Letters (Short Story by Smruti Choudhury)

In the game, he always played as the captain. He didn’t know how to play any other part. But it was all fine as nobody objected. Till she walked in. She didn’t want to be the second fiddle. It was not in her nature. She wanted to be the captain.

He tried to reason with her. Threw tantrums. She threw bigger ones. It was an impasse. Then Spuds suggested that they play a different game.

She jumped at the idea of being able to change the narrative. Her daddy was always talking about changing narratives on the phone. She had asked many times what exactly it meant but daddy never had any time for her. She had then nagged her brother about it and he had tried to explain it to her using Legos. She was just fascinated that Legos could be arranged in alphabetical letters. All Mumma had shown her were tall blocks.

Image Courtesy: Google

She had spent the entire day copying all the letters from her picture book. She had been proud of her work.

Now she had the chance to change the narrative and she wanted everyone to get their Legos out. But then he pointed out that they would still need a captain. That didn’t go down well with her. She punched him in the face. He howled in pain and hurled the Legos all over the place.

She sat there taking in the tantrum quite calmly. Then slowly picked up the Lego letters and took them home. She never came back. She learned to play all by herself. She could be captain every day. She didn’t need him. She had changed the narrative.