Neverland

"Aidan made a new friend today", V-Jane greeted me when I came home from work one evening. Aidan, Via's kid, is 1 year and 7 months old. He is the smartest kid under 2 years old I know. Of course, I said the same thing about my two cousins Inno and Rico when they were still little.

"Really? What's your friend's name, baby?" as I ran after him for a kiss. I make it a point not to use baby talk but I could not resist it at times, especially when he covers his eyes with those little fingers of his and pretend to wail. Yes, he wails.

"Say hi to your friend, Aidan" V-Jane said. He started to turn around from one side to another, looking down. V-Jane was amused. I wondered. At last he found it and waved at his own figure cast upon the floor. Two days later he came to know it as the shadow.

Last night, V-Jane was up to her old tricks again.

"Aidan, touch the shadow."

I didn't think it was funny seeing a little boy, who is very much a baby in my eyes, on all fours trying to catch his shadow. Oh not at all! I scolded V-Jane for teaching Aidan these things, telling her she'd be better off reading the kid "Wizard of Oz".

"Watch, Ate. This, I did not teach him at all. Aidan, show tita! Touch the shadow."

Aidan, turning from left to right, head down, searching for his cast figure, making a few steps forward and back, and when he was satisfied at the boy figure on the floor, stopped. He stood still, slowly lifted his right hand, and held it on the tip of his head.

I smiled. Smart boy, I thought. Somehow I wished he would never grow up.

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"When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies."
- Peter Pan