Valentine day gift
It seemed like only yesterday that Shelly was such a quiet contented baby. She had been the centre of Ramona’s life. She had always been a joy to have around. She had played quietly with her stuffed toys. She loved to hide under the blankets playing tent with her toys.
Ramona had lived with her parents post divorce along with Shelly who was now four years old. She was now in the kindergarten. Ramona should have been all happy and excited at the unexpected display of love and caring from the centre of her universe. But here she was all sad and nostalgic. Her ex-husband had disappeared into thin air probably never to be heard of again. At an age when Ramona had needed to be the easy-going, relaxed, loving type of mother to care for her infant she was busy writing resumes and busy trying to find herself a job. Yes, she had been a light sleeper though and awoke when there was even the slightest movement from Shelly.
Then, when she had to be in athletic condition to run around the house with Shelly when she had been a toddler with boundless energy, instant reflexes and infinite patience she had been out at work leaving her in the care of her mother. She had to put up with twelve hours of work daily at office leaving her drained of all energy to cuddle her.
Sometimes when she saw another little girl around Shelly’s age with nice clothes and toys and riding around with their father in a car or a bike and living in fine houses she felt bad. She wanted to provide her child the best. But she missed giving her the early childhood care and attention she deserved. Ramona felt the pangs in her heart as she looked at her daughter as she was sleeping. She smiled as the soft musical rhythm of Shelly’s snoring filled the air.
Saturday morning she had come to her with the children’s edition of the newspaper asking about Valentine day. Anything with a lot of pictures thrown in caught her fancy and Valentine day was fast approaching. So Ramona had explained to the little four year old that it was a day when the people would gift the ones they love. Ramona hadn’t even expected that the little child would take this so seriously and she wasn’t even sure if she understood what was told to her.
On the fourteenth of February when Ramona had returned home exhausted at work Shelly came running to hug her and threw her arms as if expecting to be lifted up. Ramona lifted her and kissed her wondering what she was excited about. Shelly led Ramona to the bed on which were spread crayons, sketch pens pencils et al. ‘Happy Valentine Day’, she gushed handing her a hand- made greeting card. Then she said that she had bought a gift for her momma and that Ramona needed to search where she had hid it.
Looking at the surprise and puzzled expression on Ramona’s face, Shelly excitedly said that she had placed arrows at some places and that she would have to follow the arrows to locate the gift. The arrows were placed around the house and finally they led to box under the bed. Shelly laughed excitedly jumping up and down as she clapped her hands in glee that I had indeed finally located her gift. It was a hair-clip. Ramona was so silent and at a loss for words. There was also a chocolate along with the clip. When Ramona gave the chocolate to Shelly she said that she had bought it for her. Then Ramona took her in her arms, kissed her and explained to her that Valentine day was also about sharing with the people you loved and so the choclate was shared with Shelly's grandparents and Ramona who each had a small bite.
Shelly was then put to sleep and Ramona sat beside her bed patting her lightly. To think she was not lucky in love! - thought Ramona as she wiped her tears that streamed down her face.
