“They are dead! All are dead!” Milan shouted from down the hall.

Karthik, who was playing in the murk outside after a heavy monsoon rain came rushing in hearing the panic in his brother’s voice. Mother ran in from the kitchen at the same time to see his brother holding the edges of the fish tank and weeping.

“What is happening?” Mother asked throwing a quick glance at the mud that Karthik had dragged in along the way groaning inwardly at the extra work that she would have to do.

“My fishes they are all dead!” Milan shouted turning to look at her teary-eyed, his hands swatting the empty air in frustration.

“Come on dear how can they all be…” But Mother stopped mid sentence when she saw the fishes floating dead in the tank. “It hasn’t been even a month since we bought them.” She added mostly to herself.

“I know…”Milan drawled in disappointment but suddenly turned on Karthik “You!” he shouted pointing a finger at him

Karthik who thought his brother blamed him for everything that went wrong at home from his missing socks to not being able to do his homework, got defensive “I didn’t do it!” he shouted back.

Mother too supported him “Now, now Milan, Karthik wouldn’t have.”

Milan rounded on his Mother “It was his turn to clean the fish tank this week…”

“I cleaned it, so what?” Karthik retorted angrily.

“You didn’t want the fishes in the first place. I know you did it.” He blamed Karthik again.

“Stop it, Milan. Why would he kill the fishes?” Mother asked before Karthik could reply as she walked to the fish tank and lifted the cover of the tank to take a closer look but stopped, inhaled and she sniffed uncertainly. “Boys,” she called out uncertainly “why does the water smell like disinfectant?” She asked looking at the boys

“What?” Milan asked turning back to the fish tank to smell the water.

Mother looked up at Karthik “Karthik? How did you clean the fish tank?”

Karthik started to get angrier “I changed the water and put the fishes back.” He shrugged.

“Then why does it smell like disinfectant?” Mother asked.

“Well, while I was putting back the fishes one of the fishes got scraped on the net. I tried putting a band aid but it wouldn’t stick in the water. So, I poured a little antiseptic in the water. What’s the big deal?” Karthik shrugged clearly not understanding what the deal was.

“The deal is they are dead!” His brother shouted again.

**

An individual cardboard box was carefully collected for each dearly departed fish and the family was in mourning. Mother handed Milan the bodies of his friends while he buried them with a heavy heart under the setting sun.

Kartik struck with grief to have unknowingly murdered the fishes looked up at his father with guilt weighing heavy on his heart. His father who understood what he was going through put a comforting hand on his shoulder and patted. Father and Son went back to watch as Milan buried the last of his fishy friends.

As they walked back towards the house from the back yard Kartik called “Daddy?” in a low voice afraid his brother would get offended even with slightest of the sound he made like he had been doing since the afternoon.

“Yes Kartik?” his father asked matching the solemnity in Kartik’s voice.

“Why did the fishes die when antiseptic is a medicine?”

He smiled understanding “Well, most antiseptics that we use have either Chloroxylenol or Ammonia Champ, both of which are toxic to fishes.”

“What are a Chloro-lol and Ammonia?”

His Father smiled at the mispronunciation but didn’t correct him for he knew  his Son still had time to learn and instead answered his question “Both are chemicals Champ.”

He stopped in his tracks “If these chemicals can kill the fishes can’t they kill us?” Karthik asked as the realization dawned on him. Had his parents not seen this?

“Um…” his father wondered to explain “Chloroxylenol is not toxic to humans.”

“What about Ammonia?” Kartik immediately asked his brain making leaps in imagination coupled with confusion.

“Well, not in the form that exists in the antiseptics” his father answered, lost in thought remembering what he had read a very long time back “it exists in many different forms and some of them are more toxic than others…” he added as he sat on one of the chairs on the porch of the house picking up the newspaper.

“What different forms?” his curious brain that had yet to lose interest in things asked.

Before his father could answer he heard his Mother, glaring at his father she answered “I will tell you what, you study your science hard and well. So, you can become a scientist when you grow up and when you become a scientist you will know.” He observed that his brother was still sulking near the stairs of the house.

“Scientist” had a nice ring to it. He started to imagine himself as a scientist but the thought was disrupted by his father’s voice “Now since your Mother said you could become a scientist doesn’t mean you go about experimenting. Especially don’t use fire near anything that says Ammonia.”

“Ram!” his Mother shouted upset.

Father and the sons turned towards Mother clueless. “What?” his father asked still clueless.

“Don’t go around putting ideas into his head.” Mother chastised his father holding her right hand on her chest as though to calm her frightened heart, surprised at her husband’s lack of responsibility.

“Come now dear Kartik is a responsible boy. He knows better than to do what he is told not to do.”

“Yeah right!” this time it was Milan. He scoffed as he brushed past Kartik intentionally.

