“If you hurt my feelings one more time…”
Pattu looks at Ammu with threatening eyes. Ammu replies hardly looking up from her coloring book “I hurt your feelings already. I hurt you first!”
Saathi and I grin across the dining table and file these conversations to retold and enjoyed years later. My mind however is stuck on the “If you hurt my feelings one more time…”. The words untold are as powerful as the ones that are out in the open.
I stand at the sink rinsing off my dinner plate and mulling over my life. If adults could warn each other about emotional implosions before they happen. If I warned everyone who hurt my feelings that I was reaching the stretching point, would life be any different? Any better? I have no answers but a part of me demurs.
Awkward silences. Eyes that remind you of better times. Of impromptu hugs and life lessons. The moment passes and we each carry on. Like nothing has changed. The past is a beautiful memory. The present, however bitter, is real. I remind myself that the future cannot change the past. The silences will ring loud. The elephant will be in the room. We will each circle around, leave words unsaid and pretend nothing ever happened.
Unless of course we could say “If you hurt my feelings one more time…”.
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