“Do you want to work or not? Tell me.” Daadu shouted on the phone. I placed the red ring on top of the blue one on my stack-a-ring toy and looked up as Daadu disconnected his phone. I could not understand though why he was angry. Just about a minute ago he had picked me in his arms and kissed me. His beard tickled me, but I loved it. My Daadu is funny. He always makes me laugh.
I looked around and noticed that despite Daadu’s shouting, nobody in the house was paying attention to him. I was going to change that. I stood up and walked towards my Dad and tried to tell him about Daadu. I wanted to tell him that Daadu was angry and that all of us should do something about it. We are all one family, and we should stick together in these times of trouble. I flay my hands to catch his attention and, in the process, lose my balance and fall on my back. As soon as my butt hits the ground, I see my Dad, mom, and grandmother running toward me. They surround me and laugh and smile in unison. One pulls my cheeks; the other kisses my hands while the third picks me up. I protest and try to tell them that it is not me but daadu who needs help but they laugh even louder, and I am then transported and made to sit next to my dinosaur, where I was sitting earlier.
Angry, I look at this weird blue-coloured dinosaur lying next to me. It has a wheel on its tail and buttons on its back. The star-shaped button on the left side of its belly not only lights up when pressed, but the dinosaur also speaks to me in an enchanting song. It introduces itself as a letter-loving dinosaur and begs me to sing with him every single time. It does not say anything else, just its introduction and the request to sing with it repeatedly. I have spent hours thinking about it. Holding it in my hands and tossing and turning it over to figure out why it does so, trying to find a way to speak to it & to ask more from it. I tried throwing it on the ground & I tried shouting at it, but nothing worked. Up until now.
As I sat there, concocting a plan to reunite my family, to help Daadu against the person with whom he was on the phone, I could feel a distant sound with a familiar voice. The sound grew closer and louder and I realized that it was the dinosaur but it wasn’t singing the old song. Rather it was calling my name. “Siddemon. Siddemon” As I am brought back to my senses in the present I am startled by this sudden change of behaviour by this little blue creature.
“Siddemon” it says. “What are you thinking? Your family is not going to listen to you.” I look at it in astonishment. Frozen. It had spoken. It had said something which it never says which it is not supposed to say. I stare without a movement in my body and without a sound. I just stare.
“Gosh, you are making me uncomfortable, Siddemon. You do know that staring is rude. Right?”
The words acted as a spell to break the spell. With a single light jerk of my head, I come out of the trance.
At this point, I had two choices. Either I could run away from that blue little freak or face that loud-mouthed dinosaur myself. Now, I know that I have been born in a family where valour runs deep in our veins, but I guess every family has a black sheep and my veins had more practical blood than my family. And therefore, it was by instinct that I made a dash for the plastic gate at the end of the play area. The one-and-a-half-foot tall plastic walls could not stop me from running away from this blue-colored creature who had suddenly started to speak and take my name. Anybody who says that there is no valor in running away from the enemy has not seen me push that plastic boundary wall. It would not have been able to stop me, even if it was made of steel.
If life had background music for every situation, the last one minute of “The day that never comes” by Metallica would have been playing right now. The stentorian harmony of drums and guitars hypnotizing your soul ensuring that you hear nothing else. My parents were running toward me in slow motion while I could see the plastic walls fall as I fell with them.
“That was your plan? Really? To push and run?” The blue dinosaur spoke to me as I found myself sitting next to him again. Picked up by my dad before I could even step out of the play area and made to sit in the center of the play area, I could see the boundary up again like it was.
“Who are you? And what do you want?” I asked the blue creature, this time anger taking over fear.
“I told you I am the letter-loving dinosaur, and I am called Rex and I want to help you help your Daadu.”
“Why?”
“Because you and I have been great friends.”
“Since when?”
“Since the time I was brought into this house. Why do you think I keep talking to you and telling you who I am?”
“But you keep on saying the same thing over and over again. You are programmed to do that.”
“I object. I am not programmed to…Oh! Wait a minute! Yes, I am programmed to do that.” a revelation swept through its face. “But that does not mean, we cannot be friends.” Rex continued.
“Tell me, why would I want to be friends with a blue-coloured, plastic-made toy? What help could you be to me?” Siddemon spoke with his tiny hands stretched out and the tiniest of his fingers gesturing the ‘What’ as if words were not enough.
“Oh! Siddemon. You are so naive. Look around you and ask yourself, who is that one person who can speak to you and understand you. Yes, I know I am made of plastic and I might not be able to help you physically but I can help you communicate with them.” Rex rested his case gesturing toward Siddemon’s family. My mother was talking to his aunt, my dad, and my uncle on their laptops, my grandmother talking on the phone, and my granddad looking out of the large window in his house.
“That is a very valid point.” I placed the dinosaur in my underarms and started walking in my play area.
“Well, my new friend, tell me how do I help my daddy? He seems to be upset after that phone call.”
“I have an idea.” Rex looked at me as I looked at it.
I lifted it up and put it against my ear. When he finished, I looked at him in astonishment and smiled in affirmation of what he had just whispered. I put Rex on the ground. Rex smiled with a nod of his head. Satisfied that he has not only made a friend but also has been able to help me in my hour of need. Rex started thinking of how our friendship will become an example for friends across the world. But before he could conclude his thoughts, the smile on his face started resembling a wrinkled aluminium foil. I had stepped on him. Using him as a stepping stone, I put a foot in the gap on the plastic wall, and with one clean push, I tilted my body across the wall and onto the other side. As soon as my feet touched the ground I ran as fast as my tiny little feet would allow. I ran past my father and mother who did not seem to notice me. I stopped right at my grandfather’s feet and tugged at his pyjama with my tiny hands. My daadu looked down and his frown turned into a smile as soon as he noticed me. I kissed my daadu on his cheeks. He flung me in the air with a boisterous laugh all ready to catch me. I was flying and my daadu was happy again.
