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Kenneth’s eyes lit up mischievously as he contemplated me quietly for a moment. “Be honest: if someone had a gun to your head and threatened to shoot if you didn’t eat one, would you choose the fried biscuits or the fish dumplings?” “I’d eat the bullet.” Our eyes met as we tried to stifle our laughter but it didn’t work. Kenneth and I broke into a fit of giggles. He smiled broadly, staring at me for a while. It made me a little nervous to have him watching me like that. I turned away and looked towards the horizon.
The sun was setting just over the vast cane fields in the distance. It was late October and by then the land was stripped bare of canes and stretched as far as the eye could see. It was amazing to see it from that height and take in the majesty of the sunset from such a miraculous vantage point. “Did you ever notice how the sunlight changes from white during the daytime to that pretty gold when it sets? The way it paints everything in the world in a colour that isn’t orange or yellow or pink but a soft blend of all three?” Kenneth raised one eyebrow at me thoughtfully, both surprised and confused by what I was saying. He turned to the cane fields and a look of awe and comprehension dawned on his face before he smiled broadly. “Yeah. I don’t think I ever noticed that before, you know. Did you read that in one of those old books I always see you with?”
I laughed.
“No, I noticed it right before I climbed the tree.”
“Hmm…”
“What?”
“Are you sure you didn’t read that in a book?” he asked me again.
I glared at him. “I told you I didn’t.”
Satisfied, he nodded sagely and then surprised me by saying, “You should write down the things you say. You describe something really hard in just a few words. It would have taken me about ten hours to explain that sun thing.” I felt quite pleased with myself at this nice compliment from a boy. A blush crept up my cheeks and he didn’t even try to make me feel embarrassed about it. He just took two more broken crackers from his pocket and handed me one. We sat there as quiet as anything while the light waned and the crickets turned up the volume on their chirping but little did Kenneth realized that he had watered the seed that my mother had planted in my mind. Writing was my gift and when someone is truly talented, their gift comes so effortlessly that it’s easy to take it for granted. Even now, decades later, I still can’t believe that Kenneth honed in on that aspect of my personality so easily. At that moment something clicked between us. Just like the knack that Kenneth saw I had for writing, our friendship came to us effortlessly.
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