Small wonder

For reasons not altogether clear (although justification of ensuing beer consumption was undoubtedly one factor), I decided to go for a run along the seafront in the searing heat of an Andalusian July the other day, writes columnist Peter Edgerton

Peter Edgerton / www.peteredgerton.com

Malaga

Friday, 2 August 2024, 14:31

For reasons not altogether clear (although justification of ensuing beer consumption was undoubtedly one factor), I decided to go for a run along the seafront in the searing heat of an Andalusian July the other day.

It was a gallant, if rather undignified, display of huffing and puffing and going nowhere particularly fast, but I achieved my goal and returned home delighted I'd made the effort, especially because I'd been rewarded for my somewhat foolhardy decision with one of those heartwarming moments that, unfortunately, happen all too infrequently amid the humdrum machinations of our everyday lives.

I had been bumbling along the promenade on the home leg, with all the speed and grace of a lightly limping snail, when I spied a young couple pushing a pram coming in the opposite direction. Having learned the life lesson many years ago that people with prams never veer to give way (must be the wheels) I duly made a light adjustment to my course. As we reached a distance of about two yards from each other, the small, curly-haired boy in the pram (about two-years-old I'd guess) beamed the kind of smile that causes you to beam back whether you'd been planning to or not, pointed directly at me and yelled something difficult to decipher, giggling joyfully.

At first I thought it was 'You're dead!' which, admittedly, would have taken some of the shine off the moment, but I quickly realised that it sounded more like 'Oh, yeah!', which was a much more palatable option. I was still chuckling and smiling broadly as I glanced at his mother but, unfortunately, she was one of those people you meet from time to time, who seems to have made it their life's work never to succumb to the tyranny of a smile. Consequently, she grimaced in the manner of someone trying unsuccessfully to prise open an unyielding jam jar and proceeded on her not-so-merry way. Not to worry, the brief interaction with the child had filled me with enough joy and wonder to guide me back home on a pair of gossamer wings.

Later that evening, as I quaffed my justified beer, I realised that the young family I'd passed were almost certainly Spanish (the man was pushing the pram) and so the child would, in all probability, have been yelling something in his own language. However, I still liked the idea of it having been a rousing 'Oh, yeah!', and thus convinced myself that he'd learned it from an American cartoon or something.

These small wonders are all-too-rare and need preserving in their original condition.

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