Short Story #12: Unconditional

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to school?”, I asked her, slowly pushing the hair off her face as she lay on me, hugging like a little ‘Koala’ or that’s what I called her every time she did this.

‘Nooo, ma-ma’, she said, her lip curling into a pout and eyes welling with tears.

I kissed her forehead softly as I got up, lifting her slowly and dancing around singing ‘kuchi kuchi raakamma’ in baby voice as Tara chuckled.  

‘It’s been 3 years and she is still entertained by that song”, Sid laughed, busy making some orange juice for breakfast.

I looked at her smiling and admired how beautiful her tiny features were (of course she didn’t look anything like me), as I wiped the little drop of tear on Tara’s cheek and told her ‘Tara is such a big girl now, daddy and I are coming with you to school today and let’s do a picnic lunch after school, okay? Yay, picnic lunch at the park, woo-hoo!'. She smiled and hugged me again, but this idea did cheer her up a bit.

Tara is now five years old and it has been three years since she came into our life, and not a day has passed without all these cuddles in the morning.

Two soft meows. “Ah, look, Fluffy is up”, I said.

Tara ran across the room to lift the cat, tripping over her toy and breaking it accidentally. I picked her up from the floor even before she started to cry, “You are okay, you are okay, do you want feed some treats to Fluffy while I get ready?”, I asked Tara handing over some treat sticks for our tom cat.

Forty minutes later, we arrive at Tara’s school, listening to rhymes and singing along throughout the 15-minute car journey while we braved the Bangalore traffic.

“Pa-pa, pa-pa”, Tara said, confusedly looking around as we walked towards her class. “Papa is parking the car, he will be here now in a minute, Tara kutti”.

“Oh, look Tara, here’s Jo ma’am”, pointing out to her favourite teacher. “You are a sweet little girl, be a good girl in school today, and we will pick you up soon for picnic, okay?”, kissing her cheeks, and I saw her walk holding Ms.Jo’s hand, as she animatedly pointed towards her clothes and shoes and talked to her with whatever little words she knew.

I was looking at her so proudly I almost didn’t see Sid coming, until he tapped my shoulders and said ‘Let’s go meet the Principal”.

Mrs.Hiremath welcomed us with a broad smile.

‘We are glad that Tara is doing great in school, but we also wanted to know if there’s anything more could do to help her feel more comfortable?”, she said.

“I really appreciate the school and Ms.Jo especially for all the efforts to help out Tara”, I said, humbled genuinely. “We are taking it one step at a time, teaching her little things every day and making learning fun for her at home, we take her out to the park to play which could be harder for her here in school with other kids, we spend a little more time every evening teaching her to write and draw and express herself better with words or art’, I paused.

“We are grateful that Tara is having extra help in school to cope up”, Sid started explaining, “..umm, may be she can have little breaks in the schedule, or when she needs time taking more than one instruction in class, but I’m sure Ms.Jo is already doing all that she can, Tara seems to like school better now, and you can let us know if there’s anything more that we can do as well, but thankfully with great care I guess we are managing the her difficulties quite well”.

Tara was diagnosed with dyspraxia when she was 2.5 years old. She reached her milestones later than she should, she did have minor difficulties with writing, drawing, eating on her own, with movements, especially playing, she did bump into things or trip over and fall a little more, understood instructions slower and found normal activities of her age a little more challenging. But it did not hinder her happy and kind spirit, and she was as chirpy as a little duck.

“Great, then. We will definitely keep you updated on her progress”, Mrs.Hiremath concluded, as her assistant Chetan walked in with tea for us all. After some general conversations over tea, we walked out of the school, holding hands, a little lost in thoughts.

“Do you think Tara will have the perfect life when she grows up?”, Sid asked.

“Of course, Sid. I don’t think we should worry about it, she is going to be an amazing teenager and adult. We might need to be a little more patient with her as she grows up, I’m sure we will be. If she makes mistakes, we are here to help her, that’s what parents are for right? She might have a little difficulties with day to day life, but who doesn’t?”, I said, reassuringly.

Later that afternoon, Sid and I sat under the tree eating some tamarind rice and appalam (Sid’s fav menu for picnic lunches), as we watched Tara play with a dog in the park. She was so fond of dogs, cats, and birds and she was definitely a baby version of me with animals, I proudly thought.

“Don’t you think we learn so much from Tara every day? I mean she teaches us a lot of simple things’, Sid said.

‘Hmm-hmm. She is a constant reminder to live in the present, to be happy and kind all the time and to look beyond our limitations. And also a reminder to be calm when you stress, to live one day at a time’, I added.

Tara ran to us, took her dog soft toy from the basket and put it close to my face and said ‘Ma-ma, kissie’ and then took it to Sid, ‘Pa-pa, kissie the puppy’ and then ran back to the dog and the woman to show them her dog toy.

“What a little wonder she is, she always has so much love to shower”, Sid said, proudly. “Isn’t she the best thing that happened to us?!”, he put his arms around my shoulders and looked at my eyes, smiling.

“Every time I look back in time, I am so happy and grateful we chose to bring her into our lives. I still remember the little shy girl who refused to look at anyone, and when people called her ‘different’ and when our family and friends questioned our choice of adopting her, we knew she was very special and that she needed us, more than how much we needed a child. And look at her today, she has changed our world. And filled it with unconditional love”, I said.

Tara ran to us smiling for a group hug, or ‘goop huggie’ like she said.

“Unconditional indeed, precious”, Sid said, hugging us both.