The Rocket Heist

Chapter 1: The Confiscation and the Cricket Catastrophe

Chalk dust hangs in the sunlit air of a Pune classroom, the blackboard half-wiped, the ceiling fan clicking on every turn. ⟨Character 1⟩, 7, sits with her tongue between her teeth, drawing hard.

⟨Character 1⟩: “And this is the cloud inside the rocket, because the rocket rides the thunder. No, not rides. Catches it in a jar. So the thunder can’t get me.”

Mrs. Deshpande: “Aanya. Aanya. What did I put on the board?”

⟨Character 1⟩: “The spelling words.”

Mrs. Deshpande: “Then your eyes go on the board, not on this. Ganesh turns his back on your desk and you’re off in space.”

⟨Character 1⟩: “Please. It’s got a window on the side so you can see the little blue planet going by. That’s the bit I’m best at.”

Mrs. Deshpande: “After the annual function tomorrow you can come to the staffroom and ask politely. Until then it lives in my drawer. Rules are rules, and you get told twice a day.”

The bell rings. In the corridor, ⟨Character 2⟩, 12, crouches behind a chalk line with a cricket ball, waiting on the wall.

⟨Character 2⟩: “Watch this. Easy take, overhead, and then I bow. Actually don’t bow. I slipped last time. Just clap.”

⟨Character 1⟩: “Rohan, my rocket got took.”

⟨Character 2⟩: “It’s fine. I’m on. Oh. Oh no.”

Sanjay: “Butterfingers! Butterfingers Iyer! You should take up sleeping for the school.”

⟨Character 2⟩: “Sand in my eye, Sanjay. One grain. You try it with one grain.”

⟨Character 1⟩: “They all saw.”

⟨Character 2⟩: “Exactly. So tomorrow, at the function, we get your rocket back and everyone remembers that instead. The staffroom door sticks, the peon naps behind the stairs, easy. You walk in, open the drawer under the register, walk out. I make a noise outside so nobody looks inside.”

⟨Character 1⟩: “And if we get caught?”

⟨Character 2⟩: “We won’t, because Aunty Kamala does the looking out.”

⟨Character 3⟩: “The bak-bak-bak of my bicycle, the road going hot, and you two all chalk and cheating at cricket, don’t think I didn’t see. Rain coming. My knees say rain. Where did I put my glasses?”

⟨Character 1⟩: “On your head, Aunty.”

⟨Character 3⟩: “Now then. What’s all this whispering?”

⟨Character 2⟩: “You stand near the door with ⟨Character 4⟩ and you cough after three claps. Two coughs if someone’s coming. ⟨Character 4⟩ gets to howl at the doorbell. Nothing to remember.”

⟨Character 3⟩: “Only the piano.”

Chapter 2: The Staffroom Job

Bunting flaps over the school grounds, the mic squeals, and a crowd of parents stands in the heat with paper plates. Rohan peeks from behind the coconut stall.

⟨Character 2⟩: “Aanya. Now. Go left of the tree, not right, the right side’s all aunties. Kamala, you’re on the door, remember, two coughs if anyone comes. ⟨Character 4⟩ stays quiet.”

⟨Character 1⟩: “My hands are chalky. I keep wiping them. I’m going, I’m going.”

⟨Character 3⟩: “Two coughs. The piano. Oof, this dog pulls like a tractor.”

Rohan winds up and hurls the ball high over the crowd toward an empty stretch of grass. It slices left and cracks off the headmaster’s wife’s glasses.

Headmaster’s wife: “My glasses! Something hit my glasses! Who throws things at a function?”

⟨Character 2⟩: “Sorry! Practice! Cricket practice!”

Aanya slips under the staffroom door as chairs scrape outside. She yanks the drawer open and there it is: her rocket, thunder in a jar, blue planet in the window.

⟨Character 1⟩: “Found you. Oh, you’re squashed at the corner but you’re mine. One step back, one step, easy.”

Kamala squints at the door, hums three notes of an old Tamil song, and shifts her weight. Her sandal comes down on a soft brown paw.

⟨Character 3⟩: “Aiyo! The tail! The tail, sorry, sorry, oh the doorbell, I rang the doorbell, was I meant to ring it? Two coughs, was it? I’ve gone and done the wrong one.”

⟨Character 4⟩ howls. The bell jangles. Mrs. Deshpande sets down her teacup and walks fast up the corridor.

Mrs. Deshpande: “⟨Character 1⟩. Stand still. Paper on the table, hands where I can see them.”

⟨Character 2⟩: “Look over there! A snake! A big snake by the drums! Everyone look!”

Mrs. Deshpande: “There is no snake. Rohan, come here. You two think noise is a glue that holds a lie together. It isn’t.”

She lifts the drawing by one corner, tears it straight down the middle, and hands both halves back. Aanya stares at the split rocket.

Mrs. Deshpande: “Walking, all three of you. No, the dog stays outside. Stealing is stealing, even for a picture with a broken wing.”

⟨Character 3⟩: “I’ll carry the pieces. I’ll carry them flat so they don’t crease.”

Chapter 3: The Torn Rocket and the New Beginning

The principal’s office smells of dust and old files, and a fan turns slowly overhead.

Principal: “So let me understand it. A confiscated drawing, a thrown ball, a howling dog, and a doorbell in the middle of the headmaster’s speech. I have been here twenty-two years. This is the first time I have heard all four in one report.”

⟨Character 1⟩: “The drawing was mine to start with. That has to count for something.”

Principal: “It counts for nothing once you go behind a teacher’s back, child. You each write me a line of apology, and this note goes home. Now go and eat something. The samosas won’t eat themselves.”

At home the evening light comes thin through the window, and two halves of rocket sit on the floor like dropped wings.

⟨Character 1⟩: “It’s split right through the window. The little blue planet fell down to the bottom. Why would I make another one? She only breaks them. ⟨Character 4⟩, don’t lie on it, please. Sit here instead.”

⟨Character 3⟩: “You know what I did, don’t you, Aanya. I forgot the plan because I was scared of messing it up. So I stood there singing to keep calm and I stood on the poor dog, and my ears got hot and I pulled the bell instead of the cough. I have taught school for forty years and I have won medals for teaching, my god. I’m like a shelf that forgets what it’s holding. I’m sorry.”

⟨Character 1⟩: “I would’ve done the same if I was old. Maybe worse. I’d have rung it three times.”

⟨Character 2⟩: “Listen to this. ‘Tuesday. Plan failed because I threw a ball at old Mrs. Ranade’s glasses and then hid. I am writing honouring words so I remember them. Being brave does not mean never being caught. Being brave means trying again after you are caught. P.S. Sanjay is still an idiot, but quietly.’”

⟨Character 3⟩: “Every month he finds a nicer word from the dictionary. Do I look like I live in that book? I didn’t carry potatoes inside a closed jacket once. Read.”

⟨Character 1⟩: “Am I brave too? Or is it different for seven?”

⟨Character 2⟩: “Absolutely.”

⟨Character 3⟩: “Little jar, little thunder… and a rain coming, so what. We mend the rocket.”

Aanya slides a fresh sheet out of her tiffin box, box with broken latch, and begins; the new rocket has one wing bigger than the other.

Aanya: “Like a bird after flies off. Dog came alive with my blanket but still ⟨Character 4⟩ the whole.”

Loulou, the whole family sat, until dog fell asleep