Andrew the Mystical Child - Essay Example

SHORT STORY Student’s Name: Code + Course name Professor’s name University City, State Date Andrew the Mystical Child Yesterday morning was an unusual morning for Marianna, a babysitter in the suburban areas of Melbourne, Australia. Marianna braced herself for the duties of the day. She witnessed strange behaviours exhibited by one of the children named Andrew. Instead of playing with other children, Andrew stared into space most of the time. At the first glance, Marianna thought that the young boy was sick. Without hesitation, she endeavoured to find out what was wrong with the young boy. The medical report, however, revealed that there was nothing unusual about the child. As Marianna walked along the street that day, she found herself meditating about the condition of the boy. “Could it be that the African roots of the child are responsible for his weird behaviour?” Marianna asked herself. The reason behind Marianna’s opinion that the unusual behaviour demonstrated by the boy had a connection with his African roots was influenced by the multiple African magic videos that she had watched. In the videos, children presented unique behaviours that seemed supernatural. To an African, such behaviour is normal. Children foretelling the future and reminding old people about their past was a usual thing in the African land. However, Marianna did not expect a similar scenario to emanate from an Australian child. Never before in her babysitting career had she seen a toddle exhibit such extraordinary characteristics. Marianna vowed to monitor the boy carefully the following day in a bid to unravel the mystery behind his actions. Upon arriving at the workplace, Marianna prepared herself to receive the parents. One by one the parents arrived with their children. Marianna’s attention was on Andrew and his mother. When they finally arrived, she felt the urge to discuss the issue with the parent but decided to observe the boy keenly for the second time before forwarding the issue to the parent. Minutes and hours passed. Nothing appeared extraordinary. In fact, Marianna had reached the point of dismissing the child’s behaviour. She almost concluded that it originated from his depressed mood on that day. It was not until playtime that she noted something peculiar with the boy. Several cats lived in the surroundings of the babysitting premises. A battle ensued among the cats. The resultant noise was so disturbing to the ear that Marianna decided to chase them. Upon arriving at the battleground, three smaller cats were fighting a bigger one. The fight originated from a huge mouse that one of the smaller cats had spotted. However, the bigger cat had taken advantage of the relatively smaller sizes of its counterparts and embarked on the mission of snatching the meal from them. From the onset of the fight, Andrew was staring at the animals at a time when his friends were busy engaging in all sorts of games in the playfield. Upon realising that Andrew had also gained interest in the battle and its proceedings, Marianna receded from the spot and diverted her attention to Andrew. The events that unfolded afterwards made Marianna gaze at the child in awe. The bigger cat was losing the battle due to the joint efforts of the smaller counterparts. The successful attempt of one of the smaller cats to snatch the meat out of the bigger cat’s mouth left the offender with no option other than surrendering the battle. Having succumbed to bruises and scratches from the smaller cats, the bigger cat meowed away slowly. Andrew appeared to be signalling the cat to move in his direction. Surprisingly, the cat walked away stealthily and headed straight towards Andrew’s direction. The boy comforted the cat and soon afterwards, he started playing with it. Even though the turn up of events may appear natural, it is apparent that the behaviour of the boy was not normal. Instead of playing with his age mates, Andrew revealed the impression that his source of fascination was something entirely different. Marianna understands that the objective of babysitting is to engage children in constructive activities that are significant for the development of their cognitive and physical aspects. On a regular basis, she engages the children in a number of fun games. In one of the games, Marianna gives pre-made bags to the children and expects them to select the bags bearing their tags of preference. The tags include movies, colouring pages, music, craft materials, small toys, and games. Marianna then asks the children to select the bags based on their preferences on the condition that the child can remember the arrangement of the tags on the bags. Surprisingly, Andrew never fails that test. He is always accurate and sure about his decisions. Andrew is also used to winning the ‘Red Light Green Light’ game. This is a fun game that tests the ability of children to memorise and implement instructions properly. In the game, Marianna arranges her children in a line and stands approximately 12 metres from their location. She acts as the “traffic signal”. She then yells out loudly, “Red Light, Green Light, 1, 2, 3!” While yelling out the words, her back faces towards the direction of the participants. The participants then begin advancing quickly towards her location. Marianna then stops talking and turns around immediately. Immediately she turns around and faces the participants, they are to freeze in their current positions. Whenever she spots anyone moving after turning around, she sends the child back to the starting line. Marianna repeats the procedure until one of the children manages to reach her position. Upon arriving at the position, the child should catch and tag Marianna. This becomes the winner and the next “traffic signal”. To her greatest surprise, she has never had to penalise Andrew for failing to adhere to the instructions of the game. In fact, Andrew has always been the next “traffic signal” in the game until Marianna decides to change to a different one. “He is just wonderful; I have never seen such a child before.” She uttered when asked about Andrew. While meditating about the unique qualities displayed by the child, Marianna remembered the