went to the front gate. I was in the other room waiting for you to call me. I didn’t notice when she went up. Let’s hurry up.”
 
Returning home they go up straight to the attic. The small half-dark room has a stack of unused stuff like iron boxes, an old bicycle, two broken chairs and piles of old clothes. They look for Moyna under the broken chair and behind the piles of clothes. But Moyna is nowhere. Mother calls them out, “Is Moyna hiding in the attic?” Bubul answers shortly, “No, she isn’t here.” Rupu knows she has to calm her mother down. She holds her brother’s hand and comes downstairs. She says, “Don’t worry, Mummy. Moyna may have hidden in the loft. I will catch her there.” She brings a stepladder to the bedroom and climbs to the loft. The place is almost full with boxes of old schoolbooks, broken toys and utensils. She quickly turns them aside to find her friend. But she fails. Mother shouts at her, “Come down, Rupu. Being a little girl, Moyna can’t climb there.” Rupu agrees and turns back to step down. But her hand touches a metallic dish and it falls down on the floor. There is a shrill sound … CLANG…. CLANG! Mother alerts her, “Rupu be careful.”

At this very moment they hear a slam on the chest of drawers kept near the study-table. Bubul screams, “What’s that? A GHOST in the room?” Mother rushes to the second drawer from where the sound is coming. She opens that fast. To their surprise they find Moyna lying there and staring at them strangely. It seems she has just woken up from a deep sleep. Bubul cries out, “I remember I put her in the chest of drawers to help her hide. Oh my god, how did I totally forget that?” Mother helps Moyna coming out of the drawer. The little girl says shyly, “Yes Aunty, Bubul is right. I am sorry I slept there quietly. Were you looking for me?” Mother smiles and answers, “Yes my dear. We were worried about you. But now it’s time to go back home. Your parents must be thinking about you.” Moyna waves to her friends and says, “Good bye.” Rupu tells her, “Don’t forget to come back next week. We will play some other game, not hide-and-seek again.”

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Image courtesy: by Jupilu, Ron Porter and Clay Banks from Pixabay and Unsplash