It was a very Steep Hill

Tess Duncan

It was a very steep hill. The Alps of Coogee sweeping down to the sea. The mother, parcel laden, trudged wearily up the hill. An aggrieved voice protested. “But there’s a tiger up there” came the whine. The three-old, face framed with tumbling, uncombed, goldens curls, anchored herself grimly to the metal pole. All the strength to grip, none to walk the hill.

 “Carry me,” she whined. “Ple-e-ase,“ she begged. Mother attempted encouragement. “Nooooo”, I told you there was a tiger up there. I don’t want to go unless you carry me.”

A woman drew level with the opposing parties. The child sought an ally. “There’s a tiger up there”. Eyes implored, Lower lip trembled. There’s a tiger up there and I’m tired”.The woman scoffed. ‘Hah! I eat tigers. I walk right up to them and eat them up’.

The child looked at the woman again and came back quickly, ‘But there’s also a crocodile’,^^^^^ The woman’s second scoff magnified contempt. ‘Hah! Crocodiles. They’re only little. They only come up this high’. She bent down and placed her hand level to the ground. The child could not deny the logic.

The child was no amateur. Arms arched up over her head and extended in a wide circle the reply was instant. ‘But this is a flying crocodile’.

The women clapped her hands with glee. ‘Aha. A flying crocodile. Just what I like best. Then I can get out my jet plane, blast off my super dooper blast weapon, and smash that flying crocodile to smithereens’.

The child looked. No words came. Mouth open, ready, but no words came. Then the woman whispered, ‘And do you know what happens next’? The child shook her head. ‘All the bits come together and turn into a pair of shoes’, the woman said.

The child was flummoxed. In the ensuing silence, the women reached for her hand. ‘Why don’t we do something very clever’? The mute child listened carefully. ‘Take Mummy’s hand; give your other hand to me; we will jump up this hill until we are right over the top. When I say 1, 2, 3, J-U-U-U-M-P… Smiles sparkled. Mummy’s too.

 Clasping each hand, on the three count the little girl jumped; Mummy and the woman lifted her high in the air until all together the three of them jumped up the hill together to their street, which as good fortune would have it, was a downhill.

Smiles turned to laughter as the child realised she’d solved her problem. Everyone knows that tigers never live on the down side of a hill.

'Would you like to come to my house to play’, asked the little girl. As she turned for the woman’s consent, a sweet breeze kissed the child’s face and she saw only an empty street and a blue sky. But the little girl was sure that she saw a jet plane disappearing high in the clouds overhead and as she walked home with Mummy, she watched out for crocodile shoes.