we were skating in the city when me mate had a family emergency. so he entrusted his son to me. his son is shooo adorable!!! cameron wore the tiniest pair of 'Fallen' shooz & his skateboard was almost bigger than he. i was dying of kuteness overload!!!! as we skated along.... we spotted a dead lorikeet. i wasnt sure if he was familiar with the koncept of death. he asked a barrage of questions: "why isnt birdie moving? whhhy?? will he wake up? wot if kitty komes & eats him?!! kan we pick him up?
usually i'd make stuff up about sock piranhas who live in washing machines to explain missing socks or a broken sprinkler in the sky to make it rain in sum spots & not others. but i dunt make stuff up about death. i explained it in a matter-of-fact way. “the bird probably hurt his wing. they need their wings to work so they kan fly to find food & water. so he probably got really hungry, fell sick and died.” and at that moment I felt a welling in my eyes. i imagined a sad lorikeet wife & a fatherless lorikeet kid. i was emotionally locked into this moment with cameron.
cammy looked so adorable as he squatted by the sidewalk. arms folded over his knees. little sad pout. i asked him “do you wanna ask me anything else?”... “uuhmm yeah”...“wat issit bubs?”... “uurrh. kud you teach me how you pop shuvit pwease???” and just like that... death was no longer on the agenda. we spent all arvo making robot mechanikal sound FX to our skating & had icey pole treats. teaching an 8 year old how to skate was one thing. but death. money. philosophy?
