Navin’s Eight-Hour Deadline: A robbery in the neighbourhood

Navin’s resentment of Mrs. Rao is so strong that he forgets he is on a mission to help people...

Story so far: Greta Stewart, Head of the Magiker’s Society, sends Navin back home and gives him eight hours to help someone.

Navin stared at the dark, starless sky. He realised that he would be unable to do anything for the next few hours, as it was night. His teeth chattered in the strong breeze. Wrapping his arms around himself to keep warm, he trudged towards the local park. He had always wanted to visit the park at night but had never been allowed to do so.

As he circled the park once, moonlight illuminated two men dressed in dark clothes huddled outside his neighbour’s house. Mrs. Rao was an old lady who lived alone. Navin loved playing pranks on her. He enjoyed scaring her by dropping lit bombs in her garden during Deepavali and hurling water balloons at her during Holi. Most of Mrs. Rao’s broken window panes were due to his cricket practice. Mrs. Rao and Navin were long-standing enemies. He had been grounded several times because of her complaints. As he moved closer, he realised the men were planning to burgle Mrs. Rao’s house.

“Mrs. Rao takes a sleeping tablet at night. She will sleep like a baby, while we steal,” one man grinned.

“Oh yes,” Navin smiled, “it will teach Mrs. Rao a lesson for constantly complaining about me.” His enmity with her was so strong that he forgot that he was on a ‘Help Your Previous Victim’ mission. He stepped closer to the house. One burglar had scaled the wall and was in the garden, while the other stood guard outside the gate.

As Navin moved closer to the wall of the house, it became transparent. With an evil grin on his face, he drifted through the wall. “Help will come when you need it,” Greta’s words flashed in his mind. The burglar circled the house looking for a window through which he could enter.

Navin knew that the third window of the living room did not close properly. Creeping into the house, he pulled the window open. The burglar was startled to see the open window. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief. Was he hallucinating? He circled the house again. The window was still open.