The first crush...

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

It's always very special when your youngest has his first crush! 

I had known for a while that romance was lacing the air around the lakes where we went for our early morning walks. The lakes are beautiful, literally an oasis in the scorching sun and sands of the desert. A deep, dark emerald green, it's a calm and brooding expanse of water occasionally stirred by ripples as the two resident cormorants glide by. Fringed by gorgeous bougainvillea, studded with bursts of bright fuchsias and yellows, ringed in by a meandering brick-paved pathway, surrounded by swathes of green lawn dotted with fragrant frangipanis, the lakes are the perfect setting for young love to blossom.

Every morning they would meet by the lakes, shyly at first, stealing glances from behind their nannies' brightly coloured skirts. Slowly, glances gave way to full blown looks, coy smiles and play time. They would play together as the warm summer sun, a glowing orb,  rose over the tops of the sleeping villas, as the myriad mynahs and parrots started their early morning forage for nuts and seeds. On days when they couldn't meet, he would be rather morose and irritable, snapping at the slightest provocation, real or imagined.

The nanny had dutifully informed me of this romantic development in my son's life, and I had felt amused by it. But he hadn't told his mom anything about it, yet.

This morning, as I retreated to the cool interiors of the house from the rising warmth of the desert outside, he came to me, all happy and terribly excited, bursting with joy and news that he clearly wanted to share with me.

The nanny chirped in, "Oh ma'am, today he had a wonderful time. We let them play a lot. That's why he's so happy." She seemed even more amused than I was. As though to corroborate her report, my little one looked up at me with his beautiful, dark, round eyes and wagged his tail vigorously, the kind of super happy wag where his entire butt shakes from side to side with pure delight. My little puppy is in love!