statements of his mother about the extraordinary behaviour of the child at home. According to Andrew’s mother, Andrew has had an immense contribution to her comfortable stay with her husband. “The boy seems to understand some life events understood majorly by adults.” His mother told Marianna. On one occasion, Mrs. Otaw Andrew’s mother, had a quarrel with her husband. The couple had quarrelled for quite some time. However, Mrs. Otaw did not want to involve her son in the quarrel. As a result, she tried as much as possible to conceal their disagreements from their innocent son. To her advantage, the quarrels ensured whenever Andrew had already fallen asleep. On this fateful day, things were no different. Having had their supper, Mrs. Otaw escorted Andrew to his bedroom and enticed him to sleep. As usual, an argument ensued between Mr and Mrs. Otaw. This time around, Mrs. Otaw was annoyed with her husband’s extravagance. The couple moved to their bedroom convinced that Andrew had already fallen asleep. To their advantage, the significant distance between Andrew’s bedroom and their bedroom enabled them to quarrel without getting heard by the young boy. Minutes later after the quarrel stopped, Andrew pushed his parents’ bedroom door with tears rolling down his cheeks. The parents were surprised since the young boy had never made such a move before. The next words uttered by Andrew rendered both parents out of words. “Mum and dad, why are you always quarrelling? Dad, why don’t you love mum?” Andrew asked. “To my surprise, I heard Mr. Otaw apologise.” Mrs. Otaw said. “I don’t remember the last time my husband realised that he was on the wrong side of an issue and apologised.” She added. The unravelling of events revealed that the family was on the brink of collapsing. To Andrew’s mother, Andrew was the long-lasting solution to their problems. It was not until that incident that Mrs. Otaw started viewing Andrew to be a blessing to the family. The woman provided further explanations about the positive role played by the child to their family. It is unfortunate that the babysitting premise used by Marianne does not have a park. However, Maryanne understands that play is important to the proper physical development of a child. In fact, when a child plays, his or her body is able to burn excess calories thereby averting associated illnesses such as diabetes. On several accounts, Andrew has been reminding Maryanne about games. Not only has the child been reminding his babysitter about games, but he has also been mentioning the positive health effects associated with playing games. Maryanne continues to reiterate the fact that Andrew has supernatural powers. From Maryanne’s perspective, Andrew portrays the impression that he is always ahead of his age mates. This explains the reason why his behaviour and activities reflect those of individuals that are older than him. Maryanne has never stopped wondering about the cause of the extraordinary nature of the boy. In some cases, she simply dismisses her concerns and associates Andrew’s supernatural intelligence with a better reasoning capacity that surpasses those of his peers. Maryanne remembers vividly one occasion when she was heading a craft class. At that time, Andrew was categorised among the minors. As usual, Maryanne handed vanilla yoghurt in the finger-painting exercise. On the other hand, she expected the older children to create shapes out of baking and cookie dough. Maryanne expected older children to create fantasy shapes based on their imaginations. To her surprise, Andrew left his group and asked to join the group comprising of older children. Maryanne tried to prevent him from joining the group but decided to let go off her quest when Andrew kept insisting. Maryanne’s greatest fear was the possible bodily harm that older children could inflict on Andrew since they used to fight regularly among themselves to determine which one of them was the strongest. To her greatest surprise, Andrew moved to his corner of the room upon taking his desired amount of the cookie dough. Instead of modelling cakes, cars and loaves of bread as exhibited by the other children, Andrew modelled the image of a human being. Maryanne moved from one child to the other in an attempt to monitor their activities in the crafting class as well as provide possible recommendations. She found it easy with the other children. However, things turned out different when it was Andrew’s turn to take the assessment. Having set her eyes on the boy’s image, Maryanne could figure out clearly what the boy was trying to model: the image of the Superman. She found it necessary to request an explanation for Andrew’s decision to model the image Superman. She was surprised to hear the response given by the young child. “My mother told me that Superman had superior powers. This can make him fly very fast and save people that are in trouble.” Andrew explained. Having understood that Andrew’s explanation, Maryanne did not find it interesting at first. However, something dawned on her. Most of the other children ended up moulding images of cakes and cars rather than that of Superman. It then became evident that besides having a comparatively higher level of intellectual reasoning, Andrew had a unique imaginary force that governed his behaviour and emotions. Maryanne recollected the sympathy exhibited by the boy towards the injured cat and his contribution towards creating peace in the family and found it to be enough evidence to justify her conclusion. “This is a unique child indeed; special in everything.” She concluded. As she walked home in the evening, Maryanne could not help pondering about the special attributes of the boy. She remembers moments when Andrew played the role of the “babysitter” as she and the other children posed as babies, she found herself smiling. The fascination came from the fact that the child played that character perfectly and imitated everything that she did during the lessons. This included teaching students to read aloud and trying to imitate Maryanne’s voice. Having reached the gate of her house, Maryanne gave a big sigh of relief as she entered the house with thoughts about Andrew running through her mind. Read More

