The mango theft – A short story

This is part of the game we playing in this group in FB called ladies club (https://www.facebook.com/groups/goupy/)- we do a lot of fun things there and currently we playing this game called write a short story using 10 words.

This was the second set of 10 words given to write the short story today- home ooh lala intense, detective, mango, jasmine nor’wester, old, , animal, sleepy
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It was a warm Sunday afternoon. I was at home lazing around listening to the “ooh la la” song from Dirty Picture when suddenly, I hear a knock on the door. I go open it and there stood a short bald man with the most intense blue eyes I have ever seen. He looked at me and said “ Ms Guha I presume?”. I replied in the affirmative.
“May I come in? I am Detective Rastapopoulos. I have come to investigate the theft of a mango from your neighbour’s garden.”

“A what?”

“A mango madam. A very expensive mango, I must say. Your neighbour had got the seeds from Timbuktoo and planted it here. The mango has the ability to turn old people young again, by twenty years. And last evening a thief stole his mango. And I am here to investigate the same. And I want to ask you some questions. May I?”

A mango which turned old people young? And I never knew my neighbour had such a tree?

I was about to tell him no, but somehow my mouth opened and the word which came out was “Yes” and before I knew it, he had pushed me away and had come in and started his questioning.

“So madam, at precisely 5 PM last evening, where were you?”

“I was at home. There was a nor’wester predicted and I did not go out. But why that precise time?”

“Cause our investigation proves the mango was stolen at exactly 5 PM”

“And how do you know that?”

“Cause the tree had a clock madam, which records the time, moment someone climbs it, to pluck a mango”

A tree which has a clock, and a mango which turns people young? I wondered what I would hear next.

“So madam do you have an alibi?”

“No I do not”.

“So what were you doing at that time, madam?”

“I was sleeping Detective Rastapopoulos. I was tired and fell asleep. Sadly I was alone then”

“Did you dream in your sleep, Madam?”

I was seriously getting irritated by then but still answered “Yes”

“No issues madam. Then we can get your alibi” and saying that he pulled out a strange looking animal from the pocket of his coat. The animal had a blue coat, yellow eyes, ears which were in the shape of a hand and smelt of jasmine flowers. He waved the animal in front of me clockwise, and suddenly I felt sleepy and before I knew I fell on the chair, and started dreaming. Suddenly I get a shake and it is Detective Rastapopoulos waking me up. I asked him what happened and he said “Nothing madam. We just went into your sleep last evening and checked what time you dreamt and realized you were telling the truth. You were dreaming last evening at 5 PM. I have no further questions to ask you madam. You are not the thief”. With those words, he suddenly turned and left, before I could ask him anything further.

I was sitting on the chair still reeling under the effects of what I heard – a mango which turns you younger by twenty years, a tree which records the time you pluck a fruit off it, and a strange animal which can tell you what time you had your dream. I was still dizzy when the bell rang again.

Irritated as I was thinking the detective was back again, I went to open the door again. And there stood a young girl and she was like “Sorry, I forgot to take the keys and so had to ring the bell. But what took you so long?”. I had no idea what she was saying cause I had never seen her before, but yet she looked strangely familiar. She looked at me strangely and said “Now why you standing at the door blocking my way? Do you expect your mother to stand all day at the door?”. And that is when it hit me, the woman in front of me was my mom – EXCEPT SHE WAS 20 YEARS YOUNGER.