“Sounds like a good reason
to be stupid,” Tomas said
without any obvious change
of expression.
Sarah couldn’t compre-
hend. She just stared at him
in dismay. A moment passed
till Sarah struck him with her
next question, “Does the sky
end?”
“That... we don’t know,” To-
mas answered with a sigh,”It
may have an end but present-
ly we can’t see it.”
“Why is that so?”, Sarah
didn’t have to ask as Tomas
began to explain, “The uni-
verse expands dear, at a pace
man can’t catch up with. We
can observe part of it but not
all. It’s not sure whether it has
an edge.”
“Why can’t we see it all if it’s
there?”, Sarah felt ashamed
to ask.
“Maybe I’m supposed to
know”, she thought, “this is
the problem with Nana. He
thinks I’m stupid. Ask beyond
a certain point and he will say
‘You aren’t yet to understand
it.’ We are supposed to take
whatever we get. Just like Lilly
ma’am at school.”
So she stayed quiet waiting
for Tomas to say more. But he
said nothing.
He just kept staring at the
big dome.
Sarah looked around. The
ground was wet from the af-
ternoon’s rain. The pond was
full and there were some new
visitors near its edge, croak-
ing. Algae had grown over
the floor and the bench where
they were sitting.
She scratched the algae on
the bench with her hands. It
was on her nails now.
Shouldn’t have done that.
She started to clean it
with the nail on her oppo-
site thumb. Damn! on the
thumb now. She used the
other thumb with her skirt to
screen. Clean! She smiled in
self-appreciation.
What’s left?... Her eyes
scanned the garden.
The bees had left the An-
thurium in the corner. They
were gone since the rain.
Why were
there
no bees
when it
rains?
Can’t they fly in the rain?
“Alan Watts once said”, To-
mas’ voice came out of no-
where, “that, you are the uni-
verse experiencing itself.”
Sarah had no clue who it
was or what he meant.
Tomas took a moment to sa-
vor it himself.
“Man has always looked to
the skies and wondered, you
know”, his eyes sunk deep, “
went nuts trying to explain
it.”
“Each time he looked up at
the sky it was a reminder and
realization of how simple and
unimportant he was. But at
the same time, he also real-
ized how big and how far he
could grow into… Nothing
perhaps has motivated man
that much... Nothing perhaps
has aroused his curiosity that
much....”
Thud!
A sound from the left woke
Sarah up. She turned to look.
Near the pond on his knees
was her son John, just having
fallen on the ground playing
one of his stupidest games.
Sarah just sat there as he