An Unexpected Christmas Gift Options

[Thoth]

Ducking beneath windows, our patrol skilfully avoided detection
from inside the house. One last major hazard loomed–
the front veranda door. I kept lookout for danger as they dashed past,
singly to vanish into the welcoming shadows and lush foliage
of the great mulberry tree whose dropping branches
reached all the way to the down to the ground.

Then it was my turn. Seeing no movement beyond the open curtains,
I leopard-crawled across the lawn keeping close and low.
Sensing movement I instinctively froze, hoping any observer
would glance right over my head.

Behind the dark gauze fly-screens, almost above me,
a strangely familiar face materialized.
Intense blue eyes stared out from an expression of
amused detachment but I knew that this did not
necessarily mean detection, after all, I lay in deep shadow
from the overhanging roof.

How long I was thus transfixed, I have no idea,
it was a battle of willpower but eventually a brief smile
creased the corners of her eyes and she lowered her gaze
to whatever work lay on her lap. Perhaps she had been merely
watching a Heuglins Robin feeding her chicks in the prickly pear hedge.

Threat over, I took my cue and slipped quickly away after the others.

Concealed by the mulberry tree at the end of the lawn,
low fences guarded the vegetable patch with its abundance of
juicy red tomatoes and green runner-beans.
Rows of sweet carrots and spicy radishes lay
between the cabbages and spinach,
but this was not our destination today.

Beyond the vegetable patch a large buffalo-thorn rose
from dense bush thicket behind which flowed
the forbidden irrigation furrow over its bed of shale stone.
The other children were already at play in our “enchanted forest”
and I quickly explored the potential of the red clay-bank,
building roads and gouging tunnels for dinky trucks and cars.
Once more I became the construction engineer,
the planner of model towns,
builder of dams, boats and tree-forts.

Then, sounds of a busy household intruded
and my forest scene faded away. Elizabeth’s voice called me
and reality displaced dreamland as I opened my eyes
to the sight of mangoes glowing in the afternoon light and the
smell of roasting meat.

The cherished image of Mother’s knowing smile from fifty years ago
lingered with me the rest of Christmas day.


© WW Schwim 25 December 2009