With her hand on chin and her frown, her stomach grumbled. She frowned even more, "Oh no, today I didn't even have lunch. Catching fish is useless! Not even one fish came though there are so many of them! I guess, it's futile." Chutki sighed as she got up.

Suddenly she felt something pull down the bow. She was surprised and pulled from her side harder. The tug of war continued but there was no end to Chutki's joy.

"Now give up fish and let me catch you." Chutki exclaimed as she pulled again. But the bow didn't budge. She took a deep breath and exerted even more force. Yet the fish kept pulling down.
"Now or never. Haiya!" Chutki shouted and pulled her hardest, despite being on an empty stomach. The end of the bow flew up and Chutki fell down on the side.

"Ouch, my butt. Oh, is this a.." Chutki widened her eyes to see a small shell of beautiful shades of olive green and it popped its head out. It could be it got stuck on Chutki's fishhook and tried to run away but couldn't.

"Tortoise! Oh no! It isn't a fish! I wasted all day long and stayed hungry for this good for nothing tortoise!" Chutki hit her head as she packed her stuff and ran away to home. She was perturbed and hopeless that her dream of having fish curry that day blew off. Now what would she tell her mother for staying out so long?

As Chutki saw her home one house away, she noticed someone was following her. She looked back to see the same tortoise trying to catch up with her. She looked forward and kept walking, still overcoming her disappointment. She stopped and looked back to see the tortoise still following her. It smiled at her and she smiled too.

"Well, I didn't get fish but this cute tortoise is alone and thinks I'm his friend. Okay." Chutki sighed as she walked towards the toiling four legged shell and picked it up in the air.

"You want to be my friend, is that why you followed me?" Chutki tilted her head to the left. The tortoise nodded, wiggling its arms.

"How you catched up with me? I know your kind are too slow and afterall I ran all the way upto here." Chutki furrowed her eyebrows and the tortoise returned a cute innocent smile reaching its eyes.

"Okay then, I will have to keep you secretly at home. Next time we will go fishing together and catch fish and surprise mummy!" Chutki smiled and the tortoise smiled back.

"Chutki! What are you doing there?" Her mother called from the entrance of the house.

"Nothing mummy!" Chutki hid the tortoise in her bag and smiled nervously. She ran upto her mum, while she stood with a belan in her hand.

"Now where were you all day? You usually come back in the afternoon but you didn't and I thought someone kidnapped you! If you had to go out, you should have told me! You didn't even have lunch! Now tell, where were you?" Mother scolded.

"Umm, I'm sorry mummy. Actually I went fishing because I wanted to surprise you with a big fish so you cook fish curry for dinner." Chutki said with her head down and her mother sighed.

"You could have at least come back and had your lunch! Dadaji was so worried he was about to report to the police!" Her mother said.

"I'm sorry mummy, I should have told you." Chutki said lowly.

"Hmm, that's fine. You should have told me you wanted to eat fish curry, I would have made it. Now next time do tell me where you go. Fine?" Her mother said while pulling Chutki's ear slightly.

"Ouch, ouch! Fine mummy." Chutki said and mother let go of her ear and smiled.

"Dinner is ready. Papa would also be coming back from the office. You should also wash up and eat. Then finish your homework and I'll make some halwa for you."

"Okay mummy. Thank you." Chutki exclaimed in joy as she ran inside the home. Dadaji was sitting on a sofa, checking the newspaper for the fourth time in the day.

"Chutki, where were you, everyone was so worried!"

"Dadaji, I went to the lake for fishing. I'm sorry for worrying you all." Chutki sighed.

"Okay, but you should tell if you are out. Now change up and have some food." Dadaji said and got busy in his newspaper.

Chutki walked to the verandah and remembered about the tortoise in her bag.

"Oh, I forgot I have a tortoise! I need to keep him in a safe and secret place before someone sees." Chutki whispered as she looked for a tub. She knew her Dadi used that tub for bathing and washing her clothes but she had no option. She took out the tub and filled some water in it so that the tortoise can float on it.

"I guess this is done." Chutki smiled as she took out the tortoise out of her bag and placed him into the tub. He started swimming here and there, floating on top. She had to take him somewhere so she hid him in a spare room when nobody was roaming around. No one used the room or went inside so he was safe there. Soon he stopped moving its legs and floated like a lifeless creature.

"I guess he is hungry, I will have to feed him something. Don't worry! I'm going to bring something for you after dinner." Chutki said and leaved him there in the dark. The tortoise was listless and only cared about food.

After dinner, Chutki finished her homework. While having her food, she kept a bite of a roti with her to feed the tortoise. When she came back, she found the tortoise floating listlessly.

"Hey there, see I have brought food for you." Chutki dropped the roti piece into the tub when someone opened the door wide, the light falling onto Chutki and the tortoise as if they were caught stealing.

"What is this?"

.

.

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T/n~

Dadaji: paternal grandfather
Papa: father
Dadi: paternal grandmother
Roti: asian/indian flat bread (just roti) you knead dough, flatten the small balls and cook on pan and fire

~To be continued...

Your grateful author,
かな恵一