“Hey!” Kartik exclaimed. “Watch where you are going Jerk” he shouted but his brother didn’t even turn back.

“Kartik, watch your language.” His Mother admonished him, pinching the bridge of her nose -clearly the early signs of her Migraine.

“He hit me!” Kartik shouted insensitive to her plight.

“Promise me you won’t go about playing with fire.”

“He hit me!” he shouted again, breathing heavily as his face turned scarlet with anger.

“I’ll talk to him” his Mother replied calmly adding “Now promise me you will not play with fire.”

“Fine” he mumbled avoiding the gaze of his Mother.

His Mother kneeled to be level with him. She held him by the shoulders and firmly though not roughly looked at him “Promise”

“Okay! I promise” he replied reluctantly, rolling his eyes and walked away back to the backyard.

As he walked, he kicked up dirt frustrated, picked up some stones and started to hit the compound wall “Promise me you will not play with fire!” he repeated his Mother’s words again. It was so unfair that his brother could do anything he wanted but Kartik wasn’t even allowed to talk. He was being treated like one of the bad guys, a villain by everyone at home when in actuality he knew he was a hero. They would know one day, on the day Aliens attacked “Take-me-to-your-Leader, human” he said imagining an Alien talking to him but he would say “No! Take this! And this.” and stun the alien with a Stun-gun or better yet shrink it with a Shrink-Ray and put it on display in a museum. He would then become rich, collecting tickets from people who came to see the Alien.

His imagination stopped there for you see he knew he had hit a dead end. If he had to face off an alien, he had to be prepared as they could attack anytime which meant he would have to be prepared. He would need a stun gun or a shrink-ray immediately. He started towards home to ask his parents but stopped short for he remembered he was a hero and not some sidekick who needed help from Elders. The other choice was he would have to build one on his own.

“Kartik, it’s getting dark. Come inside” his Mother called out to him probably from the kitchen.

But he was too absorbed in the idea of building a shrink-ray that he decided to ignore his Mother’s call. But the question was – how did one go about building a Shrink-ray? He kicked at the dirt again; frustrated he had so many ideas but couldn’t implement any of them. At exactly that moment his eyes caught on a Yellow colored piece in the Earth. He sat down on his knees and started to dig out the earth with his fingers and like the whole universe wanted to help him, like some force above wanted him to be the hero that he was; he found a length of two electrical wire, partly stripped on the edges; the kind that were used to wire their new house couple of months back. As he pulled out the wire from the earth, his face lit up as the gears in his hyperactive brain kicked into work. He picked up the wire and ran into his bedroom. He kneeled down and started pulling all the boxes under his bed – a top string but no top, a rusty nail, his brother’s missing left, Superman character sock, couple of unsharpened pencils, a broken pirate sword that he bought at the town fair and finally he found what he was looking for; a Batman character Pencil box. He opened it withholding his breath and exhaled in relief when he found it in there; a small electric bulb, the kind that you see in flashlights, the one his father had asked to throw away because they didn’t need it anymore.

Sure, he didn’t know how to build a shrink-ray or a stun-gun yet but he knew it had to be electric. So, he could start here. He knew he would need to draw a blueprint on a blue paper but at the moment blue paper itself was short in stock at home so he would get to that part when the idea got complicated.

All he needed now were batteries and he knew exactly where to find them. He sneaked into the hall and looked around to find it deserted. He made his way to the coffee table and there he found the black colored TV remote. He nicked the batteries and crept back into his bedroom. He had seen his father do this couple of times when he was repairing a flashlight or the science project that they had built together for his brother. So, he knew exactly what to do. He taped one end of the wires to the battery and the other end to the bulb and held his breath but as much as he wanted and as much as he tried, the electric bulb wouldn’t turn on.

He knew the batteries were new because the remote was working fine. The fault was with either the bulb or the wires. How did one go about checking the bulb? But what if the fault was with wires that were buried in dirt for god knows how long? He looked around in frustration and when he saw the electric socket he had one of his brilliant ideas.

**

The house was plunged into darkness “Ram? Why did we lose the power?” he heard his Mother’s call to his Father while Karthik sat on all fours on his back, his heart hammering hard against his chest.

Next, he heard his father reply “Our neighbors have the power dear. Let me check our circuit breaker.”

“Let me check on the kids.” His Mother said flicking on the flashlight. As his Mother walked towards his room, he sat looking around in the darkness wildly with no clue as to what to do.

“It is the circuit breaker dear. I will turn it on.” They heard his father shout and this was immediately followed by his Mother entering his room and at the same time, sparks started to fly in his room like the last remnants of fireworks.

