It was the worst day of my life. Whenever I think about that day, my blood runs cold and I start feeling faint. You might think that my story involves a blood-sucking vampire, a flesh-eating zombie or an evil mummy walking down the alley in the middle of the night. No. It involves me, three small children and a visit to my favourite bookshop.

The day started quite innocently. My mother and aunt had decided to go shopping. But how does it involve me, you might ask?

I love to read books. So my aunt decided that I can go to my favourite bookshop with my cousins so that they might also develop a love for books. So the children would be out of the way and the adults can shop in peace.

Did they spare a thought for me? No, they just gave my cousins, the spoiled brats, some money, told me to take good care of them and packed us off.

Now let me introduce you to my cousins — Zaid and Zain, eight-year-old twins and their baby sister, Zara. They look like normal children but make no mistake. If they had lived in North America, Red Indians would have been terrified of them. If aliens from outer planet abducted those two, they would probably blow up their planet.

So there we were, outside the book store. I was carrying Zara, who was pulling my hair, and Zaid and Zain were chasing each other, seeing who could topple me over first. Seeing their behaviour, I had my first regrets. What if I met someone… like my school friends or worse my headmistress? My reputation would be down in the drains.

Gathering all my courage, I entered the shop. Hundreds of shelves, full of thousands of old and new books, fantasy and adventure, crime and mystery, sci-fi and classics, all there for me.

But I had not taken into consideration that my cousins might have other plans. Once inside the shop, the two naughty boys decided that they were cowboys. They shouted and yodelled at the top of their voices, chased each other down the aisles; got tangled into everyone’s legs and overturned trolleys. Books and magazines went flying and were trampled underfoot.

The other customers looked scared, angry and bewildered at so much noise and confusion.

I stood rooted to the spot with embarrassment. Zaid and Zain were out of sight, probably hiding under a shelf while they hatched some other evil plan. I decided that I would pretend that I didn’t know them. With Zara in my arms, I headed towards the children’s section, but that proved to be a big mistake.

Zara’s gaze fell on the Sesame Street books for toddlers and she gave out a loud wail. She clutched at my hair and steered me towards the shelf. At first, she wanted to hold each and every book in her small hands. Failing that, she demanded that I pile all the books in her little lap. Desperate to make her quiet, I took out a few books. That’s when she saw the buttons that activated the sounds on the musical books. Soon the bookshop was filled with sounds of ducks quacking, cows mooing, dogs barking, goats bleating, Elmo singing “123” and Grover repeatedly saying, “Super Grover”.

As soon as a book went silent, Zara would show her displeasure by throwing the book and kicking it hard. I was scrambling all over the place to collect the books and put them back on the shelf before any big damage was done. Then there was a huge ‘thud’ from the other side of the room, flowed by ‘crash, bang’ and ‘lam’. Everyone ran towards the direction of those horrifying sounds. I didn’t even have to think about what could have caused such explosive sounds. It had to be my dreadful cousins.

Seizing my opportunity, I grabbed Zara and ignoring her tantrum, dashed towards the exit door. Two small blurry shaped things reached it before me and soon we were all outside.

“What did you do in there?” I asked angrily.

“Just toppled a bookshelf that fell on another one,” replied Zain innocently “… that fell on another one, that fell on another one,” said his partner in crime.” It was all a mistake!”

“Bringing you monsters here was big mistake!” Seeing my anger, they both quieted down a bit. I’m quite sure there’s a “WANTED” poster outside the bookshop featuring those two now, and for some extra cash, I could hand them in. What do you think?