Professor at Guilt

“Sounds interesting to me. How are we going to do that?” queried Dex. Every eye was on Fin and they waited curiously for his reply. “It is a piece of cake. Don’t worry. Everything is planned and we only have to execute it. Tonight is the time.” Everybody agreed by nodding their heads. “So we will meet by 2.00 am at the outskirts of mainland farms.” Everyone nodded again.

They dispersed and went to their respective work. It was middle of the afternoon and the streets were almost empty. Dex and Fin went to Dex’s father’s fertilizer company. Sid and Willy went to Willy’s father’s club to prepare for the evening’s opening and Jolly went home to help his dad in making farming tools. They kept themselves busy throughout the evening doing their regular stuff.

“Mom, I am off to bed.” Said Sid. “It is only 10. Why do you want to go to bed so early?” queried his mom.

“I am tired, mom. Had lot of activities in the club. I’ll sleep early today. Good night” replied Sid and went to his room.

He walked the stairs two at a time and banged the door behind him. He went to his bed and lied down. He kept on gawking the ceiling fan and kept wondering how his life changed over a single event. It still bothers him to think about the day Mrs. Rita had approached him and asked for an unlikely favor. The way she had refused to hear a word except a yes and how she had been frustrated when he had said no. Sid thought this all would have not happened if he had said yes and did her work.

The clock ticked quarter to midnight. Sid tip toed through his house and cycled to his destination. When he reached the gate of Mainland farms he saw the other four were already present waiting for him. He parked his bike with the other bikes and they together went to finish their task. In about a few minutes the whole farm was on fire and the fumes were covering the sky. They ran towards their bike in order to leave before people sees the fumes and arrive to inspect. They cycled to their respective places making sure no one sees them. So they used the isolated roads and drove home.

People were gathered to extinguish the fire and stop the further damage. By the time the fire subsided, most of the farm was damaged with the raw house and the crops were spoiled. Mr. Anderson inspected his farm for any survived crops but found none. His farm was burned to rash. He has incurred untenable loses.

The news was spread all over the town by the next morning. People started visiting the farm to see its condition. The police force was in action trying to catch the culprits.

“We set fire enough to burn the farm not the raw house.” Said Dex.

“She deserves what she gets.” Replied Fin.

“Everyone is talking about the fire. Police is asking every single person in the vicinity about the last night. But they have not reached any conclusion,” mentioned Dex.

“That is good. We left no evidence behind. We are safe.” Said Fin confidently.

“When are you going to see her?” Asked Dex.

“Soon” said Fin smiling.

The door knocked the wall hard. Fin stood at the entry and smiled. Mrs. Rita looked at him with surprise and asked “Why are you here? You are not allowed to enter the college premises.”

“I can go everywhere and anywhere. No one can stop me.”

“I can. I’ll call the janitor cleaning this floor and get you kicked out of here.”

“Even you can’t stop me. Could you stop me from entering your farm and fuming it into ashes? ”

Mrs. Rita was in the state of shock. “You set that fire and destroyed my husband’s farm. How could you?” She stood and banged her hand on the desk.

“It’s a pay back. You destroyed our lives so we destroyed yours.”

“We? Oh. You and your so called good for nothing friends. You can’t get out of this unaffected. You and your friends will be punished severely.”

Think Twice Before Messing With ME

“How you going to do that? Tell the town we did this? Five innocent students burned the whole farm? Who will believe you?”

“The town is not foolish. They will believe me. I am a reputed teacher and the people respects me.”

“They won’t respect you when they’ll know what you did to us. You will be punished and that to very soon.”

“Who will believe you? You and your friends are not sincere in studies thus it’s possible for you and them to fail in the exams.”

“We might not be the top scorers but we don’t fail our exams. You failed us purposely. We will get the papers re-evaluated and the truth will be out.”

“No one can send the papers for evaluation without my consent. Hope you clear with the rules of this college. If not I’ll state it, ‘To reevaluate a paper one should have the approval of the respective professor of the same paper.’ Stay home son for a year and do whatever, who cares?”

“You will pay for this. Last chance for you to accept your wrong doing.”

