Before I gave birth to Gar, I would drive El to school. I would rush from my work during lunch, and then pick him up from his grandparents’ place, and then to school, and then I rush back to work. It took me 2 hours each time, but I enjoyed the times. In the evenings, I would rush from my work to his school to bring him home for dinner.
I would take the opportunity to talk to him, and he would talk about his friends. Sometimes, he would recount the things that took place in class. Usually, they would involve his five other classmates, and the topic was usually about playing in the playground. He liked to use the adverbial phrase ‘just now’ as a time marker, but his ‘just now’ ranged from months to hours. For example, he would say, “Just now R ran after me in the playground.”
However, it was something that had taken place a few days ago.
Apart from talking about school, he would look around and tell me about the road signs. One of the signs had ‘Upp X Rd’, ‘X’ being one of the road names, and he would be very puzzled. There was only ‘up’ and no ‘upp’. When I told him it stood for ‘upper’, he was not happy with the answer, and like other children, he continued to ask me five times why it was ‘upp’. It was the same for ‘Rd’.
Orchard Rd
“The sign is too small!”
“RD stands for ‘road’.”
This was where I had to be creative. Every time he asked me the same question, I had to come up with a better way of answering. I wonder whether it is better to reply the same thing again, or explain in another way.
Along the way, there was some construction work. He kept looking out for excavators and cranes. Sometimes they were not around, and a lot of explanation was required.
Unfortunately, after I gave birth, my mother took over the job, and I don’t get to talk to him that much. It is only on a few occasions I get to steal time and get to talk to the little boy.
