Trouble never goes away. Like a calf walking quietly behind the mother cow, trouble always follows me. Much as I wanted the school to reopen, I also had to write the dreaded first term examination, apty named onam exam. One week of examinations followed by 10 days of wonderful holidays.
This time it is not as bad because Amma hasn’t come back yet and there is no one to pester me.
Before the exams there are poems to learn by heart, maths equation to learn, english grammer to master and Hindi to write. On friday the last day of school before the official examination, Alice gave me a bundle of old papers.
“What is this?” I asked Alice pointing to the stapled out of shape, torn collection
“These are the old question papers. This one is my brother’s collection. I also have another collection, so you can borrow this one.”
“What do I do with this?”
“Go through it and see what questions repeat often and study that”
“oh”
My first exam on monday was english. I looked at all the english questions. The letter writing part is 10 marks. Fill in the blanks is another 10 marks. All I need is 17.5 marks out of 50 and I will pass.
“What do you think will be the letter writing question this time?” I asked Alice.
“This time it is going to be ‘the requisition for 10 books from the printer”. Alice told me
“Are you sure it is going to be that letter?” I asked her
“I am very sure, the ‘leave letter’ question was asked 3 times in a row, so they won’t ask again. You know the odds right?
“What odds?”I asked her
“onnu poyal munnu.” She explained. “If it has happend once, it will happen again 2 more times.”
“Oh, how do you know that?”
“My brother taught me that”

Life was peaceful without Amma. In the evening my sisters and I played hide and seek till night time.
“Nina, don’t you have to study for your exams?” Akkachi asked us
“I finished studying already Akkachi.”
“So fast?”
“I studied with Alice at school this afternoon.”
“Ok. I trust you.”
“Ofcourse you can trust me. I am Methran thambi’s grand daughter.”
Akkachi didn’t say anything. She was busy making dinner.

Saturday and Sunday went faster than I anticipated. I played with my sisters so much that I didn’t feel the time disapperaing. On Sunday evening, while packing my school bag, it occured to me, I haven’t studied anything for the examination. I am yet to study Hindi,Maths and Science. I regretted wasting all of Saturday and Sunday, that I could have used to study. I looked at the question bundle infront of me. I wasn’t sure what I should study. I tried looking for the odds Alice mentioned. But most of the questions repeated more than three times. But still Alice is my best friend. She knows how the Indian school system works.
I went to bed confidentally knowing that I would pass the english test. After all I only need 17.5 marks to pass. The rest of the subjects I will study after I come back from school tomorrow.

Monday morning I sat on my seat confidentally. Everyone was still doing last minute revision. I arranged my freshly sharpened pencil and eraser on the corner of my desk. I checked my pencil case to make sure that I had another pencil in my pencil case, just incase this one is not working or if the lead is broken. I didn’t want to waste my precious time sharpening my pencil.
I placed my exam answer sheet neatly infront of me. I waited for the bell to ring and for the teacher to pass the question paper. I prayed to Parumala thirumeni (Jacobite saint),
‘I will burn 10 candles for you, if the letter writing question is the one I studied’. Then I remembered, I don’t have money to buy 10 candles. So I had a mental communication with parumala Thirumeni.(Jacobite saint).
‘you know I am broke, you also know my mother will break my bones if I fail this exam. So please have mercy on this poor little child and help me. Instead of 10 candles I will burn 1 candle for you.’ I drew a sign of cross
The bell rang and Mrs Mathew came in to the class holding a brown envelope with all the questions. She sat at her desk and opened the envelope by tearing the top and waited. When the bell rang again, she got up and passed the questions.
When Mrs Mathew handed me the question paper, my hands were shaking and I was sweating.I prayed again to parumala thirumeni (Jacobite saint) reminding him of our deal.
I opened my eyes and read the question paper. I turned the question paper and looked for the letter writing section. I couldn’t believe what I saw.My whole world crashed in a second. My eyes were getting watery and I rubbed my eyes with my hands to read the question again “Write a leave of absence letter”I couldn’t breath, I looked at Alice. She too was sweating. I thought of all the times I wasted, Instead of learning the poetry, I was busy climbing the guava tree. I thought of the rotan(cane stick) waiting for me at home, when I bring the marks card.I wanted to cry. I looked around, all my classmates were busy writing. Even Alice started to write. I looked at the fill in the blanks section in my question paper. I didn’t understand a thing. I didn’t know what to write. I wrote nothing, which incidentally meant I wrote my own death sentence .