“WHAT?” I questioned my mum, my eyes almost bulging out from their sockets, “You invited those two terrible girls to spend their vacation with us?”

“Sweetheart, just because they are your tailor’s daughters doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy their vacation!”

“I didn’t say that! It’s just they appear to be so angelic while in front of everyone, but the second the elders leave, they transform into troublemakers,” I argued.

“You watch too much TV,” she said raising her brow and continued “They are going to be here at 5pm sharp.”

At quarter to five, two little figures appeared at the door in matching red shirts. “Hi kids,” mum said warmly, flashing on the largest smile I had seen.

“I’m sure you know my elder daughter, Sara,” mum said as she gestured towards me. I was sure these girls would do something that would get mum to send them back before tomorrow!

Later that day, I was completely engrossed in research work for my biology project that I didn’t hear the door creak open. Then I felt something move under my study table. I bent to look under it. Seeing a tiny face with a huge smile, I gritted my teeth.

“Can’t you let me study?” I yelled.

“Well I was hiding…” the tiny figure started to explain.

“Get out now!” I ordered, without listening to her justification. Just then another tiny figure stepped in with a pressure water gun in her hand and shouted in excitement, “Found you!” and water spurted on me.

My jaw dropped open in anger and confusion, “You got my assignment wet!” I yelled as a tear of agony ran down my cheek.

“Sorry, but we were playing hide and seek and we had decided that the seeker would shoot water,” the twin at the door said.

I had spent practically the entire day on my project and I had to start all over again. When the matter was taken to mum, and I expected a good spanking for wetting her floor, she just smiled and told them not to do it again very causally.

The next day, mum took us on a walk by the seaside.

Mum sat down on a bench, both the twins came hustling towards her, “Can we ride the camel please?” they asked.

“Of course,” mum said looking at me, expecting me to look after them as they enjoyed their ride. Grumpily, I obliged. After they had finished with their ride while making all sorts of monkey-noises, they came to me and said, “We want another ride.”

“Too bad you can’t,” I retorted. I held their hands and started dragging them to mum.

“Hey stop yanking us!” one of them said and they got themselves free of my grip and ran away.

“Come back!” I yelled. Both of them went in different directions, leaving me wondering which one to chase. I ran after one of them as fast as my legs could take me.

“Caught you,” I said triumphantly, “Now where’s the other one?”

Just as the answer to my question, somebody at a distance shrieked “Who does this kid belong to?”

Grabbing the hand of the one I caught, I approached the figure of a woman. “Are you responsible for her?” she questioned. I was unsure what to say as she continued, “I caught her dripping wet and shaking with cold. Well you’re a very bad babysitter!”

“Uh, thank you,” I managed to mumble.

I took off my jacket and wrapped it around the water dripping twin. Mum was perplexed to see them in that condition and quickly got up without saying a word and got into the car. She had probably understood what happened with the expression on my face.

That day, after dinner, as I sat in the balcony, the twins appeared. The elder one said, “Thank you for the jacket!” as she handed me my pink jacket which was no longer the colour it used to be.

“What happened to it?” I asked, my eyes bulging in horror.

“Since you were so nice and wrapped your jacket when I was feeling cold, I decided to wash it. But I accidentally used bleach instead of detergent,” she finished, breathless, her eyes clearly indicating her apprehension. Somehow, I didn’t heat up this time. I realised that she actually meant to do something nice.

“That’s okay!” I said and sighed! The words had barely left my throat that both of them jumped and hugged me.

“Whoa,” I said a little surprised and hugged back.

What happened next was totally unexpected. All three of us sat and talked for the next three hours. They told me that they had never been to the seaside and they never had proper toys to play with, except a couple of dolls with their arms and hair missing. At that moment, my body felt numb. I realised how imprudent I had been. Then we played with the dolls that I played with when I was their age.

I realised the necessity of giving – whether love, kindness or things – to the less fortunate. It wasn’t their fault that they couldn’t receive proper education as their parents could only earn enough to meet their basic needs. The fault lies with us that we don’t offer enough support to those in need. We spent the next two days happily. I gave them my dolls as a souvenir of our friendship, with a promise that they would come and stay again soon.