Ireached home after school thinking about the pile of math homework I had received from my teacher. I had a strong feeling that the teacher would be absent the next day, but still I could not ignore my homework based on this prediction.

I went upstairs, threw my bag at the side, switched on the fan and lay down on my bed. I had a really bad headache! Who would not suffer from a headache while attending three consecutive classes of math!

While thinking, I noticed someone talking downstairs. I strode down but stopped a couple of steps short and listened closely. The moment I was within earshot, I heard my brother talking on his cellphone.

“What are you saying,” my brother yelled, “I worked so hard at this job, I thought I would get a promotion or an increment, and what did he do? He fired me, he will regret this.”

Out of frustration, he threw his cellphone on the sofa.

I went upstairs wondering when did my brother started doing a job and so has been fired! I told the whole thing to mum.

“He is fired!” said mum looking startled, “but he doesn’t have a job, he is still in college. And how can he be fired?”

“I thought the same thing mum, you should ask him,” I said to mum.

The next morning when I woke up and went downstairs, I heard mum talking to dad about my brother’s job.

“What?” exclaimed dad, surprised, “I will talk to him, now.”

I hid myself behind the door of one of the rooms and listened to their conversation.

“Ali, how are your studies at school?”

“Dad, I study in college,” said my brother annoyingly.

“Oh yes, so how are your studies at college?” asked dad

“Fine dad,” said my brother exasperatedly.

“Ali, is something disturbing you? Let us know so that we can figure out the solution,” said my dad.

Ali’s face turned sorrowful. He said, “I wanted to tell you everything before but I was scared that you will scold me, so I didn’t tell you or mum anything. Dad, I was doing a job because I wanted to earn money for...” Ali became silent.

My father retorted, “But this is your age to study and I think you are not short of pocket money. And even if you are, you should come to me first.”

This made my blood boil; how on earth could my brother be short of money? ‘He gets three times more pocket money than I get each month,’ I thought.

“I didn’t want money for myself dad, I wanted money for my best friend,” my brother explained.

“I worked to lend him money because he was in need. His father passed away three months ago, he is also doing a part-time job, but it was not enough for him so he thought of quitting college to start a job full-time, which was of course not good for his future. Therefore, I decided to take up a job to help him with some money,” Ali told.

My mum was touched; she was crying and said, “My heart is filled with pride after listening to your thoughtfulness for your friend.”

“But you could have told us before, we could help your friend, we could have lend him the money,” dad interrupted.

“Dad, it is always better to earn money than borrow it!” Ali replied.

“Yes, you are right son, I am proud of you!” dad said by patting Ali on his back.

“But dad, who told you about me being fired from my job?” Ali said horridly.

“Oh yes, I forgot to tell you, Asad told us about the conversation you had on the telephone,” dad said.

“What? Asad?” my brother bellowed.

I was just behind the door so I did not take much time to turn up, “Yes, I heard you on the phone as I was standing on the stairs,” I replied meekly.

My brother’s face was turning red by this time. “I will deal with you afterwards,” said Ali grinding his teeth.

Anyway, at the end, everything was sorted out, but not before I received a nickname from my brother — ‘Eavesdropper’!

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 23rd, 2015