‘What are you looking at?’ Mum asked Nathan as she tucked him into bed. Nathan didn’t reply he just wriggled a little lower and pulled the covers to his chin. ‘What did Monkey do today?’ Mum changed tact.
‘He is very old isn’t he?’ Nathan replied in reference to his pet monkey.
‘He is you are right. He used to belong to your Daddy.’
‘So he is older than Daddy?’
Mum stopped to think for a moment, ‘I think your Daddy got him when he was about 2 or 3 years old, so Daddy is a little bit older but not much.’
Nathan paused for thought. ‘Have you looked behind his ear? Look at the colour of his fur.’ Nathan pulled Monkey’s ear back to reveal soft yellow fur. ‘Did his whole face look like that once?’
‘I am not sure, you will have to ask your father that.’
‘It feels like Muji’s fur under his chin its soft and cuddly, will Muji’s face change like Monkey’s?’
‘Maybe, Muji is a puppy still and he will get older, but I think he will always stay cuddly’
‘I don’t want to get old’
Mum laughed and hugged her son, ‘I don’t want you to get old either, shall we make a promise to stay young forever?’
‘Yea like Monkey’s ears and Muji’s fur.’ Nathan turned to his mother and smiled his big smile. Mum kissed him on his forehead, tucked the duvet around him and Monkey and agreed.
‘Yes like Monkey’s ears’
Life From the Dirt 