“They’ll be fine, mama,” I said for the thousandth time as I closed the door. I was left to babysit my two cousins along with my younger sister, while also preparing for my exam.

I turned on some cartoons and told my cousins that if they need anything, I’ll be in my room. Little did I know that leaving them together unsupervised was my biggest mistake!

I had just started studying when I heard screams from the living room. I went to see what was wrong and saw my sister and cousin in a tug of war, the remote being the substitute of the rope. I tried to take the remote from their hands, but I pulled on it so hard that it went flying across the room. I was already very mad at my sister and cousin, but then they started quarrelling.

“She did it!”

“No, she started it!”

“You were the one who snatched the remote!”

“Enough!” I bellowed.

“Ayman, you watch TV, and Aanu, you go there and play some board game.”

My sister stuck out her tongue at me and hi-fived my cousin. Wow! When they need to tease me, they become best friends! After that, I went back to my room.

Around five minutes had passed when I heard my room door’s lock clicking. I got up to go out to check what was happening. I tried the door handle. It was locked! So that was the sound I had heard. I could hear giggling from the outside.

“Ayman! Open the door, it’s locked,” I shouted.

“Noooooo, we will not!” she said and made a lot of naughty irritating sounds.

“Ughhh! They had locked me in! What was I to do now?” I thought and kept banging on the door helplessly. I could hear cartoons blaring in the living room. My cousins were trying my patience now.

Suddenly, I got an idea. I called out to them, “Ayman! Aanu! Don’t you want to have my secret stash of sweets?”

That caught their attention. A few seconds later, the lock clicked and the door swung open!

“Where is it?” They asked as they opened the door, but when they saw my angry face, they realised their mistake. I scolded and told them to behave, but it was useless.

So, defeated, I gave them the candies on one condition: they would clean up the huge mess they had made in the living room. But, I came to know later, that was my second biggest mistake.

After eating the candies, I saw the kids behave even more energetic and wilder. Now the situation was really getting out of hand. They started running everywhere, fighting and shouting like crazy. The house was in a state of utter mess; there were cushions, packets of chips, colour pencils, Legos and books strewn all across the carpet. On top of that, my younger cousin (who I had forgotten all about because of the two older ones) started to cry on the top of her voice. I went to pick her up.

“Aeeee!” I had stepped on a Lego! For something so small, it caused a great amount of pain. That was the last straw. I wished I could cry like my little cousin. I looked around the house and I felt desperate.

But I knew that if I didn’t do something, these kids would wreck the house. So I took a deep breath, and started by calming down my little cousin. Then I started cleaning the room. It was a difficult task, and there were many “Ouch!” and “Ahh’s!” when I stepped on a Lego or a pencil pricked my foot.

Meanwhile the devilish duo was watching me from a distance. Of course, they didn’t want to be caught by me. Once that was done, I had to face my biggest challenge yet: dealing with the devil duo, Ayman and Aanu.

I hatched a clever plan. I would act as if our mother was back, and pretend to greet her. That would make them come out of the room! And that was exactly what happened. They came running out, only to find themselves fooled as I quickly closed the living room door which I had just cleaned. And, as if on cue, my mother arrived, making all of us laugh.

After that, I swore never to babysit again.

Published in Dawn, Young World, September 18th, 2021