Raya was still asleep at 7 AM and had not started to get ready for school. Raya’s mother was furious. “Raya, wake up, dear! It’s time for school! If you don’t wake up, I am going to get angry.”

“OK, Mummy, I will get up soon.”

Raya, still asleep in her bed, was being poked on her cheek. Jolting awake, she saw a long pencil with a hand at the end of it. It was her cousin brother Krishna Anna.

Raya was ecstatic to see her Anna. She jumped from her bed to hug him.

“Hi Anna! How come you are here? You didn’t tell us you were coming.”

“Wrong, Raya,” her Anna said, hugging her as well. “I did tell Aunt and our grandparents. I told them to keep it a secret from you.”

“Anna, why is this pencil so long?”

“It’s so you will use it for your homework. I used to give you chalk to write on your slate, but you started eating that. This pencil is special, you see—the hand at the end.”

“Yes,” Raya said.

“That hand is to scratch your head or your back whenever you are stuck during studying. Isn’t it cool?”

“Ew, Anna, that’s gross.”

“Aww, no it isn’t,” Anna replied.

“Did you get chocolate, Anna?”

“No, I heard you weren’t studying well and have been bothering Amma. Only good girls get chocolate. All your cousins get it, but not you.”

Raya’s tears started, and she went crying to her grandfather as her Anna teased her.

“Raya, get ready!” Amma called again. “You are going to miss the rickshaw!”

Raya’s grandfather comforted Raya, and she eventually got ready in her navy blue uniform and went to school.

Krishna Anna secretly set aside the chocolates he had bought for Raya, safely storing them in the fridge after she left for school.

At school, Raya pulled out her magic pencil and started writing things that were written on the blackboard by the teacher. She was sitting all the way in the back and couldn’t see all the words clearly, so she guessed most of what the teacher had written.

After school, instead of her mother coming to pick up Raya at the place where the rickshaw dropped them off, it was her Anna.

“Hmph, why are you here? Where is Amma?”

“Oh Raya, are you still angry from this morning? Won’t you forgive me?”

“Nooooo, blehhhh!” Raya said, blowing a raspberry with her tongue and running home.

At home in the evening, while Raya was doing her homework with her mother Dharma, her mother was confused about what Raya had written in her notebook.

“Raya, what in the world have you written?”

“Whan sume one deos sumethung muean tey souldo apolllogze”

“There are so many mistakes in your spelling, Raya,” Amma said.

“Sorry, Amma. I couldn’t see the blackboard clearly, so I guessed from what the teacher wrote and was saying.”

“Raya, why can’t you see clearly?” Amma asked.

“Amma, I sit in the back row and I can’t see the board too well. The teacher writes so small.”

Amma became concerned about Raya’s sight. “Let’s try this out, Raya,” Amma said, taking six steps back. “I will write a sentence. Try to read it for me.”

“OK, Amma,” Raya said, confused.

“Raya is a good but mischievous girl.”

Raya could read “Raya” but nothing else. Dharma asked Raya to spell the words if she couldn’t see them.

But nothing. Raya kept mistaking the alphabets and words. Even the few she got correct, she was squinting a lot to get them right.

Dharma tried some other sentences and concluded that Raya might need glasses.

Dharma, the constant worrier, ran out to call her husband Manas to tell him the news about Raya’s condition and what she had discovered.

At dinner, Raya’s condition was the topic of discussion. Dharma was close to tears that her daughter would need glasses at such a young age. She wondered if it was true, as her husband had said—that it was all the TV she let Raya watch at such close range.

Thatha was concerned as well but said it wasn’t anyone’s fault. Raya just needed glasses. Nothing to worry about.

Anna, who found it amusing, teased Raya about whether she would get big “bhoot glasses.” When Raya didn’t understand what the fuss was all about—since Thatha wore glasses as well—she asked Anna what bhoot glasses were.

Anna replied, “Glasses are for old people like Thatha, and Raya is going to start wearing big thick glasses like a grandpa at such a tender young age,” he teased her.

Raya was thoroughly done with her Anna that day and started crying.

Everyone started consoling Raya, and Thatha scolded Krishna. Seeing this, Raya was happy and felt better. Anna, to make peace with Raya for all the teasing, gave her the Cadbury chocolate he had bought for her. As Raya was enjoying her piece of chocolate, the power went out.

Raya, holding Anna’s hand, left to meet her cousins and neighbors to listen to Thatha’s tales about legends.

Raya mused about how her Anna was similar to Lord Krishna, who had the habit of teasing people like in Thatha’s stories.