READING ACTIVELY

A short story is fictiona work of literature in which the characters and events are created by the author. Fiction allows you toexplore new worlds. share joys and sorrows of characters, and learnfrom their experiences.

Reading short stories is an active process. It is a process inwhich you envision what is happening in the story and derive meaning from the picture you are envisioning. You do this through the following active-reading strategies:

On pages 313 youwill see an example of active reading by MarleneSanchez of Oate HighSchool in Las Cruces, NewMexico. The notes in theside column include Marlenes thoughts and comments as she read Gamesat Twilight Your ownthoughts as you read thestory may be differentbecause each reader responds differently to a story.

What questions come to mind as you are reading?For example, why do the characters act as they do? What causesevents to happen? Why does the writer include certain information?Look for answers to your questions as you read.

Use details from the story to create a picture in yourmind. As you read along, change your picture as the story unfoldsand your understanding grows. If you find yourself confused, try tostate your confusion. Use your visualization to clarify whatever hasntbeen clear to you.

What do you think will happen? Look for hints in thestory that seem to suggest a certain outcome. As you read on, youwill see if your predictions are correct.

Bring your own experience and knowledge to thestOry. Make connections with what you know about similar situationsor people in your life.

Also make connections between one event and another in thestory. Try to summarize how all the pieces of the story fit together.

Think about what the story means. What does it sayto you2 What feelings does it evoke in you? What has the storyadded to your understanding of people and of life in general?

Try to use these strategies as you read the stories in this unit.The strategies will help you increase your understanding and enjoyment of literature.

2 Short Stories

Question:

ames at TwilightAnita Desai

It was still too hot to play outdoors. They had had their tea.boy had been washed and had their hair brushed. and alter

Predict.

e long day of confinement in the house that was not cool butleast a protection from the sun, the children strained to gett. Their faces were red and bloated with the effort, but their

9 )ther would not open the door, everything was still curiined and shuttered in a way that stifled the children, maderem feel that their lungs were stuffed with cotton wool andteir noses with dust and if they didnt burst out into the lightmd see the sun and feel the air, they would choke.

Please, Ma, please, they begged. Well play in theeranda and porchwe wont go a step out of the porch.

Connect:

You will, I know you will, and thenNowe wont, we wont, they wailed so horrendously

[hat she actually let down the bolt of the front door so thatthey burst out like seeds from a crackling, over-ripe pod intothe veranda, with such wild, maniacal yells that she retreatedmo her bath and the shower of talcum powder and the fresh- antm that were to help her face the summer evening.

They faced the afternoon, It was too hot. Too bright. Thehite walls of the veranda glared stridently in the sun. The

bougainvillea2hung about it, purple and magenta, in livid Visualize:illoons. The garden outside was like a tray made of beaten

brass, flattened out on the red gravel and the stony soil in all-,iiades of metalaluminum, tin, copper and brass. No lifetirred at this arid time of daythe birds still drooped, likelead fruit, in the papery tents of the trees; some squirrels lay

1. sari (s r) n.: A long piece of cloth wrapped around the bodyrming a skirt and draped over one shoulder: worn by Hindumen.

2. bougainvillea (boil gn vii ) n.: Woody. tropical vines with)wers.

Games at Twilight 3

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limp on the wet earth under the garden tap. The outdoor doglay stretched as if dead on the veranda mat, his paws and earsand tail all reaching out like dying travelers in search of water.He rolled his eyes at the childrentwo white marbles rollingin the purple sockets, begging for sympathyand attemptedto lift his tail in a wag but could not. It only twitched and laystill.

Then, perhaps roused by the shrieks of the children, aband of parrots suddenly fell out of the eucalyptus tree,tumbled frantically in the still, sizzling air, then sortedthemselves out into battle formation and streaked away

Question: across the white sky.The children, too, felt released. They too began tumbling,

shoving, pushing against each other, frantic to start. Startwhat? Start their business. The business of the childrens daywhich isplay.

