I'm a child in your arms

Yesterday morning when I went for my tuition class, my teacher's son was getting ready for school. He's just 4 years old. He's usually playful around the house, greeting me whenever I enter the house, giving me a mischievous smile or simply shying and running away inside.

But the usually playful boy looked worried today. His eyes were set on the road and he stood fixed to the window, waiting. The moment his school van arrived, his eyes saddened. He turned to his mom and asked her, "Will I be back home from school maa? Will I see you again?", and his mom, my teacher, lovingly picked him up in her arms and kissed him on his cheek and assured him that he will be back home soon, that his friends are waiting for him in the van , that he will have a great time playing with them and then get back home to play with his maa.

That expression of worry in his eyes and his innocent questions made me realize that the girl watching him, 21 years elder to him, felt the same fear in her heart when she said a simple 'bye' to the one she cares. It's the same question her heart asks, "Won't you come back to me? Won't I see you again?"

Maybe some kid in the little boy's school played a prank on him and told him once he goes to school, he will never return home again.
Whereas my fear is not based on some hearsay, its based on experience....that people turn around too quickly, that nothing lasts forever.

Love feels so good because it takes one back to one's childhood.
One can be innocent and naive,
one can cry and laugh like an idiot,

one can sing the way one likes and move one's body like a mad man and call it a dance move.

And In this whole wide world,there is just one person with whom I can be the child I am. And I'm so scared to lose that child in me, I'm so scared to lose that comfort, those loving hugs that tell me every thing's alright, that kiss that tells me I'm still loved, I'm still wanted and that we will be together, like the promise of a mother....I would so like to believe this dream was true, that there can be someone other than a mother who cares as much...

My heart is torn between reality and the dream.
My heart is stuck between promises and hollow words.
But this undying hope, that things will turn around, refuses to die.
The child in me waits for my hand to be held and to be guided.

Maybe it's just a bad day at school, over stretched into days, months and years and that van which took me there will get me back home, and there will be someone who will be waiting for me, worrying for me and someone who will say, "Where were you all this time? I have been waiting!"

All images from Google Image Search.