The First Day

It was a long day. Filled with the chilling winds, which made your knees ache worst than having a bad case of rheumatism. Water droplets started trickling from the roof and soon the weather became unpleasant. Unlike the usual days where I would choose to sit on my mud stained sofa I chose to play in the rain, old nostalgia of swimming in an old fish pool filled with rain water crossed my mind giving me the urge to fight the weather and walk to a nearby warung. That was the first day I saw it. Or more correctly him. As every human being in sight quickly and swiftly turned into zombies he was the only enthusiastic burst of life present in the village landscape. Joyfully skipping through the puddled asphalt road in his orange gumboots, splashing milky chocolate water aroundl.He eagerly played hopscotch right in front of the closed warung. He wore a transparent waterproof cloak and his rusted bike was layed carelessly among many of the thick bushes decorating the roadside. Not 2 meters away stood a fragile grandma, sheltering from the rain in a demented floral umbrella. The expression on her face seemed worried at the safety of the little skipping boy. 'Hati- hati Ditya,' I could hear her rasped voice echoing through the damp air as she rushed to help Ditya who had fallen. His fish like eyes did not exert any pain though and he quickly managed to convince his grandma that he was ok. As the grandma motioned towards her original standing spot whilst coughing, I quickly rushed to her side,' Biar saya saja yang mengawasi anak itu,' I said, offering myself as the little boy's baby sitter. The grandma's naive and innocent face quickly scrunched up into a pickled prune as she doubtfully assessed my appearance. The little boy though had other plans. He sprinted towards my side and quickly tugged my hand, 'Kakak, mau main sama Ditya?'. I nodded as a response. Soon, he started frog jumping through the bushes, trying to find the mose flat and symmetrical pebble for me to play with. Greatly moved by his intentions to only give me the best I risked a dirty hand as i scavenged through the bushes helping him. That was when I realised, that I hadn't formally introduced myself to this young boy, and yet he already gave me 110% of his trust, I was in awe. Trying to prepare myself for the all compulsory hand shake, i wiped my muddy palms on the raincoat I had on. I bent myself to meet the young boy's eye level and said 'Nama saya, Indra, nama kamu siapa?' the boy replied in the monosyllabic manner saying 'Ya,ya,' without any definite meaning. I decided to translate my previous line in balinese saying 'Adan'e tiang Indra,' and then he nodded while saying' Adan'e Ditya,' he then stood up, placing his hands on his hips and in a joking manner pretended he was a soldier as he took my hand in a formal hand shake. Split seconds later he was back on the ground shoveling through the dirt and when he found what he thought was the perfect pebble, he leaped towards me and said 'Kakak, sudah ketemu yang bagus. Ayo main!'. I opened my palm to let in the smooth pebble. I had a few pebbles which I gathered in my other palm but decided to discard them as a gesture of appreciating his immense efforts. Grabbing a brick from the sidewalk he thickened the existing hopscotch patch and threw his pebble before asking for my permission to go first. I giggled, how typical, I thought. I nodded as an approval for him to start the game and he quickly balanced on one limb and started jumping towards the rock. A number of kids then quickly joined us as the weather cleaned up. Making me realize at the time which had been consumed by the game. I quickly bid farewell to the Dadong and Ditya by waving briskly as I entered my house. 'Main lagi ya besok!' he said with hopeful eyes sparkling eyes.