The Curious Child
The Curious Child – a child who wanted to be a man, How did he fare?
The Curious Child
Once upon a time, in a small village, there was a young boy. he wanted to be a man so badly that he constantly disturbed his parents with questions in this regard. He would always start with his mother.
“Mom, when will I become a man?” He would always ask her.
“When you provide food for your family?” His mother would always say.
The young boy would look confused, but still, he accepted the response, constantly trying to understand it.
“Oh,” he would say, and then, he would go out to play.
Every night as his father was tucking him into bed, he would ask his father.
“Father, when will I become a man?” He will continuously hold big curious eyes that made his father answer the question because he saw the eagerness in them.
“When you build a house to rest after a long day’s work,” his father would always say. Again, the young boy never asked more questions. He took what he was told, and then he went to sleep.
This question and answer continued, and every day, the young boy would ask his parents this question; until one day, his mother’s response was different.
“My son, you are old enough to be a man. Now, go into the world and act like what you have desired to be for so long.”
With that, the boy left the house into the world. When he got into the world, he was more confused than ever. He had no idea how to go about having a family or feeding them. But the young boy didn’t want anyone to know that he knew nothing about raising a family and providing for them. So he decided to go out in search of his own family.
The young boy walked for hours, and eventually, he came upon a beautiful garden. In the garden, purple and blue berries grew in abundance. This warmed the young boy’s heart.
“These berries look delicious. I will pluck some, and then when I get my family, I will feed it to them,” the young boy said to himself and then plucked the berries. He gathered all the berries in a sack and began his walk.
He kept walking. Suddenly, he saw a snake dropping from a tree.
“Will you look at that? My family is so excited to have me that they are falling just to see me,” he said and then picked up the snake and placed it in his sack.
The young boy walked on some miles till he came to a clearing and spotted a piglet sniffing around a patch of trees.
“My Lord, my family will not just allow me to walk past them without doing something that will make me notice them so that I can take them back with me to my home. So the young boy took the piglet and tied it to a tree that was near his home. He then went inside the house.
Before the young man slept, he asked his father the same question he always asked, and his father also gave him a different response this time.
“My son, the time has come for you to show that you are a man. So tomorrow, you will take your things out and build a house for your family to stay in.”
The young boy didn’t sleep a wink throughout the night. He kept thinking about how he would build his own house. He had no idea how to go about it. But because he didn’t want anyone to know about it, he lay in silence and dreaded sunrise.
So when morning came, the young boy took his snake, piglet, and berries and left his old home to build a new one without asking any more questions.
He walked for hours till he came to a clearing. At the clearing, he saw a flat piece of land and told himself.
“Yes, this is a very good place to build my house.”
The young boy dropped his family there and started searching for materials to build a house.
He found straw and small pieces of wood, leaves, and fine rope.
The young boy gathered the materials, and before it became dark, he had a good place to house his family. He and the animals he took went into the house.
He looked around his environment and said, “Father was right. After a long day of work, a man needs a place to relax at home.”
After getting enough hours of rest, the young boy decided to feed his family. So he took the berries out of the sack, untied the piglet, and took the snake from the sack.
He smiled to himself and said, “I am a man now. I have a family, and I can feed them. Just look at my piglet eating those delicious berries.” As he was talking, the piglet started squealing and changed colour.
“Oh no,” the young boy cried out. “Those berries must be poisonous. They are killing my family,” the young man said and rushed to help the piglet. But the piglet could not be stopped. It kept squealing and stomping till it finally stepped on the snake. The snake hissed with pain, and with its dying breath, it snuck its teeth into the pig and poisoned it.
The young boy watched everything that happened with so much pain in his heart that he threw down his straw house. When he was done looking at the ruined house, his eyes flew to the squished snake, the poisoned piglet, and the mushy berries.
Dejected, he walked back home, and when he got home to his parents. He told his parents all that had happened. His parents smiled and talked to him cheerfully.
“Can we confess? We did what we did on purpose. Son, we knew that you would have problems. But you wanted to be a man so badly that we just needed to allow you to be one. The truth is that you are a boy. You are a little boy, and you are not ready to be a man. So, what we want you to do is just enjoy being our little boy because tomorrow will come when you can become a man.”
The young boy hugged his parents. That night, he didn’t ask any questions. He just slept with a smile on his face, thinking about all the time he had to be a boy till he became a man.
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