Knowledge

Sharing this story written by a friend with an illustration we ideated together.

It was 11PM, and it was a school night. Alice had brushed her teeth, and was all ready to go to sleep, except there was something making her restless since she’d come back from school. Lying on her bed with lights on, she looked through the closed window of glass where she could watch the leaves of the tree darkened by the night.

Alice’s dad entered. He noticed Alice, and before he could say anything, Alice asked, ‘Mom’s asleep?’ ‘Yes, why aren’t you asleep yet? It’s not Friday, remember?’ ‘I do.’ her voice turned into a whisper, and her eyes glanced outside the window again. ‘What’s the matter? You look...’ She rolled her eyeballs towards her father. ‘What?’, she asked. ‘Stressed.’ ‘Nothing, I just can’t sleep with all these thoughts.’ He noticed the open window bothering her. He walked towards the window, locked it. ’Did you apply the bug oil on your arms? Too many bugs in this area.’ ‘Yes. I did.’

‘So, what’s on your mind, tell me?’ He stood beside her bed. ‘Nothing.’ ‘Tell me. You know you can tell me anything, right?’ ‘Yes’, half-smiling she folded her arms. ‘So, tell me what’s up? Did something happen at school?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then?’ ‘I suppose I could tell you.’ ‘Yeah, what is it?’ ‘This bug oil.’ ‘Bug oil?’ ‘Yeah’ ‘What about it?’

‘This bug oil is the thing that’s been bothering me.’ ‘What about it? It’s smell? It’s supposed to be good. I saw it written on the bottle when I bought it. Show me your hands.’ ‘No, it’s not that.’ ‘Then what?’ ‘Well, today in the environment education class, my teacher told us that animals are supposed to be treated well. Since they have lesser intelligence than us humans, it’s our responsibility to take good care of them. By doing that, we’ll be able to preserve our diverse nature and its beauty’.

Dad smiled as she finished. ‘Well, she’s absolutely right. Animals, birds and everything that’s a living creature on this earth are part of this nature. We should feed them well.’ ‘But, aren’t some animals harmful to humans? They can kill a person if he is near to any one of them. Like a lion. My teacher told us one day that lions catch other animals by fooling them. At first, the deer won’t even notice it. The deer might even think that the lion is being friendly, as they don’t move at all in the start. Lions are like one of the smartest wild animals.’ ‘Yes, they are harmful, and that’s why there are protected forests built at various places where such dangerous animals can live in their habitat away from us humans. It’s all been taken care of. The lions have no clue what’s happening in this part of town.’ ‘Yes’, she frowned. ‘What happened? Don’t you feel great about that? That you’re absolutely safe here. No lion can come here and disturb your sleep.’ ‘Ok, why are we killing these bugs then?’ ‘Bugs?’ ‘Yes, bugs. What about them?’ ‘These bugs are so tiny.’ ‘Yes?’ ‘Alright, even if they are tiny, their bite could cause bad swelling and yes, also itching. A lot.

Which I think, is worse for you since you’re still so young.’ ‘So?’ ‘So what?’

‘Can’t we make a protected place for them too?’ ‘There are at some places I guess.’ ‘There are?’ ‘Yes, I think I remember reading about it somewhere.’ ‘Wow.’ ‘Yeah, I know’, he smiled. He noticed the time, ‘Alice, I think you should sleep now.’ ‘No, wait. I can’t sleep now.’ ‘I’ll answer all of your questions tomorrow, and you’ll come to know how much humans are doing for our nature. Ok?’ ‘Please! 10 minutes? I’m confused now.’ ‘What is so confusing to you? ‘Are there really bug houses?’ ‘Of course there are. You know what, I’ll take you to one some day.’ ‘So there would be many cages made inside which different kinds of insects would be living in, right?’ ‘Yes, absolutely. That’d be exciting to watch.’ ‘I can’t believe it.’ ‘Why? Are you doubting human capabilities to make bug houses? Because recently, humans have done..’ She interrupted, ‘No no, I’m actually doubting humans now.’ ‘What do you mean?’ Alice straightened up, ‘If we are aware of the bug houses, then why are we making such bug oils and bug sprays that can kill them? You are aware of the bug house, still you buy such bug oils and sprays?’ Dad chuckled, and looked at Alice for a moment. ‘Ummm....ok. Let me put it this way. We all care about our environment. This is true. No doubts about that. I don’t think I need to explain to you anything about it’, Alice nodded. He continued, ‘But, we are not there yet to have control over each animal, that will eventually enable us to protect them.’ ‘What do you mean by ‘control’?’

‘No. Sorry. ‘Control’ is not the right word. Something like establishing a place where humans and other animals live in harmony’ ‘So, we do this by killing them?’ ‘We don’t want to kill them. We are forced to kill some of them until we can shift them to a place where they can’t reach us.’ Alice had a disturbed look on her face. ‘And this is something everyone else knows about?’ ‘I don’t know about everyone, but I know most of us do agree to this ‘way’ of ours. This is the only solution I guess, and most of us like your dad, come to acknowledge this thing as we grow up.’ ‘Alright.’ ‘It’s just a bad situation. We didn’t want to be so.’ ‘I don’t...’, she fumbled. ‘What?’ ‘This is not right then. There has to be a better solution to all of this. We can’t kill some of these innocent animals just for now.’ ‘Maybe there is a better...’ She interrupted again, ‘This just means we are not nice people.’ ‘Look, we are nice. We care about animals. But sometimes, we have to deal with the situation the harder way.’ ‘That means sometimes it’s possible we won’t be nice.’ He took a moment to reply. ‘We should try to be nice in every situation.’ ‘So there can come a time when we just can’t be nice?’ Dad laughed, ‘Aren’t you too young to ask these questions?’ She became restless, ‘Tell me.’ ‘Well, then..’ ‘Then what?’ ‘Then we’ll see what we can do.’ ‘What does that mean?’

‘This means I know you’ll figure out what to do even in the worst times. You can make the situation better if you’re good at heart, and nothing can change you at all.’ Alice didn’t reply. She realized her dad hadn’t completed his answer. ‘You know that, right?’, he asked. ‘Maybe I do.’ ‘That’s good.’ ‘Yeah’ ‘Sleep now. Will you?’ ‘Yes.’ He switched off the lights, and was just about to close the door​. ‘Dad, wait.’ ‘What now?’ ‘This is the last question for tonight, I promise.’ ‘Alright.’ ‘Are you a nice person right now? at this moment?’ He laughed, ’That’s a funny question. You think I’m not?’ ‘What? Answer me’, she insisted. ‘I think I am. I answered all your questions truthfully. I didn’t judge you for any of your questions. Doesn’t that make me a nice person?’ ‘It does.’ ‘And we also talked about bugs and animals, so I’m sure I must have provided you knowledge about some stuff, you know.’ ‘Yes dad, you did’, she smiled. ‘Good night then.’ ‘Good night.’ Dad closed the door.

Alice walked up to the washroom attached to her room. She washed the bug oil off her arms, and dried her hands with the towel. She opened the locked window and came back to bed.