‘What are you doing?’ a young innocent high pitched voice reverberated into my ears. I took a break from digging and looked up to see two curious eyes staring back at me. A five year old girl was standing there with her arms folded, watching me intently. She had two ponytails, tied with rubber -emerging from sideways of her big cute head. The magic of her innocence made me forget my work and I found myself wondering who might this child be. ‘What are you doing?’ She repeated again.

‘Go away kid. This is not a place to play.’ I said rudely, kicking myself from inside for talking to a child like that. But that was a vulnerable place. I was digging the foundations of my own existence. No one should come near that place. I picked up my spade and resumed my work again.

‘Who would like to come here anyways? This place looks haunted to me.’ Her melodious voice again disturbed my eardrums and of course my concentration and work.

‘You still here?’ I asked dropping my spade and wiping away the sweat from my forehead with the help of my index finger.

‘Yup.’ She said almost instantly. She was standing in the same stance -with her hands folded and curiosity dripping from her twinkling hazel eyes.

‘What do you want child?’ I said gasping from exhaustion.

‘I just want to see you work, please. This looks so interesting.’ She was not going to give up. I came out of the dug portion and sat on the edge -my legs still hanging inside. She followed the same and sat by my side with a friendly smile on her familiar face.

‘Who do you think used to live here?’ I asked her.

‘Ummm…..Not sure. Maybe ghosts.’ A weak smile crossed my face, courtesy to her naive childish talks.

‘Yes. You’re right. Ghosts used to live here. But I scared them off.’

‘Wow. You’re so brave. I want to be like you.’ She said sweetly. I patted her head.

‘Who used to live here before ghosts?’ I asked her, lost in my own plethora of thoughts. She stared back at me blankly -waiting for some answers.

‘You see these ruins -this place here, kiddo? It is me. Now. But it wasn’t the same before. It was beautiful. People used to live here. Pretty people, lovely people. This place used to be like a royal palace. Love, pain, anger, joy, jealousy, passion and every other member of the emotion-family was here. This place used to shower kindness to everyone. Everything was so beautiful.’ With nostalgic teary eyes, I looked towards the kid hoping she would have lost her interest. She didn’t. She stretched her hands to wipe my cheeks with her little red palms.

‘Wow. This sounds like a fairy tale to me. But what happened then? Why everyone left?’

‘Well, the house was destroyed. Some people let it get destroyed it. Some people helped it get destroyed.’ I said, confessing to myself.

‘Who would want to destroy something so beautiful?’ She asked half excited, half annoyed.

‘A storm passed by one day my child. The same people who used to live here abandoned it. The same pretty and lovely people.’ I said without looking at her. ‘It was shaking but definitely not broken. Not broken until the last person was in. But everyone left eventually. Love and his family of emotions left it in ruins. By ghosts I meant the memories which resided here once everyone left. But I got over them too. Now it’s just this little covered foundation which is intact.’

‘What are you going to do now?’ She asked. I smiled weakly.

‘I am going to make something new here. Something more beautiful. Something stronger -where more beautiful people can stay. Not reside. Stay. Something where I can call back love and his family.’

‘Ah….So you are making a skyscraper!’

‘Yes something like that.’

‘Why are digging out that small portion that is left of you then?’ She asked.

‘We don’t make tall, strong buildings on weak foundations my child. We don’t make skyscrapers on remnants.’

With that I jumped back again inside the pit, digging out the earth madly and repeating in unison with my own echo – we don’t make skyscrapers on remnants.