the
water
buffalo
When I was a
kid, there was a big water buffalo living in the vacant lot
at the end of
our street, the one with the grass no one ever mowed. He
slept most of
the time, and ignored everybody who walked past, unless we
happened to
stop and ask him for advice. Then he
would come up to us
slowly, raise
his left hoof, and literally point us in the right direction. But
he never said what he was pointing at, or how
far we had to go, or what
we were supposed to do once we got there. In fact, he never said anything
because water
buffalos are like that they hate talking.
This was too frustrating for most of
us. By the time anyone thought
to “consult the
buffalo,” our problem was usually urgent and required
a straightforward
and immediate solution. Eventually we
stopped visiting
him altogether,
and I think he want away sometime after that: All we could
see was long grass.
It’s a shame, really, because whenever
we had followed his pointy
hoof we’d
always been surprised, relieved, and delighted at what we found.
And every time
we’d said exactly the same thing – “How did he know?”
- Written and Illustrated by Shuan Tan
1 comment:
LOVE the illustration. :)
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