Lets play hide-and-seek.Wholl be It?You be It.Why should I? You beYoure the eldestThat doesnt mean

Connect: The shoves became harder. Some kicked out. The motherly Mira intervened. She pulled the boys roughly apart. Therewas a tearing sound of cloth but it was lost in the heavypanting and angry grumbling and no one paid attention to thesmall sleeve hanging loosely off a shoulder.

Make a circle, make a circle! she shouted, firmly pullingand pushing till a kind of vague circle was formed. Nowclap! she roared and, clapping, they all chanted in melancholy unison: Dip, dip, dipmy blue ship and everynow and then one or the other saw he was sale by the way hishands fell at the crucial momentpalm on palm. or back ofhand on palmand dropped out of the circle with a yell and ajump of relief and jubilation.

Visualize: Raghu was It. He started to protest, to cry You cheatedMira cheatedAnu cheated hut it was too late. theothers had all already streaked away. There was no one tohear when he called out, Only in the verandathe porchMa saidMa said to stay in the porch! No one had stoppedto listen, all he saw were their brown legs flashing through thedusty shrubs, scrambling up brick walls, leaping over corn

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t heaps and hedges. and then the porch stood empty in theitrple shade of the bougainvillea and the garden was ascmptv as before; even the limp squirrels had whisked away.

jving everything gleaming. brassy and bare.Only small Manu suddenly reappeared. as if he had

h pped out of an invisible cloud or from a birds claws, and Predict:.[t od for a moment in the center of the yellow lawn, chewingh linger and near to tears as he heard Raghu shouting. withhis head pressed against the veranda wall. Eighty-three.iIitv-five. eighty-nine, ninety and then made off in avinie. half of him wanting to fly north, the other half counselra4 south. Raghu turned just in time to see the flash of his

.\ bite shorts and the uncertain skittering of his red sandals,nd charged after him with such a bloodcurdling yell thatManu stumbled over the hosepipe. fell into its rubber coilsmod lay there weeping, I wont be Ityou have to find themillallAll!

I know I have to, idiot, Raghu said, superciliously Connect:kicking him with his toe. Youre dead, he said with satisfaction, licking the beads of perspiration off his upper lip, andthen stalked off in search of worthier prey, whistling spiritedly so that the hiders should hear and tremble.

Ravi heard the whistling and picked his nose in a panic,trying to find comfort by burrowing the finger deepdeepinto that soft tunnel. He felt himself too exposed, sitting on anupturned flower pot behind the garage. Where could heburrow? He could run around the garage if he heard Raghucomearound and around and aroundbut he hadntmuch faith in his short legs when matched against Raghuslong, hefty, hairy footballer legs.3 Ravi had a frighteningglimpse of them as Raghu combed the hedge of crotons andhibiscus,4 trampling delicate ferns underfoot as he did so.Ravi looked about him desperately, swallowing a small ball ofsnot in his fear.

The garage was locked with a great heavy lock to whichthe driver had the key in his room, hanging from a nail on the

3. footbailer legs: The powerful legs of a soccer player.4. crotons (krOt nz) and hibiscus (hi bis kms(: Types of tropicalshrubs.

Games at Twilight 5

RACING GAML 1982Tonq Wong

Courtesy of the Artist

I

ill under his work-shirt. Ravi had peeped in and seen himill sprawling on his string-cot in his vest and striped underiuts. the hair on his chest and the hair in his nose shaking

h the vibrations of his phlegm-obstructed snores. Ravi hadshed he were tall enough, big enough to reach the key on

nail, but it was impossible. beyond his reach for years tone, He had sidled away and sat dejectedly on the flower pot.,.t at least was cut to his own size.

tInt next to the garage was another shed with a big greenr. Also locked. No one even knew who had the key to the Visualize:

k. That shed wasnt opened more than once a year whenturned out all the old broken hits of furniture and rolls of

ating and leaking buckets, and the white ant hills were;iken and swept away and Flit sprayed into the spider websnd rat holes so that the whole operation was like the lootingi a poor, ruined and conquered city. The green leaves of the!,ur sagged. They were nearly off their rusty hinges. The

