The Butterly Clip

Papa,

There will be worries in life at all times and places.

Of them, some look so huge but are ultimately of such little consequence. A few are really tiny, but almost manage to stop your breath for a while...and bring some truths home.

Read on ~ :o)

~~~

I had got these very tiny plastic butterfly clips in pink, blue and purple for Pupu from Tesco's.

When she put them on, she looked like a little polka dotted prettied up kitten.

It so turned out that she managed losing them very often: she would just pull them out of her hair, smile as if she knew exactly what they were meant for and either put them straight in her mouth, or drop them somewhere on the way.

One evening at home, we were playing peek-a-boo-boo and here-we-go-round-the-table-bush and Heeya-bird-flies-away and a few other ingenious games, when suddenly the clip was found missing from her hair.

I looked all over the room, specially the kitchen and bathrooms which were her favourite hangouts, the entire house - but there was absolutely no trace of it.

I clearly recalled it was on her hair ten minutes back, when I had left her in the room...left her by herself for a while...could she have...my thoughts were going haywire...I ransacked the house all over again, like a frenzied machine. Turning over every furniture, tossing every piece of cloth, scurrying from one room to the other, but with no avail.

She could not possibly have...I mean, it would hurt her throat so terribly. And what if she had managed to swallow... I was being so unreasonably silly. And ridiculous. Of course this was an impossibility. What a ludicrous idea. Of course this was. A complete impossibility.

All this while, which summed up to about five minutes, Pupu was babbling on and merrily trotting behind me wherever I went. Exhausted, I sat down for a few minutes to catch a breath and looked at her. A pure pink face without a worry of the world, laced with a sweet-naughty smile... - AND, precariously stuck at her waist between the skirt and vest was the priceless butterfly clip.

I donot remember how I had reacted to this sight but am told that there were a gasp, a shout, few suffocating hugs and colours dawning in the ashened disposition.

At length, I was also told that it was the most bizarre and silliest thing one could ever think of worrying about; in fact, it was altogether preposterous.

well, whatever...