The Pasta Disaster

 

THE PASTA DISASTER

Today was the big day. Ben had to give a speech in front of the whole colony. It was a competition in which he had participated and was given the topic of how he would change the world. All was good except the starting, which he messed up because of his nervousness. Instead of saying, “Good morning ladies and gentlemen, how are you?”, he said ”Good morning insects and animals, did you find your food today?”!!! The whole community burst up laughing and he could see some people also fell of the chair! He messed up because firstly, his sister had changed his speech because she knew he would speak whatever was written on the paper and secondly, he was so nervous that he was not able to correct what he said. So he was being grumpy the whole day.

Later in the day…

“Mamma, what can I possibly do? These vacations were not called for! I don’t have any plans and you know I plan what I have to do in my vacations, days or probably weeks prior!”, said a very troubled Ben to his mother. “How would I know Ben? Please find something to do with your free time.”,mother replied from the living room. “Hey, Ben. I have an Idea for you!”, said his elder sister, just entering the room. “What’s it, Barbara?”,, asked Ben hopefully looking towards his sister. “Do what you always do- be a pest! And by the way, did YOU find your food today? Hahahaha!!!”, replied Barbara, making her mother laugh and making Ben red-faced. “You’re mean!”, said Ben,” You both have personal phones and social media, and me? Nothing!! You people have given me nothing!!” continued he, but this time he dramatized his words too much. His mother and sister, both were laughing when he fell to his knees in slo-mo. “Please don’t bother us, pest, or you’ll learn the hard way.”, said his sister, laughing manically. “Yes, Ben could you please leave for some time. Me and Barbara have to talk about something.” , agreed  his mother. “Keep talking as if you people run a secret agency!”, boomed Ben and stormed off. He called his friends from the landline, but alas! The line was cut. He was very upset on this and decided he would not spare the culprit, if he caught him once. He went to watch T.V but again!! The line was cut! “Nooooooooooooo!”, screamed he in a dramatic manner and again fell down in slo-mo, but this time on his back. His mother came to his room. He thought it was because of his high pitched scream but she said,” Me and Barbara are going to the parlor. Will be back in four hours or maybe more than that. And by the way, we can fire our housecleaner if you want to sweep the floor with your back.”. With this she laughed and went on her way, leaving Ben furious. Click! That was the sound of the door closing. ‘Ah, there they go.’, thought Ben. Then he heard a scuffle from inside the walls. “Now what’s there to trouble me?”, enquired he. He was replied by another scuffle. He got an idea to see what was inside through a crack in the wall. He could not see anything, all thanks to the darkness inside. He then got a torch from the emergency supply kit and shone it inside the crack. Finally he saw something move past at great speed and it dropped something. “Is that a piece of pasta, no can’t be”., he thought. “But it really is pasta!”, he exclaimed. But he was still not sure what that thing was, until that thing came again and shone in the bright torch light. Now Ben was sure about one thing, that there was a mouse which had carried piece of uncooked pasta and dropped it in the wall. “Oh so it was that thingy which cut off the wires!”, realized he. Wait till that mouse comes back and Ben will show him the consequence of cutting wires, but that was never to happen, for, the mouse had gone deeper into the walls. He kept seeing the piece of pasta for some time and then his idea bulb lit up. “Silly me! Why did I not think of it earlier? I should make pasta!”, he exclaimed with joy. He rushed to the kitchen and then realized there was a teensy weensy problem. He didn’t know how to cook pasta! Any way, he tried and started his work with the help of a cookbook. In the cook book it was written that the first step was to boil the pasta in water, so he did exactly that. “Hey this water smells funny.”, he thought out loud. But anyway he ignored it and went on cooking. The next step was to add salt, so he did it. The salt also smelt funny to him but again he ignored it and went on. The next step was to add pasta, so he added pasta. Then he kept stirring it and suddenly realized that he had to add masala as well, which he did. In the book it was written that he had to add garam masala, so he added what he thought was garam masala. Finally after sometime he had managed to make the pasta, and was just about to eat the pasta when his mother and sister burst in the main door. They left as fast as they had come in in and shouted from outside, ”What’s that smell!!!???”. At first Ben thought, ”Which smell? I’m sure they’re sense of smell is gone.”, but now he caught himself running out the door too. His mother and sister both looked at him in suspicion and said in unison, “Now what have you done, Ben?”. “I just made pasta. Something wrong?”, he replied. His mother and sister, both looked at each other and went inside covering their noses. Ben followed, and a shiver ran up his spine when he saw his mother standing at the entrance of the kitchen and staring inside. “BENNNN!!!”, she shouted in anger,” You’ve wrecked the whole kitchen!!”.That was the truth, he had left all his ingredients in the open and now the same rat he saw was having a feast on the ingredients, and it looked like the mouse was laughing and mocking him. He was given a nice bit of scolding but was grateful when his sister entered holding her mouth. She went straight to the sink and threw up chunks. Disgusting!! “Who was to be blamed?”, thought Ben. “You are to be blamed Ben!!”, said his sister, “ I ate your pasta and that’s why.” ,she continued pointing towards the sink. Ben said in his defense, ”It is not possible, Barbara.”. His mother was also tasting the pasta and she also didn’t like it’s disgusting taste. Then she saw the ingredients on the slab and matched the puzzle. “ BEN, you’ve used vinegar instead of water, added sugar instead of salt and added sambhar masala instead of garam masala. No wonders your pasta is disgusting”, explained she. Hearing this his sister ran out the door to tell the colony what Ben had done. “Two disasters in one day?”, thought Ben, “ The day can’t get any worse.”. But it did when his mother told him to clean the kitchen and the utensils. He started to do it without any argument.

The next day…

When Ben went out the next day, people were laughing and some even asked if he had gotten his food. Some asked that if he had made pasta, then why he hadn’t given it to them. He figured out that he got this idea of making pasta because of a mouse. Ben learnt a lesson from this-

Never spare a mouse when you have the chance to not spare it!