Vulnerable Space

By Sreelekha Chatterjee

My five-year-old son throws a white-bear soft toy into the bath tub where I have emptied loads of ice, unwanted contents of my refrigerator. Moments later, the environment melts away, and the bear drowns.

Then he stamps a tiger impatiently under his feet. I remain quiet. Soon after, other helpless toys, a panda, gorilla, rhino, and turtle keep dwindling in the closet space.

“Toys are old, boring. Need to clean up this space for better things,” he says.

“They are precious. We are inseparable,” I protest and wake up with a cold shudder.

Their habitat is threatened, and so is mine.