What was the worst thing you said innocently as a child?
Answered on January 16
My parents were always on the warpath and every now
and then they attacked each other.
We had a little garden that my father liked to take
care of.
We lived in Mozambique, I must have been about 5 years
old and I listened to my angry mother saying:
Here comes Mr. Dirty-Boots!
I asked her why she called this to my father, she
replied that it was because whenever she came back from the garden she did not
clean her boots. But she warned me not to talk about it in front of him.
I've always had a big problem until today: when I'm thinking
about something, I get sick if I do not say what I think.
I always looked at my father thinking of the name
Borra Boots and I felt like saying that to him. I remember how much I refrained
from telling him. I began to be afraid of neglecting myself, I had not yet said
it because I feared that my father would get more angry with my mother.
My father would not let us talk at mealtimes, the
order was sacred:
We should all eat in silence.
If someone opened his mouth he would immediately scream:
-- You there! Shut up!
But I always neglected to say something.
One day the whole family was having lunch in silence
and I looked at my father and shouted,
Dirty-Boots!
At that moment, I looked at my mother and saw that I
frightened her for she was showing a terrified face!
But my father, instead of getting angry, laughed at
what I had said, which was almost impossible! I had never heard him laughing!
Did he laugh because he saw us all frightened thinking that my father would be
angry at my screaming?
But my father laughed because he did not know that
word was for him and that it was my mother calling him that.
I was very fond of books of puppets and he thought
that name came from some history.
No one else ever talked about the boots, nor did my
mother ever tell me about it so I would not think about it again and carelessly
reveal the secret.
