Where did you last leave Love?

“Peeves!”

“Now what?” asked Peeves, miffed at being interrupted in the middle of an important meeting.

“Our Love’s gone missing!” Squabbles cried over the phone.

“That happened some time ago, I’m afraid,” he retorted.

“Peeves, Love has gone missing!”

“Dammit! Where?” asked Peeves, almost wringing his neck with his office badge.

“Peeves, Love wouldn’t be missing if I knew where,” she snapped.

An hour later, the confrontation scene had shifted to the living room of their house, but Love was nowhere to be found yet.

“You ought to have been a little more careful with Love,” rued Peeves, an acerbic remark that was followed by another heavy bout of verbal warfare.

When they were done with all the slandering, they realized they must run a thorough search. But the neighbours knew nothing, neither did the roadside hawkers and the shopkeepers. Every two minutes, they would sit down for a breather, and then get into a distasteful debate on their individual endeavours at nurturing Love with their sole supervision and affection. Then momentarily, one of them would see sense and begin the futile search again.

Finally, they consulted the cops. “Our Love’s gone missing!” Squabbles broke down at the police station.

“Ask me about it,” said the cop. “The story of our lives, I say.”

“Love is the name of our year-old son, officer,” Peeves explained impatiently.

“Where did you last leave him?”, was among a series of questions they were asked before they received an assurance that no stone would be left unturned to get the boy back home.

“Try looking in the backyard, my friends,” the cop suggested. “You might just have the answer to your problem.”

Peeves and Squabbles made a dash back home, and swung open the door that led to their backyard. Indeed, there sat Love, evidently oblivious to what had transpired. Love wore a disconcerted look, seemingly telling them he was not to be blamed. They had left the door ajar, after all. And that was only the first time he had escaped their attention, he seemed to tell them. They picked up the boy and lay him in the cot; then carefully bolted the door and drew the blinds.

“We need to be more careful,” they said to each other. One more time.

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