Boats of wishes

03/01/2022 Nilson Lattari

The father put some sheets of paper on the table and folded them a few times. Beside him, a boy’s bright eyes looked at the movement of his hands adjusting and passing over the paper to make the wished figure.
Like magic, a hat bloomed up from the sheets and the boy put it on his head and marched through the house, beating on cadence his shoes on the floor, like a soldier. After that, his father called him, took a new sheet of paper and started to make another figure. The boy got closer to him and went up to the desk as he was climbing a hill to observe their imaginary enemies.
The man, patiently, started to make what looked like another hat. Suddenly, like another magic movement, a boat bloomed up from his hands, a big and majestic boat.
The kid took the boat, and his father told him.
– Now, you write a message, put it in the boat, and we go looking for a flow of water, and we will put it in.
The kid stared at his father to understand what he was saying. His father understood that his son was in trouble and smiled at him and started explaining that water flow could be rainwater running in the streets like a river.
– And after that, do our boats disappear?
– Yes, then they carry on our wishes – his father answered.
– Where do they go?
– They follow the flow, and our wishes are inside them. We don’t know the destiny, the place where our wishes arrive. We have to think that it’s an imaginary place, and someone might read the messages, and if it is possible, our wishes can be granted. Of course, to grant the wish, this guy must be a good guy. Do you understand me?
The boy had no idea about wishes, and at that moment he asked his father to explain to him if it is possible to learn how to make those joys using sheets. His father took another sheet and taught him to make many hats and boats, and the boy played with them to create fancy, incredible war battles.
One day, the boy arrived home after school and found his mother crying, and asked her about it.
– Why are you crying, Mom?
– Your father went away, son.
– And why did he go?
– Because he always wished to know the world. He wasn’t happy and told me he didn’t like to be a father, husband… and now, we are alone.
The boy looked at the boats that his father had taught him to make and thought that maybe his father was sailing in real boats right now, knowing the world and learning other tricks and he could teach him how to make planes, boats and every vehicle that he had been saying.
Every rainy day, he waited for the rain and the water to run through the streets. He put his wishes inside paper boats to sail over the yellow water until an unknown and distant place, asking for his father’s return.
The boy put a lot of boats in the water, in every water flow that he found. He grew up and gave up making them and followed his life.
He got married and had a very naughty son. One day, his son caused trouble at home, and his wife asked him to make something to help her because it was raining outdoors. He thought about what he could do. He got some sheets from the newspaper that he was reading and started to make a hat and put it on his head.
When the boy saw that strange hat on his father’s head, he asked to make another hat for him. Then his father made another hat, and he put it on his head as well.
The boy walked through the house like a soldier. His father smiled and took another sheet to make a boat, and showed it to his son when he came.
The boy’s eyes shone, and he asked his father how he knew how to make those things.
His father answered him.
– My father taught it.
– My grandfather?
– Yes, son.
– And where is he?
– I don’t know. He went away a long time ago.
– And how can we play with them?
– Well, first of all, you have to put a wish in it. The father said this while a tear slid down his face. He regretted this.
– I will prepare a message with my wish, told his son.
After that, the boy brought a paper and a pen to write it, while his father received another paper to write his wish. Although he sees his son’s happiness, he didn’t refuse to write his wish.
His son asked him.
– Where can we put our boats to carry on our wishes and messages?
The father looked outside and noted that the rain was over.
– Ok, we can put them on the water that is running in the street!
The boy took his father’s hand and both went outdoors, although the mother warned that the lunch was ready. For the father, it was as if time went back.
In the street, the boy put his message in the boat and asked his father to do the same. The father was ashamed, but his son put the boats on the water with the messages inside them. Their boats sailed on the water flow and went away.
Both were standing there on the pavement, wearing paper hats on their heads, and observed their boats disappear. While the boy was happy trying to see them at the end of the street, the father had a lost glance and imagined once again if there was some magical place.