“Finish your milk,” said Mommy, waving a finger at Junior’s face. Then, she clasped dad’s hands, and they hid behind a thorny branch.  Later, they crawled under the bed, while bushy-tailed squirrels popping out of burrows tickled Junior. 

Firstly, the thumb-sucking boy acted out his dad by hobbling on a twig. Earlier, Papa had spanked him because he strayed too close to the termite hills visited by white-tipped tail dogs.  “I’m a man,” said Junior, punching his chest. The sinking sun pictured a basking lizard, while Junior squatted at the yellow flames. 

The boy rubbed his chin on the day he stole the painted dog’s puppies as darkness swallowed the shadows. Later, he crisscrossed one leg over the other. A mouse massaged his foot with a snaky tail, and he crunched the flickering coals with naked feet. The lizards clicked that the moon was about to come. Yet the boy ignored the hooting owl chasing him into the hut.  A streaky shooting star dyed the sky pink, and his heart pounded. Soon the sleepy embers blinked, and he stretched his hands over a pile of hot ash. 

Instantly, the skin-biting cold pinched his ears, and a hairy spider ran over his feet. Thereafter, he tiptoed towards the hut.  He stretched his hands over the candle’s glow and sizzled a moth in the bright-yellow flame. 

This time, he slammed the door and napped with his knees in a V-shape.  Suddenly, the door creaked. “Who’s there?” he asked, hair rising on his arms, while pointing the crooked twig at the door. 

“Who opened the door?” he asked, longing for mommy’s campfire stories. “The wind,” said a voice.  “The wind can’t talk,” said Junior, giggling. Immediately, the wind rattled a metal sheet from the roof. Junior rested on his needle-sharp elbows as fear numbed his legs. 

Suddenly, he tripped over the twig and wiped the sweat from his armpits.  In one swallow, he finished a jug of sour milk. Afterwards, he tucked himself into bed and began to hum. Something slammed the door, and he rubbed chicken pimples on his arms. Now, he emptied the second jug in two swallows.  This time, his parents blocked their giggles by pinching each other. 

The wind blew, and a branch knocked at the window.  The knocking made his heart skip, and the wind jingled the pee pot against a Y-shaped branch. Before the pale-yellow water could drip, he hopped outside.  Now, the moon drew its shadow in front of him and a large-eared bat chews on his left ear. Fear had made him deaf to the pissing urine. Junior blocked his ears at the banging walnut-shaped seed pods that he mistook for gunshots. Finally, a naked-neck rooster cock-a-doodle-doo and mommy burst into laughter. 

-Mungambue@gmail.com