Fish Behind the Glass Wall

My youngest Arj was about three and Hari is Three and half years older than Arj so I guess he would have been around six or seven or in between.  It was the school holidays so we had gone down to Melbourne.  Each day was where are we going today? We were ticking off all the Kid-tourist thing on the list.  Sandwiches were made. Drinks all packed. And then with all the hurry ups, have you been to the toilet and the rest of rushing we made it to the Aquarium at last.

I think we went somewhere before that and this was our second pit stop.  There was a cafe, some tables and chairs outside the cafe and a queue for the tickets for the Aquarium.  We decided to sit down for a bit have something to eat before going in.  Hari wanted to go to the toilet or wash his hands or maybe he had spilt something on his t-shirt, details are a bit vague.  I guess what happened after took precedence and stuck in my brain and the rest are just in various threads.

When Hari and I returned from the wash room, my hubby the responsible dad who was supposed to watching the little one was highly engrossed and his head buried in the local paper.  And Arj was nowhere to be seen.  I have to push away  my first thought “I am going to kill you” to aside to look for Arj.  I was so angry and I was so scared.  Arj has always been a bit of wanderer, but this was not good.  The place was packed, it was the school holidays. We were all looking everywhere and yelling out his name.

Hari spotted Arj inside the Aquarium, how did the little brat go inside without a ticket? Ahh!!  I was going to kill him, after I finish with hubby, no, not sure which one first, I frantically spurted out some words to the guard at the entrance, “that’s my kid inside could I go or could you retrieve that kid for me, Please, Please”.  I was pointing to my kid “which kid?” Alas there are millions of them there, he knew this wasn’t a woman who was trying to get in without a ticket, Probably he has kid who wanders too, I don’t know but he let me in.

There was this big Glass wall, from one side of room to the other. Arj was oblivious to all the commotion, he was just mesmerized by this big fish.  He was following the fish from one end to the other, running with fish.  My anger melted, not sure if it was just relief that I found him, or seeing him so happy unaware of all the dangers and living in his world where nothing is bad.

We had bought the tickets previously, so the guard and rest of the people on the queue just let hubby and Hari to join us inside.

Arj stops running and turns around and says ” I like this fish, I love this Fish”  And then loud and clear he goes “I want to eat it”

I could feel everyone’s gasp.  We just wanted to fade away, just wanted the ocean to open up and take us in, or hoping that no one heard it. Trying to make things better I said “but darling the fish is bigger than you”  no, things didn’t get any better, With his left hand (as he is left handed) made a gesture of cutting with cutlery, and said “but I can cut it”

The husband of the lady behind joined, and the lady pointing to Arj said “that boy wants to eat that fish”  Luckily she was laughing.  I still wanted to disappear. Ah!! so “no one heard it” was out.

Yes he was given the lecture of not leaving his parents, holding hands, stranger danger, etc etc.  Not that it made any difference the next couple of times he went for a wander.  I had vowed to kill him and my husband too many a times after that for various infringements.  But kind of happy to note that, Arj has made it to nineteen and knows his way home. My husband is still alive too (sometimes only just).

Daily post word – Glass

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/glass/