The Anser Part 29   by: Mayuri Vel "Sudha Akka!" "Not now Shanti, I have to meet my mentor in twenty minutes and I can´t find my shoes!" The little girl watched her cousin tear around her messy room. "I see some shoes there," Shanti said pointing to the closet. "Yes," Sudha said with a groan, "but those are not the ones I am looking for. Go play with Kumar." Shanti knew Sudha was trying to get rid of her. She was always trying to get rid of the little ones, Vid and Kannan agreed with her on that. But today she had some important news. "I know a secret." "Shanti, you´re six. You don´t know any secrets." "But I know this one because Appa told me not to tell anyone anything. He made me promise." Sudha looked at the little girl, "Then don´t tell me. You should learn to keep your mouth shut when you are told to. The only secret I want to know right now is where my shoes are." Sudha dug under a pile of laundry, effectively ignoring the little girl. Shanti wanted to throw the pair of heels she was hiding from Sudha behind her back at her cousin. But then Sudha would get her shoes and the fun would be over. Instead she watched Sudha crawl under her bed and would have happily watched until Sudha took her closet apart except that Kumar came down the hallway and carried her away, but only after throwing his sister´s shoes into the room while she was looking away. "Shanti, why do you terrorize her so much?" He asked, giving the little girl a tickle on her stomach. "Why is she so mean to me?" Shanti asked, trying not to laugh while looking indignant. "Who knows?" Kumar said airly as he tossed her onto the couch in his room. Shanti liked Kumar much better than Sudha. In fact, she liked him better than she liked anyone in her large family. He wasn´t as old and busy like the adults, he never walked around talking about everyone, and most of all, he didn´t have any sadness in his eyes. "So what´s this big secret, kutty-rani?" Shanti looked confused, then a big smile erupted onto her face, "Oh that! Yesterday I was playing with my dollhouse and I found some car keys inside and Appa said Murthy Uncle left them there last week so we went to give them back to Murthy Uncle late at night yesterday and your mom was there!" The smiled on Kumar´s face became plastic. "Oh is that all, Shanti? That´s not a secret. That´s just so boring." Shanti lookied disappointed, but Kumar knew that now the girl had been told her information was boring, she could be trusted to keep quiet about it. Anand Mama had handled that rather poorly, Kumar thought. Kumar left the girl in his room and walked to his sister´s room. "Akka have you found your shoes?" "Yes! I have to run now, bye!" Sudha said rushing by him quickly. ´Hey Akka, where´s Amma?" "I havent´ a clue, I stopped paying attention to her ever since she decided to stay out all night last weekend." Meena Chithi and Anand Mama were sitting in the kitchen when Kumar came downstairs. "Your sister was in an awful hurry. Is she safe to drive like that?" Meena Chithi asked. "Yeah, she was just in a rush to get out of the house, she´ll be her usual on the road." Anand and Meena looked satisfied. "So how´s our boy doing?" Anand asked patting his nephew on the back jovially. "Is my mother having an affair?" Kumar asked. Meena looked at the boy in shock. She looked to her brother for support, but Anand only looked away.