Scared of the slides

Siddarth, who can communicate reasonably intelligibly for his age, hasn’t been able to tell us why he gets scared of the slides at the park. And this slides-phobia appears to have been recently acquired.

His parents say Siddarth hasn’t been this way when they had brought him here during their earlier day-trip to San Francisco some weeks back. Mom Meera feels the fear of the slides might be the upshot of an incident/accident at play-school; and she hasn't been able to persuade Siddarth to talk about it.

His teacher Chelsea, who keeps Meera informed of Siddarth’s doings at school, hasn’t mentioned any thing either. Parents who pick up their children get a daily report from Chelsea, who is at the school gate to see-off her every student. Evidently, she isn't aware of any happening that could be related to Siddarth's new-found phobia of slides. Maybe it isn't related to anything that happened at play-school.

Siddarth, I find, is capable of dreaming up reasons. He has this fear of darkness. Ask him why; and he would say, 'because planes come in the night'. It appears that once, waking up in the middle of the night, Siddarth spotted from bedroom window two small planes moving across the sky. He associates darkness with the coming of the planes. Whatever this has to do with his fear of darkness remains unclear. What is clear, and real is his fear.He wouldn't step out on to our balcony to watch the July4 night fireworks.