I iiiges were large and made a small gap between the door and Predict:1W wallsonly just large enough for rats, dogs, and, possi

hiv, Ravi to slip through.Ravi had never cared to enter such a dark and depressing

iiortuary3 of defunct household goods seething with suchnispeakable and alarming animal life but, as Raghus whis

rung grew angrier and sharper and his crashing and stormingii the hedge wilder, Ravi suddenly slipped off the flower potmd through the crack and was gone. He chuckled aloud withmstonishment at his own temerity so that Raghu came out ofae hedge, stood silent with his hands on his hips, listening,nd finally shouted I heard you! Im coming! Got you andime charging round the garage only to find the upturned

lower pot, the yellow dust, the crawling of white ants in anud-hill against the closed shed doornothing. Snarling, he)ent to pick up a stick and went off, whacking it against the

garage and shed walls as if to beat out his prey.

Ravi shook, then shivered with delight, with selfongratulation. Also with fear. It was dark, spooky in the

shed. It had a muffled smell, as of graves. Ravi had once got

5.. mortuary (mOr ch er ) it: A place where dead bodies are keptfore being buried or cremated.

Games at Twilight 7

locked into the linen cupboard and sat there weeping for halfan hour before he was rescued. But at least that had been aConnect: familiar place, and even smelled pleasantly of starch, laundryand. reassuringly, of his mother. But the shed smelled of rats,ant hills, dust and spider webs. Also of less definable, lessrecognizable horrors. And it was dark. Except ftr the white-hot cracks along the door, there was no light. The roof wasvery low. Although Ravi was small, he felt as if he could reachup and touch it with his finger tips. But he didnt stretch. Hehunched himself into a ball so as not to bump into anything,touch or feel anything. What might there not be to touch himand feel him as he stood there, trying to see in the dark?Something cold, or slimylike a snake. Snakes! He leapt upas Raghu whacked the wall with his stickthen, quicklyrealizing what it was, felt almost relieved to hear Raghu. hearhis stick. It made him feel protected.Question: But Raghu soon moved away. There wasnt a sound oncehis footsteps had gone around the garage and disappeared.Ravi stood frozen inside the shed. Then he shivered all over.Question: Something had tickled the back of his neck. It took him awhile to pick up the courage to lift his hand and explore. Itwas an insectperhaps a spiderexploring him. Hesquashed it and wondered how many more creatures werewatching him, waiting to reach out and touch him. thestranger.

There was nothing now. After standing in that positionhis hand still on his neck, feeling the wet splodge of thesquashed spider gradually dryfor minutes, hours, his legsbegan to tremble with the effort, the inaction. B now he couldsee enough in the dark to make out the large solid shapes ofold wardrobes, broken buckets and bedsteads piled on top ofeach other around him. He recognized an old bathtubpatches of enamel glimmered at him and at last he loweredhimself onto its edge.Connect: He contemplated slipping out of the shed and into the fray.He wondered if it would not be better to be captured by Raghuand he returned to the milling crowd as long as he could be inthe sun. the light, the free spaces of the garden and thefamiliarity of his brothers, sisters and cousins. It would beevening soon. Their games would become legitimate. Theparents would sit out on the lawn on cane basket chairs and

8 Short Stories

Ihem as they tore around the garden or gathered ini) share a loot of mulberries or black, teeth-splitting

from the garden trees. The gai dener would fix the I Ieinpe to the water tap and water would fall lavishly r.li he air to the ground. soaking the dry yellow grassat red gra ci and arousing the s cet, the intoxicating Iiii a water on dry earth that lovel jest scent in the world. Predict: Ii .nilled for a whiff of it. lie half-rose from the bathtub,

a heard the despairing scream of one of the girls as Raghue down upon her. There was the sound of a crash, and of

lang about in the bushes. the shrubs, then screams andi ising sobs of, I touc bed the den YOU did not I 1