“Ram! Turn off the circuit breaker!” his Mother shouted in desperation “Turn it off now!” she shouted and the sparks stopped, followed by complete silence filled with a pungent smell of burnt plastic. His brother came running but was held back by Mother but let Father in a moment later.

“Are you alright Kartik?” she asked checking on him. When he nodded his head not trusting to speak and after she was satisfied that he was indeed not hurt she turned the flashlight to the place where she had seen the sparks and asked “What did you do?”

“Nothing” he replied too quick to be true. Under the suspicious stare, his mother gave him he thought he would just blend in with the floor if he could or better yet he wished he could bury himself somewhere.

Finding what she was looking for she walked over and pulled the evidence out from the socket and eyed him “You shorted the power?” she asked. He could feel the stares of his entire family on him without having to look up.

“What were you thinking?” He heard his father’s alarmed voice.

When he didn’t reply his Mother shouted “You know better than to play with current Kartik!”

“I was careful to touch only the plastic surrounding the wire” he replied meaning the insulation as his father had shown him when pulling or pushing the plugs of electrical appliances.

“Thank god for that!” his Mother whispered and as she looked down beside him. Her eyes widened in surprise as she picked up and held all three pieces of evidence in her palm “Where did you get these?” She asked examining each one of them.

“Well, I got these from the remote downstairs.” He said pointing to the batteries “These were buried in the dirt in our backyard.” He said pointing to the wires “and this one father gave it to me.”

His father gawked at him speechless “When?” he finally managed.

“On that day you were repairing the flashlight.” He said pointing his finger behind him to figuratively mean it was someday in the past.

“You know better than to give him an electric bulb, Ram.” His Mother turned on his Father.

“I asked him to throw it away!” he said defensively.

His Mother left his room with his treasure and as she walked out she added “You are grounded.”

“As much as I want to believe it, I don’t think she meant you alone.” His father spoke pensively and shook his head “Not cool Champ!” and he too walked out of the room but with his shoulders drooped.

He saw the silhouette of his Brother still standing near the door and as the power was turned on, his Brother sniggered “What were you doing?” clearly trying to make fun of Kartik.

Kartik’s face flushed in anger “I am a Scientist, I was experimenting” He said, thrusting his chin out defiantly.

“No, you are not.” His Brother scoffed

“Yes I am”

“Are not”

“Am too”

This went on for some time and stopped when for the final time his Brother almost shouted “No, you are not a scientist. Scientists wear a white coat, have crazy hair, and have a lot of pens in their pockets. I don’t see those on you. You. Are. Not. A. Scientist.” He stressed and walked out of the room leaving Kartik to his sorrowful thoughts.

He sighed, not because he couldn’t build a shrink-ray or because the whole house was shorted but because he didn’t look like a Scientist.

**

After serving his sentence for the most part along with his Father, Karthik sat on the compound wall licking at the last of his lollipop on a lazy summer afternoon. Anika, Kartik’s most annoying neighbor, classmate, playmate, arch-nemesis, his doom and sometimes though Kartik wouldn’t admit to this, just sometimes his Friend hopped down the garden path of her house. She stopped by Karthik, who was licking carelessly at his lollipop.

“Why are you wearing your father’s shirt and why do you have so many color pens in the pocket?” Anika asked her eyes for the most part following the lollipop and with a hint of annoyance that could stem only from the disappointment that he wasn’t sharing the lollipop with her.

Karthik who had tired of the sweet dropped it in the flower bushes just beneath the garden wall after making sure his Mother wasn’t watching him do the nasty thing, he replied offhandedly “This is not a shirt, It is my lab coat.”

“A lab coat?” She asked not impressed.

“Yes, I am a scientist and this is my lab coat. You wouldn’t know.” He said although he was hurt at her disbelief.

She stood there tapping her feet looking at him and then ran into the house shouting “I will be back in a bit. Wait for me.”

Karthik’s eyes followed her, wondering if he should stay or leave and then he heard it, the clattering of things from her house and now he had to wait just to know what the whole ruckus was about. After another dozen sounds escaped from Anika’s house including a shout from her Grandmother about how spoilt Anika was, he saw Anika run out of the house dragging behind her a white shirt and closing the cap of one of the five pens she had in hand. As she neared the wall, she put on the shirt; inside-out at first and then the right side out but twisted behind and then right side out with no twists. As she put the pens in the pocket she said “Now I am a scientist too.”

Karthik groaned “Why do you have to do everything I do?”

“Why do you do everything that I want to do?” she snapped.

They glared at each other for a moment and then she frowned “Scientists also wear huge glasses. We should wear them too.”

“What? No!”

“They do!”

“How do you know?”

“Chitra’s tenants, I saw them once wearing those when they came out of the house. Chitra tells me they are always experimenting there. Come on let’s go ask her if they would let us borrow.” Saying this she ran out of her house’s front garden.

