Grandfather’s favourite pen— it’s quite an antique piece which was better suited in a museum than in my hands, but I was holding it anyway. I was alone at home and my parents along with my grandfather had gone out to do ‘something’ important. They had asked me to go along with them, but since such ‘things of importance’ and boredom go hand in hand, I had decided to stay back and not go with them. What else other than some official work could they be going to do, right?
Coming back to the pen, I was seeking it solely because I had been told repeatedly not to do so. It was kept safely in the highest self in the house, but I was innovative in my ways too. I used both a chair and a stool, placed them one on top the other, climbed up and I had safely taken the pen from its place. I could also put it back in the same way, but I had to do something with it first.
And so I was holding the pen. It was an old fountain pen, and it had only a little ink inside of it, as I judged by giving it a shake. Grandfather writes with this pen sometimes, so it was not unusual. I tried writing with it, but I had only made some ink blotches so far. But again, it was very beautiful with intricate carvings of geometric shapes onto it. In my attempts to write with it, I had used up all the ink in it, and so I hurried off to grandfather’s room since I knew he kept ink bottles there specifically for this pen. His desk has a few drawers in which he keeps all sorts of things. I opened one and I found an ink bottle with its seal broken from earlier too, much to my advantage.
I placed the ink bottle on the desk and prepared a fresh new page to experiment on. But before I could begin there were two things left to do: the first one was to actually figure out how to refill the pen with ink without damaging it, and the second one was to close the drawer as it was.
I chose the latter one to do first. However, instead of closing the drawer the normal way, I pushed it hard to slam it shut on an impulse. This careless action caused the ink bottle to topple over and fall from the desk. In instant, reflex kicked in and I thrust the precious pen away to save the ink bottle instead. I did manage to save the ink bottle from crashing into the ground. A delay of just a few moments would have been too late. I placed the ink bottle on the desk again. A drop of sweat tickled down my cheek and my heartbeat began to relax. I gave out a sigh of relief. But then it struck my mind,
“Where did the pen go?”
I remembered that I had thrust the pen away in order to catch the falling ink bottle. But where could it land? It was not on the desk. A search around the desk proved futile. But one side of the desk was pressed very close to the wall. So I squatted down and pressed my head against the wall and examined the small gap between the desk and the wall with one eye. My fears came true. The pen was there out of all places.
Had it been a table, I could easily go under it and retrieve the pen. But it wasn’t a table; it was a desk with its front side having drawers and racks, and the other sides being covered with wooden planks. I could only put two fingers into the small gap; the desk was also too heavy to move. The pen was well out of reach. I stood up and analysed the situation. All possibilities led to me getting a nice scolding. I started to pace up and down the entire house, endorsed in deep thought about how to get the pen out.
I also tried various things. I tried using the broom, but the broom was too big to fit into the small gap. I also tried to move the desk several times out of desperation, but it did not even make it budge. The thing that I needed was a simple stick, but the problem was that there wasn’t simply a good stick in our home usable for the job. All this took up a lot of time. A quick glance at the clock revealed that an hour had passed.
I did not know what to do. A good stick would do the job, but I could not find one. Then an idea came to my mind. I did not need sticks. I could make one myself. All I needed was two 30 cm rulers and a good tape. For the rulers, I took my own and I borrowed the other from my father’s study. Tapes were always in abundant supply, so I could easily find one. Without wasting any time, I started my work. I used liberal amounts of tape to join the two rulers together.
The result was fabulous. A little effort over the edge of the desk; and the pen was out. I was immensely happy to get out of that trouble. I made sure to clean up all the evidence which could suggest that I had got the pen in my hands. A little ink was filled in the pen as before, the ink bottle was put back in place, and my one-of-a-kind creation of the stick was separated and the rulers were put back in their respective places. I also made sure to be rid of the inked pages. But the sole evidence that could not be removed was on the pen itself. The fall down the edge of the desk had created a very minute scratch on the pen, almost unnoticeable, but still a solid evidence to prove my mischief. However, the only person who could notice that small change was grandfather himself. But still I was relieved because grandfather had poor eyesight even with his spectacles on, and had slight difficulty in seeing objects very close and far alike. But since that did not affect him much, he never really cared to get new spectacles. He thus would not be able to notice such a small change. So according to my latest analysis, all evidence had been covered up. Feeling very proud of having done such a misadventure in my own home, I placed the pen back in its place on the high shelf using my technique as I did before.
Shortly afterwards, the bell rang. My parents and grandfather had returned. Feeling very confident that it was impossible to guess what I had done, I opened the door only for my jaw to drop. Grandfather was the first one to come in, with a spring in his step, sporting a new pair of spectacles out of all odds.
“Why, grandson! We were supposed to get this fine pair of spectacles yesterday only! Let me check how beautifully and clearly I can see my favourite pen now,” said grandfather while coming in.
January, 2026
