One Sunday afternoon, I was busy and lost in the world of a good book when suddenly I heard the of children laughing and screaming with excitement, like kids always do.

At first, I thought those would be the neighbour’s kids, but then, outside my window, I saw a tiny, flying train, with creatures that were honestly cute. I thought I was dreaming, and I even pinched myself two to three times to wake myself up.

The train came down and landed right beside me. On the train was written “Punctuations”. I was confused, and got more so with what happened next.

First, the Comma jumped out of the tiny train and climbed my leg and sat on my knee. I was so shocked that I froze. Then suddenly the Comma spoke.

“Hello there! What’s up?” he said in a charming way. He was literally the size of my eraser. I found him really cute.

“H … hi there. I am Eshaal,” I replied, quite shocked.

Then, from the train, all the others came out too – Full Stop, followed by Question Mark, Quotation Marks and Exclamation Mark, then marched in Apostrophe and Colin. They were seven in total.

The Question Mark and the Exclamation Mark were quite similar, because they had one boot or, should I say the “dot” we humans put. They were just like the seven dwarfs with me being ‘Snow White’.

The Full Stop spoke up first. “Hey! Coma boss, why did we have to bring Apostrophe with us. He always makes fun of me and says I look like an egg and I always stop others.”

At first, I thought those would be the neighbour’s kids, but then, outside my window, I saw a tiny, flying train, with creatures that were honestly cute. I thought I was dreaming, and I even pinched myself two to three times to wake myself up.

I slightly smiled in case the Full Stop would’ve got hurt if I had laughed. It turned out that Coma was the ‘boss’ of them. Then they all turned towards me and I decided to introduce myself.

“Hi, I am Eshaal! It’s nice to meet you. From where did you guys come?” I asked.

“Hello there! I am Mr Colon, the oldest of them all. We have come from the world called ‘Punctuations’. You must have seen us appear in the books you read.”

“Yes, I have. But I am often confused when I see you guys, especially when writing. Can you clear the concept that why and when are each of you to be used?” I replied.

“Sure, we will. But first let me introduce ourselves as Punctuations. We are really important in English language since without us, stories, compositions, essays and even sentences will make little sense,” said the Coma, confidently.

He continued, “I am Coma. I am used in separating objects, or sometimes for a two-second pause. For example, when listing things, I am used to separate the different things, like this sentence: ‘I bought milk, cheese, bread and eggs from the store’. And another example is, ‘Let’s eat, Daddy’. This is when and why I am needed.”

Then the Question Mark spoke up, “I am Question Mark. The boot you see is the dot you put under me. I am used in the end of an interrogative sentence. When people ask a question, they use me, so that others know that it’s a question.”

I nodded my head in agreement.

“But what is the job of an apostrophe? I am really confused by it and usually lose marks because of it,” I said, the confusion clearly written on my face.

“Well, I am useful to show two things, those letters which are missed out like, ‘does’ with ‘not’ is shortened as ‘doesn’t’. I also tell something that belongs to someone or something like, the ‘dog’s tail’. But remember, they are not plurals! And, there is a difference between ‘it’s’ and ‘its’, said the Apostrophe.

At this point, the Quotation Marks burst in, “I am Quotation Marks. I am twice the size of Apostrophe, and I am used at the start and end of a direct quotation or a speech, to indicate the words spoken by someone. That makes me very important, you see. In dialogues, you really need me.”

“And I am used to express feelings like ‘Oh!’ And ‘Wow!’”, exclaimed the Exclamation Mark.

Suddenly, the Colon spoke up.

“I can be useful for writing about facts. You can use me to introduce a list or examples. But remember, you don’t need a capital letter after me unless the word is a proper noun,” he said.

“And you should end a sentence with me. I show that the sentence is finished,” the full stop said.

“The funny thing about me is that I can mean the difference between life and death. For example, ‘Let’s eat, granny’ shouldn’t be written as ‘Let’s eat granny’. If you don’t put me in the right place, you might end up eating Granny,” said the coma, laughing at its own joke.

I couldn’t help myself from laughing out loud, then I thanked them for giving me such useful information and simplifying the confusion that punctuation marks cause.

After this, they waved goodbye and climbed up the train, flew away and vanished. I will always remember them and what they told me about themselves, and hopefully, be able to use them properly in sentences. Hope they were also able to make you understand them better.

Published in Dawn, Young World, December 4th, 2021