Travel combs

(Inspired by the drawing below by Parvathi Mohan)

When Paru bought the box of combs at the local jumble sale, she was not bargaining to have her life turned upside down. The six combs, all brand new, were laid out in a velvet lined box with its own golden hinges and dainty latch. She wanted the box, badly. The combs, she wasn’t too keen. In fact, she never used combs. She had a lovely brush for her wavy black hair. 

Some of Paru’s uncles were bald, not egg bald yet but getting there on a fast train. She could count on her fingers the hair remaining on their head. Ok, maybe fingers and toes. There’s a thought. She could gift the combs to her uncles and keep the box. Definitely, a good investment of her pocket money. Her mind was made up.  

The stall owner was an old woman with skin wrinkled like a well-worn shoe. She was dressed in a black silk gown. Granny was old. She looked like Granny’s granny. Her hair was not grey or silver but a brilliant white, the colour of new snow. It didn’t look real. But if it were a wig, why would it be white? Her frail body was bent, the shape of a cashew nut.

The woman’s eyes were two little suns shining from her oval face. Dad had once showed Paru how to set fire to paper using a magnifying glass in the sunlight. The woman probably hid a magnifying glass behind each eye. She could burn anything she looked at.

Paru glanced around for mum. She was at a book stall a few metres away. Why was she always buying books? Dad was the same. Every wall in their house was taken up with bookshelves, every corner had a shelf of – what else – books, even the kitchen table had a semi-permanent pile. At last, mum was walking in her direction. Thank God. She will stop the comb seller from turning her ten-year old daughter to cinder. 

“How much is this please?” Paru asked, trying not to show her fear.

“Just a fiver for you, my dear,” the woman smiled. 

Her voice did not match her looks. Paru expected it to sound sandpapery to go with her blazing eyes and eagle beak nose. But it had the soft ring of wind chimes.

Mum arrived just in time and set about examining the combs. She plucked their fine teeth like a harp, bent them every which way, knocked them against the tabletop. It was as if she were the world’s foremost expert on combs. 

Finally, she declared, “Genuine buffalo horn.” Paru handed the woman her pocket money for the month. The woman locked the box and handed it to her. Still holding the key in her hand, she whispered in her ear, “Paru, you will travel to interesting places!” 

What! How did she know her name? What interesting places? But she didn’t dare ask.

Then handing the key over, she said, “I am Cecilia. Look after them.” 

*

Every night, before going to bed, Paru unplaited and brushed her long, soft hair.

“It will start sweeping the floor soon,” mum joked sometimes.

Later that evening, Paru took the combs out of their box and studied them. Running her fingers along their handles, she felt some embossed letters. They were hard to read, however hard she squinted. Thinking quickly, she fetched the magnifying glass from dad’s study. Each comb had something different written on them. She felt like a detective from mum’s TV serials. She carefully copied the words on a piece of paper:

       FOREST, GRASSLAND, TUNDRA, DESERT, FRESH WATER, MARINE

She had no idea what some of these words meant. But she wasn’t going to give away her secret to anyone, not even to her parents. Cecilia should have given her more information. Just then, a cunning plan occurred to her. She sneaked downstairs and fixed the list on the fridge door with a magnet. That evening, mum asked her,

       “Paru, are they teaching you ecosystems at school?”

       “No, mum. I copied the words from somewhere,” she replied truthfully. Then suppressing a fake yawn, and putting on a by-the-way-I-am-not-interested-in-this-stuff look, she asked,

“Mum, what are ecosystems?”

Her parents smiled at each other, looking pleasantly surprised. Although both were Environmental Science teachers, this was the first time Paru had shown any interest in the subject. 

       “Ecosystems are complex, interconnected…” Dad started but stopped himself midway.

“Why don’t we watch a film on Ecosystems?” he said.

Almost jumping up from the sofa and forgetting all about the not-interested look she had put on a minute ago, she said,

       “Please can we watch it now?”

Paru was awestruck by the variety of life on Earth. She was fascinated by how everything fitted together like a giant jigsaw puzzle. The Earth itself was a living story book far more exciting than any fairy tale. Cecilia’s words, “look after them”, came back to her. Did she mean the polar bears, zebras, and multicoloured parrots? How could a ten-year-old look after all of them? 

Paru was impatient to get back to her room and investigate further. But she didn’t want her parents to suspect anything and come knocking at her door. She gobbled her dinner and brushed her teeth. At exactly nine o’clock, her official bed time, she kissed her parents good night and disappeared into her room. 

Opening her box of combs, Paru sat in front of the large mirror in her room. She untied her hair and let it cascade over her right shoulder. Choosing the comb marked FOREST, she started combing in long downward strokes. Within a short time, she was using it like an expert. Her mind wandered. She thought of her friends at school, the jokes they told each other, the pranks they played on their classmates. All the while, she continued to comb. Long, elegant strokes.

Something strange was happening, something that felt unreal. She could see her hair but not her face or the rest of her body. Shrubs and trees were shooting up from each strand of hair.  Big eyed frogs croaked from boulders. Bright, feathered parrots with red beaks shrieked. Koels sang perched on tall bamboo trees. A waterfall crashed down in one corner. Fish of all shapes and colours swam in little ponds carpeted with water lilies. Monkeys swung from branches. Every strand of hair on her head had transformed into something else. It was as if she had disappeared and all that was left was the black comb moving by itself. Up down, up down. She was inside a tropical forest. The air was warm and humid. Paru was part of the ecosystem! Yes. She was enjoying her trip, as Cecilia had predicted.

But wait, who was that giant at the edge of the forest? And why was she wearing Paru’s pyjamas? Why! It was Paru herself. It was as if she had entered a miniature world, a bit like Gulliver in Lilliput. She decided to enjoy the adventure while it lasted although she knew it was only a pleasant dream. There could be no other explanation. 

It was only by chance that she noticed some men prowling about with rifles. She didn’t like the look of them. Fortunately, none of them could see her although she was standing right next to them. She watched them run towards the waterfall. There were six of them and were surrounding a huge elephant. Its tusks nearly as long as its trunk, it was a magnificent animal with large fan ears. Then, one of the men took aim and fired. He missed by a few centimetres. A million birds, startled by the gunshot, flew squawking from the trees. The elephant raised its trunk and trumpeted so loud that the trees shook. It charged up the mountain. The men chased after it. 

Paru knew she had to act. With a sweep of her indexfinger, she knocked down all the men as if they were pawns on a chessboard. She broke a length of vine from a tree, tied them up in a bundle and left them on top of the tallest tree.

Her arm was beginning to hurt. She stopped combing. Suddenly, the forest disappeared. So did the baddies with their rifles. No elephants, no monkeys, no birds – nothing. She was sitting in front of the mirror, black comb in hand, long hair over her right shoulder. The reflection in the mirror was as it should have been. Just an ordinary little girl sitting in an ordinary little room. It was well past her bedtime and Paru dived under the duvet.

She woke up late next morning wondering about the most amazing dream of her life. She went down for breakfast and just couldn’t wait to tell her friends at school. Just then she glanced at the TV. Breaking news, scrolled the headlines, “Six illegal ivory poachers tied up and left on a tree.”