Tania Plays A Trick
Tania and Tanisha were on their way up to Tanisha's house. Mama had given them a book to give Tanisha's mother. The book had a recipe for a fruit cake that Tanisha had enjoyed eating in Tania's house.
The girls were talking about the delicious fruit cake as they waited for the elevator on the 3rd floor in front of Tania's house.
The elevator finally arrived. Tanisha's house was on the 10th floor. The girls entered the elevator and pressed the button labeled "10". What they did not notice, while they were chatting with each other, was that for some reason the button labeled "8" was pressed too. Someone had probably pressed it by mistake when the elevator was on its way down before.
When the elevator stopped on the 8th floor the girls exited assuming it was the 10th floor. Tanisha's house was the first apartment on the left coming out of the elevator. So they rang the door bell of the first apartment on the left. But as soon as they rang the bell they realised something was wrong! The door looked quite different from Tanisha's door.
As they looked around, for the first time they noticed the big "8" painted on the wall in between the two elevators indicating they were on the 8th floor. They realised they had rung Mrs. Wadia's doorbell by mistake. Oh, oh!
Mrs. Wadia was a crochety old lady the children were terrified of. Tania and Tanisha panicked and hid in the stairwell. As they peeked from their hiding place, they saw Mrs. Wadia answer the door. She saw no one there. She called out saying "Hello, hello, who rang the bell?", and then she mumbled
something and returned assuming she had imagined the doorbell ringing.
Tania and Tanisha found the whole thing quite funny from the sanctuary of their hiding place. They giggled as they took the stairs up for the remaining two floors. Somehow they were quite sure their mothers would not find their story funny so they decided to keep it to
themselves.
Now that would have been the end of the story but the girls were too thrilled with the success of their unintentional trick. So the next time she yelled at them for playing in the building lobby, they decided it was time to trick her again. Their trick worked well the second time too and they enjoyed how harassed Mrs. Wadia looked answering the door only to find nobody there.
Tania and Tanisha should have known that the secret to a good trick is to know when to stop using it. If you repeat it too often, you will get caught. The next time they used the trick Mrs. Wadia was in a very bad mood. She also began to smell a rat. She rushed out with her walking stick and searched the place. It did not take her long to find the two culprits in the stairwell. She was very angry. She asked Tania and Tanisha for their phone numbers. They blubbered out their phone numbers in fright. She promptly called the parents of both
girls and told them that the girls had been harassing her for a few days.
Mama was shocked. Tania was rarely so inconsiderate. Tania came home looking scared. Mama looked very disappointed. She asked, "Tania why did you play the nasty trick on Mrs. Wadia?" Tania told her the whole story from the beginning when they rang Mrs. Wadia's bell by mistake.
Then Tania added "Mama, she is such a mean old lady. She is always shouting at us and waving her scary stick. She shouts at us for playing in the building
lobby even when it is raining, or if the ball rolls out of the children's play area, or if we occasionally pluck a flower or any little thing. So we wanted to trouble her too."
Mama said "Tania, when Mrs. Wadia was younger she had an accident and her leg was hurt. That is why she needs to use a walking stick. Although the doctors could fix it so she can walk, her leg still hurts. It has been hurting her all day everyday for the last 10 years. Don't you think that it is a good enough reason to make anyone a grumpy person? It is very mean to make her walk to the door for nothing when her leg hurts so much."
Tania looked very troubled. She said "Mama, I did not know she was in so much pain. I thought she carried the walking stick to frighten us." Mama's lips twitched a little but she listened as Tania continued, "I will call her and
apologise again and the next time I get a chocolate I'll go give it to her to make it up to her for my mean trick."
Mama said "That is the baby I know and love. I'll buy you 2 chocolates tomorrow and you can take one to Mrs. Wadia. And Tania please think very carefully before you do something mean again. We are all tempted to do mean things once in a while but it is almost never a good idea."
