Jason Pereira Block: 2 November 16, 2018
Curious Little Ethan
By: Jason Pereira
“Jason, where does the rain come from?”, asked little curious Ethan, wide-eyed while scratching his head, confusedly. He was looking at the water drooping down the wet window pane and seeing how gracefully the rain slowly falls from the distant sky, down to the ground. The person, to whom the question had been addressed to, was none other than Jason, his elder brother. Unfortunately, Jason barely was two years older than Ethan, and was completely in dark. He knew not a thing about the water cycle. He could’ve just admitted that he did not know, but that would have tarnished his superiority, his ‘all-knowing’ image, the one that Ethan had in his mind all along. Thus, with a confident knowing tone, and eyes shut tight to hide the lack of knowledge in them, he questioned, “Why, obviously from above?!”
Jason’s casual reply already had stifled Ethan, but Ethan was determined to know it all, each minuscule bit of it.
“What is above the sky, brother?”, Ethan addressed.
“Obviously God’s sky”, lied Jason. He emphasized on the word, and moved his hands in an attractive way, that captured Ethan’s imagination. GOD’S SKY! The name itself was so majestic, and added with Jason’s delightful way of portraying that, made little Ethan’s fascination know no bounds.
“Does it rain there all the time, brother?”
“Yes, dear Ethan, it does!”, explained Jason in a delightful tone, having got a good excuse to lead on his lie.
“But then God must need an umbrella, right?”, asked Ethan.
Jason hadn’t thought about that yet. It seems so, that Jason had underestimated Ethan’s reasoning. Nevertheless determined, Jason pulled the lever of his mind; and the ‘Imagination’ factory came to life. The gears and machines sprang into action, making a monstrous racket. The product manufactured was, “Our sky! Our sky is God’s umbrella!”
Ethan’s jaw dropped at this startling revelation. This appealed to Ethan as something otherworldly, as he had never heard of things such as God’s umbrella.
“Tell me more, brother! If the sky is God’s umbrella, what are the sun, the clouds? Oh! I want to hear more of it, I really do.”
It was then, that, Jason was cast off into a bottomless sea of troubles. “Oh dear, how much more will it require satisfying Ethan’s appetite?”, Jason thought in his head.
“T…th….the God’s umbrella! Yes, it is so….um…. God holds it above his head, it’s a blue umbrella….”, Jason kept repeating to keep Ethan busy while thinking of something new.
“Umm…. brother, what’s after that?”, Ethan asked with a little angst in his lilt. The topic was intensifying, and at that crucial moment his brother was stammering! A protest-worthy act, to Ethan.
Jason’s mind was blank so far, this wee act of outrage gave an idea to buy some more time to think. “If you are so impatient, you better hear it from someone else,”, mock-retorted Jason.
“No! Please Jason, don’t get annoyed!”
Jason remained taciturn, his mind furiou...
