As we walked by, I overheard one of them - short hair, slitty eyes, no front teeth - tell her friend, "I got one hundred lives". I think they were negotiating some game rules.
GameGirl (from Kidnap News - cloth-bound,25 pp,9 copies left!)
Kaypoh me interrupted their negotiations, "I got two hundred lives."
They looked up, giggled. "I got three hundred," No-front-teeth challenged.
"I got one thousand." Kaypoh auntie added.
"I got two thousand." (you get the idea...kids can count)
"I got ten thousand!" J now chipped in, using the monkey bars to do his chin-ups.
They stared at the ape man who has upped the stakes in this competition.
"I got ninety-nine thousand!" No-front-teeth shouted (her sidekicks still giggling).
Their mothers or grandmothers were seated at the benches on the edge, and seemed comfortable enough to let this match go on.
Not to be defeated, J (on his third chin-up) threw this curve ball - "I got one million."
They all stared at J, silenced. What could possibly be more than one million?
After a cold 5 seconds, No-front-teeth, sore at having her ignorance exposed, served up this piece of adult insight - "You, no manners!"
"No manners." Tall Sidekick with large eyes, who has been playing the role of Chief Eunuch whispering into the ears of No-front-teeth, joined in. Her indignation was more obvious.
"No manners," short sidekick, who was clearly the Bubbles of the Powerpuff trio, giggled some more.
Still feeling insufficiently justified, No-front-teeth went on - "You, no manners, NO USE!" And having pronounced this final condemnation, they burst into a triumphant chorus of "no use no use no use no manners no use".
There was more that followed (including Chief Eunuch's parting shout to J - "enjoy your coo coo bird!". Yep, no kidding), but the night was already sealed with this judgement: No manners, no use.
So grown-ups, be careful what you say to kids, lest they fashion and re-cast your words into deadly revolvers and sly boomerangs.
[p/s Remember Singa?]
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