The Boy, the Dog, and All

 The large, deaf, possibly retarded neighborhood boy visits my house more and more often these days, generally accompanied by his troop of dogs. Recently, he noticed a cannister of cookies Louis had bought for me. These are very common cookies in Indonesia of a sort that nobody really much likes but buys anyway. Sort of like fruit cake during Xmas time, only year round. Seeing the cannister, the boy pointed to the can, pointed to his mouth, and said Ooo-iii. 

Sure, have some cookies. Knock yerself out. 

So he takes the cannister, plants himself on the floor, watches whatever I am watching on TV, which he can neither hear (because he's deaf) or understand (because he can't read nor speak English) and proceeds, along with the dogs, to devour the horrible cookies. At the conclusion of several visits over the next two days or so, the cannister was empty. The boy pointed to the cannister, showed the cannister to me, and said "Eee-Ahhh." 

Yup, it's eee-ahh, all right. 

The boy and the dogs are disappointed. They resign themselves to watching TV shows they cannot understand. 

Very often, I have my venetian blinds open and the front window open during the day, and so the large boy has decided that this must always be the case. If they blinds are not open, if the window is not open, he says "Ohh-ahhh", and opens them. I begin to wonder whether he is autistic as well. 

In the meantime, Otis the dog remains in bad shape. A story has traveled around the neighborhood that he may not have been hit, or kicked, or run over, but may have fallen from the roof of the house next door. The more this possibility is spoken of, the more it is considered the actual case. 

Whatever happened, Otis simply does not want to walk at all. He came to my house yesterday, lay down on the rug by the back door, and there he stayed, refusing to move even when night fell. His owners came looking for him, but still Otis would not move. "Well, just leave him be then," I said. "He can stay overnight." 

At least he doesn't mess around with my TV controller or take over the one comfortable chair in my house.