With age, everything seems silly. It is, as if, a haloed and supernaturally lit hand has blessed me with a greater understanding of life's philosophy, which counters all kinds of excess as unnecessary and well, silly. Almost. Certain things -- like still yearning for a Tissot, or a daughter's demands -- they can be treated as anything but silly. You better be armed with convincing reasoning or real-time, real-sounding excuses. You are silly if you are answering to her why she cannot play another hour into the dark winter evenings in the park, if you are saying "you will catch a cold!" A child of today, you expect her to buy that?
On one such evening, when C was particularly adamant about following a tiny star in the sky to the point of "till it switches off, Momie!", I had a wreckage inside of me and could think of nothing but a pretty lame and airy alternative. "But if you come along right now C, I promise you, we will decorate your bedside wall this weekend." The moment I uttered it, I knew the damage I had brought upon myself. Inescapable.
With the immediate stance of an angel, C's face broke into a smile, and she held my hand to walk back home. The weekend begins in couple of hours and my heartbeat is racing because I know she isn't the kind who would forget transactions of such high value. I am thinking of using a story to try and deviate her from one of her attacks, which could well extend to a mid-week sulk, or a strategic breaking of pencil whenever she would sit at her homework. Oh, C, she has done 'em all, "Momie! All pincil brake, no homehok!" You would think of asking her to find the sharpener? Haha, silly. Rest assured, the house would be bereft of one.
In fact, I told myself, how drastic could it really get to paint a wall?
There was once a little girl, Lillie, who had a brother Willy. Yes, it is a story about them, silly! They were twins, you know, the kinds who would know the answer to the others' questions before they were asked. One evening, not finding their toys in the toy-trunk, they went to their mother's studio and looked for places where she could have hid them. To their delight they found her many notebooks out in the open and rushed towards the pages with the enthusiasm of finding a password to a treasure!
On opening some, Lillie found doodles and Willy found scribbles. Soon enough they begun joining the dots and framing the fantasy. "Willy! Come here, the dog is running, Mom wrote! You cannot colour the standing dog in the copy!" And she opened the scope of wall to her twin. With a gleam in the eye visible when meals are of one's taste, Willy took to the wall with great gusto. A rectangle and a small circle with two standing triangles for ears, made up for a dog, and Lillie dutifully added a linear tail to it. They screamed with joy. "Now Mom's stories will come alive!" They were on their way to build a far fence when they heard the bell.
It was then that they realised what they had done. Their mom came in the room and was aghast to find her wall bearing the artistic overhauling it could have done without. She was screaming mercilessly, "Willy! Lillie! Come here! Now!" The twins decided in unison, silently, not to reply. To this, Mom was even angrier. "This was a white wall for God's sake!"
At this point Lillie suddenly lost her game-plan and walked up to their mother. "Explain!" the mother said, pointing at the mess on the wall. "Yes Mom, I told Willy" came the reply. "It will be square for dog's head, not circle. He didn't listen, Mom."
Like cheese melts into a layer on a pizza slice, as sugar dissolves in a creamy coffee, the mother melted at little Lillie's resolute statement. And what do you know, Mother enhanced the running dog by drawing a collar with a bell around its circular neck. And they drew silly shapes on walls ever after, together.
On opening some, Lillie found doodles and Willy found scribbles. Soon enough they begun joining the dots and framing the fantasy. "Willy! Come here, the dog is running, Mom wrote! You cannot colour the standing dog in the copy!" And she opened the scope of wall to her twin. With a gleam in the eye visible when meals are of one's taste, Willy took to the wall with great gusto. A rectangle and a small circle with two standing triangles for ears, made up for a dog, and Lillie dutifully added a linear tail to it. They screamed with joy. "Now Mom's stories will come alive!" They were on their way to build a far fence when they heard the bell.
It was then that they realised what they had done. Their mom came in the room and was aghast to find her wall bearing the artistic overhauling it could have done without. She was screaming mercilessly, "Willy! Lillie! Come here! Now!" The twins decided in unison, silently, not to reply. To this, Mom was even angrier. "This was a white wall for God's sake!"
At this point Lillie suddenly lost her game-plan and walked up to their mother. "Explain!" the mother said, pointing at the mess on the wall. "Yes Mom, I told Willy" came the reply. "It will be square for dog's head, not circle. He didn't listen, Mom."
Like cheese melts into a layer on a pizza slice, as sugar dissolves in a creamy coffee, the mother melted at little Lillie's resolute statement. And what do you know, Mother enhanced the running dog by drawing a collar with a bell around its circular neck. And they drew silly shapes on walls ever after, together.
Broken promises, without the backing of a severely sound reason, are inexcusable. I had to figure a way of pleasing my daughter and making it a slightly tough ride for her to get on to, too. So, we are facing the walls this weekend with the further equation of her learning what shapes are which. Now, it isn't quite a silly thing after all. So, whether or not I could buy the Tissot, time still flies by my Seiko as relentlessly as do a daughters' demands, and as fast as her eagerness to now sit with shapes. As long as the walls come alive.
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