GOOD BYE MR HOPPER

 GOOD BYE MR HOPPER

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

09/IX/2022

 

            It has been a few days that Mr Hopper has gone missing again. The fear in my mind was obvious. No, not him becoming a juicy snack but he moving away to greener pastures. He had learnt the tricks of the trade and did the disappearing trick on sensing the slightest danger.

 

Hide and seek had become his daily game with me. He would chirp as if to tell me to locate him. Though he would be very quiet all day. When the sun would be up, he would silently move behind a big leaf or change his pot which was in the shade and melt away into the foliage.

 

Last evening, he appeared out of nowhere. He stood proud atop the highest leaf of one of the hibiscus plants near the pot he was born in and was looking straight into my eye. We exchanged ‘hellos’ and got into a conversation.

 

Before he could say something, I asked him out of concern, why does he ‘evaporate’ suddenly without a word? The frequency of which had increased over the last couple of weeks. He just smiled and stretched one hind leg.

 

Answer me, I said. He blushed and went from green to greener to the greenest. I have found a mate, he said. She too is here somewhere but is too afraid to come out and meet you. Where is she? I asked and he chirped. From behind a stem of the adjacent pot she slid over disclosing her location.

 

Oh my! Wasn’t she gorgeous? She was much bigger than Mr Hopper and much shiny too. Hello! I said. She just blushed and slowly went into hiding as if she was pulling her ‘ghoonghat’ from me.

 

So, what are your plans Mr Hopper? I asked. He told me that she stays in the adjacent garden. Though it is not as well maintained as yours as the owners are away but that is where ‘she; insisted that we nestle.

 

I was so happy to see the transformation of this small tiny spec to a full-grown adult. I tolerated his eating away so many leaves. I cleaned his poo from wherever he halted overnight, in the pot of his choosing and now he was going to make his family.

 

Getting sentimental I asked him; would he visit again and bring his little ones to meet me. He stretched the second leg as if to agree to what I said. He twitched his whiskers curling them into a small ‘heart’ as if to tell me that he loved me. I blew a flying kiss.

 

Then he put a condition. I was taken aback. He said that he would return if I didn’t give me a shower every day. I said, it must be inadvertently happening when I water the pot. He nodded and said that it is not the watering, but the sprinkling that you do after you have watered the pots. Oh! I see. Sometimes you do it twice, he said. As it is, the rains kept troubling and the day it did not rain you wet me. I couldn’t even complain, he said. I understood his pain and apologised.

 

I also conveyed my annoyance to him. I said, I did not object to your eating leaves. You chose the juiciest, shiniest and the freshest of them. They looked odd, half eaten on a well-groomed bush but I did not complain. The trail of poo that was left behind looked sore in the eye and to wash it away I had to sprinkle water on the leaves.

 

Forget it, he said, as he had got used to it and had started loving it. You are a good man; he said. You take care of everything that grows here. I am going to a garden which is quite parched and I will miss all these juicy leaves I enjoyed. You look after your plants well and they shall give you lots of flowers. That’s what your plants said to me. Now, before I get tempted to eat them and annoy you, I must move away.

 

I wished him luck but shall miss him and left an open invitation for him to return to say hello one day with his family. Mr Hopper just rubbed his hind legs together. I took it as a ‘yes’.

 

Our conversation could have gone on and on when I saw Ms Hopper had sneaked in and was whispering something in Mr Hopper’s ear. My wife also brought a cup of tea for me. Enjoy your tea he said and signalled to Ms Hopper. Good bye my dear and both were gone in a blink into the wilderness.

 

I wish them good luck and all happiness in life. Till we meet again. Will we? I wonder!!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© NOEL ELLIS