The girl in the tree house

No one was ready for it. No one wanted to be isolated.

As the number of people who became victims to novel coronavirus COVID-19 soared each day, the world which was once booming with life remained in deafening silence. The whole world is in lock down.

The city of Thimphu wasn’t any different.

In the outskirts of the city, there are few traditional houses. The houses are still and silent as a graveyard. Right beside one of the houses, there is a huge oak tree. It has large, weathered stem and the roots beautifully curved like the tentacles of octopus. There is a wooden stair made from polished wood and it led higher and higher into the wonders of the oak leaves. In the green, lush leaves of the massive oak tree, a small green tree house lay camouflaged to its background. It has small glass windows and a door which is painted brown like the stems of the tree itself.

“Come on guys, lets beat them!” a girl in her adolescence shouts with a wicked smile. She has blonde wavy hair that curls down right over her bosom. She has long fingers that navigates the virtual gaming site at the speed of light. Her eyes are pitch black and now it has traces of red for straining too much.

She is self-quarantined and she has taken to do gaming to kill her boredom.

‘Yes! Guys, keep the same spirit for the next match!” she shouts and rises from her couch. She has become one of the best Mobile Legend players beating many. ML has helped her be connected with her friends and kept her out of stress and anxiousness for the last few months. She has become so addicted to the game that now she can’t leave it aside even for a second.

She walks to her little kitchen in the tree house to make herself a nice coffee for the break. She is holding her smartphone in one hand and learning new strategies from YouTube to win her next game. Accidently, she drops her cup and it breaks into pieces.

“Gosh, I am all messed up. I have my match in next few minutes and this…” she mutters heavily.

She is too lazy and busy to clean up but she couldn’t take the risk of leaving those broken pieces of cup there on the floor. She fetches a broom and a dust collector.

“Ahh!” A piece of glass has gotten into her hand and has made a deep cut between her thumb and the index finger. Blood drops onto the wooden floor and has made a small pool. She cleans her hands and bandages it. She is in tears. She misses her mom so much at that moment and it worsens her pain.

The clock hits 12:30 PM. She rushes back, still so much in pain, to start her next match but she can’t resist the pain from her deep wound. She misses the match.

She feels horrible.

She cries because of pain from her cut and for not being able to play the match, which she has wanted so much. She starts to kick her pillow and shouts at the top of her voice.

After sometime, her voice has become hoarse from crying and shouting. It was the worst afternoon of her home quarantine.

She tries to disturb herself by picking up her favorite book, The Foundation Series, and flips through the pages; she is clearly out of mood and not concentrated at all. She hasn’t read the book for the last few months and she is too tired to read it. She throws the book onto the table and lies down on the couch.

A little sparrow at her window catches her attention. The sparrow chirps melodically and moves around with her tiny legs. Her eyes follow the smooth, round headed sparrow until the little bird gets out of her sight. She hops onto her legs and walks outside gently. The little bird has a caterpillar caught between her beaks and the poor caterpillar is struggling to escape for life.

“Hey, you can’t do that! You can’t kill the caterpillar” She says and slowly moves towards the bird.

The bird flies away and she is left helpless. The caterpillar would have soon become a beautiful butterfly, she thinks to herself. She tries to find out where the bird has gone. She is perplexed when she sees a nest made from straws and dried pine leaves right above the door of her little tree house. The little sparrow is feeding her two baby chicks with the caterpillar.

“Oh wow! How come I haven’t noticed those beautiful creatures for the past few months” She asks herself in a small tone, mindful not to disturb the sparrow family.

She admires the affectionate bond between them and feels a pang of sadness when she realizes that she can’t meet her parents anymore. Her parents are doctor in the city hospital and are on duty due to COVID-19 pandemic. She can only connect and communicate with them virtually; it was good but she yearns for their physical presence. She stays with her grandparents, who spent most of their times in prayer.

She was left lonely and depressed.

“Little creatures, please pray for the pandemic to end very soon okay?” She tells them softly.

A shrill squeak makes her jump and shift her attention. She has never heard such a sound before. It is coming from the ground. She runs down the stair and stops right on the last step of the stair. She listens carefully and observes everything around her. For the first time, she feels alive and surrounded by so much life.

There are pink, purple, white and yellow wild flowers blooming gracefully here and there. The buzzing bees and butterflies in various sizes, colors and patterns make the wild garden even more fantastic. The girl steps from the stair in amazement and joy.

The squeak makes her look away from the beautiful ecosystem of a wild garden.

“A rabbit?” Her eyes sparkle and her mouth gaps open. A small, furry, white rabbit with a short fluffy tail is gnawing a bunch of grass. She walks gently towards the creature and the rabbit remains fearless. She leans down to touch those big pointy ears, which she found funny and cute, but the rabbit leaps out of sight just in time. She is awed.

She takes a long breath of fresh air, which is devoid of pollution. She smiles brightly under the warm afternoon sunshine and she runs with joys over the curved roots of the giant oak tree.

She is fully energized and has totally forgotten the pain of her cut and the pain of missing the match.

“Pain is as impermanent as joy. Similarly, the devastation of this pandemic will also go away one day and we will be showered in happiness once again.” She softly murmurs to herself and smiles her heart away.