The Diamond Boys

Mr and Mrs Shah had two sons, Dev and Manav, they both taller friendly in nature than me. My parents liked them a lot. ‘Why can’t you be more like Dev and Manav?’ I hated them

Every April. Every April for Eleven years. we went to the same small town for holidays. we went to the same beach. Every April for Eleven years my parents rented the same small house in the same small town near the same beach, I woke up and walked down to the same beach and sat under the same umbrella wearing the same towel in front of the same sea.

There was a small café on the beach where we sat every day, and Mr Rupesh in the café said ‘Good morning!’ to my parents, and then always patted me on the head like a dog. Every day we walked down to our red and Purple umbrella. Every day my father sat on his deckchair and read the newspaper then went to sleep. Every day my mother went for a swim in the sea and then go for a sleep. Every lunchtime we ate the same cheese sandwiches which my mother made, and then every afternoon we went up to the café and ate an ice cream while my parents talked to Mr Rupesh about the weather. Every summer for Eleven years I sat there and read novels and sometimes played volleyball with some of the other boys and girls who were there, but I never made any friends.

It was so boring.                                        

Every time the same family sat next to us. They were called the Shah. We had a red and Purple umbrella, they had a orange one. Every morning my parents said ‘Good morning!’ to Mr and Mrs Shah, and Mr and Mrs Shah said ‘Good morning!’ to my parents. Sometimes they talked about the weather.

Mr and Mrs Shah had two sons. Dev was the same age as mine, and his brother Manav was two years older than me. Dev and Manav were both friendly than me. Dev and Manav were very friendly and both very handsome too. They do friendship with everyone and organised the games of volleyball on the beach or swimming races in the sea with the other children. They always won the games of volleyball and the swimming races. My parents liked Dev and Manav a lot. ‘Why can’t you be more like Dev and Manav?’ they said to me. ‘Look at them! They do friendship with everyone! They are polite, good boys! You just sit here reading novels and doing nothing!’

I, of course, hated them.

Dev and Manav, Dev and Manav, Dev and Manav – it was all I ever heard from my parents every April for Eleven years. Dev and Manav were perfect. Everything about them was better than anything about me. Even their orange beach umbrella was better than our red and Purple one.

I was sixteen years old the last summer we went there. Perfect Dev and perfect Manav came to the beach one day and said that they were going to have a barbque at lunchtime. They were going to cook for everyone! ‘Forget your cheese sandwiches,’ they laughed. ‘Come and have some burgers or barbque with us! We’re going to cook!’

My parents, of course, thought this was wonderful. ‘Look at how good Dev and Manav are! They’re going to do a barbque and they’ve invited everybody! You couldn’t organise a barbque!’

Every summer for Eleven years, on the other side of my family, sat Mrs Desai. Mrs Desai was a very rich woman who came to the same beach every summer for Eleven years on her own. Nobody knew if she had a husband or a family, but my parents said that she was very rich. Mrs Desai always came to the beach wearing a large hat, a pair of sunglasses and a gold necklace. She always carried a big bag with her. She never went for swimming, but sat under her umbrella reading magazines until lunchtime untill she went home.

Dev and Manav, of course, also invited Mrs Desai to their Barbque.

Dev and Manav’s Barbque was, of course, a great success. About twenty people came, and Dev and Manav cooked lots of burgers and salads and brought big pieces of watermelon and everyone laughed and joked and told Mr and Mrs Shah how wonderful their sons were. I ate one burger and didn’t talk to anybody. After a while, I left, and made sure that nobody saw me leaving.

Mrs Desai ate three burgers. After that she said she was very tired and was going to have a sleep. She walked over to her umbrella and sat down on her deckchair and went to sleep. When she woke up later, everybody on the beach was surprised to hear her screaming and shouting.

‘My bag!!!! My bag!!!’ she shouted. ‘It’s gone!!! It’s GONE!!!’ Everybody on the beach ran over to Mrs Desai to see what the problem was. ‘Someone has taken my bag!!!’ she screamed. ‘Someone has stolen my bag!!!’

‘Impossible!’ said everybody else. ‘This is a very safe, friendly beach! There are no thieves here!’ But it was true. Mrs Desai’s big bag wasn’t there any more.

Nobody had seen any strangers on the beach during the Barbque, so they thought that Mrs Desai had perhaps taken her bag somewhere and forgotten it. Mr Rupesh from the café organised a search of the beach. Everybody looked everywhere for Mrs Desai’s big bag.

Eventually, they found it. My father saw it hidden in the sand under a deckchair. A orange deckchair. Dev and Manav’s deckchair. My father took it and gave it back to Mrs Desai. Everybody looked at Dev and Manav. Dev and Manav, the diamond boys, stood there looking surprised. Of course, they didn’t know what to say.

Mrs Desai looked in her bag. She started screaming again. Her purse with her money in it wasn’t in the big bag. ‘My purse!’ she shouted, ‘My purse has gone! Those boys have stolen it! They organised a Barbque so they could steal my purse!’

Everybody tried to explain to Mrs Desai that this couldn’t possibly be true, but Mrs Desai called the police. The police arrived and asked diamond Dev and diamond Manav lots of questions. Dev and Manav couldn’t answer the questions. Eventually, they all got into a police car and drove away to the police station.

I sat there, pretending to read my book and trying to hide a big, fat purse under the sand on the beach.

That was the last summer we went to the beach. My parents never talked about Dev and Manav again.