MAYFLY

Chapter 1

It was a busy Monday morning. The summer sun was shining bright. It was glorious as ever. It was seven in the morning and I sighed as another monotonous morning made its way, slithering in into our lives. Sometimes I felt like just a little break from all this monochrome would have done me good. It was the same every day. The all-pervading alarm clock would wake me up from my slumber, I would make breakfast, wake my husband, Alexandre up and then proceed to plunge into the unassailable battle of waking Celestin, my six year old son up and getting him ready for school. I smiled fondly, involuntarily at the thought of Celestin. He was getting bigger. Every day was an experience, a wonder. He would throw tantrums over the silliest things, demand unhealthiness on a platter (literally) every day, and sometimes, lose himself in playing with friends and come home covered in mud. I would get mad, but then, he would smile his toothy smile, revealing silhouettes where his milk teeth had once been, amid others that were holding on to their dear life, fighting against his metamorphosis, and I would immediately lose the will to get mad at him. Despite all the travails of  bringing him up, and even with all the changes that I find happening in me, motherhood had been the greatest joy that I had been blessed with, and I would smile proudly every day as I watched my little boy walk with awkward, tiny, stomping steps, his feet covered in little shoes, towards his school bus. My greatest reward, was Celestin turning around, at the doors to the bus and smiling his cherubic smile again, waving 'goodbye' with his large, innocent, glistening eyes.

I shook my head, smiling and got up from the comfortable, welcoming mattress much difficulty and extraordinary will power that I had mastered over the years of being a wife and a mother.

'Mom! MOM! Listen, listen. You know, today, in school..' he trailed off, noticing that he still had his shoes on.

Something good must have happened to him in school. Maybe he has made a new friend? Or perhaps, been praised by his teachers?

I waited patiently as he took placed them his shoes off and placed them, neatly aligned, on the shoe rack. He was always a well - mannered child. The moment his shoes were off, he ran at me, cackling. I spread my arms to embrace him. Suddenly, he tripped and fell face first onto the ground. I stared at him, taken aback and rushed to his side, and picked him up. I looked around but there was nothing there that could have tripped him. I looked down at him and seeing that he was giving a goofy 'oops! I fell' grin, I pinched his nose and said jovially, 'Why, aren't you a klutz!'

He stared at me for a moment and asked me, all seriously, 'Mom, what is a klutz?'

As I explained to him, he reacted in a curious manner 'Oh, yay! I'm a klutz, Mom. I like the way it sounds' and cackled loudly again.

I shook my head amused and muttered 'weird child' and sat him down next to me as I heard all about his day.

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Hey all, please let me know what you think of the story till now, though not much of the story line has been touched upon, really. :)