You liar, you did not and then a fading away and r4 liCe agamRavi sat back Ofl the harsh edge of the tub, deciding to

hId out a bit longer. What fun if they were all found and Connect:tughthe alone left unconquered! F-Ic had never knowni it sensation. Nothing more wonderful had ever happened to

him than being taken out by an uncle and bought a whole slabhocolate all to himself, or being flung into the soda-mans

ony cart and driven up to the gate by the friendly driver withhe red beard and pointed ears, To defeat Raghuthat HI

hirsute,7 hoarse-voiced football championand to be thewinner in a circle of older, bigger, luckier childrenthatvould be thrilling beyond imagination. He hugged his knees

together and smiled to himself almost shyly at the thought ofso much victory, such laurels,8

There he sat smiling, knocking his heels against thebathtub, now and then getting up and going to the door to puthis ear to the broad crack and listening for sounds of thegame. the pursuer and the pursued, and then returning to his 1seat with the dogged determination of the true winner, a Ibreaker of records, a champion.

6. jamuu (ja mn) n A tart fruit with reddish-purple pulp andiuice7. hirsute (hur sdt) iidj HairyS. laurels (br 31z) n Foliage trom the laurel tree worn in a crownas a s mOol of ictor iii a contest

Gaines at Twilight 9

It grew darker in the shed as the light at the door grewVisualize: softer, fuzzier, turned to a kind of crumbling yellow pollen

that turned to yellow fur, blue fur, gray fur. Evening. Twilight.The sound of water gushing. falling. The scent of earthreceiving water, slaking its thirst in great gulps and releasingthat green scent of freshness, coolness. Through the crackRavi saw the long purple shadows of the shed and the garagelying still across the yard. Beyond that, the white walls of thehouse. The bougainvillea had lost its lividity, hung in darkbundles that quaked and twittered and seethed with massesof homing sparrows. The lawn was shut off from his view.

Predict: Could he hear the childrens voices? It seemed to him that hecould. It seemed to him that he could hear them chanting,singing, laughing. But what about the game? What hadhappened? Could it be over? How could it when he was stillnot found?

It then occurred to him that he could have slipped out longago, dashed across the yard to the veranda and touched theden. It was necessary to do that to win. He had forgotten.

Predict: He had only remembered the part of hiding and trying to eludethe seeker. He had done that so successfully, his success hadoccupied him so wholly that he had quite forgotten thatsuccess had to be clinched by that final dash to victory andthe ringing cry of Den!

With a whimper he burst through the crack, fell on hisConnect: knees, got up and stumbled on stiff, benumbed legs across the

shadowy yard. crying heartily by the time he reached theveranda so that when he flung himself at the white pillar andbawled, Den! Den! Den! his voice broke with rage and pitsat the disgrace of it all and he felt himself flooded with tearsand misery.

Out on the lawn, the children stopped chanting. They allturned to stare at him in amazement. Their faces were paleand triangular in the dusk. The trees and bushes aroundthem stood ink and sepulchral.4 spilling long shadowsacross them. They stared. wondering at his reappearance. hispassion. his wild animal howling, Their mother rose from herbasket chair and came toward him. worried. annoyed, saving.

9. sepulchral (s pul krl) adi Dismal: &loomy.

10 Short Stories

HIDE A4D SEEKTony Wong

CnLrty of (he 4rtist

Games at Twilight 11

w

I

Visualize:

Stop it, stop It, Ravi. Dont be a baby. Have you hurtyourself? Seeing him attended to. the children went back toclasping their hands and chanting The grass is green. therose is red

But Ravi would not let them. He tore himself out of hismothers grasp and pounded across the lawn into their midst,charging at them with his head lowered so that they scatteredin surprise. I won, I won, I won, he bawled, shaking hishead so that the big tears flew. Raghu didnt find me. I won, Iwon,,

It took them a minute to grasp what he was saying, evenwho he was. They had quite forgotten him. Raghu had foundall the others long ago. There had been a fight about who wasto be It next. It had been so fierce that their mother hademerged from her bath and made them change to anothergame. Then they had played another and another. Brokenmulberries from the tree and eaten them. Helped the driverwash the car when their father returned from work. Helpedthe gardener water the beds till he roared at them and sworehe would complain to their parents. The parents had comeout, taken up their positions on the cane chairs. They hadbegun to play again, sing and chant. All this time no one hadremembered Ravi. Having disappeared from the scene, he haddisappeared from their minds. Clean.