Karthik looked towards his house, unsure if his Mother was in the kitchen. Realizing that she would see him if he ran out of the gate of their house, he dropped into Anika’s garden and followed her with no thought as to what might come next and in no time they were knocking at Chitra’s door.

***

“Are you sure it was my son, Inspector?” Ram asked the man in uniform, his query almost drowned by the sirens in the backdrop.

His Mother nudged his father subtly “Why do you doubt?” to which the inspector added “Oh! Yes, sir, the Landlady’s girl confirmed that your son was the reason the three of them got out and the reason why we could apprehend the culprits.”

“And the Landlady? What about her?” Ram asked.

“She had no inkling as to what went on in the tenants’ house sir. She wasn’t the kind to interfere with her tenant’s privacy and the tenants took advantage of that to cook up illegal stuff. I am confident she is innocent.” The inspector confirmed but Karthik wasn’t so sure, he couldn’t forget the steel gaze that she had given him when he had been whisked out of the fire “and with the same confidence I can say that your son is a hero, sir.” The inspector beamed at Karthik, Ram looked at his soot covered son, still not convinced but Karthik looked at the adults around him with an elated feeling at being called a hero. After a moment’s hesitation, the inspector added, “I will need a statement from him sir but knowing what the kids have been through I want to give them some time.” He held out his hand to Ram who shook it saying “Thank you Inspector” with that the inspector waved as he left.

As the Inspector got into his vehicle, Karthik’s Mother hugged him “I am so proud of you. You must be tired and famished after all that adventure, let’s get inside.” His Mother steered both Karthik and Ram inside. As he sat down at the dining table his father was still looking at him as though he knew something but didn’t know everything and to Karthik, it felt like his father knew everything so he avoided his father’s eye. Observing the uneasiness, his Mother asked his Father “What is it Ram?” as his Mother put some biscuits and milk in front of him

“Tell me again how you got out Champ?” his father asked Karthik instead of answering Mother.

“Let him be, Ram he has been through enough already.” His Mother fussed over Karthik. Usually, he wouldn’t have liked it but today he let her just to avoid his father’s gaze.

“The Inspector left because he too thought that Karthik needs some rest but he will be back soon for the statement and we will have to know what happened.” For once to Karthik’s bad luck his father’s argument won over his Mother’s and they both looked at him expecting an answer.

It wasn’t like he didn’t want to answer them but truth be told he himself didn’t know what happened. All he knew was that the girls and he had snuck into the house of Chitra’s tenants to “borrow” the scientist-glasses to look like scientist but when they had entered they had got into an argument as to who should be the two to get the chance to wear the two pair of glasses that hung on nail that none of them could reach. In the middle of the argument all the colorful liquids, some in bottles and some in round bottomed flasks slowly burning over small flames had caught his eye especially one, in particular, had caught his eye; there was nothing special about the liquid itself per se, it was all but water to his eye but the name on the liquid had drawn him closer. The stark dark words on the aged white label had read “Am-mo-ni-a.” He remembered that he wanted to show the girls why he deserved to wear the glasses more than any of them. With that thought he had gingerly taken a match to the liquid and the next thing he knew he was being dragged out of smoke and fire, to the sounds of blaring sirens, everyone shouting around him and when all the confusion in his mind had abated he had realized he was in front of his house, his Mother and father running out of the house towards him.

He looked up from his biscuits to see his parents still waiting for the answer and realizing he had to say something to not seem like a fool he swallowed the biscuit hard and choked the answer “Ammonia”

His father’s eyebrows shot up in surprise but his Mother ran and hugged “Such a smart boy. So you kids were locked in the house of those culprits and to send out a signal you set fire to Ammonia. Is that it?” she asked but before Karthik could reply she asked “Isn’t he smart Ram?” turning to her husband and even before he could answer she went on “I knew it.” She paced for a while and after some time she walked away adding “Ram I need help in the kitchen.” still in her excited voice that it took his father a moment to realize.

As he got up from the table he gave Karthik a look that spelled he was yet to be convinced but after a moment smiled and added “Good job champ.” and walked into the kitchen.

Karthik ate the feast of biscuits and drank the milk reveling in the accidental glory of becoming a hero. He could imagine people coming to just get a glimpse of him, people eager to take his pictures and asking for his autograph…

“Dead!” the word cut through his fantasy and he snapped out. His head followed in the direction of the source of crying sobs, he realized it was upstairs from his brother’s room. As his father and Mother ran upstairs to see what was wrong, his brother sobbed again “my PSP is dead! It won’t work!”

Karthik’s eyes darted around the house as he swallowed hard on the biscuits. He pulled the screwdriver from his pocket, slipped in between the sofa, gulped down the milk and this time instead of running towards the sound of sobs of his brother, ran out the door.

***