Choco Chipped!!

Choco-Chipped!

Doodle Bob was sitting in his comfy chair late in the evening and watching the Yankees kick some serious ass on the sports channel. It was a good match. He was enjoying himself and suddenly felt the need to add something extra to his evening. He thought of having some ice cream, got up and opened the fridge. Inside there was a half litre bucket full of delicious Choco chip ice cream he had brought last evening.

Yankees hit another home run and he hurriedly brought the bucket to his centre table and went to the kitchen to get a spoon. As soon as he turned to leave, the lights went off and darkness filled the room.

Doodle Bob wondered what went wrong. This is NY, he thought. There are supposed to be no power cuts. He struggled to find his way through the dark. He could not see anything. Not even his own hands. Stumbling through the corridor he somehow managed to get near his ‘Laz-E Boy 2000’. Suddenly the lights came back on and he jumped back to his favorite piece of furniture in the house. Then the TV came back on. Yankees were now being kicked in the ass.

He reached out for the bucket and nearly jumped off from his chair when he found it to be empty.

Doodle Bob couldn’t believe himself. Suddenly he was gripped by a strange sensation. He was beginning to realize that he was not alone in the house. He switched off the TV looked around the room. He could see no one. He thought of checking the other rooms as well but fear made him freeze.

Suddenly all the ghost stories he had ever heard or seen on his TV were running in his mind. He was so sure that there could be no living soul in his house, other than his own.

He waited silently for some time, tried hard to concentrate of any sound but there was none.

Finally he shook off all thoughts of ghost and hauntings, mustered some strength and yelled at the top of his voice “Who is it??”

“I know you are here. No point hiding. I’m not gonna hurt you.” It seemed like a silly statement to make on his behalf, considering he was a lump of soft flesh with human organs.

No one replied to his warnings. Doodle Bob made up his mind. He is not going to sit and wait. He would not go down without a fight. He got up from his chair, grabbed his lucky Baseball bat and waited patiently for a move from the secret intruder.

“I’m going to call 911” he yelled again. No response. He thought of saying something else but didn’t for the fear of offending the invisible intruder.

Soon Doodle Bob got tired and thirsty of waiting. He slowly started making his way to the fridge. He turned his back to the fridge for keeping an eye of any movement behind him. Then quickly he turned and opened the fridge.

What he saw there made his eyes pop.

Inside, there was a bucket full of choco-chip ice cream mockingly staring at him.

And then it occurred to him why everyone in his office believed him to be a nutcase. He had brought 2 buckets of ice cream yesterday from the store’s weekend sale. 2 for the price of 1.

He had finished one yesterday and put the empty bucket back into the fridge. A habit which would have made his mother frown had she been there. Earlier when he had opened to fridge, a home run shot from Yankees had diverted his attention and in a moment of excitement, he had grabbed the empty bucket.

Doodle Bob felt like tearing his hair off. He had ruined his own evening, was sweating like crazy and had missed the better part of the game.

He cursed himself again and again as he took the ice cream bucket from the fridge, went back to the chair and switched on the TV. Yankees had lost.

“Just another one of those screwed up evenings” he mumbled and as he sucked on the first spoonful of creamy choco chip ice cream, he found himself unable to stop the uncontrollable fits of laughter.

Jason Hill kicked a trash bin as soon as he felt it was safe to sneak out of it. This was not how it was supposed to go. He had it all planned out. For the first time in his 10 years career he had left a house empty handed.

He had snapped out the circuits and sneaked into Doodle Bob’s house through the bathroom window. Had almost finished stuffing whatever he could lay his hands on into his bag. He had made no mistake. He was known as the master of stealth among his peers. They used to call him ‘The ghost’. Never before had he been spotted by someone during his ‘job’.

And here in this house which he had considered an easy pick, whose owner was a fat ass geek hooked to a baseball game, he had been spotted. For the rest of his life Jason Hill will continue to wonder what gave him away. He had been dead silent, had meticulously planned his job and just when he was about to wrap it up he had heard the fat bastard yell “I know you are here. No point hiding”. Jason, in a moment of nervousness coupled with anxiety had left the bag and jumped out of the bathroom window straight into the garbage bin.

He had not been able to steal a dime this time and to top it had lost his bag. One of the few personal possessions which he had brought, not stolen.

Unzipping his jacket and taking off his gloves as he hurried out of the street, he stopped for a moment, puzzled and confused. Maybe he was getting old and had lost his touch or maybe, he said to himself “its just another one of those screwed up evenings”

As he moved on, he could still hear the maniac laughter coming from the house he had planned to rob.