“You may leave if your done.”

Fin stared at the crooked smile on her face for a while and left. He called his friends and asked them to meet behind the college.

“It is time to execute plan B.” Proclaimed Fin.

“She won’t accept her crime.” Said Willy disappointed.

“No. Let’s teach her one more lesson.” Said Jolly.

They decided to meet at 3.00 am near the town’s clock tower after their respective task was over. They hi-fived and dispersed.

Willy and Dex went in the town by evening. They targeted the bakery, the restro, the florist and the library. They went to the bakery first and while Willy distracted the salesperson Dex hid corn and soya meal near the entry/exit door. Similarly, they hid more corn and soya meal at the restro, flower shop and library.

Jolly and Sid went to Mrs. Rita Anderson’s place at midnight. They left a track of corn and soya on the road connecting Mrs. Anderson’s house and the market. They stealthily walked around the house and reached the tractor parked in the open garage. They broke the tractor’s engine first and locked the door to the house than they went to the sty and released the pigs. They fled from their before the Andersons catches them.

While Willy, Dex, Jolly and Sid were plotting their plan in place, Fin waited in the dark near Anderson’s house.

Mr. Anderson rushed out when he heard squealing. He saw the sty gate open from his veranda and no pigs inside. He ran inside from front of the house and saw the pigs leaving his boundary from the window. He rushed to his garage from inside to get his tractor and go behind the pigs but the door was locked from outside. He had no choice but use the outside door to the garage so he ran out as fast as he could. He tried starting the tractor but the tractor did not start. He tried a few more times but it did not work. He walked back in the house from the front door and called his wife. He explained her the matter and got ready to leave with the equipment to catch their pigs. Due to this hurdles he wasted a lot of time and by than the pigs had rushed in the town. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson walked towards the town in search of the pigs.

In few minutes the pigs reached the main streets of the town creating chaos among the people. They started making nuisance and troubling pedestrians and shoppers. Some entered the shops tracking their favorite food behind doors or under table etc. Lot of commotion was created by the time the Andersons reached the location.

It took almost two hours to catch hold of the pigs with the help of locals and police. Mr. Anderson had to pay a huge penalty for causing inconvenience to the people and damaging the city property. Police took him to the station for his statement and penalty fees.

“Go to the station and accept your mistake.’

Mrs. Anderson turned to see Jolly. “I should have guessed it. You and your friends did this.”

“You gave us no choice.”

“I will tell the police that you are behind this. They will catch only you and your life will be spoiled.”

“Why would you wish to only name me?”

“So that you will be punished for your crime and your friend’s. If you don’t want me to name you, accept you and your friends together released the pigs.”

“Why should I?”

“So you don’t have to go alone behind the bars. If you don’t confess I will go to the station myself by the end of the day and complain against you.”

Mrs. Anderson left Jolly wondering. He was in the state of dilemma. “What should I do?” He whispered.

During the inspection of the city in the afternoon, police found a cutting tool with an inscription.

The door bell rang and Jolly’s father went to open it. The police officers were on the other side of the door.

“How can I help you?”

” We are here to see Jolly. Is he home?”

“Yes.” He called Jolly.

Jolly and others settled on the couches. “What is it?” He asked the officers. He was petrified thinking Mrs. Anderson has complained against her.

“We are here to ask you about something we found out.”

He believed they had found out that he has set the fire and released the pigs on the street.

“Mrs. Anderson forced us to do it. I didn’t do it alone. Me and some friends. But it is because of her we had to do it.”

“What did you do son?” His father intervened.

“I am sorry dad. I, Dex, Fin, Jolly and Willy set the fire and released the pigs. We wanted to teach Mrs. Anderson a lesson.”

“For what?” questioned one of the officer.

“She falsely failed us in her paper because we didn’t abide with her demands.”

“You will have to come with us Jolly. And by the way we found your cutting tool in the town so we came to ask you a few questions regarding the same but you confessed everything on your own.” Showing the tool with Jolly written on it.

“Mrs. Anderson didn’t complain about me?”

“No one did. Good thing is you said it yourself saving our time. Shall we go?”

