THE OPEN MIND COLLECTION

What do I know?

     "Daddy, do you still remember the day when Thandi almost fell from grand-dad's armchair when we visited him?"

"No I don't remember, Thuli."

"It's the same day grandpa's armchair got broken" Thuli tried to help him recall the incident. "You must remember it. He called it 'Isihlalo sobuKhosi' and he was the king."

"Sorry Thuli, it doesn't ring a bell."

Thuli threw her hands over her shoulders and said, "Of course, it doesn't ring a bell. It doesn't have hands!"

"No, I don't mean that literally" her father explained and shook his head. "It's just a figure of speech."

"Oh, what do I know? I'm just five years old." She shrugged.

Thuli was a menace just like her nine year old sister. Thandi had tried to balance herself whilst standing on the arms of a rocking chair at her grandfather's place. She almost fell before she even stood erect but she was able to jump from it to the floor safely. However, the arms of the chair pushed sideways as her legs spread wide when she jumped. The chair broke and that was a year ago.

Now grandpa had a new armchair and the two girls visited him again with their parents. This time it was Thuli's turn to try to balance on its arms. They sneaked out from the lounge where the adults seemed to enjoy their conversations because they were accompanied by lots of laughter and the two went into grandpa's study room.

"I'll help you up...and if you fall I'll catch you" Thandi assured her and so she helped her little sister up onto the chair.

"Did you take mom's phone, Thandi? I need you to take a video of me falling..." Thuli joked and giggled as she let go of Thandi's shoulders and stood on the arms of the chair on her own. She balanced perfectly without swaying backward or forward. She was spreading her arms out wide as if they were wings and she was soaring up high in the sky. She did imagine herself flying at that moment and then suddenly she jumped from the chair onto the green carpet which looked like a well-watered turf. Thuli was so ecstatic about this new experience that she ran to the lounge to tell all of them what she had done. She was like a robber going to the police to boast that she had robbed a bank!

"And why would you try to stand on the arms of khulu's new chair?" the girls' parents were extremely displeased.

That was one of those occasional moments when one would receive a beating and so Thuli looked for a way out of it. She hesitated, shrugged and then finally said, "I didn't do it literally.... It was just a figure of action..."