Dont be a fool, Raghu said roughly. pushing him aside,and even Mira said. Stop howling. Ravi. If you want to play.you can stand at the end of the line, and she put him therevery firmly.

The game proceeded. Two pairs of arms reached up andmet in an arc. The children trooped under it again and againin a lugubrious0circle, ducking their heads and intoning

The grass is green,The rose is red:Remember me

When I am dead, dead, dead, dead.

10. lugubrious (l gi br s) adj. Sad and mournful. especially inan exaggerated wa.

12 Short Stories

d the arc of hin arms trembled in the twilight, and thewere bowed so sadly, and their feet tramped to that

a holy refrain so mournfully, so helplessly, that RaviI not bear it. He would not follow them. he would not belcd in this funeral game. He had wanted victory and

iph not a funeral. But he had been forgotten. left Outa would not join them now. The ignominy of being

[ten how could he face it? He felt his heart go heavyahe inside him unbearably. He lay down full length onimp grass. crushing his face into it, no longer crying.ed by a terrible sense of his insignificance.

I ignominy (ig n mm e) n. Shame dishonor.

(1937 ), born of an Indian father and a Germani [her, has been called one of Indias most gifted writers. She was([1 icated in Delhi, and her work has won widespread critical acLirn. Of Desais talent, the critic Victoria Glendinning said. Sheis the gift of opening up a closed world and making it clearly vis

He and, by the end, familiar. Desai lives in Bombay with her busnid and their four children.

Respond:

1Iii i

Gaines at Tuilfght 13

J1LSPODI\G TO IHI SnF lION

1. Put yourself in Ravis place. What would youhave done after Raghu left the shed area? Explain your answer.

2. If you could talk to Ravi, what would you tellhim about games?

3. Where does Ravi hide?4. What causes Ravi to lose the game even

though he wasnt caught?

5. How does Ravi feel about Raghu?6. What do we know about Ravis personality

based on the choices he makes in the story?7. What bitter lesson does Ravi learn at the end

of the story?

8. Do you think that Ravis sense of insignificance at the end of the story will remainstrong? Explain.

I AN4LY1TLfr LSii! W,t:ti

Motivation is the cause of a characters actions. Motives can arise from events involving thecharacter, from the characters emotional needs,or from a combination of both. For example, Raviis afraid of the shed. Yet he is motivated to overcome his fear because he wants to win the gameand because he is afraid of Raghu.

1. What motivates Ravi to refuse to join the children in their evening game?

2. What motivates the children to play othergames while Ravi is still hiding?

F CR11H kL THJXIr\c A\I) RiRelevant details give information that is cen

tral to the situation, plot, or characters. Paying at-

tention to relevant details can give you insight intoa characters motives or a characters effect onothers. For instance, when Raghu finds Manu.Raghu kicks him and whistles so that the hidersshould hear and tremble. Later. Desai describesRaghu as a football champion. These details imply that Raghu frightens the other children.

1. Which details of the shed contribute to your understanding of Ravis determination to avoidRaghu?

2. Ravi feels protected when he hears Raghupound on the shed with his stick. How doesthis detail relate to Ravis decision to stay inthe shed?

3. When Raghu catches one of the girls, she insists that she touched the den. How does thisdetail relate to the outcome of the story?

[ liNKING ) RlTlN(V i P t1 (t

Reading about characters in a story is insome ways like being with people in real life. Nowthat you have spent some time with Ravi, perhapsyou can guess how the events of the story willmotivate him in the future. Imagine the next fewdays, months, or years of his life, and think of howRavis behavior might be influenced by his experience in the shed. Then predict the effect of thisexperience on his behavior, supporting your prediction with evidence from the story.

I LLR\ING OPTIONArt. Take another look at the pictures on pages6 and 11. They were not painted to illustrateGames at Twilight. yet they depict scenes similar to the ones depicted in the story. How do thesepaintings relate to the story? Try to find other photographs or works of fine art that remind you ofthe story. You might look in a museum or in booksof art in the library. If possible, bring to class thepictures you have found and show them to yourclassmates.

14 Short Stories