A Genius Mistake

Salim shook his fountain pen twice, but it didn’t work. “My teacher is going to punish me. She will not be ready to accept any excuse if I don’t submit my homework assignment,” he said. “May be the ink has dried out.” There was no water in his reach. Salim filled his pen with some left-over lemonade in his glass. He took a sheet of paper and started doing his work. Nothing but faint lines showed on the paper. At least this attempt was better than appearing shame-faced in class. Some of the words were not clear. Salim held the paper close to the big light bulb of his desk lamp.

A Genius Mistake

As if by magic, clear blue words began to show. Salim moved the paper away from the heat of the bulb. Slowly the words began to disappear.

“This is super!” he cried. “Just what I want!”

 Salim came up with a simple plan. He was going to teach his friends, how to exchange secret messages in the presence of their teacher. He was going to make and sell invisible ink.

He said to himself, “I’m sure lots of children in the class will want some. Then we can send each other secret messages.” In school, the next day, Salim didn’t have a chance to talk about his ink.

Miss Nadia called him to her desk. There lay the last two pages of homework Salim had done. The pages were full of red lines and circles. Miss Nadia, it seemed, had not been able to read what Salim had written. She made it quite clear that if Salim didn’t do his work more carefully, he would have to do it again.

It was a cold day. By the time school was over and Salim got home he was completely tired. He thought that he would make his ink tomorrow. He was worried about his homework for the next day. The heater in his room was making it warm and cozy. He pulled the heater close to him before starting his work.

This feels good, he told himself.

 He got his books and paper and fountain pen. Leaning towards the heater, Salim did his homework very carefully. Salim looked at his paper proudly. The words were very dark. If Miss Nadia can’t read this, she needs magnifying glass. Salim placed all his papers and books on his desk and rushed downstairs to get a cup of hot tea for himself. After a little while he came back to his room.

A Genius Mistake

Salim collected his books, packed his sneakers for gym the next day, and was ready to put his homework and notebooks in his bag. He looked around, puzzled. He had put his homework on the desk with his books and the package of notebook paper. He knew he had. But he didn’t see the homework.

He looked under the desk. No homework was there. May be it was mixed up with all the stuff on his desk. He moved all the papers and books from his desk to his table. The homework was not on the desk. Then he moved the books and the papers off the heater. With a cry of relief, he saw his homework.

A Genius Mistake

This time Salim put the homework securely into his notebook. And just to make sure he would find it quickly the next day, he put a paper clip on the top of the page. That morning when Miss Nadia said, “Salim! Let me see your homework. Please bring it here.”

 Salim sighed in excitement, thinking of the surprise he had for Miss Nadia. He thought that Miss Nadia will appreciate his work in dark print. He opened his notebook. The clip was there, but where was his homework?

 Salim glanced deeply at the paper. To his horror he saw faint pink lines. Salim stood up. He looked from his notebook to his teacher. “Miss, he began, “I made an awful mistake.” “Have you done your homework today, Salim ?” Miss Nadia asked.

Salim went near Miss Nadia’s desk and laid the paper on it. “I did my homework, Miss,” he said. “Believe me, but guess I used a wrong pen. I did it in invisible ink.” The whole class kept quite suddenly. “Salim, is it a joke?”, said his teacher.

At that moment, Salim saw a heater beside Miss Nadia’s table. Then he understood what had happened to his homework the night before.

“Look, Miss!” he said. He picked up the paper and held it over the heater. He whispered to his homework “ Please come back just once more!” Slowly the words started to appear.

Miss Nadia looked at Salim’s paper. Her lips twitched and eyes opened wide. “You are a genius,” she said, “Why didn’t you tell me when I returned all your previous homework papers?”