The resultant noise was so disturbing to the ear that Marianna decided to chase them. Upon arriving at the battleground, three smaller cats were fighting a bigger one. The fight originated from a huge mouse that one of the smaller cats had spotted. However, the bigger cat had taken advantage of the relatively smaller sizes of its counterparts and embarked on the mission of snatching the meal from them. From the onset of the fight, Andrew was staring at the animals at a time when his friends were busy engaging in all sorts of games in the playfield.

Upon realising that Andrew had also gained interest in the battle and its proceedings, Marianna receded from the spot and diverted her attention to Andrew. The events that unfolded afterwards made Marianna gaze at the child in awe. The bigger cat was losing the battle due to the joint efforts of the smaller counterparts. The successful attempt of one of the smaller cats to snatch the meat out of the bigger cat’s mouth left the offender with no option other than surrendering the battle. Having succumbed to bruises and scratches from the smaller cats, the bigger cat meowed away slowly.

Andrew appeared to be signalling the cat to move in his direction. Surprisingly, the cat walked away stealthily and headed straight towards Andrew’s direction. The boy comforted the cat and soon afterwards, he started playing with it. Even though the turn up of events may appear natural, it is apparent that the behaviour of the boy was not normal. Instead of playing with his age mates, Andrew revealed the impression that his source of fascination was something entirely different. Marianna understands that the objective of babysitting is to engage children in constructive activities that are significant for the development of their cognitive and physical aspects.

On a regular basis, she engages the children in a number of fun games. In one of the games, Marianna gives pre-made bags to the children and expects them to select the bags bearing their tags of preference. The tags include movies, colouring pages, music, craft materials, small toys, and games. Marianna then asks the children to select the bags based on their preferences on the condition that the child can remember the arrangement of the tags on the bags. Surprisingly, Andrew never fails that test.

He is always accurate and sure about his decisions. Andrew is also used to winning the ‘Red Light Green Light’ game. This is a fun game that tests the ability of children to memorise and implement instructions properly. In the game, Marianna arranges her children in a line and stands approximately 12 metres from their location. She acts as the “traffic signal”. She then yells out loudly, “Red Light, Green Light, 1, 2, 3!” While yelling out the words, her back faces towards the direction of the participants.

The participants then begin advancing quickly towards her location. Marianna then stops talking and turns around immediately. Immediately she turns around and faces the participants, they are to freeze in their current positions. Whenever she spots anyone moving after turning around, she sends the child back to the starting line. Marianna repeats the procedure until one of the children manages to reach her position. Upon arriving at the position, the child should catch and tag Marianna. This becomes the winner and the next “traffic signal”.

To her greatest surprise, she has never had to penalise Andrew for failing to adhere to the instructions of the game. In fact, Andrew has always been the next “traffic signal” in the game until Marianna decides to change to a different one. “He is just wonderful; I have never seen such a child before.” She uttered when asked about Andrew. While meditating about the unique qualities displayed by the child, Marianna remembered the statements of his mother about the extraordinary behaviour of the child at home.

According to Andrew’s mother, Andrew has had an immense contribution to her comfortable stay with her husband.

Read More