Where is she lost?

Like any other warm March afternoon, I get done with my lunch and as I’m about to sit back with my little cozy copy of The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri, the protagonist in a crucial position and it’s up to me to get him moving from the slump. I hear little voices outside, little girls on the corridor? I try to get on with the book, the giggling and running increases not that it’s annoying, but something inside me compelled me to go outside, it’s like my heart from 10 year ago revives me, pushing me to go out and play with my friends out there, who have already started the game of skip and run without me. A small panic grips me but I shake myself out of it,

“silly it’s their game now, your chance is up” my head tells me.

I open the door, three little girls and a small boy from the first floor, running around hiding behind the pillars, a small game- but makes them so happy and giggly. Somewhere from the corner I feel myself smile- strange, happiness came so easy to me when I hid behind the pillars, still not being content and wanting to grow up. Just like that the smile faded, and tears welled before I could feel them-wiped my eyes. Vision clearer saw them coming towards me, we talked for a while and then they went back to their own made up play pretend world, in their world they were kings and queens defending their kingdoms, just like we once were, where did our inhibition free courage go? Where did our carefree laughter run off to before we were touched and scarred by this world and its whips? It wasn’t all bad-the journey till here, it has taught me quite a lot and also further ahead it will, but where did I lose the little child I was? A question we need to ask ourselves, where did that little brave kid playing and play pretending her life run off to?