Jolly, his dad and the officers went to the station.

The officers called the other four and Mr and Mrs. Anderson to the station. In half hour everyone was present in the small cabin except for Fin. Fin’s parents and other parents were present too.

“Where is Fin?”

“He was not at home when you called officer. Why did you call us here?”.

“The fire at Mr. Anderson’s Mainland farm was set by Jolly, Willy, Dex, Fin and Sid. They opened the gates of the sty and released the pigs. They claim that Mrs. Anderson failed them in her subject because they refused to favor her. I would like to know what favors she asked.”

“She wanted bulk fertilizers from my father for no cost. New tools for farming from Jolly’s father. Summer job for her daughter at Willy’s club. She wanted to take revenge against Fin because he hanged out with her daughter and vengeance against Sid because he complained about her ill-behavior towards him to the vice-principal. Me, Jolly and Willy refused to do as she said. So she failed us in her paper and we could not do much. Our life would have been destroyed.” Said Dex.

“They have failed because they did not study. Nothing is to do with me. How can you ignore the fact that this five burned my husband’s farm with the raw house and damaged the town? Punish them severely so that no students does this same.”

The officers agreed and said,” The five of you have made a mistake which cannot be neglected. Can you prove Mrs. Anderson failed you all purposely?”

“We don’t have a proof but if the papers are evaluated again you will find out we have passed the test.”

“Mrs. Anderson we will need the papers to send for evaluation.” Said the officer.

“I don’t possess the papers. All the papers got burned with the raw house in the farm. The raw house had a library where I kept all my books and papers. They purposely burned the farm so the evidence is burned too. They are lying officer. They have failed the test and making this story.”

It was a possibility that they burned the farm in order to destroy the papers. So they can claim that Mrs. Anderson failed them wrongly. The officers started believing this story.

“If you boys don’t have an evidence to prove your innocence than I will have to take you in custody. ”

The four of them were scared and didn’t have any evidence to prove they were right.

“Please Sir.  Believe us. She failed us and tried to destroy our career because we said no.” Cried Jolly.

“If you don’t have evidence we cannot consider you innocent.”

“We have the evidence.” Said Fin. He walked in the room and went to the officers. He handed them a tape and asked them to play it.

“You’ll find everything you want to believe we are innocent.”

One of the officer took it and played it on his laptop. The other officers joined him. They watched what was there in the tape.

“Mrs. Anderson you are at guilt for playing with the education system for your benefits and blaming this five innocent students falsely.”

“What? Why? You can’t do this” Two officers stepped her and her husband with them.

“Mrs. Anderson will be questioned and the college will be informed about her. Right actions will be taken against her by the college. You all are at fault too but actions won’t be taken against you since you were forced to do so and money has been paid for all the damages by Anderson’s. But if something similar happens again, all five of you will end up behind bars. Am I clear?”

They all nodded. After clearing the procedure they stepped out of the station.

“What was there in the tape?” Asked Dex.

“Her confession from her own mouth. I hid a camera at her place. When we were executing plan B, I was hiding behind the trees when Jolly and Sid left. When Andersons left in search of their pigs, I sneezed in their place and took the camera. Everything was recorded when she was talking to her husband. It was also known that she set her raw house on fire because she had to destroy the evidence.”

“I can’t believe this. She burned her own place down?” Said Sid surprisingly.

“To save her reputation and job.” answered Jolly.

“But she could not hide it for long. Everyone will know her now and she won’t be respected anymore.” declared Willy.

“People like her should not be respected.” voiced Dex.

They agreed and left with their family to their respected places. The next day the college disclosed the decision of removing Mrs. Anderson and doing justice to the five friends by passing them in the exams with first grade. The kid’s families were happy with the decision and the turn out.

The five met at the torch tower at the river banks. They sat facing the river and enjoying the sound of waves and flowing wind.

“We cleared our final year. Time to enter a new phase, to new college.” Said Willy.

“To some exotic location” Said Dex.

“To pretty and sexy girls.” Said Willy.

“To better professors.” Said Sid. Everyone made a face and looked at him.

“With us together.” Fin cut in and they all agreed.