The other day, I took a friend of mine to the Surf area, on the Eastern side of Male'.
I've always been overwhelmed by the sight of waves rising at a distance like giant humpbacks, steadily gathering in force and crashing on the sea-wall, then receding with a great rustling like a giant carpet being swept away by divine hands.
My friend was upset over something, and I figured the big, soothing waves and cool sea-breeze would help cheer her up while we talked over a nice, cold Jugo drink.
As it turned out, I couldn't have picked a worse spot.
After helping her climb over the sea-wall, I'd hardly settled down when I was confronted by a sight most horrifying.
A European kid, no older than 7, was leaning precariously over the jagged end of one of the thousands of slippery tetrapods that form the protective breakwaters around the island.
Apparently, he was reaching for a barnacle on the far side, while also simultaneously violating at least 3 fundamental laws of physics with his incredible balancing act.
The kid was obviously some kind of prodigious acrobat, because not only did he manage to not die violently in any of the dozen ways I could immediately think of, but he actually got his barnacle too.
At that moment, I noticed he wasn't alone. Another kid, probably his brother aged about 5, emerged from behind the concrete leg of another tetrapod.
Now, I don't remember much from when I was 5 years old, but I am told I used to be traumatized by the mere sight of loose clumps of hair.
This kid was exactly like that. In the opposite way.
This one had a morbid fascination for sea crabs.
The sight of those ungodly evil looking creatures with the horrifying number of legs, claws and antennae sticking out in all directions only made him want to lift them with his tiny, bare hands and stuff them in his little pocket.
And this was apparently the kind of kid who did exactly what he felt like.
So there I was, with my upset friend, watching the terrified crabs on the Eastern sea-wall of Male' drunkenly fleeing sideways from the menacing approach of a 5 year old villain, while his elder brother brazenly mocked the genius of Newton and his puny "universal" laws from 3 feet away.
I anxiously searched around for an adult who would claim responsibility once the 2 kids had rapidly exhausted their nine lives right then and there.
As it turned out, the mother was standing a few steps away from us, on the pavement behind the sea-wall, holding a two year old girl.
“You shouldn't do that, Jake!', the mother rebuked the elder boy, who was still proudly holding aloft his prized barnacle, 'How would you feel if someone came and took away your house?”
The boy momentarily gave this some thought. He carefully looked at the tiny creature in his hand for a while, and then, shrugging apologetically in his mom's direction, replaced it on the slippery concrete.
Meanwhile, the woman didn't seem to notice that her younger hunter-gatherer son had crawled into the tiny, dark and dirty space between the legs of a tetrapod near the edge of the water, with a wave rapidly approaching from the distance.
Or more likely, she didn't give a damn – because the lady then proceeded to place her two year old girl over the wall, to play by herself on the hard, reclaimed sand full of sharp pebbles and broken coral stones.
My friend and I watched astonished (she could barely get past the first sentence of her sorrowful narrative thanks to the boys, and had long given up trying) as the 5 year old miraculously avoided drowning by emerging from his tiny, dirty alcove in just the nick of time, holding a large crab.
The mom gazed serenely in the golden sunset, as her three little children trampled all over Nature's carefully laid plans, cheating death and defying disability as they frolicked around on slippery concrete slopes, clawed creatures and razor sharp stones.
Only once did she flinch and let the word escape her lips, “Careful!”
The young girl giggled. The eldest boy waved charmingly to his mother, reassuring her with his most sincere, pleading eyes. “It's all right, Mum!”, he said, “I'm going to be fine!”
“Really! I'm going to be fine!”
_
