Asha’s brother believes ‘girls have cooties’ [Short Story]
As a child, I liked stories that had a moral. The earliest collection that I remember reading was Panchatantra. But as we grow older, the kind of stories we read was more open to interpretation. We had to read in between the lines, empathize with characters, and derive what lesson we want to take away from the story.
For a change, I decided to write short stories with a moral for adults.
Asha lounged on the chair that was out on the patio of her grandparent’s house. She was reading a book while Nikhil, her brother, played catch with their pet dog.
She saw her Joanie, her little cousin, come out of the house and run towards her brother. Her cute ponytail bounced as she ran. Asha could see that Joanie wanted to join Nikhil in his games. She let the kids figure it out and went back to reading.
A few minutes passed. Nikhil came and sat near her with a disgruntled expression on his face.
“What’s wrong?” Asha asked.
“Joanie disturbed my game with Tommy,” came the reply.
Asha looked over and saw Joanie chasing Tommy, her squealing laughter echoing around them.
“She just wants to play with you,” Asha said, not understanding what the problem was.
“But I don’t want to play with her,” Nikhil said, pouting. Seeing the confusion on his sister’s face, he explained.
“She is a girl. Girls have cooties.”
Asha blinked in surprise.
“What does that even mean?” she asked him.
“I don’t know. Yash told me that girls are annoying. They cry and like the silliest things.”
“I am a girl, Nikhil,” Asha pointed out.
“Yeah, but you are a grown-up.”
Asha nodded, deep in thought. She stood up after a while and announced, “I am going to go see if grandpa and dad would like to play a hand of cards with me.”
“Oh, can I join?” asked Nikhil, looking up at her hopefully.
“Nope,” came the abrupt reply.
“Why not?” he asked, the irritation clear in his voice.
“You are a child. Children are dumb.”
“What? I am not a child. I am nearly nine. And I am smart. I got a B+ on my last book report.”
Asha just shrugged at his outburst.
“I don’t know. My friend told me that children are annoying. They just make unnecessary noises and go around saying the silliest things.”
“You are being unfair,” cried Nikhil. But something seemed to strike him, and he grew quiet.
“Wait, are you trying to tell me something? I feel like I am missing something,” he said, confused.
Asha pointedly looked at Joanie and didn’t say a word. It takes a minute before Nikhil to connect the dots.
“I was also being unfair?” asked Nikhil. “To Joanie?”
“Yes, Nikhil. Just like your age has nothing to do with you being smart or dumb. It doesn’t matter if you are a boy or a girl. Joanie is also a kid like you. Who wants some company to play. You might like different things. But what does it matter? You like fruit loops when I don’t. I am not making a big deal out of it.”
Nikhil was quiet for a moment, taking in her words.
“Hey, Joanie,” he yelled, trying to catch her attention. Joanie looked over to where he was sitting.
“Asha is going to play cards. Want to join?”
Joanie nodded, breaking out into a wide smile.
Asha patted her brother on the head. Together, the three of them headed inside.
Key Takeaway: Kids pick up on things that they hear and see. As adults, we should try to correct them and provide them with an explanation of why what they are doing is wrong. Especially things around gender construct, labels, and stereotypes. Let’s not allow them to make the same mistakes as us.
