Swarag – Ghost story (9)

The girls planned their adventure for that weekend. Ragini’s grandmother always left her museum keys on a nail next to the back door. Since the museum was closed on Sunday, the girls planned a sleep over on Saturday night. They could get into the museum, get the pipe, and then visit the Chief the next day. That way, they could give the pipe to the Chief before anyone even noticed it was gone.
They met at Swara’s house on Saturday. The girls tried hard to pretend like nothing out of the ordinary was happening, but they were excited and nervous about what they were planning. After a quick dinner, they went into Swara’s room.

“OK,” Ragini whispered. She took the keys out of her duffel bag. “I got the keys. My grandmother won’t see they are gone, but I have to get them back by tomorrow night.”
“No problem,” Swara said. “If everything goes right, we’ll be all done by then.” Reaching under her bed, she pulled out a note book and opened it to a bookmark. On the page, she had drawn the floor layout of the museum. “I made a map of the museum we can use to plan it.” Ragini and Kavya leaned close to look over the drawing. At the top of the map, Swara labeled it “Museum Heist.”
“What’s a heist?” Kavya asked.
“That’s where you steal something,” Ragini. “It’s a robbery.”
“Why don’t you just call it a robbery then?” Kavya asked.
“Cuz heist sounds more professional,” Swara said. “Now pay attention.” She placed three people-shaped paper figures on the map. One was labeled with an ‘S’, and the other two were labeled with an ‘R’ and ‘k.’
“These are us: me, and Ragini and Kavya,” Swara said.
“Which one am I?” Ragini asked.

Swara held up one of the cut-outs. “Ahhhh… ‘R’, duh…”
Swara held up the other cut-out in front of Kavya. “This one has small glasses – it’s you. Ragini’s has big glasses – it’s her.”
Kavya and Ragini looked at each other then looked at Swara.
“Our glasses are the same size,” Kavya said.
“Yeah,” Ragini said. “I can’t tell which one is which.”
“Oh, good grief,” Swara sighed. “The Kavya one has blue eyes, and the Ragini one has green eyes!”
Ragini said, “I have black eyes.”
Swara looked closely at Ragini. “Oh, you do have black eyes. Well for now, you have Brown eyes!”
“Cool,” Ragini said. “I always wanted brown eyes.”
“Ok, now listen,” Swara said. “I will use the keys to open the front door, and we will go in and head for the display case with the pipe.”

“Wait a minute,” Ragini said. “These are my keys, so I’m going to unlock the door.”
“It’s my plan,” Swara said. “I get to unlock the door.”
Ragini cross her arms and squeezed up her mouth. “Well you are not gettin’ the keys. They’re mine and I’m not giving them to you. Besides, we can’t go in the front door.”
“Why not?” Kavya asked. “How are we going to get in?”
Ragini wagged her finger. “Well, I know the way in, and I’m not tellin’ cuz Swara thinks she gets the keys and I say she doesn’t.”
“Oh fine,” Swara said. “You can unlock the door. Now why can’t we go in the front?”
Ragini smiled broadly and grabbed a pair of scissors and a piece of paper. She cut into the paper and whistled to herself. In a moment, she cut out the figure of a person. Using a pencil, she marked it with the letter ‘R’. Then she placed the figure just inside the museum near the front door.
“This is Ram Chacha and he’s the museum guard,” Ragini grinned. “If we go in the front door, he’ll catch us.”
Kavya’s eyes got big. “There’s a guard?”

Yep,” Ragini said. “But he’s really nice. He gave me a soda the last time I went there with my gramma. We came in the back door, and I found Ram chacha asleep at his desk by the front door, and I woke him up. He bought me a soda and made me promise I wouldn’t tell my gramma he was sleeping.”
“Oh great,” Swara dropped her pencil and crossed her arms. “How are we supposed to get in there with Ram chacha guarding the place?”
Ragini laughed. “Duh! Cuz he’ll be asleep, and we will go in the back door.”
“Well, if he isn’t asleep, we are getting out of there,” Swara said.
The girls agreed to this, and Swara went through the plan on how to get into the museum and get the peace pipe. Everyone knew what they were supposed to do, and they figured the heist would not be a problem. At 10:00, Swara’s mom stuck her head in the door.
“What are you girls doing?”
The girls jumped and giggled. “We are playing with paper dolls, Mom,” Swara said.
“Well, that sounds like fun,” Swara’s mom said. “But it is time to get to bed.”
All three girls said, “OK!”
Swara’s mom looked surprised. “Oh, so no argument? That’s unusual.”
“Nope,” Swara said. “We are all tired and ready to go to sleep.” Ragini and Kavya nodded.
“Alright,” Mom said. “I guess I will see you three in the morning.”
“If everything goes well,” Swara said, “you will see us.” They giggled.
Mom got a weird look on her face. “What are you girls up to?”
“Nuthin,” Kavya said.

“We’re just playing,” Swara said. “But we’re tired now, so we’re going to go to sleep.” Kavya and Ragini nodded their heads, but none of them moved to get in bed.
Mom sighed. “I’m going to bed. You girls keep the noise down.”
“OK,” they said. Mom closed the door. Swara hopped to the door and pressed her ear against it and listened.
“Mom’s gone upstairs and she’ll watch TV in bed,” Swara said. “Once she is asleep, we can sneak out.”
Will they be able to sneak into museum and Steal the pipe? Am hoping so