The Neighbors

The Neighbors upstairs are very noise. That's what Mummy says. Less than two weeks they have been here and some of the other neighbors already had alot to say about their noise. They always have their TV set on the loudest volume, they played music all night and sometimes they pounded in the kitchen at odd hours of the night. The kids could be heard playing and screaming and running about the house, sometimes Mummy was scared they would bring down the roof. Darren on the other hand liked the noisy neighbors. He sometimes imagined himself playing around with them. His room has the view of the apartment's recreation area, so he could clearly see the kids from upstairs whenever they went out to play. He longed to be there.

"Mummy I saw my friend Kene. It seems he is one of the kids from upstairs. The new neighbors." He told his Mummy one day.

"Oh really." She responded absent mindedly and continued her reading.

"Yes. Remember Kene, he was there the day I broke my arm. His Nanny took me and Nanny to the hospital."

"Ok I remember. Now go back to your room or watch TV or something. I'm trying to catch up on my reading."

"Ok Mummy." He left but was back again in a short while. "Can I go downstairs and join the Neighbors at the recreation area?"

"What? No! Of course not." Mummy responded.

"But why?"

"You have a sling on your right arm. Remember?"

"But Mummy the doctor said I could play. I play in school even with my sling."

"You need to do you homework."

"I did it this morning and you already checked it."

She dropped her book and looked at him, he could see she was annoyed but he really wanted to go downstairs. Mummy never let him out alone, but Kene and his siblings seem fine alone. He sees them whenever they go downstairs, no one goes with them.

"Look Darren, those kids are noisy. I don't feel comfortable letting you out with them. Nanny isn't here to go downstairs with you and I have to read, it's important you don't disturb me. Now please go to your room and read your new story book." She watched as he went back to his room dejectedly.

The next day, on their way back from church, they met the new neighbors on the staircase. Kene and Darren were really excited to see each other again. Kene introduced his Daddy and his two other siblings. They were on their way to church and the kids asked if they could stop by and get Darren when they had to go downstairs to play. Mummy begrudgingly agreed. Darren was super excited.

"Don't worry Mummy, I will be alright. The Neighbors will take good care of me. You see how they all asked about my arm and Kene's big brother said he too has had a dislocation before. You can come downstairs with us if you want to be extra sure I'm not playing rough." Darren told his Mummy.

"I don't need to. If you come back dirty I will spank your bumbum." She replied with a threatening smile. "You must not learn noisy behaviour from The Neighbors, you're usually a good boy so I trust you. Besides it good you make new friends."

"Thank you Mummy." He gave her a hug "I will be good as always."

****************

From an early age kids get influenced by cartoon character and super heroes, Darren wasn't left out. When he was two, he wanted to be like Barney the friendly dinosaur. So Mummy bought him Barney toys and outfits that had Barney theme, his birthday cake was Barney and friends themed. At age three he and Selene and Bernard were the PJ Masks, then there was a brief sophia the first period. By age six he was torn between Batman and Spiderman for the longest time.

His school bag was Spiderman theme but his lunch box and most of his note books were Batman themed. He had different outfits from each of these heroes and he spent hours playing their games and watching their cartoons. Though of all his costumes, he was most obsessed with the Batman shoes he got from his Aunty Phina. He wore it on every occasion that he could. It flashed different colours of light when he walked around and made sounds. He liked it best because other kids thought it was really cool and he was the only kid around who had it. He wore it so often that Mummy was getting a little worried, especially because it was getting too tight but he'd refuse to stop wearing.

Batman shoes went into Oblivion soon after he met Kene. Kene and his brothers loved Ben 10 and since Darren started to play with them, his love for Ben 10 was beginning to over shadow Batman shoes. Mummy first noticed it when she bought him a Batman wristwatch. She observed that he wasn't as excited as she expected and she saw traces of a frown on his face. "Hey Boo, is that a frown on your face?"

"No Mummy. Thank you for the wristwatch." He gave a forced smile.

"Hmmm Darren. You know it's Batman right? It flashes light too when you touch these buttons." She touched the buttons to demonstrate. He giggled briefly.

"Its lovely, but.."

"But what?"

"No nothing.." he ran off, leaving her confused.

"Mummy please can you help me download Ben 10 game on my tablet. I don't seem to have any on it." Darren asked her a few hours later. She gladly obliged and she noticed how happy he was to have the game. That evening he asked her "Mummy can you please set Ben 10 to record on the decorder, I don't have access to that channel on the TV?" She knew this was his way of telling her that he now liked Ben 10 and that Batman was slowly being forgotten.

The next time she noticed it was when she used a Batman bedsheet to dress up his bed, but when she got back from work she noticed that he and Nanny had changed the sheet to a plain one. The defining moment was when he went for Bernard's birthday he didn't wear his Batman shoes either and he insisted on getting Ben 10 gifts for Bernard from the gift shop. When they returned home, she packed up all his Batman and Spiderman toys, including his famous Batman shoes and put them in a box for donation. Darren didn't notice or didn't mind. Mummy was glad, this confirmed that Batman had finally joined other toys in Oblivion, the land where forgotten toys rested and waited for a new kid. He was ecstatic when he woke up to find a Ben 10 wristwatch by his bedside table.

"Thank you Mummy." Darren said running to give his Mummy a big hug. "Now Kene and I have matching wristwatches."