Another rise and shine beautiful morning. Mom made Kashayam and tea. Paired them with newspaper. We all settled on Maggi for breakfast. I made yummy banana chocolate smoothie. Sunny was helping mom make lunch. Dining Table filled with stories, debates, and jokes. Just a perfect day.
The aunty who does housekeeping took the day off. But mom already put clothes in the washing machine and the sink is full of dishes. She got ready for office and told me and Sunny to split the work. She did warn us that we will be ripped if we don’t finish the work by the time she comes home for lunch. She ain’t wrong because we do have a history of not doing the chores. I used the ‘I have so much work today, you do it this time, next time I’ll do for sure’ card with Sunny and it didn’t work. He took doing the dishes and I took drying the clothes. I connected my AirPods for music and was dancing in the balcony drying the clothes. 10 minutes later. Exactly when I was listening to The Show by Lenka where she sings “I’m just a little girl lost in the moment, I’m so scared but I don’t show it” and swaying to the beat, the shirt I was drying on the wire, hit the AirPod on my left ear sending it flying. No!
I thought it fell somewhere in the balcony. I first searched calmly and then frantically. I didn’t find it. I screamed for Sunny who was peacefully attending his online class and he joined me in the search. Slowly, realisation hit me that it must have flew out. I looked out and peeped down. We live on the 5th floor. I saw a bunch of sunshades, a big lawn, a wall, and rocks. From this height, the only chance of survival is if it fell in the lawn. I’ve no clue who else lives in the apartment. I moved to Mom’s place in the middle of Covid restrictions 3 months ago and the only people I know here are the watchman’s family. I’ve been living in a Covid bubble. I honestly don’t know who my neighbours are. I put on my mask, took the elevator down, and rang the doorbell of a flat on the ground floor. The lady who opened the door clearly had it written on her face that they were not expecting visitors. Of course, everybody is the Covid bubble. I felt like a kid who while playing cricket hit the ball into the neighbour’s home next door. I apologetically said, “Hey, my AirPod fell from the top floor, maybe into your lawn. Do you mind if I look for it?”. She’s like “your what?”. I pulled out my other AirPod and showed her that this little guy is lost and I have to find him. She let me into her lawn and guess what, they had a cute little dog with caramel brown fur!
Sunny went to the flats in other floors to see if it fell on their sunshades. I started looking for it in the lawn. I looked up high at our home and calculated the probable projectile motion and possible landing ranges. I read stories online on how to use “Find My Phone'” app to locate the lost AirPod. Still searching. Watchman uncle also joined us. Tch a 100$ down the drain. Why? Because I had to dance to music while drying clothes. Wow.
Finally, uncle spotted it hidden in the lawn at the foot of a bushy tree and it was still working! Thank God! We thanked everybody and I was dancing in the elevator back home. I and Sunny were discussing how we didn’t even know who all lived in this place. He was telling me about the homes he visited and who all were there. As I was back to drying the rest of the clothes, this time with music on speakers, I couldn’t help but laugh how chaotic the last 20 minutes were. This is the first time I stepped into strangers’ home after several months. Covid changed things so much that today I felt the urge to write down what would have just been the most basic thing in life a year ago.
This is just a little story. But in the most unexpected way, it pushed me out of my Covid Bubble. Now I know that people in my apartment have a cute dog! When all these Covid restrictions disappear and we all get our vaccine shots, I might go pet him someday! ✨
Vineesha Badabhagni 
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