Where the sun smelt loud.

He chased the sound of wind chimes.

  He ran against the wind.

    He rode past clouds of fog, ringing the bell on his adult-sized cycle.

      He caught butterflies, feeling life go limp between his fingers.

        He stood beneath early April showers, arms outstretched, the warm rain scalding his skin, searing his insides.

          He collected quaint little wild flowers in red and yellow growing by the shrubbery in school.

            He counted stars stars in the night, and when there were none, he always had fireflies.

Rio inhabited a world of his own.

Where the sun smiled upon him, the rain cleansed him.

  Where the stars, quivering in the dark, were where fairies resided.

    Where light dispersed in red and blue and green on the surface of soap bubbles against the frosted glass

      (the warm bubble bath Ma prepares before school).

        Where distant bells ringing from up the valley brought the news of advent travellers.

          Where flights of birds flying towards north showed him his way homewards, when the sun went down.

A house built of stone.

Wooden floors, wooden table-tops and fireplace.

An old armchair.

A bare window-sill essentially unadorned.

But for an old flower-vase, a few wild flowers clumsily tossed into it with prying hands.

A gigantic tree as ancient as Dadai, lonesome, 

Stands in a nook,

It's bare arms outstretched towards heaven.

                                              -------------------------------------------------

"What's this, Rio?" the little girl in red asked, bent over the queer shaped kite.

"A dragon, Tatin. That's a red dragon. A red, angry dragon." the little man in blue smiled through a gaping hole in front of his mouth.

"Can i help you draw the eyes out?" Tatin grins innocently, revealing her missing buck tooth.

She sat beside him.

"I  want to help you. For i think you are my friend". 

"Your friend?"  Rio's quetion drifted across the clouds which had stayed behind to eavesdrop on  their conversation.

"Why, Mum told me anyone who has been visited by the Tooth fairy is my friend!"  her eyes danced in glee.

"Come, hold my crayons for me.

Hand me the ones I ask for."  Rio shifted to make place for her.

Red stacked against the blue.

The blind spot conquered the red.

Two beady eyes gazed at hands clapsed over laughing mouths.

Prying fingers pull open the red ribbons and laugh out in amazement.

Little fingers flung out the blue cap out of reach, laughing out in glee, starlight in her eyes.

Red and blue crayons, sprained and bent, rolled out of their way.

Pink and yellow, lay still, cold, their hues fading fast into a powdery nothingness.

Colours curled around where they sat, losing their colour.

                                          -------------------------------------------------------

Sweat gathered on his eyebrows. 

This was not how it was meant to be.

The string, he intertwined around his finger, before drifting of to the land of his Dreams.

The red kite soar high against the blue expanse.

Crayons ringa-ringa-rosed around them, red and blue, staring wide-eyed at their kite.

The string felt taut. The white turned red against his fingers. 

He frowned.

The red against the blue. Free. Light. The negation of gravity.

He moves in his sleep. Turns around.

Little fingers tighten it's grip around the string.

He evenly breathes against the pillow.

Bird fly across the sunlit vista. 

It's almost dusk.

Time for Rio to pack up.

Time for Ma to call him in.

But Ma is late today.

The dew brushes against the pairs of feet. 

The red frock dragged itself along the bushel of edelweiss.

The little toes followed the sky, now adorned in a bit of red.

The pairs of eager eyes looked up at their creation, together, as it floathed by a flock of birds.

The little man in blue sighed in his sleep as little hands clasped each other in elation.

No, it just won't fly. I made it wrong, thought Rio. 

"Rio, run down, kid!" Ma call out.

Evening settles down on hills like dust on an old, creaking armchair.

Two beady eyes watched through hapless tears.

Eyelashes flickered. Nostril twitched to stop it from running.

"Rio, won't you say your goodbyes?

Where are your manners?"   Ma rebukes.

Feet scurry down the valley, breathless, and stop before the red car.

Two prying hands pass down the beady eyed dragon to the girl in red in the big, red car.

Mist invades their space.

Eyes red, watch watching eyes.

Big hands arrest the little man in blue.

Prying fingers wave behind the dust left back.

                                            -------------------------------------------------------

At supper, Ma tells Baba, "Tatin was a quite kid. Good company to our Rio, right?

The only one of his age in the neighbouhood."

Baba absent-mindedly replies "Yeah, but you know how it is with the Army. You keep getting transferred all over the country. Quite the rolling stone, you have to become, that way."

Rio turned quiet too.

He retreated back to his world.

He resorted to his counting stars.

Teary eyes complained to the starlight people.

Little eyes looked down at the prying fingers under the moonlight.

Crushed red powder stared back at drooping eyelids from between broken nails.

                                        -----------------------------------------------------------

Epilogue: 

In every aircraft

In every camera

There's a wish that

Wasn't granted

What was that for?

What was that for?

[ "Take me somewhere nice" by Mogwai ]