light creates shadow: September 2021

Monday, 6 September 2021

A Short Story

ON MY BACK (A short story)

I have known him since he was very little. I used to hear him cry and his father would bring him out and make him sit on my back, he would laugh and giggle. He is tall and older now, Ooo about 90 to 100 lb. Every morning at dusk wearing a khaki shorts, a white t-shirt sometimes a tank top, a stick in his one hand and lunch in other a twig in his mouth he jumps on my back RRRRRR HHA and off we go. Same spot everyday, sometimes I see my footprint from the previous day on wet mud. This spot we go to is enormous, plenty of food to chew on all day and a huge lake where we bathe which I look forward to.

On our way to the the "spot", he serenade me with his voice. He has a voice like that of the box that sings when we are at home but sometimes his voice cracks and when it does he stops and looks to his left to his right and back and then resume singing. He whistles and make rude remarks when he see a young girl pass by.

We take a bath in this huge reservoir and in no time other boys would show up, they stand on my back and jump in the water; I do not like it. When I am in the water I like to relax and stay in all afternoon because it gets very hot an flies are bothersome.

We sit down under a tree in the middle of the hazy hot day, his head on my belly and he would talk to me for about half an hour or so about a girl he admire. I have seen her a few times on our way to the reservoir. He does not speak rudely or make inappropriate remarks as he does with other girls; as a matter of fact he is speechless when we pass by her. He does not even look at her but as soon she is behind us walking away only then he would look back, he would stop me and stare at her until she has disappeared into the the horizon. I think he is in what in human terms is called "love". He should talk to somebody who is older and experienced in this matter of hearts. I wonder if she feel the same way about him as he feels about her. By the way he does talk about other things which we will not get into.

He eats his lunch when the sun is on top of our heads. He sleeps for a while after eating his lunch. Silence, birds singing their songs, dancing up in the blue sky AAHHHHHH.

When he wakes up he walks away into the bushes and urinates (that is what I think he does), talks to some of the boys, sometimes play with these little balls made out of glass that he carry around in his pocket and sometimes they play with sticks; there is a long stick and a very small stick and they have to hit the small stick with the long stick when it is in the air and if some one catches the small stick the person who hits the small stick is considered out and if the small stick hits the ground you have measure how far the small stick travelled. The person who hit the small stick the furthest wins. I know I question too.

Time to go back now and we are casting a long shadow like some monster walking ahead of us. Is he lazy or is he tiered, he does not do anything all day so as to get tiered. He is always sitting on my back. Same routine every day day for a very very long time. I am old now.