12 Bubbles
“What is a soul?” the Little Red Haired Girl asked.
“Now that’s a question that is open to debate and I can’t answer” said Brain somewhat annoyed at itself.
“Well I like to think of it as a riddle” Body replied
“This will be interesting” said Brain sarcasm dripping from Bodies lips.
“Shut up” Body replied.
“Is a riddle fun?” the Little Red Haired Girl asked “kinda like a joke?”
“Yes sort of. What can you not see unless you put something around it?”
The little Red Haired Girl frowned and thought for a while. She pleaded for another clue.
“Ok. Remember your birthday party, after the cake, everyone went into the garden. To do what?”
She thought and then smiled “We blew bubbles through a blue plastic ring, Alisons was red but mine was blue.”
“And what did you blow them with?”
“Air from my mouth, sometimes if we ran fast enough or spun around, the bubbles would come out in a long row”
“Air yes, air is everywhere but we don’t often see it or hear it. A bubble is wrapped around the air, so we see it. I like to think of a soul, everyone’s soul, as if its air. You have to find it, listen to it like the air in the trees.”
“But what does it do?”
Brain remained silent.
“Well do you remember the time you had to stand on a chair through playtime at school?”
“Yes, Miss made the whole class stand on chairs. It wasn’t fair as everyone else was playing.”
“And why were you standing on the chair?”
She looked at her feet and kicked the dirt.
“Because I told a lie and Miss knew about it. I told her I had drunk my milk when I hadn’t. She made us all stand on our chairs until the person owned up.”
“So why did you not own up? then you could have gone out to play?”
“Coz I didn’t like the milk. I don’t like warm lumpy milk whats been in the sun. It was yukey.” She pulled a face and re-examined her feet.
“That’s not the reason is it. Why didn’t you own up? Then you could have gone outside?”
“Coz Miss was not being fair. I don’t like warm lumpy milk.”
“You don’t know she would have made you drink it do you? Thats not the reason is it?”
“No. I felt fizzy and red and hot. I felt poorly.”
“You mean you felt ashamed, bad for telling a lie?”
“Yes.”
“And the longer you stood on the chair, did you feel any better?”
“No.”
“Whys that?”
“All my friends were missing their playtime too”
“You felt bad for them too, yet you still did not own up?”
“Yes. Then the bell went and Miss told us to get down and take out our books.”
“Oh I see. So it was O.K. then in the end?”
“No.” she said and the Little Red Haired Girl cried at the memory it brought.
“My friends would not walk home with me at home time,”
“Oh I see”
“They were nasty to me”
“Oh dear. Did you tell your Mummy?”
“No. I was too ashoomed”
“You mean ashamed. Ok so how did you know it was bad to lie?”
“I don’t know” she sobbed “I just felt poorly and bad, and I had hurt my friends.”
“Your soul told you, even if your Mummy hadn’t. Lying hurts yourself and your friends doesn’t it?”
“Yes, but where does it come from?”
“It was in the air and you caught it like in a bubble. You saw it, you heard it and you felt it.”
“But I didn’t have a blue plastic ring. I wasn’t blowing bubbles”
“You don’t need to, you don’t have to ‘see’ the bubble with your eyes, but you can feel the edges of it, you can feel its walls, it tells you the difference between good and bad, your soul is in the air. Your lie created a little bubble around the air and you were only able to see it and hear it from the classroom, from how your friends reacted, from the chair you stood on all playtime, and thats how you knew it was wrong to lie. You felt it.”
“Yes and I didn’t like it. It made me feel fizzy and hot and ashoomed”
“Ashamed”
“Yes, that too”
“And how do you feel now you have told me?”
“Better. I feel light like a dandelion Fairy”
Brain put Bodies head in Bodies hands despairingly and shook it. Muttering something about Shroedingers cat which it couldn’t remember properly anyway.
Body had been looking for backup from Heart, but it said nothing.
“I remember that party” said Nanas laughing voice and it soothed.
“And what about me, do I fit into the air?” That unfamiliar voice again that was quickly becoming familiar.
“I don’t know who you are?”
“Well at least you are speaking to me now, so that’s a start.”
© 2024 Jennifer Harris. Free And Alive 555
