Trounced

I served him a deep laugh when he expected awe and respect, but isn't delirium the reward of deep wisdom? I put my hands on his shoulders and found that my thumbs touched each other, forming a tapering fleshy necklace of love around his tenuous throat. I went down on my haunches and found a littler me looking at myself from those black pearls gazing out of slippery white.

"I am sorry. I think you are right, and I was laughing at my stupidity for not seeing it."
He turned his head slightly looking at me askance with some suspicion, which is the unbecoming of human life. I nodded my head slowly, and cheer returned to his firm and throbbing cheeks.

"So, we should do that, right?"
"I think we should."
"But don't tell mommy. She doesn't like it."
"Doesn't like what?"

He looked down at his toes as he dug them deeper into the river silt. I started swaying him slowly, back and forth with my arms still on his shoulders and he smiled. The increasing pace tickled a broader smile and then a laugh out of him. The truth about his mother's discontent could wait.

"So, when do you think we should do it?"
"Of course, when they come to bathe!" He smacked his head and stood arms akimbo.
"Of course, silly me." I stood up and watched the silt dance like toothpaste from between my toes. He was watching it too.
"Chee chee, dirty."
I gave him a wicked smile and asked him, "Do you want to touch it?"
He didn't answer and bent down. He held a stiff index finger out and threatened the icing of silt around my feet.
"It's like on a cake", I said, which coaxed him into moving it faster toward the fresh, moist brown. He poked it a little and withdrew his hands in a shock.
"It's soft", he whispered and casually poked tiny craters into it with his finger. He attacked each bubble that broke out of the mud and soon started ferociously scrapping it all over my feet.

I picked him up around his waist and took him to the water. I washed my feet and dipped him parallel to the water surface. He was screeching and slapped the water while his soft hair flew wildly.
When we finally sat down under the tree, he hugged one thigh of mine and I could feel his excited chest beat softly against my inner thigh. I smiled to the back of his head and my joy burst through him and onto his lips.
"There! There they come."

I snapped in the direction he was pointing and watched them stroll with a maddening ease for their noon bath. I thought they were all alone, but spotted the half naked boy between them. They walked over to the bank and looked around to see if they were the only ones there. We were hiding behind the trunk and they didn't spot us. They slowly sank into the water and splashed around a bit. When the water buoyed them, they sighed in unison.
The boy stripped to his loin cloth and hurled himself into the water. He landed in their midst, flat on his back and slapped their bellies. They didn't even cringe.

"You sure?"I hissed into his ear. He started and shuddered around his neck. I mouthed a quick "sorry"
"I am not sure. Do you think it would work?" he asked while returning to watch them.
"I don't know. We could plant milk in the river and wait. How long did you say it would take to grow?"
"How do I know? The idea is mine, but these things I don't know."
"Hmmm"

He sat with his back to the tree and to the bathers. He was hesitating and he picked a twig and started scratching between the grass.
"What happened?"
"I don't know. What if mommy finds out?"
"What if the milk seeds do grow and we have a river of milk and all those cows and buffaloes are freed?"
"Yeah, but maybe someone else should do it."
"Hmmm."
"As in, I am still studying in the 1st standard."
"True."
"Maybe, you should go and do it as I planned and I will make sure no one comes and catches you."
"That is mighty kind of you, but I am not as brave as you are."
"I am not."

I sat down beside him and we looked straight ahead along the road which pierced the horizon into several corrugated roofed factories and mills. A distant windmill rolled and humoured a few crows.
"Maybe I will tell everyone in school tomorrow and everyone will know that it is my idea."
"But who will do it?"
He was silent and lazily scratched the grass. He tore some of the green blades and clutched them in his fist.
"I have to go now. Mommy will be waiting for me."
He got up and dusted the seat of his pants. He tugged his underwear out from between his buttocks and started walking away.
"Bye."
"Bye", he said and walked on. When he climbed over the road he turned around and saw me sitting there as he had left me.
"Mommy doesn't like me talking to you. She thinks you will spoil me. I have to go to school and become a big doctor."
He walked on towards where an otherwise infinite road stopped and festered with the intellectual commas of the human mind.