Becoming No Feet －アシナシになること－

I was amazed recently to find that children are as flexible as snakes. 

My son woke up one morning, and couldn’t walk, or even stand up. 

“It’s time to wake up!  Come and join Mummy and Daddy for breakfast,” I said to my son. 

“I can’t get out of bed.  My knee is painful!” he answered. 

I assumed that he was lying.  The reason I assumed this was because just a few days earlier, he had fallen over at the nursery and slightly hit his knee.  The nursery teacher told us that he wanted sympathy, and dragged his leg along the ground for a while, pretending that his knee had been badly injured.  I thought that he must be doing the same thing again.  Like the boy who cried, “Wolf!” he was having trouble making people believe him a second time. 

But eventually we realised that he was not pretending, and really couldn’t stand up.  My wife carried him to a paediatrician, who examined his legs.  His knee was fine, but his hip joint was swollen (due to a virus).  The doctor said that this sometimes happens with young children, and that he would probably get better after a few days rest. 

So we encouraged our son to have a rest on the futon at home.  When it was dinner time, we asked him if he wanted to eat. 

“Okay,” he said.  “But I still can’t walk.  My knee is painful.” 

“Do you want Daddy to carry you to the living room?” I asked. 

“No!” he said.  “I can do it by myself!” 

Then he pulled back the covers he was lying under, and slithered from the bedroom to the living room on his belly like a snake.  “I am No Feet!” he said happily.  “Mummy, look at me!” 

No Feet is a character in my son’s favourite Youtube programme – a Canadian cartoon called “Little Bear”.  No Feet is Little Bear’s friend, a snake. 

If an adult suddenly lost the use of their legs one day, they would almost certainly panic.  They would worry that they might never recover, and feel frustrated and fearful.  A three year old’s mind is as flexible as their body.  They just pretend to be a snake and happily crawl around the floor. 

My son has recovered, and is running around again.  But I am sure there is some lesson in life to be learned from No Feet.


Vocabulary:

flexible – capable of bending and changing shape easily without breaking

to assume something – to suppose something, without proof

to pretend – to act as if something were true, when it is not

to drag something – to pull something heavy along the ground

a paediatrician – a specialist doctor for children

one’s joint – a part in the body where one area connects with another, allowing movement

to slither –to move smoothly across the ground in a forward-twisting motion; to move like a snake