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Started by Boris_amj, May 28, 2014, 09:05:09 AM

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Boris_amj

I must have been four of five.

We all liked a swim in the river, although the water seemed at the same time appealing and frightening.
Bathan was always the first to go on. "Come on!", he would shout, "Last in is a dummy!". Then we would all go in. Cautiously at first, but soon losing all fear, with the pure happiness that only a child can achieve. We were living the moment, playing with the fish, the deer and other aquatic creatures.

Thinking back, we seemed to be in a perpetual state of hunger. We would have long periods where the only food on the table was cabbage. Cabbage in the morning, cabbage for lunch and cabbage just before going to bed.
I was rather stupid and lazy. Never questioned my parents or their behaviour. Never even wondered why they went for long journeys and came home with what to me was just a boring bunch of stones.

But I distinctly remember the fire. While I was actually fascinated by the bright lights, everybody in the village went frantically from one place to another. Panic would spread like, well, fire. All the children were sitting on the wells, which offered a good advantage point over the rather chaotic proceedings. Adults never bothered us, so we had good entertaining while we munched at our cabbage pies.

An uncle came to me with a rather sad face. He told me my mum and dad had gone away and that I was to go and live with him and auntie Ethel. All I could think at the time was that he smelled funny and could I go with my parents instead, please. He looked at me with that awkward face adults pull when confronted with the rather direct child logic.

A rude noise wakes me from my reveries: "Oi, granpa! Get a move on, will you?"
With a sigh, I pay the cashier and walk slowly back to my one bedroom flat.
Tonight I will dream of my village and of happy times.
Alone, I eat my cabbage soup in silence.