Mother and son. The son wears shorts, looks fourteen, pudgy and cheerful. He is mock-boxing with his mother, swinging his fist in an upper hook towards her jaw. His mother looks on unconcerned at her son, and his swinging fists. After some time, the son gets bored and stops. A little girl, three years of age, slightly cross eyed, her nose like a tiny ball, and her neck-length hair curling upwards, is looking back at him from the seat ahead of the boy.
The girl is see-sawing on her stomach, from the top of the seat. While see-sawing she alternately looks at the boy, and at her father, who is seated next to her. The boy signals to her to come over, but when she does not respond, he waves his hand to her. After some time, the girl too waves back. The boy waves again, and she too waves again, more firmly. After some time, she clambers onto her father's lap, who hoists her up like Moses holding up the commandments. She enjoys being hoisted up, and gives a thrilled look at the boy, "See what all I can make my father do!"
Emboldened, she gets down this time, and goes around the seat to stand next to the boy. The boy holds out his hand, and she grips his finger. Then deciding that this is enough for a first time, she runs around back to her dad, who does the same thing again: hoisting her up to her and his delight.
This time, when the girl gets down, and runs around the seats, to build on the game with the boy, she is accosted by an old lady. The old lady has been sitting there, in the seat a bit to the side of the little girl. This lady, who had been sitting all this time quietly, demurely, next to her husband, suddenly becomes voluble and powerful. She points at the little girl's frock, and asks her, 'What is this on your frock?' Then she turns her hand, shows it to the girl, and says something else, mysterious to her.
This conversation has three consequences. One, the boy who had been looking forward with a big smile to this girl coming and playing with him, turns quiet and watchful. He still has a smile, but this is a strained, confused smile. Second, the girl, who had been playful and smiling, suddenly turns grave and thoughtful, wondering at what has been thrown at her by the imperious old lady.
Thirdly, the parents of the girl suddenly enter the picture. The girl had been sitting between her arm-extending, doting father, and a mother who had been sitting quietly till then, watching the play between father and daughter. Now both father and mother turn towards the old lady and their daughter; and the mother starts cajoling her daughter, "Why don't you tell her how the horse runs?"
The girl mumbles something under her breath, but obviously this is not something that satisfies the mother, for now the mother comes out with a string of other questions to get her daughter to perform. She starts off by asking, "What is the name of the President of the USA?" Seeing no satisfactory result ensuing, she follows up with, "What is the capital of Germany?" "How many stripes does a zebra have?" "How many vertebra are there in the neck of the giraffe?" And in a final throw of desperation, "What is the sexual orientation of an earthworm?" (ok, so I made that one up!)
The daughter continues to look dazed, and as she fails to perform, the parents turn to talk to the old lady about how exactly their daughter keeps on amazing them. The daughter, seeing the spotlight off from her, walks off, and starts pulling something, aimlessly, from her father's trousers. The boy, disappointed with the loss of the game, turns to his mother. An announcement comes over the public address system telling passengers the aircraft is ready, and it is time to board the flight. I wonder if either the boy or the little girl will recall this moment, or realise what is it that stopped them from having some more wordless, innocent fun.
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