Way back in the seventies when we moved house, there was a couple next door who had an infant six months of age. As time passed by another one was born.
And then time started flying at breakneck speed and soon we found we had the company of two mischievous, talented, loving, very concerned and very good looking children living next door.
Their presence in our premises was always looked forward to, by every member of our family, which included my mum, sis, and myself.
Looking back I think we were extremely fortunate to have had the experiences that we have had at that period of time.
I have plenty of interesting and funny incidents to relate, involving those two kids next door, and I shall start off with this one.
The wall that seperated the two houses was shorter than the shortest member of both households.
This enabled easy and frequent chatting. It was quite common in the days gone by to see neighbors chatting over the wall.
One evening, a couple of hours after sunset, I was outside our main door and I observed the little fellow, the younger of the two, opening their gate to let somebody in.
The little fellow greeted the visitor and let him in, and the visitor went along straight into the house. However the little fellow did not follow him back ito their premises.
The visitor had a cigarette wedged between his fingers, from which just before stepping into the premises, he took one last greedy drag.
The glow of the cigarette which was very visible in the dark, brightened when he took that final drag.
It was pitch dark just outside the premises, and for some reason my eyes remained fixed to the glow of that cigarette butt.
When he threw it away I followed its path. It hit something and fell on to the ground, and there it was for many fleeting moments, still glowing, as it was un-extinguished!
Then all of a sudden the glow began to rise, slowly, up to a level of four feet. Then it stopped in mid air for a moment, and then the glow from the still un-extinguished cigarette butt started getting brighter and brighter, followed by the muffled giggle of a little kid ... yes, a muffled giggle ... and a very familiar one too!
... concluded